3 more kings done
All for the Kings!
The Stories of:
Maldred I Kendall
Sigehelm I Kendall (the Great)
Eormenric I Kendall
Europe at the crowning of Maldred I Kendall
--------------
Flush with anticipation, you return to the Pub in the middle of Yorkshire. Its aging exterior contrasts heavily with the modern city that surrounds it. The only older than it is the Imperial Palace, on the outskirts of the city. The skies are very blue, and above most buildings is the Cross of the Saxon race, It reminds you a lot of the Georgian flag. Today was the national holiday for the Saxon homeland. The Day of Unity, it was the day which Aldwulf I was crowned King of England. The parades are all over, the whole island was a massive party. You had drank heavily that morning, probably more than you ever had before back in Georgia.
Before you enter the pub, you walk over to the paper stand. You don't have a TV in your small apartment, you couldn't afford cable anyways. You have to get your news from the paper. Paying the 25 cents for the paper was a small fee. The front page is covered with Saxon nationalism, the language is now longer as strange to you as when you arrived. You enter the pub and sit down next to the portrait of David III. The waitress already knows what you want, and brings you your drink. You settle in and begin the wait for the bard to return and continue his story. Your waitress sits down across from you, and motions to the picture of the Georgian King. "Do you know why it is hanging here?" You shake your head. "It here because he is the son of Edmund II, our king at the time. His brother, became King of Saxony, and he would have become King of Georgia. See, their mother was the daughter of Kyril II of Georgia, who died without a son. But the Georgian people did not want to be merged with the Saxon dynasty, and thus become a mere territory of the Saxon Empire. So Edmund arranged with the Georgian parlament to have his younger son made their King, and that way they could remain independent. His name was Albert Kendall, but he took the name David Kantakouzenos upon his crowning." You smile, an interesting fact and proof of the friendliness between the two countries. Especially when surrounded with enemies like Russia and Egypt. The waitress squeaks slightly when she sees the bard return. He is highly popular in the whole city, or at least it seems to you. He nods in your direction and continues, like normal, with his own social agenda. The pub is closing early for the fireworks later tonight, so he is speeding through his ritual as to start early.
He returns to the stage and sits down on the stool. He starts...
"Let us return, to the days before the great plague, when the King ruled with an iron fist. The King who was obeyed with fear and not love. His rule is far more efficent than those who are loved, but he is hated by his people, and they plot under him...
--------------
Maldred I Kendall (Light Foot)
When Maldred I came to the thrown, people did not know what to expect. They knew he was different than his father, but none knew how he was different. It soon became apparent. Maldred was already an accomplished Chancelor, a great speaker, and very emotional. He was a kind and gentle man, who loved his family and his subjects. His older brother, Cynewulf, was a cruel and twisted sociopath; and he was able to rule underneith his brother's nose. As Maldred took great pride in building churches and giving his wealth to the poor, Cynewulf speant his time planning for a new order of Knights. This Order was to be headed by himself, and their purpose would be to go around crushing catholic uprisings, they were dubbed the Red Knights. Numbering 2,000 Warrior Priests and 10,000 Knights, they landed on Brittany in 1307, and marched strait to Nantes, home of Imperial power for France. The region was infested with cathars and none would convert to the new Saxon Church. So Cynewulf began planning for massive trials and a total Inqusition of the region. The local merchants and knights were furious at this action and they banded the Nantes Corps together and the famous regiment lead a rebellion again the Red Knights. The battle did not last long, the Knights were armed with the best equipment from Yorkshire and Durham. The 12,000 Red Knights gained their first major victory, and many of the cathars converted within a few weeks. The rest of the region too converted, and the Saxon Church had been secured in northern France.
Flag of the Red Knights
During this time, though, Maldred was peacefully ruling the rest of his Empire. The Saxon faith spread quickly into the lands south of the Scotish bottleneck, it also spread like wildfire in Italy. The people were shocked to find that the two brothers were the personification of their father's two halves. Maldred was very comfortable with his people. Like his father, he often travled to the different cities within the Saxo-England (The Saxon arcipelego, Normandy and Brittany). Unless at war, the Kings of Saxony remained mostly in York. Maldred was the first King to return to Holland without bringing an invasion army. He often spoke to his people from balcaoneys of the magistrates and Dukes of the region. He arranged several marriages with his daughters, closing the gap between Saxony and her allies of Bohemia and Georgia. But the world was not ripe for peace just yet, and niether was Saxony.
The new century, only a decade old, was thrashed with wars of all scales. The war between Georgia and Byzantium had ended in a Georgian victory, but now Egypt raided Georgian outposts. The Persian state, a collective of catholic crusader states in Persia now fought for unification and no side was showing any progress. Russia invaded Hungary, Bohemia, Sweden and Poland on several separate occasions. Léon finally finished crushing the El Porto Rebellion. Saxony, for the time, seemed spared from the violence.
Cynewulf's influence, meanwhile, expanded around the Empire. The Saxon faith spread rapidly through Italy under his watchful eye. The Duke of Tuscany was imprisoned for remaining catholic, and his bastard son made Duke. Slowly, the new church spread north through Bavaria and Switzerland. Messina converted in 1297, Apulia in 1300, Napoli in 1302, Rome in 1304, Milan in 1305, München in 1307, Marsailles in 1308, Istra in 1309, Zaragreb in 1311 and Split in 1312.
Back home on the Saxon Islands, trouble was brewing. Maldred was angered by Cynewulf's tactics and power mongering. He called for Cynewulf to return to York to face trial and then punishment. Maldred said that his brother had gone too far, released the old Duke of Tuscany, and had his bastard son put into the Duke's mercy. Cynewulf was enraged, thinking what he was doing was the calling of God. Maldred said that it was he who decided what the chuch would and wouldn't support. Cynewulf, with his supporters in Southern England and the Duke of Lancaster, heir to Harold the Saxon, along with the Duke of Ulster, rebelled against Maldred, forming a flesh and blood form of the Saxon Church. Cynewulf quickly delcared himself King and Defender of the Saxon faith.
Protestant pieces of Scotland joined this new state, while the rest remained loyal. Maldred, shocked by his people's treason; called on the rest of the Empire to help hold the nation together. Catholics, who felt safe under Maldred, quickly joined ranks with loyalist Saxon-faithed troops. They gathered in York, and before marching south, they held a mass within Aldwulf II's Saxon church, and for a moment the two faiths melted together.
A Broken Saxony (Red is Rebels, Black is Loyalist)
Maldred took 30,000 Saxon-cultured troops south to square off with Cynewulf. Albert von Kiel, Maldred's marschal, took 20,000 men to Ireland, to crush the rebelion there, while Sigehelm, Maldred's son, took 15,000 men south through Lancaster. A detachment of 10,000 men marched north through Scotland to crush any rebelion there.
Cynewulf placed his capital in Cornwall, a mistake he'll regret later, and prepared to defend his new Kingdom. Maldred quickly regained Norfolk and Kent, which had been forcibly annexed to the new Kingdom, and began to siege London. Sigehelm found himself again a powerful and dedicated foe in Lancaster, but was able to crush his enemy with efficency never seen before. And with little event, Ulster and Scotland feel back into line.
After taking London, Maldred met up with his son in Midland, and the two armies combined and headed off to Corwall to face off against 30,000 rebel troops and the 12,000 men of the Red Knights. Cornwall had been heavily fortified, the main wall was thirty feet tall. Maldred had his war machines level the barricades, and when the way was cleared the Saxon Armies continued their march to Land's End. The two armies stood only a mile apart, and the odds were very even. Maldred, and his son discussed the different paths that could be taken to stop Cynewulf's heresey.
The two armies moneuvered closer and closer. Maldred's war machines did their best to kill as many troops as possible. But it was not enough. Cynewulf was a far better tactician than Maldred, and more willing to sacrifice his troops. The battle began on a nameless day in 1313. The skies were grey as the Saxon Civil war came to its high water mark. Intially, Loyalist troops had the advantage and exacted major casualties on the heretics. But that changed, the Red Knights charged into battle and cut through the center of Maldred's lines, which began to crumble. Sigehelm, seeing that the army was being split, charged over to the other side of the Red Knights' thrust, in order to command what was esscentially a new army. Maldred, confused by this action lost control of his troops, who were beginning to retreat.
But at Saxony's darkest hour, hope returned from Nantes; the Nantes Army arrived during a Naval borne operation, the first of its type. Saxon troops marched onto the beaches and came from behind Cynewulf's army of heretics. The Nantes Army, now using mostly mounted troops charged into battle in a revenge inspired attack. They slaughtered their way to Cynewulf himself, who cowarded below their hooven feet, and was trampled by the enraged Cathars. But in this do or die attack, the Nantes Army reduced itself to its main corps of Knights who, surrounded by their enemy, fought until the last of their ranks were dead. This sacrifice to Maldred was not in vain. The heretics had lost their officers and King, and the Red Knights were shamed with their leader's cowardly death. Maldred was finally able to re-establish control over his army, and commanded them to victory. The fields of Cornwall were covered in the blood of the dead. Heretics were all placed on a large ship, which was deliberatally sank. On the other hand, Maldred found the bodies of all the men of the Nantes Army and sailed to Nantes with his men.
There they built a huge moseleum to the new heroes of the Empire. All 8,000 men were buried behind the church, and a statue commisioned out of pure gold. It showed a nameless Nantes Knight trampling Cynewulf with a cross in one hand, and a shield with the Imperial coat of arms on it in the other. Maldred had enough time after buring the dead to return to York and then die, a quick, painless death one night while he slept. Sigehelm was ready to take the throne, and after so much inconsistancy between the rulers, no one knew what to expect from him.
--------------
Sigehelm I Kendall (Sigehelm the Great)
They soon found one of the most able Kings in all of Saxon history. Sigehelm was a very powerful man, standing at 6'6" and heavily built, he was the top student of the Saxon Imperial War Academy. His military prowess, as well as his amazing speaking, thinking and economic abilities, the Saxon nation soon saw a huge revitalization, while other countries continued to slide down a slippery slope.
His first act was to initiate the first crusade since the end of the muslims, and his target was Finland. Finland, during all of this time, had divided into three warring factions: Slovaks, Suomi, and Kexholm. These three tribes fought over control of the entire region, but when one would take control, the second that king died the tribes split up again. Sigehelm waited patiently until one of the many wars for unification stalemated. He waited for a few years, but soon a war between Kexholm and Slovaks provided the right conditions. He immediatally called up a force of 15,000 and marched to the Suomi tribe. The tribe had been told that if it converted to the Saxon faith, they would be protected. They did convert, but Sigehelm sealed the deal by invading the tribe anyways, and gave control of it to the count of Æland. From this stepping stone, he invaded the northern territories of Kexholm. Finished with that he saided to the south an took Estonia and Courland from the pagan tribes there. Even though Kexholms and Slovaks were left to continue their war, Finland was entirely under the Saxon sphere of influence.
The Saxon faith cheered his return, and the expansion of their faith. But the religious wars were not over. The King of Bohemia, watched as his fellow catholics invaded from all directions, and Orthodox Russia bullied him into giving up Prague. Left with only the Sudetenland, he came to Sigehelm for help, asking that Sigehelm spare him from the pits of hell, that the catholics mistreated his people, and their belief in Christ was a false one. Sigehelm, a friend of the Bohemian King said that he was always welcome in Yorkshire. A small force of Saxons left Holland and headed to what remained of Bohemia. There they fought off the Hungarians, Poles and Russians for four whole years. But Bohemia had been spared, and the Saxon church set up in the kingdom and spread to neighboring provences.
The Russians, angry at their defeat at the hands of Bohemia, took out their anger on the closest thing: Hungary.
Back in Saxony, people around the Empire expressed their joy to the great King, dubbing him Sigehelm the Great even at his young age. They spoke of the great age of mankind, but they were very wrong... two huge events were quickly approaching. Second was the slow creep of the Black Plague out of Persia. But far closer to the Saxons was the Great Egypto-Georgian War. Georgia, Saxony's ally, had a very unstable boarder between her and Egypt. A region, known as Mosem to the Saxons, and Aleppo to the Georgians and Egyptians, often switched hands due to the elected prince process of their heraldry. In 1319 its control fell to the King of Egypt, only because the Egyptians had the true heir, a prince in Georgia, assinated. Georgia, was not going to let this just be pushed under the rug.
Region of Conflict (Purple is the Persian Republic)
The Georgian King sent troops to occupy the region, and declared himself King of Aleppo. The Egyptian King responded by sacking Athens, a Georgian city. This led to all-out war. Between 1319 and 1327 the war was fought entirely within Aleppo, and led to the deaths of an estimated 75,000 soldiers and 150,000 civilians. In 1328, Georgia appealed to Saxony to help them end this war once and for all. Sigehelm, at first was not happy about the request, stating that it was a war between Egypt and Georgia. The Georgian ambassador headed back to Tblisi without getting Saxon support, but fate had a different plan.
The Egyptians, who had ensured themselves that the Saxons would side with the Georgians, landed an army on Sicily, and attempted to sack Messina. This enraged the previously neutral Sigehelm. He called up over 100,000 men, and sailed with them down to Egypt.
On December 3rd, 1328 the Egyptian King woke to find 120,000 Saxons standing outside the gates of his capital at Alexandria. Their siege weapons something the Greeks had never seen. The walls of the city quickly collapsed and the Saxons flooded in, destorying any resistance the Greeks could have hoped to have made. Large portions of the city were burned, and the Egyptian King was surrounded. He commit suicide, but a runner had left with a message to the King's brother in Tripoli. It simply said, "Saxons invaded, Alexandria falls with me."
In Lebenon, the new Egyptian King continued to push north, or at least tried. They got far enough north to be within sight of Georgian cities, but they were cut off from supplies as the Saxon army quickly advanced from the south. Within a month they were passing the Russian fortress at Holy Jeruselem. By the end of two months, the Saxon and Georgian troops met with each other in Aremenia, which had been partially occupied by Egypt.
War's End (Purple is the Persian Republic)
All this time Sigehelm had marched with his men and fought with them. They ahd seenall the great Crusader cities, and were able to convert some of the local populace to the Saxon faith. But he retreated to York when the plague finally reached Holland in 1334.
Sigehelm, to his own discontent, ceased all trade between the Saxon arcipelego and mainland Europe. Mainy feared this would mean that France and the other territories would break away, but it was worth it to keep the plagues away from Saxony. But it didn't. Saxony remained entrenched in Europe, and the plague leaked in through the docks at Yorkshire. Pneumonia quickly spread north to Durham effecting huge numbers of people as it spread. The Bubonic plague stopped at Normandy and watched enviously as the pneumonic plague spread through Saxony. Known to a few in Saxony as the "Catholic Plague" for its characteristic of attacking the poor catholic communities in Saxony before working its way up the hierarchy. Sigehelm's brother died from pneumonic plague in 1335. In 1336 Sigehelm himself, a man many thought was Zeus incarnate, died from the plague that was killing so many of his people.
--------------
Eormenric I Kendall (Eormenric the Lamentful)
Eormenric took the throne full of ideas. A very intelligent man, and a very good ruler, if the plague had not gotten in the way. This was a very unstable time in politics. The plagues ravaged Ireland and all of England. The bubonic plague worked its way north from Hamshire and the pneumonic plague was taking total hold over the islands. Russia was hit very hard by the plagues. One entire branch of the Royal family was wiped off the face of the Earth. A new born, with a different surname was crowned King of Russia, but the princes quickly tore the country apart in civil war.
With in 2 years of the new born being crowned there was no Russia, simple as that. The Empire that stretched from the Urals to Bohemia, and from Kola to Turkmenistan was gone, easy as that. People in Saxony asw how fast Russia disolved and panicked, would their end be like that? Was Saxony's end near? These questions were in the heads of all Saxons, including Eormenric, who was busy trying to protect his family as well as his nation.
When he first was crowned, York's population was 1/3 what it was during the reign of Sigehelm. Eormenric moved the capital and the royal palace to Nantes, but the plague quickly arrived there, so the royal family was picked up and moved to Dublin. Dublin was (and still is) a roady outskirt city. Crime ridden and full of drunkards. The city was obviously not the place for the Royal family to stay. Eormenric, seeing the futility in moving his family, returned to York, but sent his family to live in Iceland, where they were safe from the plagues.
Next, Eormenric believed that Europe was being exterminated. He took aside his most powerful sea captain, and had him sail up to Iceland. Then, that captain was to pick up a quarentined crew and sail west until he made land fall in a habitable land. This captain, Steffen van Stricht took five ships and headed out into the Sea of Worms. Within a month of leaving, Eormenric resieved word that Steffen had found an artic wasteland just west of Iceland and was going to head south and west to search for better lands. That was the last anyone had ever heard of Steffen van Stricht, the daring sea captain. But because Eormenric's rule is entirely full of nothing but plagues, we will recount the story of Steffen and his five crews.
His ships were his flag ship, York and the support ships Stricht, Hollandia, Kiel and Hamburg. Each ship had 50 men and 10 women. People believed that these five ships were sunk off the coast of Greenland by iceburgs. But they had left in the winter, which meant that all the iceburgs were frozen fast to the glaciers. What happened was that they sailed west, and lost the Hollandia and Hamburg to rot. The 80 people who survived these sinkings were transfered onto the other boats. Eventually the Kiel spotted a green streak on the horizon. Land.
Steffen sailed toward it with all the speed his ships could muster. They landed on the island of Neuwyorkland. There they set up a colony by salvaging two of the three remaining ships. With contact with Saxony destoryed, Steffen realized one of three things would happen. First they would all perish, but this land was highly suited to their survival, and initial contacts with native people were highly sucessful. Second was that another fleet would arrive and a full colony could be set up. But this too was unlikely because Eormenric was more worried about the plagues than five ships lost at sea.
Last was what had to be done. Steffen realized they were going to be on their own. He talked it over with his crews, and they agreed that Steffen would be crowned "Grand Duke of New Saxony, Servent of the King of Saxony." The last part of the title was suggested by Steffen's wife, just incase the Saxon King came looking for them. The Saxon people quickly spread throughout the previously sparcly inhabited island. The natives merged into these new people and a different race of people were created. Mostly Saxon in language and apearence, they took much of the culture and way of life of the natives, and the Grand Duchy flourished in a very pluralistic society. There they would live until they were chanced upon again...
Back home in Saxony, the bubonic plague made the jump across the channel, and spread quickly to the north, hitting York. The great city was falling apart, mostly abondoned by this time, many believed that the end times were near. The wars in Eastern Europe threatened to bubble over into Saxony. Léon, like Russia, begain to disolve under the rule of a heretic King. These plagues were the embodiment of evil. They were killing all the good people of the planet. But, in hindsight, it aided in the destruction of the catholic church in Saxony. Where the plagues went, the Saxon Faith folllowed. Only Eastern Spain remained entirely Catholic.
Eormenric, knew very little would be done under his rule, or his son's. The fourteenth century was a waste, filled with nothing but misery. But in 1349 the plagues left York and Nantes for good, but they continued to ravage the Iberia to the south. Eormenric called up as many troops as were alive in his lands, and marched south, to find that Léon had gone the way of the old Russia (by this time a new Russian King had been proclaimed and many of the Old Russia's vassals flocked to him). By the time Eormenric reached the Léonese capital, the King of Léon was now only the King of Aragon, the title claimed by Eormenric's ancestors. A short war followed, and the Saxons prevailed. They were now also the Kings of Aragon and Castile. The death of Iberia was the death of Saxony's last true enemy. Around her old enemies died away; others, like Sweden, were now good allies. Sweden's King was a direct decendent of Wiglaf the Great, a Dane, a Kendall and one of a strong Saxon Faith. Sweden, it seemed for a short time, was poised to be merged into the Great Saxon juggernaught, but for the time being it was left alone.
In the winter of 1362, Eormenric passed away, sickly and depressed. He was burned in a huge fire to ensure that he did not respark the plagues that were still ravaging parts of Europe. He was succeeded by his eldst son, Godwin I. He was quickly accepted by the ruling elite of the Empire.
--------------
Once again, the Bard's daily task was finished. Applause was quickly followed by a scramble to get outside and watch the fireworks. The explosions overhead lit the entire city in gold, red and blue. People everywhere chanted the national anthem, "Long Live my Brothers." Two of the waitresses come up and kiss you on the cheaks. Military aircraft fly over in formation, and far off in the distance, a bon-fire is burning within the Royal grounds. The whole nation was united in its own praise. The fireworks went off for hours, but when it ended at three in the morning, you felt it was well worth it. This was your new home, and Georgia seemed very distant.
Religions at the end of the Reign of Maldred I
Key:
Red -> Saxon Catholic
Dark Purple -> Roman Catholic
Grey -> Pagan
Orthodox Churches:
Dark Blue -> Bulgarian Church
Pink -> Serbian Church
Green -> Russian Church
Blue -> Georgian Church
Teal -> Byzantine Church
Orange -> Creten Chruch
Light Purple -> Church of Jerusalem
