Eire:
"The Celtic tribes of Eire were united under the authority of the High King in response to Viking raids, and became a powerful nation on the seas, in order to fend off further Viking invasions, in the 1040s. After the collapse of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England in 1066-67, the neighboring Celtic land of Wales swore allegiance to the High King as well, and the combined territories of Eire and Wales remain under the authority of the High King.
After the resurgence of Granada in the late 1300's, the nobility of the short-lived Kingdom of Portugal evacuated to Eire. There, the High King has expressed some interest in their ideas to establish sea trade with China, India and the Spice Islands by circumnavigating Africa, although this would lead through thousands of miles of uncharted waters. Following the example of St. Brendan, Irish sailors are beginning to look far beyond their own shores, now that they are protected from turmoil within Europe by the combined shields of their fellow Celtic kingdoms, Scotland and Brittany."
Scotland:
"The Kingdom of Scotland was formed when the Celtic tribal kingdoms of northern Britain were finally united in the 1040s, in response to a percieved threat from both the Vikings and the newly united Irish. Unlike the Vikings and Irish, who fought at sea where possible, Scotland laid its trust in a powerful land army. By 1067, Scotland had some of the best-trained foot soldiers in Western Europe, rivalling even the famous Breton mercenaries.
Following the mutual annihilation of the armies of the Kingdom of England and its invader, the Duke of Normandy, at Hastings in 1066, the King of Scotland led his troops south into the chaotic, disintegrating Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Soon, the entire northern half of England was brought under Scottish rule, although the advance was halted in a climactic "last battle" near Cambridge, where the combined forces of the Earl of Wessex and the Lord Mayor of London were able to fight the Scottish army to a standstill, and killed the King of Scotland's chief general.
The disheartened King made peace after Cambridge, establishing the borders that exist until this day, and the following generations of the Scottish royal family have devoted their attentions to fending off the continued Viking threat of the Kingdom of Norway. Within the last generation, the Kingdom of Norway has broken away from the Union of Kalmar, and thus its Danish and Swedish allies, with Scottish support. The current King hopes that this new alliance will finally end the Viking raids, and possibly even bring Norway into the Scottish sphere of influence."
Brittany:
"The current Kingdom of Brittany began as the Duchy of Brittany, itself a relic of the Celtic tribes that lived in Gaul prior to the Frankish migrations. In an attempt to preserve Gaullish-Celtic culture, the Duke of Brittany swore allegiance to the King of the Franks, Charlemagne, in the year 799, and afterwards Brittany lived in peace for over 250 years, its soldiers volunteering to crusade against the Muslim conquests in Iberia under the banners of French and Spanish lords as mercenaries. Brittany had always had a close relationship with Normandy, another French vassal state of non-Frankish culture - the Normans were originally Vikings - and with the peoples of the British Isles, who shared its Celtic heritage, and its well-trained warriors often served as mercenaries on both sides of the Channel as well as in Iberia.
Thus, it was torn between its historic loyalties when the Duke of Normandy decided to invade the Kingdom of England in 1066, and declared neutrality, with the Duke taking the unusual step of forbidding Bretons from serving on either side as mercenaries. This turned out to be a stroke of luck, as the Norman and English armies virtually annihilated one another at the Battle of Hastings, and the Kingdom of England collapsed, with the Duke of Normandy lacking the force to take over. England was soon being overrun by the armies of Scotland, and the two most influential noblemen in Southern England - the Earl of Wessex and the Lord Mayor of London - formed a final alliance to stand against the advancing Scots, and the Duke of Brittany allowed Breton mercenaries to join the Earl of Wessex. The resulting Battle of Cambridge ended in the death of the chief Scottish general and a peace treaty. This preserved the independence of the two noblemen's territories, but neither was large enough to defend itself against a future Scottish attack, so both looked beyond their borders for help. The Earl of Wessex quickly signed an alliance with both Eire and Brittany, hoping to balance the forces of Brittany against any attempt by Eire to force him into fealty to the High King.
When the King of France died without heirs in the Fourth Crusade, the Duke of Brittany quickly applied to the Pope to create the Kingdom of Brittany, and the Earl of Wessex was the first to swear fealty to the new King, which created the borders the Kingdom possesses to this day. Recent generations of the Breton royal family have been concerned mainly with defending Wessex against a possible Scottish invasion, and re-establishing the Celtic lands in Gaul that existed prior to the Frankish migration. They have also been moving towards a policy of retaining the well-trained Betron warriors for their own purposes, rather than allowing them to hire themselves out as mercenaries throughout Western Europe, as they have done in the past six centuries."
Kalmar: (original text by Nikolai II, revised and expanded by Sheridan)
"The Kalmar Union is a recent addition in the world of states, having come into existence in the closing days of the 14th century. The royalty of the three Scandinavian kingdoms - Denmark, Norway and Sweden - had spent more than a century in intermarriages. These links had pulled them closer together, and dethronements and wars had forced them apart again, until Olov II Håkansson became king of Denmark in 1376, Norway in 1380 and after defeating Albrecht of Mecklemburg he also became king of Sweden in 1386, at age 16. When travelling through Falsterbo in Skåne in 1387, Olof suddenly fell ill and died soon after, before having time to plan for the future.
His mother, Margareta Valdemarsdotter, was a more than able replacement and soon had persuaded the nobility in both Denmark, Sweden and Norway to agree to a permanent union ruled from Kalmar. In 1396, she made them accept her six-year old nephew Bogislav of Pommern, who took the name Erik, as king. However, Erik wouldn't weild actual power until Margareta's death in 1412. He then continued following Margareta's policies of trying to gain more lands surrounding the Baltic Sea, and empowering his own cities at the expense of the Hanseatic League.
In 1412, following Margareta's death, disaster struck the union, when Norwegian nobility backed out of the agreement of 1396 and claimed that their loyalty had been towards Margareta alone. Declaring that they had no fealty towards Erik, the Norwegians elected a new King, finding support with their ancient enemies, the Scottish. Their support of the Norwegian endeavour led to the surprised Erik backing down with loss of face, and it would take six years before he could even assert his claims again, in an attempt to stop the young Scottish-Norwegian alliance from solidifying."
