Building a Legacy, Part II: Setbacks (1069-1074)

Welcome back to my AAR!

Here's a map of Europe. The only changes I can find is the destruction of that duchy in the Balkans, and Norway eating up England.

Alfonso was about ready to retire his troops and wait for the war to end, but the King from the first war died, so his son decided to declare war now that the truce was up. Garcia really can't catch a break.

So Alfonso had to keep fighting the armies and wait for the war to end, because for some reason he can't support Garcia in multiple wars.

One of many, many victories in the late stages of the 2nd war of Portugal, and almost the entire army was ready to go home. They almost rose up against the generals and retreated to Salamanca, but a great speech by General Diego allowed the army to just barely stick together. Alfonso rewarded Diego with the title of Marshall afterwards.

Alfonso approached his advisor and sister, Urraca Jimena, about all of his troops disbanding without his request. Urraca said it was someone that Alfonso didn't recognize, Aleteco or something. After asking her who this "Aleteco" was, he accused her of being an infidel and believing in a false god. Of course, the trial was done by Alfonso's advisor as per law, and nothing was done.

tldr; I was stupid and didn't know that you can't declare war on someone while fighting with them, so I disbanded my troops to get ready for war. There's also the 3rd war of Portugal, but I don't notice that for a long time.

Realizing that Galicia would never be at peace, Alfonso gave up and just tried to assassinate Garcia. It worked with his older brother, why not his younger one?

The most important of the people for his plot would be Munio Nolastname, who had a whopping 127% power. Alfonso attempted to sway Munio to try and add him to the plot.

Game, I'm really not sure why you think that Pedro is a bad chancellor, yet you completely ignore my 1 intrigue spymaster.

I also forgot to mention that I raised all of the disease options to max. Prepare for a lot of "X died of the dreaded plague."

Alfonso wins a battle. His people are tired, he's tired, and Alfonso just wants to just be rewarded for his efforts. Shortly thereafter, he is.

Now that the war finally is over, Alfonso gives his troops a much needed rest before the next war that will inevitably happen within a week.

To celebrate the war ending, Garcia and Alfonso both decided to have a banquet at Coruna. Alfonso then receives a message from his co-conspirators that he had completely forgotten about. It was too late to do anything though.

Alfonso bursted into the dining hall of Coruna only to find Garcia collapsed on the ground, dead. Alfonso left the castle, and disappeared for a few months, with nobody knowing where he was. His mother filled in for the time being.

Sancha Jimena was woefully unprepared to take up the position of Queen, but Urraca was busy and Ferdinand had a bit of a succession problem.

Despite this, the aging woman gave order to march her armies over to the newly formed Galician regiment, which was currently under attack.

While the original fight was a failure, once the Leonese reinforcements arrived the 2nd battle was a resounding success. Sancha made the decision to try and unsiege the provinces in Portugal.

oh no

I actually nearly won this fight but for some reason I lost all my morale in 1 day so I had to make up a whole storyline as to why the army was so incompetent

After being gone for 4 months, Alfonso drunkenly showed up to a banquet hall one morning. He made no attempt at answering where he went.

Almost as soon as he arrived, several of his council men accused Chancellor Pedro and Urraca Jimena of conspiring to revoke one of Sancha's duchies, due to her relative incompetency during her brief reign.


Pedro was imprisoned, Sancha resigned, and Urraca got away with it all because the Glory Hounds count her as a "defenseless child" even though she's well into her 30's.

Alfonso's first objective as King was to disband his army and find a court physician. He assumed that since their enemy has constantly losing money they'll have to disband them eventually.

Alfonso, still in denial that he was losing a war, managed to find out that Urraca was having an affair. With the Aleteco incident, the conspiracy, and now this, Alfonso was more than prepared to kill her himself.

Alfonso awoke one morning to find his entire army outside his castle. He knew that the only other person who could have raised the troops was Urraca, and he approached her about this. She disappeared shortly afterwards, and her husband picked up duties as the Count of Zamora and Advisor of Leon.

Alfonso decided that it would be terrible to try and disband the troops after they had just gotten ready, so he sent them down to Badajoz, where they would hopefully be welcomed as liberators.

This of course, turned out disastrous, as it turns out that when you're far away from your home people don't like you that much. Alfonso's army suffered constant attrition in an attempt to reach Badajoz, and once they did they faced a heavy defense from mostly civilians.

On August 2nd, 1071, Alfonso lost the 3rd War of Portugal. Many cited Sancha growing age and lack of wit, and also Alfonso's brief leave, which seemed to change him a bit.

Before Garcia's death he was focused on taking over every bit of land in Iberia, and becoming the greatest King in Europe. After that, however, he seemed more distant, often looking outside the window and just staring at the commoners, maybe in disgust, maybe in admiration, or maybe in just pure apathy. He never told anyone anything anymore, unless it was vital to his country's success, and even then he didn't seem to care much.

Thousands of people died for nothing. The few people that survived the brutal Muslim seiges wondered if Alfonso really was a better ruler than Garcia. After all, at least Garcia kept the Kingdom whole.

After the war ended, Alfonso was tasked with the job of handing out the titles he gained in order to fix his demense. Alfonso recognized that Galicia was no more than a mere section of his country, and decided to give the entire region to Gutierre Nunez, who then proceeded to found a Merchant's republic.

Alfonso, still trying to find purpose, tried to look back at his previous successes. The one difference between the first 2 wars of Portugal and the 3rd was that Alfonso was not the lead attacker. He decided to use this knowledge to help Aragon with a war.

Matilda's pregnant again. It's not Alfonso's child but he never finds out so let's just pretend that he was conceived when Alfonso went missing, okay?

At the capital of the Dhunnunids, Alfonso watches as a greta siege unfolds. This reinvigorates his spirits, and by the end of the week Alfonso officially joins one of his wife's wars.

Meanwhile, a large and bloody battle was being fought in Soria. The populace there, who beforehand had only heard of war, now understood why Alfonso surrendered so early, as entire houses crumbled and civilians deaths climbed.

Toledo falls, and the remainder of Alfonso's army remains too weak to continue to siege. The army soon disbands, but eventually reforms in order to help with another war.

Fosco di Canossa has finally united both Tuscany and Leon, and once both his parents are dead will become quite the powerhouse.

Alfonso decides to celebrate an heir by having a baptism. This nearly bankrupts the entire country because of his poor choice.

Alfonso also has to choose a godparent. One option is count Rodrigo, a powerful vassal that is not currently on the council. Being Fosco's godparent would help strengthen relationships between the 2.

And the other is Luis. He's not even in my court, and I don't have a clue who he is.

Anyways, I chose Luis.

Alfonso suddenly remembers that he has a wife, and that he's fighting in a war with her. He sends out his fleets to sail to Sardinia, and when the sailors were told to sail there the Galician merchants had flashbacks of them being sunk by Genoan ships.

The Leonese army finally arrives at Gallura, although extremely weakened, begin what would become the longest siege in Alfonso's reign so far.

Shut up game, nobody cares about the Iberian Reconquista, Im in the middle of the R I V E T I N G siege of Gallura!

Alfonso joins the war because if he keeps joining Aragon's wars then eventually they'll repay him, right? Unfortunately favors do not work that way yet.

Alfonso's army finishes another siege. Riveting.

After almost a year of nonstop fighting, the riveting siege of Gallura has finished. Alfonso's army returns home swiftly, but not without some upsetting news.

Sancha Jimena, Regent of Leon and brief ruler, is dead. Her funeral was filled with rejoice from the commoners, who despised her for her military failures. Alfonso himself didn't care much, he had given her the title of regent in order to appease her and thought that she would die before she would be needed.

Only a few weeks later, Matilda Di Canossa dies. As a major duchess of the HRE, her funeral was joined by many of the rulers in Germany, including Emperor Henry. Alfonso felt out of place, having never learnt Italian, let alone German.

Fosco was only a year old. Ferdinand was 6.

After the marriage had ended, Alfonso chose to not marry again, since he felt like he already had a legacy for him. There were plans to marry many people, and a betrothal to a Scottish princess actually got signed, but he never ended up marrying again.

Alfonso's troops had been stuck in Sardinia for over a year, and had no way of telling Alfonso they were done. So he just sent one hoping that they were done. Miraculously, they were, and thousands of troops finally got to go home. This would not be the end of Alfonso's aggression, as his target was sent towards a boy who his nephew had a claim on.

Soon.......