Rule Britannia! - An English AAR

[Lord Valentine]

After beeing destroyed in my first planned AAR before I had got it going I am now going to make a new one as King of England. That should be easy enought, even for a noob like me.
Stylewise I think I shall favour an a bit more factual description rather than writting an epic novel because I lack both time and creativity to do this. I will therefore write out of the perspectiv of a contemporery author describing the deeds of the english Kings, similar to Caesars "Bellum Gallicum".

~Lord Valentine~

PS: Dificulty Settings are: Normal/Normal

 

[Revan86]

Sounds like fun! English AARs are quite popular here - you'll have no shortage of readers.

Best of luck!

 

[Lord Valentine]

The Reign of William I. (1066-1098)
The eraly years(1066-1072)

After William of Normandy had by Gods will won the english crown in the battle of Hastings he went to London were he was crowned on the 25th Decembre in the year of our Lord 1066. He was at that time a 31 year old man of great energy and military understanding that was second to no one in Europe.

First of all he locked to gain as much controll over the land as possible by apointing norman nobles as landlords in most of the country. Only in the north the saxon gentry still had the upperhand. His next step was to change the electiv laws of the country from semicalic into salic Primogentiure, thereby making it impossible for anyone outside of his family to inherit the throne.


Soon afterwards William, because of his great fame, was offered an alliance by the swedish and the french king.

Both of them he accepted with pleasure. Williams then created the titles Duke of Essex, Warwick and Oxford to his personal glory and to reward some of his norman vassals.
In October 1067 William created the bisporic of Essex to thank God for the vicroy He had granted him at Hastings.The next monthes saw the creation of further Duke titles.
Now finaly William felt strong enougth to extend his influence in France by claiming to rulership of Britanny.
At the beginig of 1069 William was blessed by God with another child. The dinasty was now secure. The reign of William did not only see prosperity but also great technoligical advance. In 1070 the royal smithers produced the first scale armour in Britain!


In the summer of 1070 William prepared for a military campaign to enforce his claim on the title Duke of Britanny.


Although all his vassals were extremly loyal to him and supplied him with a great amount of troops William was to proud of his own military knowledge to just watch his vassals earn all the glory and therefore mobiliesed his own retainers.
Unfortunatly the tranport of the troops over channel had been very costly so that William was allready deep in debts before the war even started.
Therefore William commanded his vassals to launch their assault even though he himeself had not yet arrived.

The first battle of the war was fought at Nantes on 14 of August between Williams Vassals and Hoel de Cournaille the duke of Britanny.
While the Kings men could muster 5.800 men the Duke could only field 2.500.
The fighting began at dawn when the Duke made a suprise attack on the english camp. Atfirst the french made good progress and english casulties were high.
The battle was still not deceided when the King finally arrived with his men on the battelfield and attacked the french rear. At this point the french were doomed and nearly all of them slaughtered.
All in all the Duke lost nearly 2.100 men while only 700 noble englishmen were mourned.
William at once began to siedge Nantes. The frence made two attempts to lift it but both failed leaving 2.500 french and only 200 englishmen dead on the battelfield. At the end of September Nantes had finally fallen and William marched his 13.000 men north to take the last holdings of the Duke. On their way William managed to ambush another french army killing 700 foes while losing only 30 men!
At the end of November the last fortress of the duke was siedged and no frechman dared to come to his aid so feared was "William the Conquerer" by now in Britanny.
At the end of the year the fortress was taken and the Duke of Britanny forced to give up his titles "Duke of Britany" and "Count of Nantes" to William leaving him only the title "Count of Cournouaille therbey making him a vassal of William.

Within one year the noble King had doubled the size of his french posessions! But at a high cost, the king had to pay off debts as high as 700 ducats!
In 1070 another technological breakthrough took place.

The Two Field System would greatly improve the wealth of the realm and the King.
In 1072 William gave his second eldest daughters hand in marriage to Roger Count of Gloucester and thanked God that he had changed the inherincy laws. But yet the most momentus event of the year was another.
William declared that trough his deeds and the clear favour of God he could now renounce the evil gossip of him beeing a bastard and declared himself a legitimate son of Robert Duke of Normandy.


This is the end of the early years of Williams reign.

~Lord Valentine~

 

[phargle]

Good start with a strong ruler. I'm currently playing a game on the other side of William as Philippe Capet, but with different goals.

I recommend you set solid goals for yourself. If your realm gets too large, it starts to get unmanagable and the game slows down. Maybe you should conquer France, or unify the isles, or something!

 

[Lord Valentine]

Good start with a strong ruler. I'm currently playing a game on the other side of William as Philippe Capet, but with different goals.

I recommend you set solid goals for yourself. If your realm gets too large, it starts to get unmanagable and the game slows down. Maybe you should conquer France, or unify the isles, or something!

Thanks for the counsul! Nevertheless I am allready in the year 1127 and can therefore not shape the course of these eraly events the way my readers might like it. Nevertheless I would be delighted to make your sugestions true once my AAR has catched up with the game.

~Lord Valentine~

 

[Lord Valentine]

The Reign of William I. (1066-1098)
War in Wales and on the Continent(1072-1075)

William, now that he had consolidated his power in France, realised that to free himeself of the last threat to the his kingdom in Britain he had to subdue Wales.
Therefore he claimed lordship over the Duchy of Gwynedd and mobilised his vassals along the border.

War was declared in mid November 1072 and in spite of the harsh weather Williams men mad good
progress without meeting any resistance.
The first minor battle took place at Powys on the 16th of December.

The numbers of the welsh were so perfetic that this was less a battle and more a massacre.

Few welsh lived to warn their leaders of the coming english force.
Because of this the King took the Welsh completly by suprise when he appeared in Gwynedd on the 13th of December. The Duke fleed the field but his men took a defensiv position on a hill with woods and other obstacles on their flanks.

The King soon realised that the Welsh had only put one third of their forces into battle formation probably to enable the rest to run for their lives.
William at once orderd his troops to attack without any specific tactical order. The welsh resistance was hard and soon the advance was halted. The terrain enabled the King only to use a small part of his troops at once and the welsh fought like the Spartans in the Termophyle. After 5 hours of fighting their resistance was broke but most of the ememies force had got away.

The King was very angy with himeself, his troops, the weather, the terrain, ervything that had contributed to this welsh tactical success. His advisors were in favour of going after the Welsh so that they could not join together with their other forces. But the King just said:
"Do you really think these frightend men can challenge us Englishmen? They are demoralised and have every right to be for they have no were to run to. By now every of their provinces should be taken by our troops. The Welsh are doomed! We will concentrate on taking their fortresses and end this war!"
The King was proved right when in January 1073 he received news of another english victory.

In mid March, while the king was still tracking down the last welsh resistance an ambassador from the frenc King arrived informing the King that France had gone to war with Germany, which was at that moment collapsing into civil war, and asked for the king to join in. But the King had no intention waste the lives of his men in a war fought in a distant country where he had no interests.
Towards the end of march the last welsh hideouts had been stormed by the Kings gallant men. Now the King could enforce his tearms in the peace treaty.

These were the realms new borders in Wales:


The next 2 1/2 years were peacefull and the King cocentrated his whole energy on improving the wealth of his demense and acumulating a financial reserve.
In October 1074 the King decided to finaly bring aid to his french ally by declaring war on their enemies the Duthcy of Lower Loraine. At the same time William hired some catalonian mercinaries.
William concentrated his efforts on attacking Frisia and by February had ocupied the country completly. The enemy was forced to accept Williams claims on the title "Count of Ostfriesland" and pay compensation.

In April, while William was still fighting on the continent, the Pope called for a crusade to free Jerusalem from the heathens. Soon afterwards William managed to make peace with the Duke of Lower Loraine. Williams treasury was considerably enlarged by this treaty.
Now the victorious English returned home to enjoy the spoils of peace.
Here ends the second chapter

~Lord Valentine~

OOC:I put more pictures into this update. What do you prefer? More descprition of the action (like in my first update) or more images like in this one?

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

Good you have started a new one already


I like more text with a some screenshots, we already have enough AAR's with a lot screenshots and little text

 

[unmerged(57215)]

I enjoy this AAR- it's interesting and easy to read.

 

[Lord Valentine]

Veldmaarschalk:Allright I will make updates with more text. I will only include pictures when it helps understanding situations, such as plaches of battles, exspans of the realm etc..

Steevo: Thanks for the praise! I will try to keep it short and informativ.

There will probably be another update today so stay tuned!

~Lord Valentine~

 

[EvilSanta]

Good aar, not too heavy text and enough pictures to allow better understandment of situation.

 

[Lord Valentine]

The Reign of William I. (1066-1098)
Welshmen, the Pope and Pagans(1075-1082)

The year 1075 was a peachfull year for the growing realm of King William, who by now was respected in the whole of Europe.
Yet while England was blessed by God with peace in central Europe there was a major war. The Kingdom of Germany was in the most terrible civil war with nearly every vassal fighting against their liege. Furthermore France, Poland and some pagan tribes took the oportunity to exspand.


On the 7th of September 1076 a papal emissary arrived informing the King that the Pope had heard about his scepticism about the churches interpretation of the Bible and that the Holy Father wished him to atone his sins.
King William however decided to appeal the Popes claim. The King insisted not to be sceptical and to prove so gave the great amount of 280 Ducats to the Popes emissary to show "his goodwill towards Mother Church and the Holy Father".
The emissary left the court and no action was taken against William whos scepticism remained one of his character traits.

Further quiet years followed in which the King completly commited himeself to aranging family maters and rewarding loyal servants and vassals.
But this was only the silence before the storm. On the 3rd of Feburary 1078 William claimed the titels "Count of Glamorgan" and "Count of Gwent" and declared war on the counties. A force of over 4.500 men, supplied by Williams vassals and commanded by Williams second oldes son Richard, had allready gavered along the borders and now swept into the foes country.
They began to siedge the fortress of Gwent and where attacked by 700 welsh men on the 28th of Feburary. Richard showed tactical talent in killing 620 of the attackers and losing only 35 men. By the time the fortress had been taken in mid March further 2.000 english soldiers had allready started to siedge Glamorgan. At the begining of April, even before the last fortress had been taken the Welsh offered an unconditional surrender. Mercifull William acepted the offer.

Now William controlled nearly all of Wales. His first action was to give the newly conquered lands to a loyal courtier.
Then finally on the 7th of July William was crowned King of Wales in London. There could not be a clearer sign for the end of welsh independence.


At the begining of 1079 the King seemed to be on the verge of a new conquest when he claimed the title Duke of Leinster. But nothingmore happened that year except for the discovery of the so called "Divine Rights".
The only important event in 1080 was when the King orderd the fortress in Hampshire to be replaced by a castle. The second after the Tower of London in his demense.

In May 1081 however the King mobilised some of his retainers and two of his vassals, a total of over 6.000 men, and set sail. But not for Irland but for Ostfriesland. His last decision before going abroad was to spent the considerable amount of 260 Ducats on the education of his youngest son by a famous merchant. This men that he once again allready was in debt even before his campaign started.

By the begining of August finally all men were in place and William declared war upon the Chiefdom of Oldenburg, which was part of the Pommerian Tribes. The pagans were completly suprised and could only muster a small force of 100 men for defense. They were defeated by William on the 15th of August near Oldenburg with loss of only 14 men. William continued and by the end of October had subdued Oldenburg and Celle. Then he moved to Lüneburg were 320 pagans were brave enougth to face the King and were completly destroyed. Once again english casulties with 35 men were very low.
But the pagans did not give up and attacked with 800 men on the 29th of November. William, in a brilliant cavalry manouver, flanked the enemy and thereby caused panic in the pagan army wich quickly fled leaving over 350 of their comerades dead on the battelfield. Again William had only lost 35 men!
Although the outbreak of winter slowed down the army considerably William continued and conquered Lüneburg and Weimar and was heading for Thüringen when at the begining of Feburary news reached him that the "Three Field System" had been discovered in Essex.
Then finally William marched towards the last remaining pagan bastion in Saxony, the province of Lausitz. When he reached it in March 1082 the pagans had assembled an army 2.000 men strong. This time both the pagan commander and troops were exspirienced and this was the bloodiest battle of the whole campaign. After William had personally led the charge that won the day their lay 1.500 pagans and over 400 english dead on the battelfield.

The last pagan fortress was taken at the begining of May. Now the King headed north and conquered Welle, Wolgast and Rügen. With this done in August after only one year of war the Tribe of Pommeria was crushed. Now William began to politicaly organise his new conquest . He created the bisporics Plauen, Lüneburg and Rügen to thank good for his fortune and granted the titles "Count of Werle and Wolgast" as well as the Titel "Duke of Hampshire" to his youngest son Humbert. The remaining provinces were given to some of his courtiers.

At the end of the year 1082 the realm now stretched to the Baltic Sea but unfortunatly the King was by nearly 800 Ducats in debt."


Here ends the third Chapter.

~Lord Valentine~

 

[Garuda]

I'm really enjoying your AAR, its nice and easy to follow along. Good start, keep it coming!

More.

 

[phargle]

You strike a good balance between screenshots and text, and the layout makes it easy to read. Good job.

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

800 ducats is not that much for a king

It can btw be dangerous to have vassals in a kingdom that is not owned by you (Germany f.e.) if they declare independence you will find yourself at war with the king of Germany pretty soon

 

[unmerged(57215)]

800 ducats is not that much for a king

It can btw be dangerous to have vassals in a kingdom that is not owned by you (Germany f.e.) if they declare independence you will find yourself at war with the king of Germany pretty soon

Don't forget, vassals that declare independence in a kingdom you don't hold the title to won't ask to be revassalized - if they seperate, they're gone forever, whether or not you go to war with Germany over it.

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

Don't forget, vassals that declare independence in a kingdom you don't hold the title to won't ask to be revassalized - if they seperate, they're gone forever, whether or not you go to war with Germany over it.

You can then easily conquer them back (you have a claim on them) and being in a war with just vassal is not bad, being at war with a strong kingdom like Germany is much worse

 

[EvilSanta]

Those spots in Germany look ugly. You should wipe Germany out to make it look nicer.

 

[Lord Valentine]

So here finally is an update:
The Reign of William I. (1066-1098)
War, Glory, Peace and Treason

In June 1083 King William got most unexspected news. The newly elected Pope wished guidance by "the greatest King of Christianity". William gladly accepted. Here was the chance to end his lifelong troubles with the church. Although the realm was still very deep in debt William refused time and time again to call the General Estates for special taxes.
In April 1084 the Duke of Deheuberth asked William to become his Liege. Through this Williams rule over Wales was now complete. Unfortunatly the economic development was negative in this year and due to the insolvencey of the King. Several buisnesses went bust or had to be sold off to the pittyless moneylenders.
Wisely William concentrated on building up a treasury again over the next two years.

In 1086 William was ready to undertake his next foreign venture. He mobilised all his welsh troops and after declaring war upon the Dutchy of Leinster shipped them over the Irish Sea.
The Irish were defeated in two battles in wich they lost nearly 2.000 men whereas the noble english lost under 500 men. Within a month the Duke was ready to recognise William as the rightfull Duke of Leinster and pay 107 gold pieces. To show that he was not an enemy of the Irish or irish Rule he then granted the Bishop of Osreige the titel "Archbishop of Leinster".

Irleand after Williams Invasion

The next two years saw peace and prosperity in the realm. In spring 1088 however William had a new plan. The situation of the christians in Spain had become worse and worse. The spanish Kingdoms were Kingdoms only in name. William therefore wished to show the muslims that any further advance would bring them into war with England.
To show them that he meant what he said William declared war upon the Sheikdom of Porto.
While on the way to Porto with his army a pretty wench catched the Kings eye but beeing a pure and devout Christian he remembered Christs words that allready the thought of adultery was sin and refused the impulse. Early next year Porto fell to William and now he had a good base of operation for further crusades. Unfortunantly the most untrue King of Scotland stopped him of fighting for the glory of Christ by declaring war upon England.
While William hurried back to England word was sent to his vassals to quickly mobilise and carry the fight into the land of the scots.

The first battle took place in Berwick on the 5th of May between the 2.500 men under the Alfwold Leofricson, Duke of Cumberland, and 1.500 scots und Gospatrick of Athol, Duke of Athol. It ended in a great victory for the english allthough the scots managed to retreat before beeing totaly destroyed.
All in all the scots lost 900 men whereas english casulties where as high as 220. How would have belived 22 years ago that the house of Leofricson, which belonged to the oldest saxon noble blood of the realm, would bring the win such a great victory for a norman King!
Alfwold proved his great abilties in two more battles in wich he killed 1.000 scots and lost only 30 men!
In September Alfwold finally reached Lothian, the residence of the scotisch King. A big battle took place there between 4.500 english and 2.800 scots. The scots could field no knights and only few pikemen and were therefore driven of the battelfield by the great english cavalry. Over 1.200 scots were left dead on the fields of Lothian. 550 englishmen had to be buried.

At the begining of October William, who was allready marching at the head of an army towards Scotland, was presented with a new better mail armour, invented by his personal blacksmith.


The same month William inflicted several defeats upon the scotisch King himeself. At the begining of November Lothian itself fell and an emissary of Malcom, King of Scots, asked for the terms of surrender. Malcom was forced to make William count of his beloved Lothian and recognise him as count of Dorset.

In 1090 Williams attention was directed towards Ireland once again when he declared war upon the County of Urmuru, this logicaly also brought him into war with their liege the Duke of Munster.
Wiliam did not personally attend the campaign but his vassals brought it to a victorious conclusion within 3 months. William now was also Duke of Munster.

In the meantime the authority of the frensh king had been considerable weakend and the Duke of Poitours and Bourdaux had broken away from him.


The same year news reached William that his Wife Mathilda had commited adultery with the Duke of Gloucester. William was shocked by this disrespect of Gods laws and his authority. Consequently he had his unfaithfull wife beheaded and the Duke openly punished.
However the wise King saw an oportunity to make political profit out of this awfull mater. He asked Duncan Dunkeld, King of Scotland, to end the long animosity between both realsm by giving William his daughter Ragnailt in marriage.
Duncan gladly excepted and William was so generous not to take the marriage duty. The marriage was happy and truly blessed by God for no fewer than five offsprings were the product of this marriage. William stayed faithfull to his wife until his death, even when a young wench tried to seduce him in 1094 he stayed true to his wedding vows giving a good example to all his subjects.
In general the next years were peacfull and William declared that he had fought all his live and now he wanted to enjoy his last years in the company of his beloved wife and his children.

However there were still urgent state matters which needed Williams attention. The Pope for example orderd William to change his lay of investure and to grant the Pope alone the right to invest Bishops. William refused telling the Pope:"It is thy task to give guidance to all christians over the world in the general wishes of God. But it is not thy task to interfere in the matters of the men whom God has chosen to govern the earth."
The Pope was absolutly enraged and excomunicated William.
At the beginig of the next year William was once again forced into war. The Duke of Connacht was spreading propaganda against William urging all Irish to defy him "whom God truly hates".
This could not be tolerated. William mobilised some of his most loyal english troops and within 3 months occupied the whole Duthcy. William took sweet revenge and took away all the Dukes possesions leaving him a homeless wanderer who had to beg favours his peers.
To show the Irish that he had not lost Gods favour he was crowned King of Ireland together with his wife on the 19th of October 1095 in Dublin.

Then once again William retired into privat life, dealing only with the most important business personaly. In April 1097 however the Dutchy of Munster declared war upon "the Anti-Christ and eternal bastard William". And so the by now 67 years old King rode to war once more. On the 28th of July he had allready defeated the Dukes 1.000 men deceisivly with his 2.400 retainers. At the begining of August Desmunu fell and William marched on to Tuadmumu where he destroyed the last rebel forces and besiedged the castle. The castle was still far from fall when William orderd it to be stormed on the 17th of October. He himeself lead the attack and quickly took the city.
Although the King fought in the front line he got through the battle without any even minor injury. This was taken as a clear sign that God was still on Williams side and not that of the heretic Pope.
Unfortunatly the saxon Dutchy of Cumberland took advantage of Williams absence and declared war upon him.


William mobilised his men in the north and personally took command of the southern part of the realm. While his chancellor won several victories in the enemies teritory before he was captured and even after though he paid rasom pittielesly slain William destroyed all saxons who dared to march on his capital in Essex.

The King despite his age had again showen great virtue and energy. But still to the great suprise of everyone the King passed away in the night from the 23rd to the 24th of August 1098. The mourning was great througout the whole realm. Everyone agreed that he was truly one of those men blessed by God who shapped history.
Robert heard of his fathers death on the 28th and came to London at once. The funeral was on the 30th with the whole of London on it's feet and all of Englands, Irelands and Wales important nobility attending it. Williams eldest son Robert was crowned Robert I. of England, Wales and Ireland on the 4th of September. A new era had begun.


Here end the accounts on the Life of William the Conquerer.

~Lord Valentine~

OOC: So I hope it was worth the wait. Hopefully I will be able to make an update on the Reign of Rober tomorrow.

 

[bombshellboi]

Good AAR so far.

You want to be careful though; you dont want to build up too much too much Badboy points...

Ya know that is the one thing that annoys me about England is in the Isles its pretty over powered in CK; but on the continent it gets pwned by France/Germany.
Although in my CK i solved this slightly by dissolving the "kingdom of germany" by removing the titles King of Germany, Burgundy, and Italy from the scenario files...

France still pwns England tho and England still pwns Scotland which is unrealistic...
Scotland and England should have something of a delicate balance of power here; with Scotland being able to repulse England when it invades most of the time. And France should pretty much be Englands b*tch up until the Hundred years war.

Obviously im generalising but thats pretty much how it was for a long time, from the Angevin Empire, to the Hundred years war...

However good going on the invading wales/pagans front.

Now destroy France! *waves england flags then instantly feels dirty for doing it*

 

[Lord Valentine]

Thanks for the feedback! I have allready played until round about 1150 and I can allready tell you that there will be quite a bit of campaigning in Europe and France will be involfed in it. But now first of all there is still the small civil war in northern England to be ended and wait and see what Robert I. might do then...

~Lord Valentine~