The third of the After Action Reports (AAR) following my direction of the Irish Empire, tracing the dynasty of the Briain dynasty through the Middle Ages. The previous AARs can be found here: Part 1, Part 2.

Under he High King Artucan of Ireland and future emperor of Britannia, the Irish Kingdom has flourished and expanded beyond the Irish home Island, and into Scotland and Wales. The chaos of the vassal succession wars has been rectified and High King Artucan is at the peak of his influence with his vassals and subjects. However, after a reign of nearly 40 years, he is also starting to reach the waning years of his life and preparations now need to be made for the succession to his heir if the fledgling empire is to remain intact during the transition period.

Succession will still need to take second place to some lingering expansion and score to settle. Scotland will need to made to kneel to the might of the Irish Empire... except this time, they have some strong allies in the form of the Kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark. For the first time in the ongoing Scottish-Irish wars, Ireland is outmanned and in danger of being overrun! Even the Irish capital finds itself under siege...

... desperate times call for desperate measures. For the first time in Irish Briain history, mercenaries are recruited and joined to the standing army of Ireland to break the siege of the capital. The mercenaries are costly, and they are quite distasteful... but Scotland, Sweden and Denmark need to be shown the error of their ways.

After smashing the sieging forces of the Scots, the Irish army continues northward and engages ships to cross the narrow water border to subject the Scots to fire and sword. Their walls and defenses are no match for the siege engines of our army, and the Swedish and Danish are sent quickly running back to the their respective homelands.

Scotland bends the knee again!

Unfortunately, the shy nature of High King Arcutan leads him to prefer isolation and solitude... meaning that he refuses to engage in meaningful relationships with his vassals. However, good relationships with his vassals are important if he wants to hold on to power, as he only rules by their assent... and little bit with a iron fist! He does push himself to do the best for the empire and dynasty, but sometimes it gets to be too much and he ends up having Mental Breaks in which he confides in his nearest friends. It does leave him open to manipulation... but he is a trusting sort of King!

The Welsh and Scottish conquests start to resent their benevolent rule from Ireland. Mostly, they lack the power to do much more than grumble... however, much of this restraint is due to the personal respect for the current High King. This could prove a longer term threat to the succession when the heir takes power. Of most concern is the slumbering undercurrent with some of the less loyal vassals.

News reaches the Irish court of a Horde that is rampaging in the Far East. It has been labelled as an unstoppable terror... however, the King's advisors suggest that this threat can be reliably ignored for the moment... as there are many strong empires between the Horde and the peaceful Irish Isles.

Interestingly enough, our installed Crusader Queen of Jerusalem has had an affair with one of the Middle Eastern lords! Will this be a chance to reconcile the faiths of the Book?

It has been interesting to see that even Artucan's lowly vassals have started to try and pick out pieces of land from the fading Scottish Empire. Although it is quite amusing to see the humilation of the once great Empire, it does also mean that the Irish Vassals are starting to get bolder and are expanding their power under the nose of the High King. This could prove problematic in later years if their power base becomes too strong.

An interesting choice has come up, for the Kingdom to mint new coinage. There was a choice to mint new silver based coinage... or to debase the coinage with less valuable materials. High King Artucan chose to debase the coinage... and paid the price when it was discovered! An embarrassing mis-step for the popular monarch...

The Catholic Church declares yet ANOTHER Crusade to capture the lands of Syria. As a loyal and pious member of the Church, the Irish Empire contributes directly with troops... sending them to the far side of the Mediterranean Sea.

As with the previous Crusades, the Irish Army proves to be the pivotal force and contributor to the War. This allows the Briain dynasty to install the new Crusader Queen as the Queen of Syria.... another noble achievement for the Irish Dynasty!

A close eye will need to be kept on the Danelaw on the mainland of England. They are currently the strongest rival for the Britannian throne, and so steps must be maintained to constantly undermine them, with alliances, stealth and trickery and when the time is right, with military intervention.

Looking further afield to the mainland of Europe, I see that the empire of Francia has expanded alarmingly through the Lowlands and down into the Spanish Peninsula. This could get quite ugly if that empire holds together... the next Irish King might need to start sowing the seeds of discontent in the vassals of the Francian empire if the future of the Irish empire is to survive the ages.

In these dying days of the High King Artucan, the Catharian sect of Christianity has taken hold in around half the counties of the Irish empire. It is one of the least distasteful of the Christian sects, and a conversion to Catharism would free the Irish Empire from the fulfilling the obligations to the Crusade hungry Popes of the Vatican States.

The Cathar faith does hold that males and females are equal in the eyes of God, and for succession as well. This is quite a good thing, as many of my daughters have been quite capable vassals, but have been hindered by the Catholic lack of interest in the skills of half of the population.

High King Artucan, in his waning years, sees the wisdom in abandoning the Catholic faith... with it's stifling male hierarchy in Rome. They are not really the true representatives of God on Earth, and it is time to embrace the more inclusive tenets of the Catharian faith.

Unfortunately, not many more duchies and counties follow his lead, with much of the Scottish and Welsh conquests remaining steadfastly Catholic. Most problematically, the next Irish heir... also remained true to the Catholic faith. The early days of the next succession might be defined by popular unrest over religious differences.... as a Catholic heir takes the reigns over a country that is predominately Cathar, with Catholic outputs.

The final act of High King Artucan will be a bit of a bastard move... in the efforts to keep the Irish Empire together in this fledgling state, he will need to change the succession laws to partially disinherit some of his heirs.

Under the current Confederate Partition rules, existing titles would be divided equally, but new titles would be created to placate the younger non-primary heirs to the throne. This would create the new titles of Scotland and Wales, which would be then handed over to the younger heirs... thus breaking up the current Irish empire... and reversing the gains of the High King Artucan.

In his final years, the High King has more than enough political clout to transition to a pure Partition Succession Law. This would have the effect of having an equal distribution of existing Titles... but would crucially PREVENT the creation of NEW Titles. Thus, keeping the Empire intact, and not fragmenting into multiple Kingdoms of equal standing. A bastard move...

With all these Succession Laws in place, and the institution of a new Catharism religion... The High King Artucan passed away at the age of 52 years. The leadership of the Irish Empire passes to High King Donn.... a vastly different character to his illustrious father.

Storm clouds are on the horizon for the new King... restless and steadily more powerful vassals are itching for independence, religious wars are on the horizon and public revolts are gathering steam in the Welsh and Scottish conquests. It will be a difficult time for the new King.

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