Building a Legacy, Part III: The 2 Worlds of Leon (1075-1082)

Hello, and welcome to yet another part of my AAR! Sorry it was so late, I got some DLC and I wanted to get used to them before continuing the series.

Obligatory World Map here, since I'm going to explore it later on.

Also, I lost a little bit of progress, so that's why this picture is in 1084 instead of 1085. Nothing major.

Alfonso's troops finally arrive home after years of being in a strange land. Instead of standing down, his troops were ordered to stay in Leon while they recovered, as he planned another war.

Brief interlude while Alfonso regains his army, so here's a map of trade zones. Galicia is advancing quickly, and without any competition is one of the most powerful trading empires in the world.

If you didn't notice it while I was showing the world, but England is revolting. The revolts fails to pick up some key members, though. I expect it to be a much fairer fight than what usually happens when Norway conquers England.

Also Byzantium is doing what they do best, which is constantly fight each other while being eaten up by the Seljuks.

Pedro, the former Chancellor, reaches out to Alfonso in the hopes of having better living conditions. Unfortunately, it fell in the hands of Urraca, who was recently released from prison under the request of Alfonso's Uncle, Nuñez. After learning this, he moved Pedro into the Oubliette, and tried to arrest Urraca, although under Leonese law you were not allowed to be imprisoned twice.

Urraca now wants to kill Alfonso. Literally nobody is doing anything about it because why not. Alfonso muttered in a corner about how he'll get back at Nuñez for making him release her.

King Sancho sends a letter to his cousin about how the reconquista has been declared, despite only gathering 1 other country to fight. Although he wouldn't admit it, Sancho was slowly losing his sanity, and believed that the 2 alone could beat the Arabs.

Alfonso is enticed to hold onto the deal because of the target, the Aftasids, who had fought Alfonso time and time again over Portugal. Granted, this is my first Reconquista and I have no clue who the territory is going to, but it might be good for Alfonso.

Alfonso shuts the gates of his castle due to the outbreak of Camp Fever in Asturias (obscured in this screenshot.) The Fever would ultimately never reach Leon, but Alfonso swore to everyone that when he left the castle there was dead bodies everywhere. Nobody had the guts to tell him that it was because they had hoarded all the food and then a famine hit.

Alfonso then commissioned a painting about his father that actually barely mentioned his father but instead was all about him. It showed him wielding a sword with daggers coming out of the sides, which he used to stab both of his brothers, while the sword itself gleamed in the sky. At the bottom there was a small inscription:

Ferdinandus cognomine Magno, postquam mortuus est in terram suam, et filios suos Scinditur, sed solum in finem iustus Alfonsus præerant.

Alfonso was very happy with the results, so happy that he refused to let any of his family members see the painting. It was later hung up after the death of his Uncle and Sister.

The first seiges of the Reconquista began, as thousands woke to see the Leonese flag assaulting the castle. While most were exited, few tried to help the troops, and instead mostly waited for the gates to fall.

The walls of Bragança finally fall down, and with it thousands of cheering populace. The had forgiven Alfonso for his losses at the 3rd War of Portugal, for now he had truly freed his populace. Many of the citizens moved into Leon, knowing that the area would not be reclaimed in this war.

Alfonso's commanders then moved down to Guarda while the Aragonese were being incompetent (you can't even see them on screen) and once again mass exodus from the city to Leon began.

Alfonso had an affair at some point in his marriage with Matilda and for some reason they're now lovers? Anyways Elvira is pregnant.

Alfonso had been at the battlefield in Bragança sieging down the revenants of resistance when King Sancho himself informed him that They were heading to the South.

"And what will be done with the infidels in Zaragoza? My entire army alone cannot take on such a force." Alfonso got a messenger to send this message to him, as he was currently in person. Sancho answered in person.

"The people in Zaragoza are some of the strangest people I've ever known, they almost treat me like an unhappy god." Sancho answered, with almost certainty that he had won Alfonso over. "They say, 'we are currently having a famine, please come and do something about it.' I can't make it so that the rain will fall and crops will grow, so I eat in my house in peace until it ends."

Alfonso was beginning to regret fighting in this war.

As expected, Aragon's army was massacred trying to go south, while Alfonso was glad that he managed to retract his troops in time. The rest of the fighting would be long, tedious, and have no real meaning, which led to riots in the streets of Aragon. Alfonso barely managed to keep his empire free from revolt, mostly due to his tactic of blaming everything on Urraca.

Indeed, less than a year later all of the Spaniards' progress was removed, with the castle of Bragança finally falling after heavy resistance from the few that stayed in the city. The war would go on for years, with nobody

The next year was fairly uneventful for Alfonso, while he stayed his entire army in his capital and claimed he was helping with the war until he received news that his son was dead.

Fosco di Canossa managed to rule most of Italy, and yet he still died at age 6. The funeral was even more packed than Matilda's, and there was an extremely awkward moment when Alfonso (finally learning Italian) met Fosco's actual father. Never the less, Fosco's regent listed Alfonso as his heir.

The extent of Leon, 1080. While at one point he was just a rising power whose kids might be of interest, almost everyone in Europe now saw Alfonso as one of the biggest players on the world stage. However, Alfonso struggled to keep it together.

There were 2 worlds of Leon, and they were both ruled by the same guy. Leon was a Spanish Kingdom that hated the Arabs and were forged by fire, meanwhile Tuscany was an Italian Duchy descended from the Romans who didn't really care all that much about infidels. Almost every single one of Alfonso's vassals wanted independence, and basically ruled that way. If you went there you would have no clue that it was a part of Leon.

I breathed a sigh of relief myself, since I knew that if I died I would become a vassal of the HRE, and be subject to constant wars with France.

Ferdinando finally reached my court, so I decided to legitimize him, replacing Elvira's daughter (who I legitimized as you could see last screenshot) as the rightful heir of Leon. I just wished that Fosco had died sooner; you can't rename children unless they're in your court and under 11, so we're stuck with Ferdinando's stupid name.

The reconquista was a massive failure. It wasn't even entertaining. And nobody knew why. The commoners blamed Sancho. Sancho blamed Alfonso. Alfonso said something about Urraca. Urraca blamed the commoners and suggested that a mass execution of all of them should be ordered.

Urraca's idea was not very popular.

Alfonso finally goes about doing the thing I'd say he'd do halfway through the episode. If you haven't noticed, I don't film these ahead of time in order to conserve space on my computer.

Vela Jimena and his ally, Ramon de Barcelona, rushed to fight the claimant of one of Urraca's kids. Urraca was pleased that she would get a legacy to be remembered other than that one woman the Alfonso really didn't like, and Alfonso was pleased that Urraca would no longer be able to raise her kids.

The first battle proved that the Navarrese were thoroughly unprepared for the conflict. After all, how could a fellow Jimena attack them? They sent all of their troops to fight, and despite being outnumbered Alfonso tips the odds in his favor.

Alfonso, despite his age, led his armies and sat at the front, when a nationalistic 18 year-old tried to attack him. Alfonso decided to duel the mere child, because how much damage would it do?

The outcome of that battle was cut short by on elf his troops bringing a spear directly through the child's chest. He then declared that the battle had been one, and there were no enemies in sight. Alfonso was mildly pleased, but he wanted to duel that kid.

Another battle then commenced just south with the survivors, which were mostly cowards who ran away from the 1st battle before it got serious. People from all over Leon were fighting for their country, much to the dismay of Italy.

Due to a lack of coordination between Navarra and Barcelona, the 4,000 strong combined army was reduced to barely 2,000. After this battle, Alfonso and his council saw that it was time to begin sieging down Navarra.

Somehow I managed to accidentally marry Alfonso's lover, because if I didn't then I wouldn't've legitimized my son. That son is probably gonna have a hunting accident when Ferdinand gets older.

The siege of Navarra has gone very good as of late, so the Navarrese troops decided on more sinister tactics.

The people of Castille and Leon, having not seen any conflict besides the battle of Soria, woke up to find out that troops were destroying the walls of Osma. The people there, having lived a life of (relative) luxury beforehand, died by the masses, unable to cope with the worsening conditions.

The Barcelonans too sieged down Castille, this time in Burgos. Burgos was a part of Alfonso's defense, and seeing it being destroyed was one step too far for Alfonso. He told his troops to march over to Burgos as soon as the siege of Navarra was finished, and also tried several risky tactics to speed the siege.

Miraculously, the siege of Burgos finished on its own, with no Barcelonan troops in sight! Of course, the generals didn't know this until they arrived, and by the time they arrived there it would be faster to just go attack Osma.

The rest of the campaign was mostly just Leon easily outnumbering Navarra or Barcelona in a fight and then beating them, but just after Christmas 1081 Alfonso finally heard the news that he had been looking forward to so much. Vela's regent was willing to surrender. All this fighting was not for nothing.

A view of the new king. He had a relation to Navarra via his father's side, who also happened to be a Jimena. I'm pretty sure that Urraca was his cousin's kid and at that point the game doesn't track that as incest, but still.

And that is where the part will end! Who knows what will happen next part. Will Alfonso attack France, who has also begun to take interest in Iberia? Will he convert to Norse and restore the true faith? Will he die within 2 months and have the rest of the part done by Ferdinando? Will he do nothing? I have no clue!