The Eighth of the After Action Reports (AAR) following my direction of the Irish Empire, tracing the dynasty of the Briain dynasty through the Middle Ages. The previous AARs can be found here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7.

With the demise of High King Scellan, his daughter High Queen Fortunata takes to the Irish throne. Blessed with beauty and with a public perception of piety and chastity, she is widely adored by her subjects.

However, the truth is somewhat different. She is a sadistic torturer with a bent for murdering vassals and subjects who get in her way. Of course, all of this murdering and torturing happens in the darkest dungeons of the realm, and are hidden away from public knowledge... thus preserving her public image as the beautiful and pious leader of the Irish empire.

That includes the occasional accidental hunting death of random vassals and servants to slake her desire for power and fear over her inner circle.

... and it turns out that some of these darker arts of realm-building might be needed sooner than expected. The Irish Kingdom follows the Cathar faith, which emphasises the equal ability of men and women in all aspects of life, including the leadership of the realm. As such, the Irish Empire has instituted the law of equality when it comes to hierarchal succession.

Unfortunately, Queen Fortunata was married under a paternal (non-matrilineal) contract. This means that her husband and children, who are the direct heirs of the Irish throne, belong to a different dynasty than the Briann. If Queen Fortunata passes away, the Briann dynasty will lose hold of the Irish throne and pass away into obscurity.

This can not be allowed to pass, so the first acts of Queen Fortunata will be to secure the dynastic possession of the Irish Crown.

... so, a murder plot is immediately begun against her husband. The chances of succeeding and the plot staying secret are not ideal, but what needs to be done must be done. The dynasty MUST survive!

The first of the murder options was to poison some gifts for the King... a plan hatched by the spymaster of the court. This should result in the slow poisoning of the King, hopefully allowing for the accidental-looking death and keeping a degree of deniability if it was done carefully over time.

Unfortunately, the Queen's son helped to pack the gift for his father... and the wrong target is poisoned. The son is crippled, but survives... an accidental bit of collateral damage in the pursuit of the survival of the dynasty.

Meanwhile, the public image of the Queen needs to be maintained. There are suitors that crave her attention, attracted by her beautiful visage and noble bearing... however, Fortunata rejects her admirers, to preserve her public image of piety... and to spare more time to pursue her real goal securing the dynastic succession.

The plot to murder the king continues with the formation of a communication network to co-ordinate the various agents involved. A pigeon courier network is formed in preparation for the next stage....

External threats don't wait for the internal plots to be resolved though... There are small claims against the Irish throne, and the Kingdom is too much in debt to fight external wars. The treasury must be replenished before an extended war can be fought.

Thankfully, most of the claims are from the owners of faraway counties in the Scandinavian and Mediterranean holdings of the Kingdom. These counties were often won as the side-effect of more substantial claims on the Britannian Isles.

As such, they are not worth defending... and the Queen Fortunata lets them leave the Irish Kingdom without challenging the wars. There will be a time and place to reclaim these lands, but for the moment... they are acceptable losses to the Irish Kingdom and not core to the survival of the Empire.

Meanwhile, the critical murder plot proceeds further with the discovery of secret tunnels in the ancestral castle walls. This should allow for the easy passage of assassins who could dispose of the High King... of course, these assassins would need to be dealt with afterwards to preserve perfect secrecy. Perhaps a collapsing of the tunnels as they were escaping would serve the purpose in addition to sealing up the defences of the castle.

The plot is all ready to be executed... when suddenly, the High King dies of natural causes! Truly, Fortunata is blessed by the Gods themselves!

It also leaves open the position of spouse to the Queen... a position that will be filled by a new breeding stallion. After careful consideration of bloodlines, a suitable male was chosen with inheritable traits that would help bolster the Briann bloodline and bless it with the traits of Beauty and Intelligence.... this time, the marriage is Matrilineal... ensuring no further complications with succession from the new husband.

Unfortunately, it appears that the demise of the former husband didn't change the problem of Succession. The eldest child of that union became the primary heir... and they didn't belong to the House Briann as they were born in a Patriarchal succession contract. The High Queen Fortunata considers the murdering of all of her children from that marriage... but that would mean that 4 children would need to be disposed of... and it would be too likely that this act of mass murder and infanticide would be discovered.

So, a different solution would have to be found. The first step was to pass a new law on the succession of the Irish throne, changing the succession law to that of House Seniority. This would ensure that the Irish crown would remain in the Briann dynasty... even if it didn't pass from mother to child. This would be an adequate temporary solution....

On the external front, the North African and Italian holdings of the Irish empire had settled down... free from challenges and rebellions. However, the Scandinavian counties were lost.

The never ending rivalry and warring between Ireland and the Danelaw kingdoms continued... with the eventual goal of kicking the Catholic Danelaw out of Britannia so that the Isles could be united under the Cathar Irish banner.

Needless to say, the centuries long goal that had preoccupied the Briann dynasty since it's founding was starting to come to a conclusion. The Danelaw were losing ground with every generation... and nothing short of the combined might of the Catholic world would change this slow retreat.

Meanwhile, the amending of vassal contracts to include Forced Partition which began in High King Scellan's reign continued apace. This Forced Partition contract would ensure that powerful vassals would have their holdings divided and split equally amongst their children upon their death... hopefully diluting their power.

High Queen Fortunata's second husband passes away... she isn't really bothered, and in fact is slightly happier for that fact! He was only a breeding stud after all....

The Danelaw continue to lose ground as new claimants come to the Irish court to present their grievances against their former liege. Queen Fortunata is only too happy to press their claims with steel and every few years, another chunk is taken from the Danelaw to be incorporated into the Irish Kingdom.

With each new vassal, they are first obliged to submit to Forced Partition as payment for pressing their claims.

Reaching the height of her power and influence with her vassals and high nobles, Queen Fortunata is now able to push through important changes to the laws of succession. The discovery of Primogeniture by the Irish culture allows the Primogeniture Succession law to be passed for the Irish throne. This law would replace the Dynastic Succession law.

This law means that ALL holdings are passed to a single heir... with no division and no loss of titles upon succession. This will allow the next heir to retain all the complete power of the throne instead of beginning with a diluted number of titles. However, this will displease most of the realm and other potential heirs.

The second important change was to designate the next Heir. By replacing the Dynastic Succession Law, the primary heir had reverted back to a non-Briann. By instituting Absolute Crown Authority over the objections over vassals, High Queen Fortunata was able to designate her chosen heir. This would be her eldest Briann dynasty child, and would dispossess the children from her first marriage.

The Absolute Crown Authority and the replacement of the primary heir were unpopular moves, and would likely cause later problems for her heir. However, the task of securing the succession of the Irish throne to the Briann dynasty and the centralisation of power to a single heir would mean that the Briann dynasty would emerge stronger with each generation.

Sadly, the rebellion of the vassals came faster than expected... with their main grievance being the law of Absolute Crown Authority. Many of the most powerful nobles joined the rebellion, and it was clear that the Crown Authority would have to be reduced or the rebellion would be too powerful.

After designating a new heir, there was no further need to hold on to Absolute Crown Authority. High Queen Fortunata immediately caved to the demands of the nobles and reduced the authority of the Irish Crown, returning some degree of control and autonomy back to the vassals. Satisfied, the potential rebellion dissipated as quickly as it had formed.

In order to unite her subjects again, another war was declared against the Danelaw. This time, with quite a large number of counties and Earldoms being claimed.

The new war had the desired effect of uniting the Irish nobles against a common generational enemy, and the Danelaw were roundly defeated and humiliated again.

The unification of the Isles was well within the grasp of High Queen Fortunata! A remarkable reign, the long term securing of power for the Briann dynasty under Primogeniture AND the possible unification of the Isles!

However, things were not to be... on an innocuous hunt for a rampaging stag, an unfortunate accident occurred.

The High Queen suffered a serious wound in the hunt, which adversely affected her health. In her now advanced years, such a wound would prove difficult to live with... plus, the fact that no competent physician was found to fill the role of Court Physician... the outcome was looking grim.

As expected, she soon was overcome by her hunting wound, and would be succeeded by her daughter, the High Queen Brigid. The High Queen Fortunata will be remembered for securing the dynasty of the Briann at all costs... and for enacting the law of Primogeniture which would form the basis of power for her daughter to attempt to reunite the Isles of Britannia under the Irish Cathar banner.

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