Chronicle of the Northumbrians

I wrote this about my first MTW campaign (a few weeks ago) - a VI campaign as the Northumbrians. I've tried to put in some backstory to explain such things as secret perversion vices (PG-13 content here) and my decision to whack a low-acumen king and his even worse heir. More or less inspired by Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle style, this is more written as historical narrative than in storytelling fashion. It's pretty long but here goes - let me know your thoughts

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In the year of our Lord 904, to the glory of the Lord and his anointed chosen king of these fair isles, Aethelred II, the Bretwealda, I, Brother Rufus of Lindisfarne, their most humble servant, offer here the chronicles of the Northumbrians, whom God chose to smite the menacing Norsemen and build a new Kingdom of the British Realm.

Our forefathers' days in these islands began after Rome's fall. Some of the British chieftains knew our forefathers in Germannia and called out to them for help in the chaotic days that followed Rome's departure, although our ancestors still worshipped the old pagan gods. Others among the Britons resented any outside aid and saw our fathers as invaders. Fair Britannia and Hibernia, as the Romans called these lands, remained in turmoil for centuries.

Over time our forefathers established kingdoms in the middle and south of Britain, with Briton princes ruling to the west (these came to be known as Welsh), the Picts and Scots to the north and the Scots and Irish on the western isle. Through His vessels the British missionaries, the Lord revealed himself to our ancestors, who converted to the worship of the Lord during this time as they established the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex.

In the 8th century after the birth of our Lord, the holy men of Northumbria produced and preserved great works of learning. But this time of glory was soon cut short. In 793, the pagan Northmen ravaged the Lindisfarne Abbey. They sacked it, destroyed God's Church, looted its gold, and tortured and murdered His servants. Some say the Norsemen attackers were as tall as trees, breathed fire and rode terrible dragons in the skies and serpents from the seas. This horror was only to be repeated at holy places and villages throughout Britain and Ireland - the Norsemen showed neither mercy nor restraint.

King Aethelred of Northumbria was outraged and vowed not only to avenge this disgrace but to ensure peace on our shores forevermore. Here follow the stories of him and his heirs, for they are the unifiers and saviors of Britain.

AETHELRED I
born 763, acceded 793, died 813

Aethelred was a man of great learning and studied the Gospels and Greek and Roman works at the Irish monasteries. The Norsemen attacked Lindisfarne on only his 12th day as Northumbria's King. He urged those who also faced this threat - the Mercians, the Irish, even the Picts and Scots - to band together with him. When they refused, showing more interest in taking advantage of their neighbors' misfortunes, Aethelred relunctantly concluded that only by uniting Britain under one crown could her people find peace. He knew the Christian civilization of the British Isles was doomed if beset not only by dissension at home but also, now, by pagan invasion from beyond the seas.

Aethelred ordered the Northumbrian lords to farm more land and build more merchant houses and ports - all this to raise money for a great army. In 797 he took the province of Fib from the treacherous Picts and then Moray to the north. After these initial victories, his calls for a united front were more convincing to the other kings. He secured an alliance with the Mercian King Offa in 801 and, with the marriage of his daughter Elfrida to Hywel ap Iorwerth, the Welsh in 804. Northumbria's southern frontier was thus secure. But Aethelred would not live to see further progress - in a winter's journey in the remote Pictish highlands, King Aethelred died in 813 at age 50.

EADULF I
born 780, acceded 813, died 837

Eadulf lacked the education and piety of his father; he was under the training of the monks at Lindisfarne when the abbey was destroyed, and his mentor was slain before the boy's very eyes. These horrors gave him a lifelong hatred of the Norsemen and also robbed him of the temperance one develops from a Church education. His father took him along on the northern campaigns to train him in the ways of war. By spending so much of his youth in military camps, he acquired the qualities of an outstanding commander, superior even to his father, but he also developed a hard edge to his character and a taste for blood. May the Lord have mercy on his soul, as his acts, though violent, helped bring about the peace we enjoy today.

Eadulf had married Edwina of Beornice, daughter of one of his father's vassals, and she bore Eadulf eight children. But Eadulf's skills as a father fell far short of his skills on the battlefield. As his father did for him, Eadulf insisted on his sons accompanying him on campaign. His eldest son and heir, Eardwulf, was only a mediocre commander and had a character too trusting to rule a large kingdom. His second and third sons, Aethelred and Eadulf, were astute young men equally adept on the battlefield or in the halls of government. Elfwald and Redwulf, the King's youngest sons, became two of Northumbria's most ingenious military leaders, leading armies to highland victories with minimal loss of men, despite the fierceness of the terrain and the foes. But their souls were twisted. They witnessed their father's most merciless conquests at a very young age, and so they acquired a reputation for unthinkable brutality. Moreover, their father ran a very strict camp and forbade the presence of women. Little did he know that as a result, Elfwald and Redwulf would take a greater interest in other men than women. After a battle against a Pict warlord, Elfwald and Redwulf chained the warlord and 85 surviving fighters together, marched them to the beach at Cait, herded them onto a ship and let the ship drift out to sea, with the men doomed to a slow death by starvation and exposure. They spared two prisoners - the warlord's young sons, who were forced to serve as Elfwald and Redwulf's personal slaves. Both poor young men eventually killed themselves. Elfwald and Redwulf's brothers despised them but valued their battlefield skills and feared their personal armies too much to cut ties with them.

King Eadulf vanquished the Picts, conquering straight through to the north coast by 820. The Scots, who also dismissed the appeals for unity of King Aethelred, were Eadulf's next target. He took Dal Riada and the Kingdom of Strathclyde, which he renamed Reget. Forced to fight King Eadulf at the same time as the Norse and the Irish, the Scots collapsed. Moreover, the success of King Aethelred and King Eadulf in the north of Britain deterred the Norsemen from further aggression; their longboats terrorized the Irish instead during this time, and they did not attempt to strike further inland on Britain than the province of Skye. Like his father, Eadulf ensured good stewardship of the new northern lands by naming highly capable Northumbrian noblemen to govern them as his vassals. He also continued his father's major building projects, including Beornice Castle - the home and capital of his royal house. King Eadulf choked to death on a meal of venison at age 57.

EARDWULF
Born 796, acceded 837, died 855

Eardwulf succeeded his father at age 41 and expectations were great for his reign after such a long apprenticeship. His greatest military achievement was the expulsion of the Norsemen from Skye, their last beachhead on Britain, in 839. With that victory, Northumbria controlled all of Britain north of the Humber. And the southern border with the Welsh and Mercian allies remained secure. Eardwulf started the development of a great navy with longboats and smaller vessels to secure his realm's long coastline. By the end of his reign about half the coast was protected.

Eardwulf saw no point in further expansion south, at least not until Northumbria's revenues were improved. He focused on farming and building a defensive army.

Eardwulf's queen was his first cousin, Gwenllian of Gwynedd, and their marriage affirmed the alliance with the Welsh. One son, Osbert, was born to them, in 837. As Prince Osbert grew up, it became clear to his uncles and others that he would not be fit to rule. His mind remained at only a child's capacity, and, even more so than his father, he trusted all the nobles of the court without question or suspicion. It was widely assumed that the King's close blood relationship to his Queen was to blame for Osbert's fallacies. Others pointed to Divine retribution for the King's failure to restrain the depravities of his younger brothers.

Although the realm was at peace through most of Eardwulf's rule, his court was not. With no outside enemy to unite against, Eardwulf's four brothers - each a proud man who thought he would make the best King - schemed and plotted against each other and the King in court intrigue, although the rivalries never erupted into full-blown rebellion. When his brothers' meddling would come to light, the King was quick to forgive them. His lack of judgment only worsened as he aged.

After decades of peace and growing prosperity, King Eardwulf in 854 inexplicably decided to invade East Anglia, a Mercian province under rebel control. Some Welsh chroniclers close to the family of the Queen have written that Eardwulf's brother Aethelred lied to him and told him that Viking raids had decimated the rebel forces, and that he soon expected a Mercian invasion that would require the full strength of the Northumbrian army. Aethelred suggested that the King and the Prince go to East Anglia with 40 horsemen - they would easily rout the rebel garrison numbering about a score, and they would then tempt Mercia to direct her invasion east instead of north. Then, Aethelred promised, he would lead the 8,000-strong Northumbrian army south to surprise the Mercians as they were moving to strike at the King and his heir. Eardwulf thought the idea magnificent. The King and the Prince faced not one but 25 score rebel soldiers in East Anglia. Osbert was killed and the King escaped. The Mercian attack failed to materialize. Rather than blame his brother, Eardwulf blamed himself for his son's death and lost his mind with guilt. His madness caused all the nobles to quietly shift their support to Aethelred, should the King be challenged by his brother. His mind addled, Eardwulf insisted on returning to East Anglia the following year. Aethelred and the other nobles refused to provide the necessary forces. Eardwulf faced the rebel army with little more than his personal bodyguards and was slain.

Aethelred would have assumed the throne; but shockingly, he was struck by lightning during a sudden storm on a hunting trip while his brother the King was in East Anglia, leaving the third brother Eadulf to take the crown. The Queen and her Welsh supporters, who never forgot Aethelred's treachery, took satisfaction in the divine justice.

EADULF II
Born 803, acceded 855, died 862.

Eadulf II was a skilled innovator and drove the kingdom's farms and trade routes to maximize their profits. He also completed the Northumbrian navy and surrounded Britain and Ireland with Northumbrian ships. Trade with the Saxons, Welsh, Irish and even the Viking outposts on the Isle of Man and the Orcades keyed an age of true prosperity for Northumbria. Eadulf also anticipated an inevitable conflict to the south, however, either during or after the war between the Mercians and the Saxons that erupted in 857. With the shores secure, Eadulf massed thousands of huscarles, woodsmen, spearmen, archers and horsemen on the southern border. Eadulf died of a stomach ulcer at age 59 and was succeeded by his only son, 22-year-old Egbert.

EGBERT
Born 840, acceded 862, died 892

Under King Egbert, Northumbria became the richest kingdom in the British Isles. To the south, Egbert saw one Mercian province after another fall to the Saxons. He did not want to face a bloodthirsty, powerful Saxon kingdom on his doorstep enriched with Mercian lands. And if Mercia were to fall anyway, Egbert wanted to ensure the Saxons were not the sole beneficiary. Deciding the old alliance with the Mercians had outlived its purpose, Egbert invaded the remaining Mercian provinces starting in 879. He took Wrocen Saeten, Mierce and Lindissi in 880, and Middle Engle and East Anglia in 881. The Mercian kingdom evaporated soon afterward.

Egbert prepared to finish his reign in peace, in a balance of power with the Saxons to the south and the Welsh alliance still apparently strong to the west. Then tragedy struck. In 890, Egbert had blessed the marriage of his daughter Aelfwirda to one of his vassals, Edmund, Duke of Pec Saeten. It was an occasion of great joy at the court, and a rare example of true courtly love in a dark and brutal time, as Aelfwirda and Edmund had fallen in love during Edmund's time as one of the King's aides-de-camp. On her way to Pec Saeten, Aelfwirda and her maidens, and her aunt serving as chaperone, were savagely ambushed and murdered on the road. Scant evidence at the scene suggested Saxon involvement, based on a torn letter with the Saxon seal on it. Some have suggested, however, that some of Egbert's men who were hungry for Saxon lands staged the murder to instigate a war.

A devastated and outraged King Egbert attacked the Saxons at Hwicce, Middel Seaxe and East Seaxe in 891. That same year, the Welsh, who were also at war with the Saxons, shockingly attacked the bereaved Duke Edmund in Pec Seaten. With the local lord devastated and the king distracted to the south, the Welsh sensed an opportunity. Egbert had left the Welsh border lightly guarded because of the alliance and never knew the lingering resentments among the Welsh nobility for the treatment of King Eardwulf's Welsh Queen and his son by Eardwulf's brothers decades earlier.

Egbert then invaded Sumorseat, held by the Welsh, and conquered it in 892. He died of dysentery later that year, at age 52.

AETHELRED II
BRETWEALDA
Born 863, acceded 892

Egbert's son Aethelred was just as determined to avenge his sister's murder. He was perhaps Northumbria's most gifted ruler - a brilliant political and military visionary, manager of finances and even a pious servant of God. His continued his father's campaign against the Saxons, taking Cantware, Suth Seaxe and West Seaxe in 894, extending the realm to the southern channel for the first time. The last Saxon lands fell in 895, and King Harold of the Saxons was slain in Detmar that year. He then turned to the treacherous Welsh, taking all their remaining provinces in 897. Mervyn, Prince of Wales, was killed in the battle of Pouis.

Aethelred built a castle in old Saxon lands at Lundenwic on the River Thames, where he moved the capital to symbolize the dawning of a new era of unity. Aethelred also sought to convey a message of faith and hope to his subjects with his church building efforts, the centerpiece of which was the Beornice Cathedral, the finest in all Christendom for many years. When the King went on a pilgrimage to Rome in 900, the Pope expressed his personal gratitude and sent bishops to fully incorporate the church in Britain to the Roman hierarchy.

Although the island of Britain was secure, Aethelred did not want to be taken by surprise by the Irish or Norsemen as his father was with the Welsh. And new powers were arising on the Continent that were already casting hungry eyes toward Britain - the Normans, the French, the Germans. Moreover, after his pilgrimage, Aethelred felt it his sacred duty to bring all the lands he could into the Roman Catholic fold. The Vikings had continued to worship the pagan gods, and the Irish refused to relinquish their ecclesiastical independence. Aethelred launched a massive invasion of Ireland in 901, attacking all five provinces simultaneously. The Irish folded within three years under his withering assault. The Irish King Donal died during the siege of Brega in 904. Aethelred's armies then made quick work of the Norse outposts on the Isle of Man and Domon.

With all the British Isles under his control, Aethelred was anointed Bretwealda in 904 by the Archbishops of York and Canterbury. Bretwealda was a title dating back before the Viking invasion given to the first among equals of the Anglo-Saxon kings. The Archbishops said the old title would take a new meaning - King of the British Realms - a man who could stand as equal with the monarchs and emperors of the Continent. And who could defend his homeland admirably, should a new menace emerge.