One Nation, Under Blois [Starting as: Stephen, King of England]

[BishopCornelius]

[Preface: This will likely be a short AAR, as I'm writing it as I go along, with no saving/reloading to correct 'errors', meaning a Game Over is the end for this AAR]

It is Christmas Day, December 25th, 1135 AD, a day before I, Stephen de Blois, son of Étienne II, Count of Blois, shall be coronated as King Stephen of England... {Mechanically he becomes playable as King on Dec 2nd, as soon as Henry I is dead, but history dates his Coronation on the 26th}

The nation is Anglo-Norman, the Saxon Scourge having been driven out, leaving the majority of the people culturally "English" with the landed class mostly Norman, the incoming Monarch, however, is French... this should create an interesting situation, culturally, but at least religiously, all are Catholic.

A Mere 11 Men currently serve as the landed Counts & Bishops of my Court, the rest of England is mine to Command. If only politics were so simple... {Currently my Demesne size is 21/7, so unless I want all my vassals to Revolt, I will need to create some more}

Among them, my half-brother Henri is Bishop of Winchester; alongside the lowborn bishops: Geoffrey, Bishop of Durham & Simon, Bishop of Worchester , we shall have to see about drawing more of our landed clergy from amongst the noblesse {Free Investiture}

And my Counts: Roger Mowby-Aubigny, Earl of Westmorland; Ranulf de Briquessart, Earl of Chester; Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester; William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, Richard de Brionne, Earl of Devon; Willem van Vlaanderen, Earl of Kent, & Prince Henry Dunkeld, despite being heir to the throne of Scotland also serves me currently as Earl of Northampton, an oath of fealty he will no doubt conviniently forget upon assuming the throne of Scotland, taking the revenues and levies of Northampton with him...

I am also invested as Duke of Normandy, so I will not be able to ignore what is going on across the Straight of Dover, where currently 2 Counts serve to administer my Duchy between them: Henry de Normandy, Count of Eu, and Amaury de Montfort, Count of Evreux...

As to Me, My Wife who shall be crowned as Queen Consort is Mathilde, Countess of Boulogne, who inherited the County after the death of her father Count Eustache, and remains a loyal subject to King Louis the Fat of France...

As of yet, she has provided me with two healthy children: my eldest and heir {Agnatic Primogeniture}, the 5 year old Eustace; and 4 year old Marie... We are hoping for even more children, whom we shall name Matilda, if a daughter is born, or William, after my grandfather William the Conqueror, if it is a son.

People say I am "Brave", "Just", & "Honest", and that they know I will make a good King, even my enemies can find little else to call me save a "Tough Soldier" {Resultant Character Attributes: 8, 13, 8, 3, 7}

I inherit a haphazard Council drawn from both the Kingdom of England & Duchy of Normandy:

Aimery de Caen, Mayor of Caen from Normandy - Chancellor (19)
Amaury de St. Peters, Bishop of Saint Peter's Cathedral in York - Marshal (13)
Ancel d'Abingdon, Bishop of Abingdon Church, Oxford - Steward (12)
Ogier de Lewes, Mayor of Lewes, Sussex - Spymaster (14)
Etienne de Fecamp, Bishop of Fecamp, Rouen - Chaplain (19)

Finally, my Council tells me that Royal Authority is currently neither very high nor terribly low {Medium Crown Authority} amongst the vassals, and recommends that once I begin, I should grant my lords more freedom, in order to secure their good graces during my reign, but I worry that could lead to petty disputes between them that would not be good for the country, and in fact, I think it would be doing teh people an injustice if I were to allow such warring within our nation; And as for passing laws increasing the Crown's authority, it would certainly ruin any plans that Prince Henry of Scotland might have of absconding with Northampton upon his ascention to the throne of Scotland...

Tomorrow then, the Coronation shall be held and ruling this Kingdom of England shall begin, but for tonight, rest...

 

[Scorpi]

Subscribed!

 

[BishopCornelius]

The Coronation went well, with the help of my brother, the Bishop of Winchester, and the current lords all knelt and pledged fealty to me,

However, the lands of the Kingdom of England are vast, and there are not enough Lords currently seated to govern it all effeciently, and thus, I begin my reign with the very serious undertaking: creating new counts who will govern England as my loyal vassals... creating a very delicate balance of power that will define the future of the Kingdom to come...

Beginning with the situation in Normandy:
Both of my Counts in Normandy wish to control the Duchy for themselves, so I could not let either of them control half of the Duchy between them or risk their attempts to Usurp conntrol of the Duchy, and furthemore, as Duke of Normandy, I needed to keep my Ducal seat at Caen in Mortain...

This means, of course, that I needed to grant away even more land in the Kingdom of England to vassals but I could begin with family:

To my son and heir, Prince Eustace, I granted the title of Duke of Cornwall, but decided to wait till he came of age to put him in charge of Cornwall directly,

my late eldest brother Count Guilliame, who had been Count of Blois & Chartre's son Archambaud's son, Gilles de Bois, and his own son Archimbaud, stood landless, serving as my brother Henri, Bishop of Winchester's Chancellor... with Blois & Chartre inherted by my second brother the Duke of Champaigne, and set to be inherited by his sons, this would leave the senior line of our family landless, which I would not stand for, thus, I granted him the title of Count of Rouen...

In order to govern my Kingdom, I named Aubrey de Vere as Earl of Oxford, I granted William de Roumare the title of Earl of Lincoln, I granted Hugh de Bigod the title of Earl of Norfolk & Suffolk, William d'Aubigny was created Earl of Arundel (Sussex), Geoffrey II de Mandeville, son of the Mayor of London, was named Earl of Essex, I granted Hugh de Beaumont, third son of Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester and Elizabeth de Vermandois, the title of Earl of Bedford; created Bohemund de Sees, formerly Chancellor of Evreux as Earl of Dorset, created Humphrey de Bohun as Earl of Hereford, Patrick of Salisbury as Wiltshire, finally, I named Richard de Clare, son of Gilbert de Clare as Earl of Shrewsbury & Derby, with his eldest Gilbert son heir to Shrewsbury & his second son Richard heir to Derby...

(Least Historically): Finally, I named John Marshal {OTL he was named "Earl Marshal" hereditary Marshal of England, with no feudal County}, as Earl of Somerset..

My Cousin, Robert of Gloucester, the Bastard Prince of my Uncle, King Henry, remains the most powerful of my lords, but thankfully due to illegitimacy, with no claim of his own upon the Throne of England, although collectively, the Beaumont family, with three counties split between two brothers and a cousin, are second in England only to Blois...

Now that England adheres to a proper feudal structure, perhaps under the House of Blois, by the Grace of God, the Kingdom of England can be elevated to Her rightful place amongst Kingdoms of Christendom...

To begin the year, I set my Council in Motion:

I send my Chancellor to Ludlow Castle, Seat of the Counties of Shrewsbury & Derby, to improve relations between the Crown and the Ambitious Count de Clare,
I set the Marshal, Steward, & Spymasters all to work in Westminster, Procuring Taxes, Training Troops, & Building up a defensive spy network to detect plots against the Crown,
And finally, I set the Court Chaplain to Rome to smooth things over with Pope Innocent II, who is strongly opposed to Free Investiture in England...

Lastly, I set in motion the procedures neccessary to pass laws increasing the Crown Authority to prevent English lands from slipping into the hands of foreign crowns via inheritance...

And with that, We prepare for the coming near year, and the trials of the first year of our reign.

 

[BishopCornelius]

Anno Domine: 1136

We began the new year having the new vassals pay homage to us. Unplanned, however, they decided to recognize us as "the Just", after our fairness in parceling out the counties of England.... {every vassal except those with the 'ambitious' trait had a positive opinion),

We also began by promoting a new council:

Chancellor - Mayor Aimery of Caen (19)
Marshal - Bishop Amaury of St. Peters (13)
Steward - Baron Clotaire of Trotterham (11)
Spymaster - Ogier de Dunmaw (12) {Having both the Lustful & Celibate traits lead me to believe that he is a Eunich}
Court Chaplain - Simon, Prince Bishop of Worcester (18)

We learned that Roger de Beaumont, Earl of Warwick, was likely to revolt against our rule due to his own ambitions, so we made him our Cupbearer, not only is it a prestigous title, he would also be more likely to die in the event our wine was poisoned by some foreign agent...

Otherwise things in January went as we desired...

In Februrary, our chef prepared a particularly lavish meal, hoping to gain our favor, but our court chaplain preached a particularly fiery sermon on the sin of gluttony, turning our stomachs against the meal, so we took bread and water in our chambers...

Additionally, we entrusted the wellbeing of our son and heir Eustace to our royal spymaster, Ogier de Dunmaw, who, ironically, would make just as good of steward as he did a spymaster, but is certainly the finest spymaster available to the Crown,

In March, the ungrateful Roger de Beaumont, Earl of Warwick, declared a war of independence against the Crown...

By April, his army of 750 men were attacking Westminster, before the troops from the rest of the demesne were able to arrive to reinforce the levy of 660 men there...

It was May before the reinforcements arrived, and 220 loyal men of the Crown had already died defending the Capital...

By the end of May, Warwick's levies were routed, and the Royal Army of 3660 men were on their way to take back Warwick castle from the Rebellion...

In June, after the initial skirmishes with troops outside Warwick Castle, the royal army suffered 60 further fatalities, but Warwick, 220, and began the long siege of Warwick, with the Count himself sequested in his chambers, with his wife Heloise de Warwick {they have no children}

In July, 30 more men died to arrow volleys from the castle walls...

In August, the siege lingered on with little progress...

In September, Pope Innocent II called a crusade against the Sheikdom of Cayatayhud {A OPM in Western de jure Aragon), though England likely isn't even expected to participate...

In October, Richard de Brione, Count of Devon accused our Court Chaplain of plotting against us, however, it became obvious that it was a base accusation, we told Devon just what we thought of his 'evidence', the old man didn't approve, but he's likely to pass on any day now {he is 72 years old}...

November & December passed with little change except that small parties of defenders in the siege continue killing of 1-5% of our army, from time to time, so that by the end of the year, our army is reduced to 3330 men...

And thus concludes the first year of our Reign, {from now on I'll be writing by year, rather than by month, to spare the readers the boredom of excruciating detail - thanks for tuning in till next time}

 

[BishopCornelius]

Anno Domine 1137

On January 1st, Warwick, counciled by the Bishop of Coventy & the Mayor Stafford, surrendered his Castle to our army, tired of the siege starving his subjects, in exchange for his surrender {white peace}, he was forgiven for his crimes of insurrection and allowed to continue holding the County, in his old age, he would serve little threat to us, and imprisoning him would only serve to anger his heir & family, the influencial de Beaumonts...

We decided on that day that we would amass a great treasury in order to secure a legacy for the Crown & our heir, Eustace...

Later that year in April, our cousin Willaim of Surrey took guardianship of our daughter Marie, while we took back custodianship of our son & heir from our spymaster, in order to teach him the things that he will need in order to succeed us...

In May, Hugh, Earl of Bedford, accused Robert, Earl of Leicester, both brothers of the Beaumont family, of an attempt on his life, and demanded compensation, and as we prefered the just approach, we granted Hugh a claim on Robert's land... while we worry this might upset the balance of power in the Kingdom, somewhat, it would not as much as some other cases as it would still be within the Beaumont family...

In June, the Crusade for Calatayud as the United Kingdom of Leon & Castille manage to wretch the county from the Andalusians...

In July, the expected act of pride against the royal perogative occured when the Bastard Prince, Roger of Gloucester declared himself Duke of Gloucester, our illegitimate cousin oversteps his bounds, but for now we shall await a revocation for when it might more suit our interests...

In August, 1650 English peasants rebelled against the rule of our vassal, the Dutchman, Willem van Valandern, Count of Kent... While we were tempted to sit by and see if he could handle his own soldiers, we could not set an example for the pesants of England that we whould not put down any insurrections against their lawful God-given monarch, should their saxon blood deign to rise against their frankish betters... Thus we sent the army to dispatch the pasants in one fell swoop...

In October, the foolish infadels under the Caliphate declared Jihad against the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Fulk d'Anjou, and while normally we would devoutedly defend our fellow Christians against the mahaumutians, the Angevins are the hated rivals to the House of Blois since time immemorial, and even now rumors that the decietful bastard Duke of Anjou, La Plantagenet's wife "Empress" Matilda claims to have a right to Our very throne, so we can not look to aiding their royal cousins in Jerusalems, let their decietful ilk turn to stab us in the back as we honor the call of the Holy Father, and rush to snatch up our Crown, still wet with our blood... none the less we shall pray that God perserves our Christian knights in defence of the holy lands... {hey, at least he's being "honest"}

In December we sided with the First Estate (the Clergy) over the Third (Common Burgers/Mayers), in a land dispute;

Finally Eustace, our son & heir began to show signs of being more cynical than warranted for a boy of his age, though we found no need to punish him for beyond beyond his years, a fine trait in the future King of England...

 

[BishopCornelius]

Anno Domine 1138

In January, however, our son began to show signs of being unable to tell right from wrong, so unfortunately, we had to take a firm hand and instll in him moral values required of a monarch ruling by divine right...

In September, King Garcia Jimenez of Aragon approached us to wed Crown Prince Pedro of Aragon to our Courtier, the Maiden Berengre de Bodmun... apparently news of her beauty and virtue {attractive & chaste traits} had spread throughout all of Europe, and his son and heir was demanding to wed this woman, but what was not publically told in tales, was the fact that she was an utter imbecile, and thus we were ready and willing to agree to his proposal and sent her off to Aragon,...

Anno Domine 1139

In August, William de Roumare, Count of Lincoln dared to demand the Duchy of York from Us, his ambition spoke poorly of him, and we sent him back seething to Lincoln, with the title of Cupbearer of England instead - a title that became, despite its prestiege, increasingly known as title marking its holder as a potential victim of unfortunate 'accidents', considering the ends of the previous two cupbearers, through no fault of our own of course!

Likewise, Richard de Clare of Shrewsbury claimed he had the right to the Duchy of Lancaster, whereupon we sent him back to Shrewsbury dissappointed, but in somewhat better spirits than Lincoln...

Anno Domine 1140

In January, the Dutchman of Kent passed on to be with the Lord, leaving Kent to his cousin the Count of Hainault, and thus, into the realm of the Holy Roman Empire... this evoked our normally calm ire, however, soon enough Kent shall be returned to the Crown of Angleterra, as is the will of God...

In March, it became clear at the first spring festival, that my son Eustace had become quite the little glutton, so I had a little talk with him about the virtue of temperance, which I think he took to heart...

In April, expectedly, the bastard prince, the Duke of Gloucester, usurped the title of Duke of Dehubarth from the Earl of Dinefyr, ... such an ambitious fellow, he obviously has deigns on the title of King of Wales which he is half way to claiming by right of conquest...

By May, I had completed my desire to fill the royal treasury to the brim with gold coin... however, seeing the entire amount made us feel a twinge of guilt over the sin of greed in our stomach, which provoked in us a desire to become a Paragon of Virtue, whereupon we sent a tithe of our treasury to Rome, begging the Holy Father, Innocent II, for an Indulgence... which of course he granted, as was God's will... with the remaindier of the royal treasury, we began investing in the expansion of the Castle-City of Westminster, which had been somewhat englected in our interests of filling the treasury... However, now the treasury was empty again, ... Alas, the fleeting desire of Gold... perhaps one day we shall be known as Stephen the Holy, rather than Stephen the Just, as Holiness is a much higher virtue than Justice, after all...

In October we made good on our promise to reclaim Kent for the Kingdom of England by having calling the Comitas together to enact the Crown Authority Act of 1140, limiting de jure counties of the Kingdom of England from passing outside the Kingdom via inheritance, and thus in once the Count of Hainault, vassal of the Holy Roman Empire, became a vassal of the King of England as the Count of Kent - and as the Good Book says, a man cannot serve two masters, and in time he shall be forced to choose, or abidcate one of his duchies - we hope Kent, whom we can enter into the royal demesne for our beloved Eustace - but a season for everything and in everything a season, as the Good Book says,

Anno Domine 1141

In August the King of Scotland died, and left the Kingdom to his son & heir who happened to be - of course - our Norhampton.. apparently the Scot had managed to find a loophole in the Crown Authority Act, as he took the County with him to Scotland, and outside the laws of our Realm, as the county was not inherited by someone in a foreign kingdom outside the realm, as covered by the Act, rather, someone inside the realm inherited a foreign kingdom, - we were most displeased but, unless we wished to war with Scotland in those inhospitable highlands, it would not be worth pressing, for now, as we focused expressing our piety to our Mother Church & Her Lord God...

One of the most unique days in Christendom occured on Christmas Day, December 1141, which would come to be known as the Christ-Mass of Three Kaisers, as it was relayed to our Court: the Empire awoke under Kaiser Lother von Supplingenburg of Brunswick, who had served for 16 years, and was dead before Lunch, to be placed by Emperor Konrad I of Meissen, of House Wettin, who was dead before dark, to be replaced by Emperor Sobieslav I of Bohemia, of House Premyslid...

 

[BishopCornelius]

Anno Domine 1142

Our first act of the year was to Invest Aubrey de Vere with the title of Duke of Oxford, in order to balance the growing power of the Duke of Gloucester, and in order to attempt to secure the County of Northampton, de jure of the Duchy of Oxford, as part of the Kingdom of England rather than Scotland,

In April, the Bishop of Worcester began espewing heretsy & mysticism from the pulpit of his bishopric {Fraticelli}, for which we had to intervene and remove him from office by revoking his title...