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This is my 1st AAR so please be gentle, I have no strategy or plan for the AAR, in fact I don't know what the hell I'm doing.
Anyways, constructive criticism to make be a better writAAR would be nice and suggestions welcome.
So here goes nothing
The Déise of Urmumu descended from Fiachaidh Suighdhe brother of Conn Ceadchathach (Conn of the Hundred Battles).Fiachaidh held lands around Tara in Brega, though he would no reach the mantle of Ard Rí.That would pass from his brother Conn to Art to Cormac, the latter who which after much fighting banished Aonghusa son of Fiachaidh Suighdhe and his kinsmen from their land in Brega for the slaying of Cormac’s son Ceallach and the blinding of one eye of Ard Rí Cormac himself.Aonghusa and his followers settled in a land east of the River Suir and West of the River Blackwater in the fifth of Munster becoming the Déisi Mumhan
Centuries later, there was to be two powerful families of the Déise, who can link their ancestry to Fiachaidh Suighdhe brother of the Ard Rí in the 3rd century Conn Ceadchathach.The clan Ó Faeláin, the rulers of the Déise Thuaisceirt and the clan Ó Bric who ruled the Déise Dheisceirt.The Ó Bric tribe however would die out and this would make the clan Ó Faeláin chieftains of also the Déise Dheisceirt doubling their holdings in what is now Co. Waterford Ireland.This brings us hence forth to the story of Maoil Sechluinn Ó Faeláin an Taoiseach na Déisi(the chief of the Decies).
The CoA of the clan Ó Faoláin (modern day Phelan/Whelan)
(Ó Faoláin = Uh Fay-lawn)
Maoil Sechluinn was Count for 7 years when William ’the bastard’ of Normandy seized the throne of England.He had no big ambition in life,his people lived peacefully in their southern lands,his only wish was that his bloodline would survive so his name should live on. At the age of 42 he had only sired 1 child with his wife Nuala.Luckily it was a son An Dall, who he sent to his liege Toirrdelbach O’Brien at the age of 12 to learn the workings and dealings of life in a provincial court.
Then in 1068 AD Nuala(15 years the junior of the Count) fell pregnant and gave birth to a girl who was baptized Dub Essa,though the count had prayed for another son to cement his clan‘s position in the area.At the end of 1069 2 new arrivals had joined Maoil Sechluinn’s court, Imchad O’Broin took the charge of Marshall and Donnchad O Cearbhaill was given the role of Steward to maximise the county’s taxes.
An Dall had come of age the following year,Maoil Sechluinn wanted to wed him to the daughter of an Irish family of noble right, though there was no suitable maidens of his age.Maoil Sechluinn gave order to search the continent for a fitting spouse and Chancellor Ragnialt had obtained the hand of the beautiful Agnes the only child of Guillame Duke of Aquitaine.They wed on 23/01/1071 in a church in the village of Lís Mór. Maoil Sechluinn was so a taken back by Agnes’s beauty and eloquent tongue,he made her his new Chancellor and An Dall became his new Spymaster.
An Dall and his wife Agnes d’Aquitaine.
In May of 1071 news came from France that Guillame d’Aquitaine had sired an heir,Raimond.Agnes was with child herself at the beginning of 1073.Tragedy struck when she had a stillbirth.A year later An Dall would be a father of a healthy baby girl though,Ragnialt.The Count Maoil Sechluinn also had a new child,Forannán but Nuala the Countess was suspected of having an affair with Marshall Imchad and the legitimacy of the child may of come into question.Nothing of the sort came on toward in the end and Maoil Sechluinn was blinded by his delight of receiving a 2nd son.
1078 saw Agnes have her 2nd stillborn and the subsequent Spring the Count had his 2nd daughter.An Dall eventually had an heir in March 1080, he would be called Ives, a name from his mother’s homeland.
On hearing this Maoil Sechluinn devised a plan with his son Spymaster An Dall to assassinate Raimond d’Aquitaine the heir to the Duchy of Aquitaine and put Ives as 1st in line for the title.A fortnight later Raimond was dead and so was the Irish assassin,who was hung drawn and quartered.
Raimond assassinated in county of Perigord
Eighteen months later Maoil Sechluinn passed away at the old age of 57.He had secured his dynasty’s future and there seem prosperous times ahead.
Nice start czam2007! At first I thought you would have a real hard time as a mere count in poor Ireland but with your dynasty standing to inherit Aquitaine you will become on of the most powerful men in western europe.
I'm curious to see whether these vast continental possessions will give you the resources for the conquest of the Green Island or you will instead be drawn into continental conflicts.
Nice start czam2007! At first I thought you would have a real hard time as a mere count in poor Ireland but with your dynasty standing to inherit Aquitaine you will become on of the most powerful men in western europe.
I'm curious to see whether these vast continental possessions will give you the resources for the conquest of the Green Island or you will instead be drawn into continental conflicts.
An Dall Ua Faeláin 1055-1125
Count of Urmumu 1081-1118
After the dead of Maoil Sechluinn, his son and heir An Dall took control of the county and became Taoiseach of the Déise.His 1st action was to forge an alliance because his loyalty hardly laid with his new liege Muirdeirtach O’Brien but he did acknowledge him in fear of attack from the O’Brien clan.An offer came in the form of Cadwgan Meridoc Count of Glamorgan, who himself was having difficulties with his own liege the Duke of Gwynedd.In November 1081 Agnes received news of her fathers dead with all his possessions and titles being passed onto his infant heir Ives Ua Faeláin.
A renaissance painting of Ives as an infant
Ives Inheritance
An Dall received a call to arms by Cadwgan the next year after they were attacked by the Kingdom of England, Rep. of Venice and the County of Bristol.In an attack of treachery An Dall refused to honour the alliance in fear of losing his own territory to foreign invaders.In the subsequent time ahead there was prosperity in the land with new buildings and infrastructure such as Training Grounds and Road Networks.The Duke of Munster received our army for his crusading antics but he made no gains in the Holy Land.
On the family front, the Count married of his daughter Ragnialt to Conlae O’Brien (nephew of liege) to carry favour with Muirdeirtach.An Dall was also displeased with his wife, due to the fact she had not produced enough heirs to carry the bloodline.Nearly 10 years to the day An Dall had surpassed his father as a ruler when he acquired the County of Osraige.The Bishop of Osraige had peacefully broken from the Duchy of Leinster and in an act of intrigue An Dall had claimed the Bisphoric for himself and declared war.On 5th June 1091 the battle of Kilkenny was decisive in An Dall’s favour with the help of his liege with both armies routing the warriors of Osraige and laying siege to Kilkenny.A truce was signed in November and the Bishop of Osraige gave up his lands to An Dall.
Re-enactment of the Battle of Kilkenny
There was scandal in the court in the years ahead when Steward Constanza was found to be embezzling the taxes of the realm and there was a robbery of 101 gold pieces from the treasurey but with a lack of skilled accountants in the county An Dall pardoned Constanza’s incompetence.
In 1095 An Dall had grown tired with his wife Agnes d’Aquitaine and her lack of ability to produce sons.On the morning of 10th July she was found dead in her bed chamber, dead by suffocation was the post mortem verdict.Rumours spread in the court that the Count had visited the Countess’ chamber that evening and that he was the murderer but no courtier would dare to speak out against their liege’s actions.
Funnily,An Dall got over this tragedy in a hurry, and was married to the Duke of Munster’s daughter Etaín.An Dall quickly installed her as Chancellor.
A note from France had reached the Count and there was word that his son Ives the Duke had come of age and married Laura Uí Canannain daughter to Donnchadh the old Count of Tír Connail.
Ives and his wife Laura
17 years after his birth Ives is revealed as a bastard by a strange visitor who claimed to have had an affair with Agnes d’Aquitaine months before Ives was born.On hearing the assassination of his once love the stranger had felt the urge to confess and be a thorn in An Dall’s side but he only found himself imprisoned and the Count had courtiers silenced and the matter was swept under the rug.
Good news though was on the horizon as Etaín gave birth to An Dall's 2nd daughter Alis and 2nd son which he baptized Fiachu.Though Ives had not yet produced an heir to his Dukedom, his wife Laura had given birth to 2 daughters in the timeframe of 3 years.
