5. A New Liege
Welcome to the Welf Chronicles
In this Crusader Kings II chronicle, we are following the exploits of Count Konrad Welf of Troyes and his descendants.
If you are new to the series, it begins with 1. Introduction
Last time (4. War Never Changes), our first son Maurice was born and our liege lord, Charles II of West Frankia, died suddenly at the age of 46.
This time, we are going to start off the new reign with a presentation of our new liege, Louis the Stammerer, and a proper introduction to a couple of the other major lords of West Frankia.
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| We might have lost our job as Spymaster and the Hood that goes with it, but at least we get to show off our hair for a bit. |
With a new reign, it is a good time to introduce, reintroduce and catch up on some of the important players in West Frankia.
My new Liege Lord is the unfortunately named Louis the Stammerer. He is just 26, a mere few years older than myself and has been spending the last few years of his father's reign over West Frankia, ruling the southern realm of Aquitaine. He is well known as an Intricate Webweaver, always spinning his little plots to further his all-consuming Ambition, aided by his Deceitful nature and Cynical view of the world and not at all aided by his very noticable Stammer. In fairness to my new Lord, he is also well regarded for his Diligence and sense of Justice as a ruler. His wife Godgifu is of low birth and while most people do not comprehend the choice of partner for the crown prince, few question that Louis must have had some plan with the match.
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| This is the weasely bastard, who took our job! |
The new Spymaster is a commoner known simply as Amaury, who does have a slight advantage over myself in the art of spycraft, but the slight that my 'good' Lord is paying me by keeping this commoner on, is felt clearly.
The new Court Chaplain and Treasurer are both minor nobles, who are not relevant at this time, but the remaining two members of the council are major magnates: The Chancellor, Duke Bernard II of Barcelona and the Marshal, Duke Bernat II of Toulouse.
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| Duke Bernie |
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| Duke Bernie |
Now, Bernie and Bernie are clearly named with the express purpose of making everything harder to understand, so we are just going to refer to them as the Dukes of Barcelona and Toulouse, respectively, if we need to talk about them. The major thing to note about them is that they are two of the most powerful dukes of Aquitaine.
If you are wondering, a 'magnate' simply means a powerful and influential noble. In Crusader Kings 2, that usually means Dukes for Kingdoms and Kings for Empires, especially if they have a large personal demesne. 'Demesne' is the land under a nobles personal control, rather than given over to a vassal, and is pronounced something like 'demain'... It's French, go figure.
As an example, our dear protagonist, Count Konrad, personally controls the primary castles in both Sens and Troyes, which means he has a demesne of 2. The Duke of Barcelona personally controls 3 such castles and also whatever vassals belong to the Duchy of Barcelona.
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| Our dearest cousin |
Finally, at the coronation of King Louis, I also had the chance to converse at length with my dear cousin Hugo, Duke of Anjou. He thanked me in person for the military assistance over the past years and we confided in each other our trepidation at the Kingdom of West Frankia being taken over by Southerners from Aquitaine.
We have talked about Hugo a couple of times now, especially last time, but it is time to introduce him more fully, as he is one of our major allies inside the Kingdom.
Hugo was trained in a monastery, but his raw Ambition has seen him become the Duke of Anjou under Charles the Bold, the previous king. He can be Shy at formal occasions and he strikes a careful balance between Sloth and Patience, but his substantial holdings in the core of West Frankia and familial connections in the entire Karling domain makes him a powerful ally and a dangerous enemy.
Note that similar to the Duke of Barcelona, Hugo also personally controls 3 castles and the large Duchy of Anjou, which is why he is so powerful.
7th of May, 869:
King Louis, as one of his first acts, decides to reverse the tax exemptions given to the burghers of West Frankia, which I heartily endorse.
So, not affiliated with Big Burgher like daddy.
Using this increased revenue, King Louis declares the formation of a new Duchy in Normandy, to be held by himself.
Well, at least it's not the Duchy of Campagne, so we still have a chance to form it ourselves.
26th of May, 869:
Another revolt against Duke Hugo begins inside his Duchy of Anjou.
I don't know what Hugo is doing in there, but his vassels sure don't like it.
30th of June, 869:
My new liege has had me leading troops against the saracan invaders for the past month or so. After a particularly fierce skirmish, I inspect the camp and have an inspiration. All of our troops each have individual servants to carry their equipment. This leads to a stupendous amount of camp followers for even a minor force. If this baggage could be shared between the servants of multiple soldiers, it might make the transport of equipment more efficient and remove redundant pieces of gear. After struggling a bit with the implementation, I am seeing clear improvements in the daily marching speed of our troops.
These combat traits can be really powerful and fortunately we got to pick between several good ones. Being able to move an army faster is a very strong benefit, since it allows us to both catch up to weaker opponents and escape from stronger ones.
19th of July, 869:
My dear Ben-Muman writes to me often on the campaign trail, and recently I have noticed many references to poetry that might be called romantic or even erotic. Thinking of the possibilities for our relationship I acquire several more works, including a smuggled saracen text about a female storyteller who staves off the wrath of her lord with her stories. After the campaign, we read some of the text together and I feel the fiery new passion of her Lust that very night.
As mentioned in an earlier episode, I am a fan of Lust over Chaste, especially with both an additional boost in Fertility and since it is our wife and not us that gets it, we don't take the piety penalty.
31st of July, 869:
After several months of hard campaigning, we have finally faced off against the large moorish army operating in the County of Barcelona. After my logistical innovations got noticed by the King, I was given the tremendous honor of leading the Frankish forces in person and our combined army beat several thousand infidel soldiers outside the gates of Barcelona itself. The Andalusian garrison inside holds out against us, but with their field army beaten, it is only a matter of time before they surrender.
The next day, news reaches me that the Duke of Toulouse seeks to install Prince Carloman, the King's brother, on the throne of Aquitaine.
Now, this is interesting. Remember that the Duke of Toulouse is the King's Marshal, responsible for his armies. If that man don't want you in power, that's trouble. Carloman is currently just a Count, and so has very little power for himself, but if he can get powerful magnates like Toulouse behind him, that might spell trouble for King Louis.
28th of August, 869:
Out dearest cousin Duke Hugo, requests my assistance with dealing with the rebellions plaguing the Duchy of Anjou. Out of our familial obligation, I accept, but instruct my commanders to focus on targets beneficial to the County of Troyes. I don't want a repeat of last time.
We are not just going to do Hugo's dirty work for him again with no reward.
18th of September, 869:
The armies of Troyes are gathered. Since I still command troops for the King in person, I leave the forces in the hands of a certain Thomas, capable knight from my court. Brother Monk leads one flank, while one of my minor vassals lead the other.
The army decides to make for the fortress in the province of Eu. The main rebel force holds Rouen, adjacent to Eu, but we outnumber them more than 2 to 1. Hugo's forces are busy besieging Euvreux, another rebel stronghold, but comfortably outnumber the rebel forces in the nearby provinces.
13th of September, 869:
The rebel forces in Rouen attempt to block our passage by occupying the Vexin, attempting to find favorable ground and prevent us from crossing the Seine, but we bypass them by moving through Amiens instead, and they eventually have to withdraw back to Rouen to prevent us from taking it behind them.
During the Hundred Year's War between the French and English, the Vexin was an incredibly strategic province as it controls the easiest route between English-held Normandy and the French capital of Paris. It is unlikely that this will be the last we see of it in this playthrough.
This bit of manuvering isn't really a big deal in the present situation, but illustrates the possibilities of movement pretty well.
26th of September, 869:
After our forces got comfortable besieging Eu, I recieved a message that Hugo had defeated another of the revolts facing him.
When I read the message at first, I thought that Hugo had managed to trick us into another war effort without any spoils, but it turns out that he was facing several indivdual rebellions, rather than one large one, so there can still be something it in for us.
3rd of December, 869:
I recieved the joyous news that my brother Rudolf had become a father. The message also carried further, and more somber news: The birth had been difficult, and the child had immediately been baptized Margerete, since she was sickly and might not make it out of infancy. Her mother, Héloise, had also taken ill after the birth, and now suffered from an infection of the lungs. There is nothing to do but to pray for them both.
Little Margerete did unfortunately not inherit her mother's Genius. Sickly is different from the illness our own son Maurice had, in that it sticks around for much longer, often several years.
3rd of January, 870:
The new year had barely begun before I recieved the tragic news that my sister-in-law Héloise had passed away from the infection she had suffered in the month since the birth of her daughter. All the familys prayers now go to little Margarete.
The medieval world is a cruel one, no less so for women.
13th of January, 870:
Life goes on, and after a week of mourning, brother Rudolf married again, this time to a young Bulgarian girl named Bisera.
The noble families still dont have any suitable daughters yet, so Rudolf gets another Genius commoner to work with.
24th of February, 870:
I am still leading the entire West Frankish army south of the Pyrenees, and we have now moved into Moorish territory and are besieging the castle at Turtusha, just west of Barcelona.
26th of May, 870:
With the castle in Eu still under siege by the forces of Troyes, my councillor brings good news. He has heard mention of old Roman documents, linking the County of Dijon to Troyes and Sens, rather than Charlerois, who currently control it. I decide that he should find them and present them at court to make sure that everyone knows who Dijon really belongs to!
Well, well, Ehrenfried, our Chancellor, works quickly. While we are not in a position to exploit the claim right now, Konrad is still young, so there should be plenty of opportunities in the future.
18th of June, 870:
I recieved a letter from Mayor Erich today, containing his notes on the Romans in Constantinople. These included details on law and the customs of the court of Emperor Basil I that are almost unknown here in Frankia.
We can't use the technology points before we acquire a ducal title at minimum, but the points are stored until then.
A few days later, the siege of Eu finally ends. Our forces sack the castle and find a substantial amount of gold in its coffers.
The next step in Eu would be besieging the local bishopic, but their defensive forces are way too numerous at this point. We instead move to Rouen, to assist Hugo's force in their siege of the castle. Hugo, however, has other problems and requests for us to finish the siege, while he reforms his forces back in Anjou. We readily accept, as the defenders are clearly on their last leg.
10th of October, 870:
After less than four months, Rouen's castle fall to the forces of Troyes, once again yielding a significant amount of treasure. As in Eu, the local city is too heavily defended for us to take, so in consultation with me, Thomas, the commander, decides to disband the army and take the spoils with us back to Troyes.
There isn't really anything else profitable for us to do now, and Hugo has got the rebellion well in hand. With the cost of keeping the army in the field for about a year coming in at around 10 gold, we have made a fine little profit this time around. If we had been able to take any of the cities or bishoprics, it would have been a lot better.
That is it for this time. Come back next time to see if we can turn from the Count of Troyes and Sens to the Duke of Campagne!
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