Needless to say, the top of our dynasty is not doing very. My hope is that we can hold on to our titles until my Grandson, Uilliam (who is 20) can take over the Kingdom and Dynasty. And so we begin...
1098
I have relatively a new wife, 21 year old Ellenor Estrid, Princess of Denmark (I married her when I was 69 and she was 17). I make her my spymaster after my former spymaster Donnchad (my youngest son) no longer wishes the position. My middle son is off being the Duke of York and spreading our Dynasty into English lands.
My son Domnall dies comatose in bed, passing the Earlship of Ossory to his son Uilliam who is now my new heir, this is good as I can now die and know the dynasty is relatively safe although he goes ahead and marries a lowborn, but at least she has decent stewardship so he won't have to give up more than 1 title when he becomes king.
And later in the year King Murchad dies at the age of 73. King Uilliam now reigns!
1098-1099 Beginning of a new reign
King Uilliam is relatively young (21) with a 27 year old wife, she is lowborn so unfortunately we have -46 prestige but our ~2.5 prestige a month should quickly make up for that.
Some things we have to deal with immediately are:
1) Our Brother Gilla-Brigte mac Domnall Ua Cheinnselaig (heir to the Petty Kingdom of Tara) is 16 but unmarried.
2) Our state and personal stewardship only allow for a 4 county demense so we will need to offload on of the counties (likely Breifne) soon or face stiff penalties to our levies and our vassals opinions.
Luckily thanks to my high diplomacy most of my vassals aren't as mad at me as I might have suspected.
To fix these two issues I do the following:
I am able to marry my brother to an English Princess (and secure an alliegance with them). This also gives us a +100 prestige bonus and gets us out of the hole.
I make a kinsman of mine Diarmait Ua Cheinnselaig, the Earl of Breifne. He was the only adult male of the dynasty in my court that didn't hate me (there were a few children but they only slightly liked me). He has a weak claim to the county Leinster (likely his father was a cousin of my grandfather) but that won't pass to his children and after I grant him the title he is probably my most content vassal. This takes away my demense size penalty and make most of my vassals like me (besides 3 mayors who have just a slightly negative opinion).
In January 1099 fate smiles upon me, we find out my wife Lerthan is pregnant! In August our son is born, we decide to name him Domnall after my late (crazy) father.
1099-1101 War for glory!
We decide to join the Scotish Excommunication war (as Scotland is wracked with revolts at the moment and they are excommunicated). We are able to ask the English to join us in the war, and in return we join their war to put down one of their revolts (which they had already basically won).
We move into Scotish lands and lay seige to their capital county of Atholl (the nominal capital of Scotland - Gowrie is under control of Scotish rebels).
While we are away at war the Norwegian population in Dublin (didn't realize they were Norwegian) embrace the Irish culture after a bought of Typhoid fever passes through the land.
Unfortunately the excommunication of Scotland is lifted before we can get any prestige but we are able to strengthen our allegiance with England by helping them out even though they didn't need it.
Unfortunately before we got home from war our wife died of the slow fever (Typhoid). We married a relative of House Ua Neill which brought us into an allegiance with our neighbor County Oriel. This should allow us to press claims in Ireland a lot easier. Unfortunately she died not three months after we were married also from the slow fever. I am beginning to think my ruler's 'paranoid' trait is justified.
1101-1104 A time of peace, and babies!
Our third wife (at 24) was 25 Year Old Margaret of Northumbria, relative to the Earl of Northumbria (in England) and had a high stewardship (18). She was midas touched, charitable and gregarious but a little decietful and ambitious.
Fortunately this wife sticks around long enough to get pregnant at least.
While she is hatching my second child she also hatches a plot to kill my rival (the Heir to the County Breifne) which I join and work with her to successfully kill him with a snake. The new heir is a young nephew of mine who likes me so that should keep that vassalage happy for a while.
Our first son (my second son) Scoan is born in 1103. later in the year my wife is pregnant again. Our twin daughters Eua and Ben-Muman are born in May of 1104.
1104-1107 A return to war
In mid 1104, around the time of my daughters' birth we successfully fabricated a claim to the county Thurmond and it was off to war!
We assaulted the Petty Munsterian army in Thormund with a superior force (and I gained the Brave trait!) but unfortunately it was a loss and we were forced to retreat back to our lands and raise our vassal levies. From here we were able to attack the Munsterian forces in Ormond and score a few victories. The Petty King of Munster was able to pull in the County Desmond as an ally, but we were able to pull in England (who sent a 7000+ army to attack the Desmonds and help us finish off the Munsterians).
During the war a third daughter of mine is born we name her Bebinn.
The Earl of Thormund accepts defeat in December 1105, but this draws us into the ongoing conflict with Desmond (apparently they were fighting for control of Thormund too, not alongside the Munsterians, it was a three way war and I didn't even realize). Unfortunately the English won't join us in this war and my remaining army isn't strong enough to seige Desmond.
On top of all of this I have a county more than my Demense can handle and I can't give it away while at war!
Fortunately I had the option of reraising my vassal levies (I had let them drop before because they weren't need). We were able to crush the Desmond's remining offensive force (of just a few hundred) and invade their county.
Funnily enough during this I decided to tend a garden, get the gardener trait and increase my stewardship by 2 :) this had the added benefit of increasing my Demense size to 5 and allowing me to keep the county Thormond without penalty!
The seige of Desmond began when we were already at +25% warscore. Once the capital fell the Earl of Desmond admitted defeat (paid us money and lost a lot of prestige while we gained!).
1107-1111 Rebuilding and Building Higher
We released our Levies and went back to buisiness of running a Kingdom in 1107. Our friend Enri helped us learn more swordfighting skills and we strengthened our relations with vassals and spread our dynasty out by marriage.
Our son Domnall picks up the Temperate and Honest traits but is also Envious of others and I can't seem to beat that out of him!
We saved one of our nobles from a kidnapping attempt and gained the 'Just' trait, fulfilling our ambition to improve our stewardship.
Domnall gains the Gregarious trait at the age of nine and is already at decent stats (if a little low on Stewardship). If I can get him a decent wife he won't even have to give up our extra Earl title when he takes over.
I get a new courtier (Princess Anastasia of Genoa) after one of my kinsmen is married. I shouldn't do it but I think she fancies me... it's good to be King!
I also find out that Earl Diarmait of Breifne is 54 and without an heir (and his wife is 66) so if/when he dies I will get the County Breifne Earlship back - very good! And I lost the Envious trait! Things are going pretty well.
Our daliance with Princess Anastasia results in a Bastard son (not sure why my Kinsman didn't just take him as his own, must have looked like me). In any case Stefano is legitamized (I can take my children not liking me for 2 years).
The Earl of Desmond fabricated a claim on Thomond in 1110, but I have no claim on his lands (yet) to use on him, hopefully he will try to press it so I can beat him down again.
My second son Seoan gains the temperate trait, while his older brother Domnall picks up the Humble trait. With any luck they will be great men that I can marry to Princesses and get my Dynasty even larger.
In July 1111 we gained a claim to the County of Desmond and the times of peace were over once again.
1111 Status
As you can see, the Petty Kingdom of Tara is just big enough now for our Name to almost be in the same font size as England. Hopefully if/when we take Desmond we can usurp the title of Duke of Munster and have a claim on Ormond as well, at that point if we can take that county we should have enough of Ireland to form the Kingdom of Ireland - I don't want to go too quickly however and risk overeaching. The status of my two sons however makes me happy with us for at least 25-40 years.
Elsewhere England is getting a little too stable, hopefully they have some revolts/wars soon or they will start conquering Wales and/or Scotland (or Ireland if we're not careful). Especially with Scotland still embroiled in war and division (Norway owns a section, the Petty Kingdom of Soyrer is independent, etc.) and France broken up into France, Brittany, Aquataine and the HRE retaking Provence and a Duchy in southern France.
Next time my plan is to continue the growth of the Kingdom of Tara, our character King Uilliam is only 34 so he may have a shot at becoming King of Ireland, but it will most likely be his son who unites the Isle completely.
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