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An Anecdotal History of the Pax Aquitanix

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Jul 10, 2006
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The last five days have been absolutely extraordinary. For the first time in recent memory, I haven't done any gaming at all. You see, five days ago I discovered this forum, and I've been having so much fun reading about all your games that I completely forgot to play any myself.

Anyway, it has inspired my to try to do an AAR of my own, so here goes, my very first AAR! (This also represents my first attempt at using VB code for anything more than italics or underlines, AND my first attempt at using photobucket, AND my first attempt at cropping and re-arranging screenshots, so if the graphics aren't so hot at first please bear with me. They'll get better as time goes on.)

This is based on some savegames I have from a game already completed. I obviously wasn't planning an AAR when I played it, so there may be long gaps in the narrative because I have no savegame from that time frame and I can't remember anything that happened. At first this might sound like a problem, but in reality I think it might be a bonus. If there's no save game and I don't remember, it's probably because nothing interesting happened during those years, so skipping over them is probably for the best.

Anyway, with no further ado, here is An Anecdotal History of the Pax Aquitanix.
 
An Anecdotal History of the Pax Aquitanix

Part 1 -- January 15th, 1068

The streets of Poitiers were quiet. Not empty, just quiet. Everywhere people were moving about, quickly and purposefully as always, but they did not shout greetings to their friends and neighbours as usual, but rather whispered, and then moved along. For a great magic was being worked, and all know that great magic requires quiet. Not one soul would willingly create a disturbance and cause the spell to go awry.

It was the magic of creation of life, the miracle of birth, that was being worked at the castle. Matheode de la Marche, Consort to Guillaume d'Aquitaine, Duc de Poitou, had begun the pains of labour early that morning, and although it was supposedly a secret, it was the kind of secret that breaks quickly. Before sunrise everyone at the castle knew, and by noon the news had spread throughout the city.

GuilAndMath.jpg

​

Sixteen years earlier the scene had been almost the same. Then, the town had been rewarded with the news that a beautiful baby girl had been born to the Ducal house. She was named Agnes, and everyone rejoiced, confident that she was only the first of many children. More daughters, of course, but also many sons, to carry on the the great line of Aquitainian dukes.

But the years came and went, and no more good news came from the castle. Gradually worries multiplied. The Duke was not getting any younger, nor was his wife. There was no male heir, and the extinction of the direct line was becoming a possibility. Many of the Duke's female cousins had married well, in Italy and Germany. It was unpleasant to think that the rule of Aquitaine should pass to the House of Savoy, and utterly horrifying to think that it might pass to the barbaric von Franken.

Almost every day Guillaume went to his wife's bedchamber and performed his duties, but with no result. Nor was the task pleasant. Matheode was often called "lustful" for she loved to flirt. But if her lust went beyond flirtation, it certainly wasn't apparant to the Duke. To him she was cold and haughty always. Still, he thought of the future of his dynasty and performed his duties as enthusiastically as he could manage under the circumstances.

Finally, after sixteen years, another child. Guillaume thought, as indeed every person in the duchy thought, "Dear God, let it be a son." Guillaume was now 44 years old. If his prayer was not granted this time, he thought it was unlikely that he would live another sixteen years for the next chance.

The people of Poitiers knew what was at stake, and their hearts and minds were as one. They loved the House of Aquitaine, nobility sprung from their own ancient heroes, and nobody relished the idea of being ruled by a foreigner. And so, while the magic was being worked at the castle, the town was quiet. People made the sign of the cross, prayed to God and their patron saints, and spoke amongst each other in hushed and reverent tones.

Guillaume stalked the castle. Nothing was to be gained by lingering in front of Matheode's chamber. Whatever was happening in there was now in the hands of God and the midwife. He did his best to stay busy, inspecting the guard, conferring with the steward about matters of grain and salt, reviewing some letters from relatives afar. Finally! A lady-in-waiting came running to summon him.

Guillaume hurried to the chamber. The beaming midwife handed him the swaddled babe. "It's a girl!" she said, joyously, apparantly the only person in the realm who didn't know the consequences of those words.

Guillaume was a nobleman in every sense of the word. Not one hint of the pain in his gut was visible in his face. "She is very beautiful," he said, proudly. "I shall call her Ioulande, 'the little angel'." Then he passed her back to the midwife and took his leave.

A short distance down the hall was the Duke's private chapel, into which he took himself. He knelt before the altar, and then savagely beat his head against it. Blood streaming down his face, mixing with the tears, he looked up at the cruxifix and cried, "Oh Lord, what do I have to do?"

--- ​
 
A fine start and lovely to include everyone's favorite - Agnes. One wonders if the next daughter will be as highly sought after? ;)

Good luck and welcome to AAR writing! :cool:
 
Coz and Rex: thank you!

Severance: things will get interesting for Agnes soon...:)

Alfred: considering how much I've enjoyed your AAR, I'm very pleased that you enjoy mine.

Okay, various duties in real life have kept me distracted, so I haven't written as much as I wanted to, but rather than keep everyone hanging, I'm going to post what I have right now, and write more later.
 

Part 2 -- September 30th, 1069


There was much hustle and bustle at the castle in Poitiers, for the Ducal party was preparing to depart on a journey, or rather two journeys. Guillaume often made a tour of his demesne towards the end of the harvest. It fulfilled a double purpose. On the one hand, by seeing the harvest himself he could develop a good idea of how the tax revenues would go, and made him less vulnerable to corruption by the tax collectors. On the other hand, it let his subjects see him at a time when they were in a cheerful mood.

This year, when preparations were being made for the annual tour, there came word that the King was preparing a great feast in Paris, in honour of the elevation of the King's chaplain to the College of Cardinals. Guillaume was loath to give up his annual inspections, and in any case, being a true Latin, he considered the company of pigs and horses preferable to the company of Franks. Nonetheless, he could not ignore his liege entirely.

Guillaume therefore decided that Matheode could go to represent Aquitaine at the feast in Paris, while he himself would continue with his own plans. Matheode was, after all, not only the Ducal Consort, but also the Ducal Chancellor, so none could dispute her right to speak on Aquitaine's behalf. To further cement the strength of her presence, he also sent along his own chaplain, Laurenc de Quatrebarbes, who no doubt wanted to meet and greet the new Cardinal. As a final touch, he added Agnes to Matheode's party. She was in theory the most desirable wife in Christendom, but thus far the only marriage offers had come from Saxons and Frisians and other uncouth folk, and Guillaume thought it could do no harm to have her seen in Paris, where Occitan and Italian lords would no doubt attend the feast.

Guillaume's own party would normally have included the Steward, but she was by now elderly and ill, and could not ride. Thus, the Lady Arsenda of Poitou was added to the party. Arsenda had originally been a lady-in-waiting to Matheode, but once it was discovered that she had a remarkable ability with numbers, she had become a record keeper in the Steward's Office, and was being touted as a replacement to the Steward herself.

The young friar Leon de Quatrebarbes also joined Guillaume's group, to make a tour of shrines and chapels in the south and confer with local priests. The nephew and protege of Laurenc de Quatrebarbe, Leon had graduated from the same ecclesiastical school and was generally considered his "heir." Leon, however, was cut from a different cloth than Laurenc. While Laurenc was scholarly and wise, a master of old tomes and learned scrolls, Leon was a rough-and-tumble cleric, the kind that one can march with the army and give blessings in the field. He could easily have been a knight if his parents had not forced him into the church, and indeed he had once (incognito) entered a joust, and performed well. Guillaume was glad to have his company.

With the addition of valets,ladies-in-waiting, servants, scribes, guards, scouts, and quartermasters, a total of more than 150 people set forth from Poitiers. They rode together as far as Parthenay, where farewells were exchanged. Then Matheode's group turned north, towards Angers and the road to Paris, while Guillaume's group turned south toward Saintes.

routes.jpg

Matheode's Route and Guillaume's Route
 
Welcome to the fora and the joy of AAR writing! An excellent start to the tale. I have no trouble whatsoever believing Guillaume's frustrations. What is he to do indeed?
 
Dukasaur said:
Thus, the Lady Arsenda of Poitou was added to the party. Arsenda had originally been a lady-in-waiting to Matheode.....
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Another very promising update. You have taken to AAR writing like a duck to water it seems. Laughed out loud at this lady's name. I know plenty of places that might be described as the arse end of the world but not Poitou. The lady Arsenda of Peckham, or Gorbals has a certain ring to it.....
 
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Well, my friends looks like this AAR has gone to the dustbin. Shortly after I posted that last update I lost my Internet access for a few weeks, and then things got really busy at work, and then this, and then that, and so on. I know, excuses are boring. :( I really had high hopes for that thing, but more than a year has passed, I no longer have the save files, and trying to revive it now would be pretty hopeless.

For all those who gave me encouraging comments, I thank you once again. I will try to do another AAR someday, perhaps even someday soon.

Requiem In Pace.
 
Fortunae Gratia said:
Oh noes!

Part One was really awesome. I was immersed with your prose from paragraph one til the last. Please continue this AAR.

Since you were only up to part 2, couldn't you just start the game again? ='(
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Thank you for the compliment, and everyone else who posted as well! I really loved that game, and wish I would have kept the a backup of the save files. Without them, however, there's really no way to recreate it.

If you want a rough idea of how the story went: Matheode traveled to Paris, where the king of France seduced her. The birth of the bastard and revelation of the infidelity ultimately led to a civil war and the extermination of the Capetian house, but only after many twist and turns, battles and betrayals.

If I simply restarted a new Aquitainian game from the 1066 scenario, there's virtually no chance that things would turn out quite the same way. So, albeit with a great deal of regret, I say let it die.

I've played a few games of CK since then, and my latest one looks promising for a new AAR. A recent development in my personal life also points in this direction: as of November 16th, I'm now a salaried dispatcher with a regular shift instead of a driver subject to long and unpredictable hours, so I'll have more time to devote to this.
 
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