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And Now For Something... Certainly Quite English: An Anglo-Saxon MegaCampaign

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Asantahene said:
A marvellously reparative reighn and anothe4 wonderful update. As said @liamscp45 you have a compelling way of writing history to make it every bit as gripping as narrative. This is the best history style AAR on here without doubt. I’m so glad you returned to writing. :)
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Asantahene, I've enjoyed having you as a reader since the beginning! Your kind words are too much, but are much appreciated nonetheless. I'm glad you like!
 
A very good write-up of a reign in which, some might say, nothing much happened. This telling gives a taste of the richness.
 
liamscp45 said:
The Hӕsting dynasty was ended, its main line exhausted of potential heirs. As a result, Serril Gauscy was crowned King Serril I, placing a Norman on the English throne.
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I'm still catching up, but can I just say at this point "Booo!". This is a terrible turn of events and I am disappointed in it.

However I've really enjoyed your writing so far, there has been some really excellent work, so I will persist despite my forebodings.
 
King William II Gauscy

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The new king.
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King William II ascended to the throne on December 22nd, 1179 on the death of his father, Henry II with the requisite pomp and celebration. He was a young man of 29 years, and full of vitality. There is not much in the historical record when it comes to William’s personality or aptitudes, but we do know some things about his personal life. William had had a secret relationship with one of his father’s servants, the lowborn woman Aline, since his teenage years, eventually resulting in her pregnancy in 1169. William, being an honorable man (and perhaps due to insistence on the part of his father and mother), married her the following spring. The young couple had their first child, a healthy baby girl that they named Hawise by mid-Summer. A son - named Henry after then-king Henry II - followed in 1172. Aline would go on to become the first English Queen of non-noble birth.

So it stood in 1179 when King William II inherited the large, stable realm of his forebears after a youth dedicated to learning the craft of ruling that realm. Not blessed with special competence in any particular field, William did have the benefit of being incredibly wealthy in both gold and skilled advisors. The succession was unchallenged for all of these reasons, and the realm settled into the new reign with little difficulty. William immediately promulgated promises of peace and prosperity, for the good of the realm. As such, the first year of his reign was unremarkable for our purposes. The Gauscy empire enjoyed considerable economic growth in this year, and its subjects were content.

In the next winter of the rule, the particularly harsh winter of 1180-81, William’s advisors suggested a display of magnanimity would benefit the young king’s reputation among his people, and plans were laid for a grand tournament that March, just as Spring’s thaw began to be felt. Commons and nobles alike soon enjoyed the great hospitality of their fabulously wealthy king. The royal larders were emptied and exotic delicacies were obtained from realms as distant as the Empire of Sandomierz in Poland and the Djamaspid Caliphate in the Levant. The tournament was a great success, doing much to endear the dynasty to the people, but it was marked by one tragedy. The king’s cousin, Roger, the Duke of York, grandson of Prince John, one claimant during the War of the Four Brothers, died during an ill-fated tilt. The young Duke died without male heir, leaving only his young daughter, Ida, to inherit his lands and titles. King William shrewdly took this opportunity to deal with his bastard brother, Torf, son of King Henry II by his favorite mistress, Elise de Faversham, by marrying him off to the newly minted young Duchess.


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Succession problems solved before they manifest.
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The great congregation of the tournament was excellent for socializing; it was, however, also excellent for the spread of contagion. That spring, a great epidemic of typhoid fever broke out in and around London. Many lives came to an end during the blight, and the greatest of the realm were not spared. King William II began to feel feverish by the second week of May. He only got worse as the weeks went on, finally succumbing to the illness on June 7, 1181 after only just over 18 months of rule. William left his crown to his young son, the eight-year-old King Henry III.


RIP King William II Gauscy
b. September 20, 1150 - d. June 7, 1181​
 
Hello all!

Thanks everyone who has stuck with the story through its sporadic updates. The past year has been the busiest of my life so far, and I've not had time to give my AAR the time it deserves. Now that things have settled down a bit, I'm planning to return to it to see it through at least to EU4. Now that I've been playing CK2 post-Holy Fury I realize how much I miss its features in this old save. But hopefully the narrative will stay lively as we get to the 13th century!
 
Yeah...been there myself recently. But a shame this one is ending. I liked it.
 
liamscp45 said:
Aaaaand now upon attempting to play a bit more, I've realized that my save is no longer functional.
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Divine punishment for putting a Norman on the English throne.
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Nevertheless, shame to see the brief resurrection of this excellent work halted by technical gremlins. Do be sure and post here with a link to your next project so we can find it.
 
liamscp45 said:
Aaaaand now upon attempting to play a bit more, I've realized that my save is no longer functional. I'm planning something new instead.
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Aye, I get the feeling Iron Century is going to muck up a lot of saves.

Will look forward to something new
 
My new project, as promised: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...olf-a-ck2-agot-mod-aar.1189675/#post-25557969

An entirely different style than this one, and fun to write so far. Hope some of you can enjoy the new genre, I'll be getting back to history book style AAR-writing after this, I have something in the works that should be interesting, barring too many updates in the interim.

Thanks again for sticking with me.
 
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