MacDidz: The Scottish Blog

[Didz]

Summer 1105

Wallace reports from the West Country that the Earl of Shrewsbury has raised and equipped 120 armoured swordsmen and a company of long bowmen to his cause. Wallace was unable to be sure of the exact number of bowmen but plans to infiltrate their camp and will send another report as soon as he is able.

Meanwhile, the Scottish fleet patrolling the channel have driven off a fleet of 150 English cogs which it believes were planning transport an English Army of 1,300 men across the straits of Dover to London.

Petair is ordered leave Bruges and move south to report on the strength and dispositions of the English between Bruges and Caen.

Winter 1105

A guild of swordsmith's approaches Edward and is granted a Royal Charter to establish themselves in Nottingham.

Merchant captains returning from the Moroccan coast report that the King of Portugal has declared a holy war against the Moors and that his armies are already crossing the Gibraltar straits into Africa. Edward is not sure if this is good news or bad. A war between the Moors and Portugal might distract the Moors from any interference in Scottish trade but at the same time Portugal might become a more aggressive competitor for that trade than the Muslims and much more awkward to handle if force became necessary.

On the other hand, if the King of Portugal can be persuaded into an alliance then perhaps Scottish ambitions in North Africa can be bolder and more in tune with the aspirations of the council of nobles.

Petair reports that he has successfully gained entrance to the City of Caen, and can confirm that this is the last city still in English hands. It appears that the French beat the English to Rheims.

The English are ruled by King Robert, a monarch with little battle experience but a reputation as a noble and religious ruler.

Petair was unable to discover any vices associated with either him or his son Prince Godfrey.

It appears that King Robert is more concerned with the threat of potential French aggression than he is with invading the United Kingdom. However, he does have a large army commanded by Nigel Basset camped outside the city.

This army represents the best of the troops which the City of Caen is able to provide.

Edward viewed the report with interest, concluding that King Robert and his English refugee's were no longer a major threat and could be left to the mercies of the French. Petair is order to keep a watching brief on them and to report any change in their circumstances.

Summer 1106

The Abbey Church completed in London and dedicated to St. Andrew. The Pope sends Edward his thanks and appreciation for dedication of another house of god. (Pope-o-Meter Rating 8/10). The upgraded defences to Caenarvon Castle are also completed.

Wallace reports that he has managed to infiltrate the rebel camp of the Earl of Shrewsbury and can confirm that his army consists of 120 Armoured Swordsmen and 120 Long bowmen. Edward plans to march on the West Country as soon the feudal knights from Edinburgh arrive in London.

Edward appoints MakMartane as Constable of Carnarvon Castle ensuring that he is kept as far away from Edmund his adopted father as possible, and placing him in a position where his future dispatch to North Africa will seem a perfectly logical decision.

[Didz]

Winter 1106

News reaches London that an English fleet is lurking off the coast of Brittany and attempting to prey upon Scottish merchant fleets rounding Ushant. A fleet of cogs carrying the merchant Domongart Broune to Africa has already been forced to flee back up the channel to avoid interception. The Channel Fleet has put to sea to deal with the threat.

Edward also commissioned a line of beacons and watchtowers along the south coast from Kent to Penzance to watch the sea and report the movements of hostile shipping in the channel and around the Cornish Peninsula.

Angus Stewart reports from Paris that he has spoken with the French, but that they are reluctant to attack the English domains in Normandy at this present time. It appears that the war with Spain is not going well for the French. Bordeaux has recently fallen into Spanish hands and King Phillipe is unwilling to start another war under such circumstances.

Edward is unable to offer any assistance to his French allies at the moment as his treasury is already overstretched with preparations for the defence of the realm and the colonisation of Africa. Even work on the improved defences of Edinburgh has had to be delayed by a year due to shortage of cash.

Summer 1107

The English fleet commanded by Admiral Simon foolishly pursues the trade fleet carrying Domongart Broune up the channel and runs straight into the Dougall's Channel Fleet moving to intercept it. The English are complely overwhelmed and forced to flee westward enabling the Scottish trade fleet to round Ushant unopposed and continue on its journey to Morrocco.



Makmartane reaches Nottingham en-route to take up his new appointment at Caenarvon and stops off in the city to have the weapons of his bodyguard replaced by the swordsmith's guild.

A new fleet of trade ships is commissioned in Edinburgh and sails via the Shetlands for the Bristol Channel. The first of the old cogs are decommissioned to be replaced by these stronger and faster Holks.
Winter 1107

The newly built watch tower at Penzance immediately sights the remnants of Admiral Simon’s English Fleet off Lizard Point. Whilst, the one in Kent reports another small English fleet under Admiral Humphrey trying to slip down the Channel from the East. The Channel fleet pounces on Humphreys fleet and chases it down the Channel inflicting heavy losses.

[Didz]

The Battle of Shrewsbury 1107 AD
Makmartane marches from Nottingham with an army to deal with the Earl of Shrewsbury’s rebels in the West Country.

Deploying his archers on a low ridge overlooking the rebel camp Makmartane orders his knights to move around the enemy and position themselves on both flanks, whilst he and his bodyguard move to block any escape to the West.

Seeing Makmartane and his bodyguard moving past his left flank towards his rear the Earl directs his longbowmen to close on them and try and bring down the Scottish nobleman.

However, this was a poor decision. As the Welsh longbowmen rushed to close to within range of the Scottish knights they allowed a wide gap to develop between themselves and the armoured swordsmen and Makmartane was not about to ignore that sort of opportunity.

Suddenly Makmartine and his bodyguard swung left and instead of heading across the longbowmens front they began bearing down on them directly. The Welshmen skidded to a halt and loosed a hasty volley of arrows which brought down two of the Scottish knights, then Makmartane and his retinue were upon them and cutting them down with their newly improved swords. Fifty seven were cut down and the rest threw down their weapons and surrendered.

Meanwhile instead of trying to aid his Longbowmen Shrewsbury and his armoured swordsmen had decided to try and drive Makmartanes archers from the ridge above them. This action was predictably futile, as in their heavy mail the swordsman had no hope at all of catching the nimble peasant archers and merely ended up chasing them around the ridge until Makmartane and his knights finished dealing with the longbowmen and returned to finish them off with a well timed charge.


The Earl of Shrewsbury is ridden down and killed during the pursuit.



Makmartane gains +1 Dread and +1 Loyalty as a result of this battle.

[Didz]

Summer 1108:

We cannot trust the Portugeuse
Patrick MacDougall our ambassador to Rome reports that he has met with his opposite number from the Kingdom of Portugal.

MacDougall was successful in negotiating rights of trade with the Portuguese but was unable to gain agreement for anything more. In his opinion the Portuguese are not to be trusted, they are allied with Spain and thus by association friends with the English and enemies of our allies the French. Their armies are said to be strong but their treasury is meagre and currently they only govern four cities.

What God Provides
A papal messenger arrives in London bearing word of his Holiness' distress at the continued hostility between the Scots and their English brothers in Christ. The messenger expressed the Popes urgent desire that all hostilities should cease immediately. Edward expressed his own desire for peace, stating that whilst the war against the English had been a holy one led by God himself and aided by Saint Andrew, that war had acheived its aims, and he had no reason to continue it now that Scotland had freed the English from their Norman oppressors.

However, he went on to point out that the Robert the King of the Normans seemed unwilling to accept the will of God. Even now his ships were stalking innocent Scottish tradesmen going about their lawful business on the high sea's. Such actions were not those of a Christian King, but of a pagan pirate and if peace was to be sustained these pirates must first be scourged from the sea.

As a dutifull Christian he would do nothing to seek further quarrel with King Robert, but if God were to provide him with an opportunity to rid the world of the pirates sailing under his banner then who could claim that he was wrong to carry out God's will.

And God did provide. A few days later Petair reported that 22 ships commanded by the English Admiral Simon were boarding an English Army of 1,300 men from the coast of Normandy.

A detachment from the Channel fleet caught Admiral Simon trying to put to sea and completely destroyed his fleet drowning the entire English Army in the channel, whilst the remainder of the fleet closed with the remants of Admiral Humphreys fleet and destoyed it off the coast of Cornwall.


Edward sent word to the Pope. "God offerred me a chance to acheive peace, and I accepted it as a grateful servant of the Lord."

With every known English Fleet destroyed and their military strength greatly reduced Edward truly beleives that there is now a chance for peace with the English. [Pope-o-Meter rating dropped from 8/10 to 6/10] What Edward did not realise as he sealed his message to the Pope was that God and the Pope were about to conspire together to deal him a joker from the bottom of the pack which could make war with the English seem like a blessing by comparison.

[Didz]

Summer 1108: For Saints and for Sinners

Edward was aware that there was a problem amongst the Christian community in his Kingdom. Ever since the Battle of Nottingham there had been a growing unorthodox belief in the special status that the people of the United Kingdom held in the favour of the Lord. Edward was not unsympathetic to this view himself and had perhaps unwisely intimated as much to the Pope on several occasions.

However, things began to take a more serious path soon after Edward paid-off the Irish and Welsh mercenaries and sent them home.

These men returned home rich with gold from their conquests and stories of Gods intervention in their victory. For most of these men the stories were just a good way of becoming the centre of attention in the local tavern, and impressing the wenches. Over time the stories were embellished and improved upon to keep them fresh and exciting.

But for a select few, who were unwilling to labour for their living, not skilled enough to become tradesmen, or too foolish to use their fortune wisely, the stories became the basis of their personal survival. They quickly found that the stories tied in perfectly with the growing belief in Gods special relationship with the people of the United Kingdom, and that by preaching these stories they could attract both money and personal favours from a growing flock of believers.

Thus, stories began to grow that Christ was born in Scotland , that Jerusalem was founded in England’s green and pleasant land. That the Holy Lamb of God was first seen on the hills of Wales, and the Holy Ghost walked freely across the bogs of Ireland. The people of the United Kingdom were Gods chosen, especialliy blessed and destined to inheret the Kingdom of Heaven and those of other nations merely servants and inherently inferior.

The most well known preacher of this new belief was Mataad Nevell a Scotsman from Inverness who had managed to convert 30% of the population of Northern Scotland by his teachings. But there were at least two others known as Primus and Isaac.

Belief in these new teachings was highest in the Scotland, Ireland and Wales where the message was readily accepted by those who had fought and profited from the war with England. Understandably, it gained much less support amongst the English of London and Nottingham who it was said had fallen from Gods grace by allowing a Norman to take their throne.

Inverness = 30% Heretic
Edinburgh = 24% Heretic
York = 24% Heretic
Wales = 22% Heretic
Dublin = 17% Heretic
London = 1% Heretic
Nottingham = 0% Heretic

Edward considered such belief’s harmless, if not actually beneficial to Kingdoms spiritual well-being, he may even have agreed with some of the preaching’s of these new prophets, which after all supported his own view that God favoured his destiny.

But the Pope was not so tolerant, it was Edward's brother Edmund who first sent warning to London that Domencius Boctarius, a Papal inquisitor, had arrived in Edinburgh intent on routing out the source of these heretical belief’s and restoring the Kingdom to the true word of God.

Edward responded to this news with alarm, now was not the time to explore questions of theology, now was the time for unquestioning conformance. He immediately suggested to Edmund that this would be a good time to visit the swordsmiths guild in Nottingham to upgrade his weaponry, whilst at the same time instructing the priests of the Scottish church to demonstrate their own enthusiasm to assist the Papal agents as far as they are able.

Scotland quickly became emptied of nobility and full of priests.

[Didz]

Summer 1108 - Summer 1110: Good Christians All
Over the next 2 years Edward set about proving to the world what good Christians, he and his people were.

New churches were built in Inverness and Dublin prompting approving messages from the Pope [Pope-o-meter rating raised from 6/10 to 7/10] and the Scottish priests busied themselves following in the wake of their heretic rivals trying to counter their teachings.

However, attempts to actually denounce the heretics all failed miserably. Even Domencius and his inquisitors seemed incapable of denouncing their teachings which did nothing to help the position of the Catholic Church in Scotland at all.

If anything the influence of heretic’s like Primus actually grew as a result of their repeated examination and release by the inquisition.

Primus, a huge highlander with a massive bushy beard, who liked to wear a wimple and a black robe, like an oversized hairy nun, was actually arrested three times by the inquisition, but on each occasion Domencius questioned him and then ordered him released.

Eyewitnesses to these examinations claimed that Primus answered each of question put to him with a long, passionate speech which due to his strong accent was completely unintelligible even to fellow Scots and which the inquisitor could not possibly have understood.

Nevertheless, the Italian priest had refused to listen to any translation offered and instead had released Primus on the grounds that he had heard him utter no blasphemy.

Frustrated by the lack of progress Edward called a council at Nottingham, which remained the only untainted area of true Catholicism in the Kingdom.

“This is nothing but a farce,” he railed “this inquisition is supposed to be here to cleanse our land of heretic’s not increase their credibility. Does anyone understand what this inquisition is trying to do?”

“Nobody understands the Scottish Inquisition.” Replied Edmund “This Domencius seems unable prove anything against Primus, and now we hear from our Brother David in Ireland that Mataad Nevell has surfaced over there. We will be seeing inquisitors in Ireland next. At this rate we will never be rid of them.”

“Aye! In the meantime the English and Danes grow bolder every month, religious unrest disrupts our tax income, and the Jews abandon our markets for safer places.

Our treasury is suffering and without money we can neither build churches nor ships. We lost two years on the upgrades I ordered to the defences for Edinburgh and we are still no closer to colonising Africa now than we were when this inquisitor arrived.

If that were not enough, Wallace tells me that there is an English army camping outside Bristol and a Danish army south of the Thames.


Whilst we sit here with our hands bound by papal edicts waiting for an inept priest to get around to burning a ‘hairy nun’ our Kingdom suffers. Well my patience is done, we shall leave this Papal clown to his games and concentrate on our African trade. What little money we receive will be spent where it is needed on ships, mines and markets. If God wants churches he can first rid us of this pestilence.”

The council felt that it was time to finish matters with the English once and for all recommending that Edward ignore the Papal edict and lay seige to Caen. Their advice was noted but Edward refused to commit to such a bold plan.

Summer 1109 Bad Timing for Lovers
The kings daughter Mariot came of age this summer and Edward was approached by the noble knight called MacBethad for permission to marry her.

The timing of this request was bad, the King was troubled by more pressing concerns and rejected his daughters suitor. Instead he resolved that his daughter must be sent to Europe in the hope of improving the Kingdoms relationship with one of the Iberian Princes. Mariott was packed onto a ship from the channel fleet and landed at Bruges to begin her journey south to an uncertain future.

Edmunds son Cathal also came of age, at this time and Edward appointed him Constable of the Tower of London and Duke of Kent.


Patrick Stewart the Kings man in Rome reported that Emperor Henry, The Holy Roman Emperor had been excommunicated by the Pope, which would probably reflect badly on their allies the Spanish.


Edwards own alliances with the French and Sicilians were meanwhile growing stronger

[Razor1952]

Great stuff MacDidz.

MTW2 I think really lends itself to rp immersion much more than rtw or civ4. Both those had specific strategies peculiar to that game set up, MTW2 IMHO has a much more logical strategy setup, which means your blog reads like real history.

I await further installments.