Jon's Crusader Kings II Blog

It's me, King Matt. My dad sent me into hiding, and it didn't appear to do too well for me. Let's come out of hiding. Worst thing that happens, we start the rule of my son, Count Kettil soon. Somehow, I've inherited a county surrounded by the Byzantine Empire. Can I figure out how to give that away? Gave it away to someone in my court, but it's still part of the realm. Defeated the revolting bishop, but discovered the King of Estonia was trying to kill my son. So I killed him first. OK, if anybody is actually reading along, I'm going to end this experiment here. I think I've learned a little bit about chronicling. In particular, this has been too haphazard and too dry. To do something about the haphazardness, I think I'm going to incorporate the chronicle from the Charlemagne expansion. Maybe that will free me up to be more interesting. Here's an idea of what the chronicle looks like for Matt's reign: King Algot of Uppland died a natural ...

OK, so I'm 12, and I don't have much territory. Not great. Let's start off by getting myself betrothed to a Greek princess. I don't have much in the way of troops (see small territory above), but I can probably afford to hire the smallest company of mercenaries (the Sami band) and take over an adjoining county. The Sami band is hired out right now, though, so I'll wait. I'm 12, I have my whole life in front of me, so I can wait. OK. That worked. Now I have three counties under my control and (in theory) bringing in money and providing troops. I have been avoiding serving my king, since I view that as rightfully mine, but perhaps I need to chill out and play along. Besides, I might be best off taking back the kingdom of Sweden rather than Noridake. So now I'm Chancellor of Noridake. I am saving up some money for another war, and waiting out my truce with the guy I took the last county from, when Count Rolf gets snippy with me. I try to throw him in ...

I'm not sure what to do with this guy. I don't have that long to ponder it.

So, who is Duke Niklas, I hear you ask? Well, we are nothing if not about the family history, so let's take a look. He is the 28-year-old son of Count Bror of Finland (1177-1227) and Marta Ostendotter (1201-1219), Bror's third wife (of four). He has five older half-sisters, no brothers. Bror was the son of King Peter . So, my dynasty started Stenkil-Inge-Boris I-Peter-Boris II-Saga-Iliana. We are now backing up to the line of Peter, with his nephew Niklas (Saga's first cousin, the late Iliana's first cousin once removed.) This is who were are depending on to reclaim the throne. He is married to the 33-year-old Duchess Elin, and they have three kids, Bror (9), Elin (5) and Lars (3). I am a Duke four times over, holding the Duchies of Uppland, Finland, Ostergotland and Halsingland. Bror is going to inherit two, and Lars two. This is the problem with gavelkind succession. I am currently at war with the Teutonic Order, and losing. Since I started it, ...