List of monarchs III

High Kings of the British

490 - 532: Arthur I (House of Pendragon) [1]
532 - 554: Brittanicus I "The Great" (House of Pendragon) [2]
554 - 589: Aurelius II "The Lame" (House of Pendragon) [3)
589 - 614: Æthelmund I "The Pious" (House of Pendragon) [4]
614 - 647: Coel II (House of Pendragon) [5]
647-661: Maelgwn I "The Unmourned" (House of Pendragon) [6]
661 -675: Arthur II "The Traveller" (House of Pendragon) [7]
675 - 690: Vortigern II (House of Pendragon) [8]

Emperors of the Holy Brythonic Empire

690 - 691: Vortigern I (House of Pendragon) [8]
691 - 736: Rhiannon I "The Liberator" (House of Pendragon) [9]
736 - 758: Pryderi I "The Unifier" (House of Pendragon) [10]
758 - 779: Wledig III (House of Pendragon) [11]
779 - 790: Pryderi II
(House of Pendragon) [12]
790 - 819: Uther II (House of Paladin) [13]
819 - 856: Arthur III “The Rightful” (House of Pendragon-Bloðorn) [14]
856 - 887: Arthur IV “The Far Sighted” (House of Pendragon-Bloðorn)[15]
887 - 890: Brittanicus II "The Just" (House of Pendragon-Bloðorn) [16]
890 - 949: Rhiannon II "The Fairy" or "The Burner" (House of Pendragon-Bloðorn) [17]
949 - 967: Brutus III "The Brythian" (House of Pendragon) [18]
967 - 989: Uther III "The Old"
(House of Pendragon) [19]
989 - 1033: Emrys II (House of Pendragon) [20]


[1] Little accurate information exists about the historical figure we now call Arthur I, due to the scarcity of written records during the 5th and early 6th Centuries in sub-Roman Britain. We will use the accepted names for this figure, his High Castle, and his House. But it is important to know that these are only first recorded decades after the event. The dates are based on the late 6th Century records of Brythonic monk, Gildas of Cor Tewdws.

The records tell us that Arthur was a Silurian tribal chieftain, most likely born in the 460s, who rose to prominence as a war chief at the Battle of Mons Badonicus in 490. At this point the various sub-Roman British kingdoms united under Arthur as a High King to continue a unification to counter the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who'd conquered the eastern portions of the former Roman colony. Arthur established his High Castle at Caerleon, which later came to be known as Camelot.

It is hard to separate legend from fact. We do know that warriors from all the Brythonic petty kingdoms worked with Arthur at the Battle of Mons Badonicus and lesser border wars with the Saxons. We also are certain that a rebellion occurred against the concept of a High King in the 520s by a warrior chieftain from the Old North who claimed to be the bastard of Arthur, who is later assigned the name Mordred. This rebellion failed and afterwards the High Kingdom became more a central governing authority.

Arthur died in 532 in his late 60s or early 70s. His heir is also is shrouded in a mix of legend and sparse historical fact, but the records indicate he was Arthur's Grandnephew and was named Brittanicus.

[2] The true name of the man who later came to be known as Brittanicus I is unknown, with suggestions ranging from his granduncle's name of Arthur to Constantine to Patrick.

Widely thought to have been fictional, he has since been proven to have existed by modern scholars.
Succeeding his Grand-uncle at the young age of 20, he soon began a series of conquest and law making.
He is said to have married a saxon by the name of Rowena, though this too is disputed, with some sources claiming that he married his aunt, Morgana.

He is said to have started his reign with a proclamation of introduction of High-Kingship to Brythia. This was met with lukewarm reception of his subjects, with many of the elder lords remembering the rebellion of 520 and disagreeing with it and most of the younger lords agreeing with the introduction of High-Kingship.

By 534, Brittanicus had consolidated his reign and had set his eyes upon the eastern de jure lands of Brythia which had largely been invaded and thereafter settled in. He declared war, giving the reason of Holy War and Reconquest.
Brythia and Saxona remained in warfare with each other, till 537 or 540, depending on the source, when the Saxons submitted to the Brythians. The saxons were allowed to live in the region though they came under heavy scrutiny for his reign.

After the end of the war, Brittanicus focused on making new laws which made the lives of his subjects easier while trying to limit the power of his nobles. He is said to have abolished the slavery system in Brythia, and was said to have been a champion of equal rights for the Vandals who had begun to migrate to Brythia.

Most historians dispute this, claiming he himself owned slaves till the end of his life.

A devout christian, he was responsible for the creation of many churches throughout Brythia, and even beyond, to the whole of Albion. He was the reason for the acccelerated christianisation of the saxons, angles and picts.
He was called "The Great" within his own lifetime, owing to his reunification of Brythia and favorable law giving, something which is said to have pleased him greatly.

He died in 554, at the age of 42, leaving a stable and prosperous realm to his heir, Aurelius.

He was Beatified in 1280 and Canonized in 1554, a thousand years after his death.

[3] The first British monarch whose origins are relatively well known, being born in 534 from an unknown mother (although it is mostly believed he was born to one of Brittanicus' concubines, and his mother was probably a slave) under the name of Aurelius, and possessing a lame leg due to problems during his birth. His early infancy is mostly unknown, and he returns to the annals of history only at the age of 15, when he married his wife, Ninniane, a princess of the Kingdom of Dyfed.

Considered unremarkable by many, as the second of Brittanicus seven sons, and incapable of many physical activites due to his lame leg, Aurelius managed to gain the throne throne cunning and deceit, as shortly before his father's death (as Brittanicus took some two years to die from an infected leg) he started making alliances with the nobility, rather miffed over his father's ambitious plans in relation to their power, and with the exiled Vandals who had fled to Britain in the aftermath of Justinian's reconquest, having been since the mid 530s a minor but existing group in some coastal regions on the south of Albion; a landless people who lived now mostly as merchants or mercenaries, he soon gained their support through promises of land and the marrying of one of his daughters to the great-grandson of Gelimer, the last king of the Vandals, who had lived in the Brittonic court since 550.

On the night following his father's death, he enacted a coup, entering the royal residences with a force of Vandal soldiers and massacring his relatives on a swift move. Following the bloodbath, from which only one of his brother's survived (the youngest, Constantine, was saved by his mother's begging and his half-brother's pity), he successfully declared himself High King, dealing swiftly and brutally with some rebellions on his first years to secure his position

A capable ruler, whose reign would be marked by the finding of a balance between the High Kingship and the petty kings and princes under his overlordship, Aurelius's reign was a mostly peaceful one, which saw a development of culture and religion on his domains, which (like most of those in Albion) was slowly drifting away from the trends of mainland Europe into the unique customs of Brittonic Christianity. He strenghtened ties with the Irish, who at the time were only starting to become christian, and would be the one responsible for ordering the writting down of Brittonic oral traditions and legends, which over the cours of the next three centuries would become the gigantic Mabinogion (one of the three great sagas of Albish mythology, as the Irish and Pictish would follow on this enterprise, if more slowly)

Married at least twice (his second wife, who may have been a concubine, being of a unknown name), he died in 589 at age 55, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Æthelmund .

[4] Born in 552, Æthelmund was the eldest son of Aurelius and his first wife, Ninniane, a princess of the Kingdom of Dyfed, he was named after Bishop of Eboracum, who had been by the king and the birthing mother, praying for the birth of their son.

Æthelmund would be tutored in the way of the bible by the Bishop and would see his life as God's Divine Right.
In 568, at the age of 16, he married Chlothsind of Franks, a daughter of Ingund and King Chlothar I, and sister of Charibert I, king of Franks, Guntram King of Orléans, and Sigebert I, king of Austrasia.

This marriage was arranged by his father, without consulting the Prince, the marriage was said to be unhappy, although Æthelmund was able to see his bloodline continue, with ample heirs.

When he succeeded to the throne in 589, at the age of 37, he was surrounded by religious clergy who would begin running the country, under a theocratic absolute monarchy, working closely with the views of Imperial Roman Pope, Gregory I.
Much of his life was recorded by private monks, who lived with the royal family, they were able to show his charitable views with forming schools and hospitals.

The royal purse grew, with Æthelmund, believing the royal family should not spend more that what is needed, setting examples to the upset lords, who wished to live extravagantly.

There were rumours of many plots to kill the king during his reign, however with the eyes of God (and well placed religious servants) he lived to the age of in 62 in 614, seeing his crown passed to his oldest son, Coel.

[5] Coel Pendragon was born in 574. He was the first child of King Æthelmund and Queen Chlothsind. At his parents marriage in 568 his father was only 16 and his mother was only 12. She remained living at the court of her father, King Chlothar, until her sixteenth birthday in 572. Being named after the legendary ancient King of the Britons, Coel Hen, led to an interest in his heritage. The religious clergy who dominated his father's court introduced him to the then obscure writings of Gildas and to the Mabinogion, where he learned about the legends of the Brythonic kings and heroes.

To the Prince these stories were history and when he became High King he made them the official history of the realm. Including a list of Kings. (OOC: for us this list in the link is the same as Coel's official list only up through Arthur.) Thus when he became High King he declared he was the second of his name and retroactively declared his grandfather was the second of his name, accepting that Arthur's uncle had been named Aurelius and was High King before Arthur's father, Uther Pendragon. It also was Coel who declared his family's house was named Pendragon. He also introduced calling the High Castle Camelot. He also had a Round Table built for his hall to replicate the one in the legends of Arthur and it this Round Table that many later came to believe was Arthur's table rather than Coel's homage to the legends.

Coel also promoted the story of the Holy Grail and had a shrine built at Ineswitrin (OTL Glastonbury), claiming a chalice that had been used there by the church there was in fact the Grail that Arthur's knights had found a hundred years previously, that it was the chalice that Jesus used at the Last Supper, and had been brought to Britain by St. Joseph of Arithemaea when he returned to the island after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Included in this legend was that the Saint was the older brother of the Virgin Mary, had been a trader who visited and resided in Britain before the period of Christ's ministry, had also lived in Alexandria, Egypt and that it was with him that the Holy Family resided during their exile in Egypt. Included in this legend was that his son was the disciple Matthias who replaced Judas as the 12th Apostle, that Matthias and Jesus were like brothers growing up, and that both had visited Britain with Joseph of Arithemaea when they were teenagers. Included in these legends promoted by King Coel was the idea that the Grail itself was already Holy when Jesus used it, as Jesus had brought it with him to Palestine from Britain, where it had been a sacred object of Druidic worship since the time of Atlantis. Among these legends was the idea that the Druids were in fact worshipers of the true God of the Bible.

There had remained non-Christians in Roman and sub-Roman Britain. These mixing of the legends fully made Brythia Christian helping convert the remaining pagans to Christianity and also helped Brythonize the Saxons in the East, who'd been part of the High Kingdom for decades. It was also during Coel's reign that the official name of the realm became Brythia.

Coel was a warrior king. He had three issues he had to deal with. Gaelic Pirates from Ireland were raiding the West Coast of Brythia. He had a series of forts or castles built along the West Coast and a navy constructed to counter this. When this didn't stop the pirates he invaded Ireland in 616 and in a decisive victory at Clonmore in Laigin defeated King Úgaine Mór, who claimed to be High King of Ireland. Úgaine Mór swore fealty to Coel and promised to control the pirates, which he accomplished.

His second issue was with the Saxon King of Winchester refusing to pay tribute to Brythia, which if not checked could lead to other Saxon kingdoms rebelling. In 623, Coel himself led an army and conquered Winchester, establishing a Brythonic Kingdom in place of the Saxon one with his own younger brother, Cors, made petty King of Winchester, renamed Caerwynt. It was after this that the Brythonization of the Saxons became more rapid. More and more petty Kingdoms' Courts began speaking Brythonic and the clergy began encouraging pilgrimages to Ineswitrin.

Brythonic people had lived on the Aremorica peninsula since Roman times (OTL Brittany). In 631, Coel went to war to add this region to the High Kingdom. Among the legends of Arthur was that one of his best warriors was Lanslod Lak who ruled most of far western Aremorica and had sworn loyalty to Arthur, making Aremorica by rights part of Brythia. The addition of this continental region to the High Kingdom meant more involvement in continental issues in the future as the Frankish Kingdom looked to expand.

Coel married a Brythonic Princess when he was 21 in 595, Guenewera of Trewar Venyd Castle (OTL Tintagel) in Kernow (OTL Cornwall). They immediately had many children. From this time Trewar Venyd Castle became a second High Castle of the Pendragon House.

(In later legends both this High Castle and the name of the Queen would be confused with the tales of Arthur.)

When Coel died the High Kingdom was more united and Brythonic than ever before. He had wrestled control from the clergy his father had yielded to and undone any Saxonification his father had allowed. He was succeeded by his grandson Maelgwn when he died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 73.

[6] Maelgwn was the grandson Coel, who had outlived all his sons was young and started well enough, marrying Nanthild daughter of Dagobert the Frankish King. Wishing for military glory he took effective steps against the only military threat (so it seemed) on the British Isles, the Picts. A series of lightning raids to the north and the leading Pictish Kingdoms quickly submitted and supplied hostages, among them Der Liei, daughter of the King of Circinn, a petty Pictish Kingdom.

Maelgwn was quickly besotted with the raven haired beauty, neglecting then ignoring Nanthild, eventually banishing her to a monastary. This effectively threw away the Frankish alliance. This lead to an invasion of Brittiany, which he again defeated and even led a successful counter attack. But disaster struck when a stray arrow killed his father in law Dagobert, setting off a long period of division and chaos in the Frankish Kingdom. This removed pressure on the Frisians and Saxons (of Saxony), who began raiding monastaries across the channel.

The petty kings, already taxed for the wars of the High King and increasingly disgusted with his behavior and increasingly plotted against him or turned inward to local matters.
Seeing the lack of a coordinated response, Saxons and Frisians settling South Eastern Bythia, primarily up the Thames and along the south coast, creating a new Saxon Shore.

Meanwhile, the Irish reasserted their independence by raiding once more.

Various cousins Coel had protected now came out of the woodwork to challenge the increasingly unpopular High King. In the end, he was stabbed to death by his own men, after seeing his mistress and young children put to death, earning him his nickname.

He was succeeded by his cousin, Arthur.

[7] By the time he took the throne, he was already 35 , and had been gone throughout the rule of Maelgwn I.
He had embarked on a journey to the east in the reign of his grandfather , with nothing but a ship,a crew, and his wife, an Aquitan princess by the name of Eleanor.

He had found great treasure and knowledge during his travels, and had been blessed with 7 sons and 7 daughters. He had been to the Byzantine Empire, India, Greece as well as many other States.

On his return to Brythia in 660, he became involved with his other cousins in their plot to overthrow Maelgwn. As he was the only surviving son of the second son of Coel II, he was touted as the heir to the king.

After his cousin, the king was killed in a violent coup, he became king. He tried to be a just king, making laws regarding inheritance and other matters. He stipulated that strict male preference primogeniture was to be followed, placing daughters before uncles . He also integrated eastern values into everyday Brythonic customs. This was a massive success, with many Indian Spices having been grown in Brythia and Aremorica by the end of the reign.

He also made many reforms regarding the schooling system and cleanliness in Brythia. He declared that basic education was a right of the Brittonic people and that basic cleanliness was to be maintained.

His end goal, it has been said, was to make Brythia a "New Rome". He also invaded the Frisian and Saxon kingdoms that had been formed in the reign of his cousins, bringing them back under the control of Brythia.
In order to smooth relations with the Irish, he married his heir, Constantine to the eldest daughter of the High-King there.
This turned out to be a master-stroke, as both her brothers died childless, leaving her as heiress to her father.

He defended Aremorica from a new Frankish onslaught, with help from his Aquitan allies. A few days before his death, he declared Brythia as "The Third Rome", leaving his heir, Vortigern to deal with the diplomatic fallout with the Byzantine Empire, once they heard about his announcements.

[8] Vortigern was a descendant of one of Maelgwynns other cousins, and his father successfully jockeyed for position among the nobles to recognise Vortigern rather than one of Arthur II's "bastard brood" as new High King. Vortigern did marry one of Arthur's daughters in order to attempt further legitimacy and recognized his attempts to transform the kingdom into an empire. Despite attempts by the Byzantine Empire to seize Vortigern's continental holdings (via their Frankish allies), the territory was successfully held and the Byzantines recognised, albeit reluctantly, the Holy Brythonic Empire in 690. Vortigern would then rule as Emperor Vortigern for five years before his death at 45, whereupon he was succeeded by his daughter, Rhiannon.

[9] The first female monarch of the Brythons (the titles of Emperor and High King were considered equivalent, with most within Brythia calling their rulers High Kings due to the complicated nature of the nation, with its many petty kings under their authority, while foreigners called them emperors due to their claim to the Roman Empire), being the sole child of Vortigern and his wife, Aelwyn, eldest child of Arthur II, inheriting her father's throne at the age of 22.

Originally contested by her father's brothers, as well as some of her maternal uncles and even some distant relatives (as while Arthur II's attempted to define the succession, her own father's ascension had made it all moot, even if he had married Arthur's eldest daughter, and proved to many that Brythonic succession was a matter of might as much as of bloodline), the first 3 years of Rhiannon's reign were marked by a civil war, during which the lands of Britain were painted red with royal and common blood, and there was a true fear that it was the end for the country.

Victorious in the end (and with the Royal Bloodline culled by around 70%), Rhiannon's reign, was, in reality, quite a peaceful one, at least internally, as she worked to rebuild the empire from the civil war and reestablish a relation with her neighbors in Albion and Ireland as well as mend the enmities made with the Byzantines (even marrying one of her daughters to Leo III after he deposed the Justinians), with the two recognizing each other as emperors in the same fashion as how the emperors of the East and West recognized each other (although both were entirely independent nations).

The main problem during Rhiannon's reign was a religious one, as for centuries Christianity in the isles had developed quite separately from the continent, developing in ways that for many could be considered pagan (Gaels went as far as considering their pagan gods being as being full blown deities, but subordinate to God as His creations, while the Brytons had found various ways to syncretize their pagan gods with angels, saints and holy figures) and heretic. Rhiannon herself was quite fine the lack of religious uniformity present in her domains and vassals, although why has never been agreed upon (some argue that that is a mark of the Pendragon lineage, inherited from Aurelius II's acceptance of Arianism)

The growing separation between the Celtic Churches and the Papacy reached its conclusion in 733, when, after another spat between them and the Papacy (Rhiannon herself had a rocky relationship with Rome already at that point, due to two different Popes supporting some of her would-be-usurpers) due to disagreements in religious icons (as Rome was in a period of being commanded by iconoclasts while the Celtic Churches were quite fond of their religious images), Rhiannon formally declared the Papacy a heretical institution and that all religious matters and institutions within her empire would be forevermore unconnected to it, causing the Great Western Schism (named that way to not be confused with the one that would come some centuries later between Rome and Constantinople) as the other Celtic (and Pictish) Churches followed suit and the Pope declared them all to be equally heretical.

For that, she was named "The Liberator" by the Celtics, as she (in the words of an Irish monk) "liberated them from the clutches of the Papacy"

Married at age 24 to Pwyll, King of Dyfed (a member of the House of Pendragon, descending from Constantine the Survivor, youngest brother of Aurelius II, and also her first cousin through one of her mother's brothers, Rhodi, who died before his son with Queen Elaine of Dyfed was even born), after he charmed her in a horse racing competition (their's would be the last time a member of House Pendragon would ask for a dispensation to marry close kin), with whom she had a large and healthy offspring, she died at age 67, being succeeded by her son, Pryderi.

[10] Succeeding his mother as Emperor at the age of 30, he immediately set his eyes upon the Picts to the north, claiming that, as they were a part of Albion, they were a rightful part of his Empire.

He began a series of conquests, capturing the petty kingdoms of Ce and Fotla within the first year of the war. The rest of the kingdoms took longer to capture, with the war effort lasting for 7 years, with Fortriu, Fidach and Cait being defeated and becoming his vassals between 739 and 743.

He began to encourage a sense of nationalism and brotherhood among the Picts and Brythians while also saving money for his Irish campaign, which began in 745. He began this campaign by allying himself with the king of Connacht, by marrying his son to the King's daughter, and therefore gaining an alliance. This war, unlike it's Pictish counterpart, was relatively unpopular among the people, but the emperor himself was well-beloved, and the people followed him faithfully in his conquest of Ireland.

By 750, he had largely succedeed in this, taking various kingdoms for himself or forcing them into vassalship.
These two wars, the Brythonic conquest of Picto and Eire, later came to be called the War of Albionese Reunification.
He was disinterested in other parts of ruling, leaving these tasks largely to his other siblings.

He died in 758, at the age of 62, and was succeeded by his heir, Wledig.

[11] Wledig III (also known by his roman name of Aurelius), ascended to the throne at the age of 36 after his father's death from an infection of the bowels, having been at the time visiting the court of his father-in-law, Ailill Medraige mac Indrechtaig of Connacht, as part of his tour through his father's Gaelic vassals. His early reign was marked by the final pacification of Ireland, as his father had not been the most interested in actually governing after he had did the conquering, with some of the major Gaelic kingdoms who still resisted his rule being fragmented among their ruling house's branches (Connacht being one of the few who remained territoriality intact).

A relatively unremarkable monarch in the personal level, being known for his personal piety as much as for his deep interest in the various versions of christianity under his aegis (his wife, for example, was a Gaelic Christian while he followed Druidic/Brythonic Christianity), Wledig's reign was marked by the start of the Nordic Raids (called also the Viking Age outside of the empire) in 773, a centuries-long intermittent conflict with the various pagan Nordic raiders that attacked the shores of the empire, their first attack being on the monastery of the Holy Island of Medcaut (OTL Lindisfarne), which was repelled with many causalities due to the local priestly militia, as besides healing the Medcautian monks were known for their warring nature (something that would become a trait for many of the monasteries in the shores and major rivers of Albion and Ireland.

Married in 745 to Gormfhlaith mhic Aillil in a deal made between their fathers that kickstarted the subjugation of Ireland, Wledig died at the age of 57 after hitting his head on a rock drunk during the celebration of Calan Gaeaf/Samhain, and was succeeded by his son, Pryderi.

[12] Pryderi II was, like his father, unremarkable but competent, though his attention was taken up to much by the resurgant Kingdom of Francia and its attempt to conquer Brittany, a threat that he largely contained but at the cost of ignoring the Norse threat, leading to permanent bases in the Shetlands, Orkneys and Heberdies and the great sacking of Iona. He seemed to to be returning his attention to the problem after signing a treaty of Eternal Peace and Friendship with Francia 790, even though his younger brother Rhodri died fighting the French just two years earlier. Indeed, he was planning a Northern Campaign during the Christmas of 790, when visiting the monastery at Kilmadock for evening services, when a lightning raid led to the death of the King, his Pictish Queen, many of his top officals as well as the capture of his three young children, the oldest being just six. They would grow up increasingly identifying with their captors while not forgetting their claims.

With that and with some debate and some halfhearted attempts at ransom, which their captor, Eric Blood Eagle turned down (and was possibly bribed not to take or turned down on the advice of his wife Aoiffe the Deep Minded, a renegade Irish novice, depending on which story you believe). The crown passed to Pryderi's nephew, Uther II Paladin.

[13] With the rise of the Carolingian Dynasty in Frankia, border wars between the Franks and the Brythians had resumed in 737 under Charles the Hammer, Mayor of the Palace and de facto ruler of the Frankish Kingdom. After the victorious Battle or Tours in 732, stopping the Moors from moving north out of Spain, Charles no longer felt the need to have the backing of the Eastern Empire nor its permission to fight the Brythians for Aremorica nor in any other Frankish expansion. This border war did not go well for the Brythians and by 741, when Charles the Hammer died, the eastern portion of Brythia in Aremorica was under the control of the Franks. This became known among the Franks as the Breton March.

Of course the Brythians did not accept this and the border skirmishes continued. The High King Pryderi I was focused on his unification of the British Isles, so he appointed his younger son, Girart, (petty) King of Aremorica in order for him to lead the fight against the Franks with his seat at Saint Briog Castle.

The main foe of Girart, King of Aremorica, was Lier, who lived at Lak Lle Gwych (OTL modern: Lac de Grand-Lie), one of the biggest lakes in all of historic Gaul and supposedly the lake that was home of the fabled Lanslod Lak and that was the seat of the previous Kings of Aremorica until the Breton March had been conquered by the Franks. Lier was the younger brother of the last previous king, Ogda. Upon the conquest of the March, Ogda was taken to Paris as a royal hostage and Lier was made Lord of the March. Lier's loyalty to his Frankish overlord was based on his brother being a hostage, but his duty was not to conquer Brythian Aremorica, but to prevent Brythia from retaking the March. However, Girart's duty, as he saw it, was precisely to retake the March. So the two Brythians were rivals, one loyal to Camelot and the other loyal to the Palace of Paris.

From that loyalty to the Palace of Paris, Lier acquired the name Paladin, from the Latin and meaning 'of the palace'.

By the time of High King Wledgig it was clear that Girart was never going to marry or sire an heir. So in 774 the King appointed his second oldest son, Uther Vye, as Girart's heir, and Uther Vye, at the age of 21, went to live in Aremorica and continue his uncle's fight as his main champion. (The Franks called Uther Vye by the name "Oliver.")

Meanwhile Lier's son had become a renown warrior and his loyalty to the Palace was based on a deep affection to the Frankish King after Pepin, Charlemagne. His named was Roland. He was raised in the Palace with his uncle, and although he was by birth Brythian, he was also in many ways culturally a Latinized Frank.

Roland and Oliver met in battle in 775, Roland was only 18. The battle dragged on and on and more Brythians died on both sides. The two warriors chiefs, Roland and Oliver, decided to settle the battle with a personal duel. Whoever won the duel would win the battle and the March would be accepted as swearing loyalty to the sovereign of that champion. For hours the two fought, finding themselves unable to overcome the other. During breaks when they were both too exhausted to fight, they'd converse with each other from a distance and felt a strange bond.

Eventually they came to so admire and respect each other they decided in one of these respites to call the duel a draw and for Girart and Lier to make peace. Brythian Aremorica would be reunited with dual fealty sworn to both Camelot and Paris and the two champions would visit together High King Wledig in Camelot and Charlemagne in Paris to negotiate a peace treaty between the two. Oliver, as he was known in Frankish circles, when they visited Paris was as enamored by Charlemagne as Roland and by his vision for a reunited Continent and the taking back of Spain from the Moors.

Meanwhile in Camelot, Roland was also enamored, but in his case by a woman. The Princess Aldewa, Uther Vye's sister, was the daughter of the King and a strong woman in her own right, taking after her great grandmother in both looks and temperament. In Brythian Christianity, female priests had become normal and Aldewa was one of these. Legends said she could speak with animals, that she had discovered the resting place of Arthur and had taken his magic sword, Excalibur, into her possession, and that like her great grandmother she could transform into a skylark or a black cat at midnight until dawn. She had a magic horn that was said to be an ancient Atlantean artifact that she had inherited through her grand-aunt from Rhiannon. It was named Oliphant and it was rumored to have been blessed by Christ as a youth while he was in Britain and that when sounded in a crisis would call the Seven Spirits of God to aid a hero with their virtues and strengths. The horn was named Oliphant, as it was supposedly made from the tusk of an an ancient Elephant from Atlantis.

Roland asked for the hand of Aldewa and it was granted. Now that the two friends were to be brothers-in-law, their bond was closer than every. The two traveled through Brythia, Frankia, Aquitaine, and even Moorish Spain on various adventures, always returning to Brythia were Aldewa would be waiting to greet her brother, the future king of Aremorica, and her beloved, who had now become the Lord of the March as his father had died.

What no one knew was that in 778, when Roland and Oliver set out to join the forces of Charlemagne to begin the reconquest of Spain, that Aldewa had a premonition as she performed the sacred Eucharist in her outside chapel in the woods for the peasants and the animals. She immediately went to her brother and told him to protect her beloved, to add to Roland's courage the caution and wisdom that Uther Vye had. Then she went to Roland and the two were secretly wed. She is said to have given him the Magic Sword of Arthur, which she called Durendal, and the Oliphant Horn.

The story of Roland and Oliver's heroism at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass is to long for this history to retell and it is well known that the two warriors along with other sacrificed themselves to save the Franks and insure that Spain would in time return to Christendom

Charlemagne himself went to Saint Briog Castle to give the Princess the sad news, as that was where she was waiting for her brother and beloved. Charlemagne gave Aldewa the Magic Sword of Roland, totally unaware she had given it to Roland and it was supposedly the sword of Arthur, as well as the shards of Oliphant. (Oliphant had shattered when Roland blew it at the Pass.) As she was told the news and handed the sword and shards, Aldewa fell in a faint. When examined it was discovered she was with child. The Druidic Christian priest who married them swore to Girart that she and Roland had married and the child was declared legitimate.

Six months later Uther Paladin, grandson to the High King, was born in Camelot. Princess Aldewa died in childbirth. The sword was given to him. The shards were buried with his mother.

Before he was one year old, Uther's grandfather, the High King, died and his uncle Pryderi became the new High King.

Princess Aldewa's best friend was her cousin, also a great-granddaughter of Rhiannon through a maternal line, Viviane of Lak Afon Alaw, as the lake where the Afon Alaw monastery had by then also come to be called by the same name. Viviane was a dozen years older than her cousin and was the High Priestess of the Monastery in the Lake. Viviane had hosted Aldewa at Yns O Afon Alaw during Aldewa's youth and trained her in religious matters leading to Aldewa becoming a priestess. When her cousin died, Uther was delivered to Viviane's care, along with the magic sword Excalibur also known as Durendal. Although Viviane then was responsible for the overall care of Uther, it was to the care of a Poetic Bard that his education was given, Cian Gueinth Guaut.

Cian was very old at this point; as a young man he had been the lover and common law husband of Viviane's grandmother, Elawania, the daughter of Rhiannon, and thus the father of Viviane's mother, Myrhgwna, and so Viviane's grandfather. Cian instructed the young Uther in all matters from history to religion to wildlife to poetry to the stories of his family, including his father.

The peace that Uther's father and uncle had forged with Frankia fell apart in 781 without the two champions to pursue it as the shared monarchs of Aremorica as future King and as Lord. King Girart, Uther's great uncle, the uncle of the King, had a long antipathy towards the Franks and now Uther Vye was no longer there to convince him otherwise. Frankish emissaries of Charlemagne asked Girart to send warriors to help with the ongoing wars of the Spanish March, but Girart refused as he was more concerned about Northmen raiding his kingdom's northern peninsula. Charlemagne sent emissaries to Camelot, as Aremorica was supposed to have dual loyalty, and these negotiations failed. The wars of the Breton March began again. Rhodri was now sent to Saint Briog Castle as the new heir to Girart and his Warrior Chief. Then peace was achieved again. It was at the signing of this treaty that Uther first met his uncle the High King and Charlemagne, when the treaty was signed in Saint Briog Castle.

Young Uther was not thought about as a potential heir to the throne, as his uncle had three children, but then the King and Queen were killed by Northman raiders and the three children were captured.

Uther was 12 years old. He'd just been relocated to begin a new phase of his education, to live with another relative, King Pykierffer of the northern Pictish kingodm of Fidach. The Queen was Myrhkysa, the sister of Myrhwna, thus another daughter of Cian. Uther and Cian now were to live with them at Castle Ansfidal and Uther would be trained in the ways of the Warrior, horsemanship, tracking, and the art of war by Giwynne Kae, the younger son of the King, who was a dozen years older than Uther.

Brythia needed a High King and Pykierffer and Myrhkysa spoke for Uther's claim to a called council of the Kings. They were hesitant to chose Uther when direct heirs still lived, but then Viviane presented the Sword Excalibur to Uther in front of the council. They recognized him as the proper heir and appointed Viviane as Regent.

For the next few years, the High King and Cian lived with Giwynne and his family in Ansfidal while Viviane ruled in his name in Camelot. Uther continued his education under Cian and Giwynne. This ended on his 18th Birthday in 796 when he took the throne himself with Viviane, Giwynne, and Cian his main counselors.

Both Viviane as Regent and then Uther as the ruling High King concentrated on the problem of the Danes, now the common term for Northmen in Brythia, who now were raiding Efwrakon. (The Brythonic name becoming more common in usage than the Latin Eboaracum.) The Danes had created a settlement and named it Jorvik. More and more Danes raided there, as well as other Vikings in Ireland and the northern peninsula of Aremorica. Warfare was a constant problem. Uther himself would often lead in battle to pacify the settlements of the Danes, conquering them and achieving promises of fealty and peace. But then more raiding would continue. It was never clear if the Danes who'd promised fealty were doing the raiding or if more Danes were arriving from their homelands in the North. There Pryderi's oldest son, Liam, but who was known by the Danes as Leif Bloðorn, was living with his foster father, Eric Bloðorn (Blood-Eagle) and claiming to be the rightful High King or Emperor of Brythia. At Uther's majority, Leif was only 12 and the real power was clearly Eric. Lief and his younger brother and sister, had been told that it wasn't Eric who killed their parents, but Uther's people, doing it to steal the throne.

Uther married the princess Briggetta of Ansfidal Castle, the younger sister of Giwynne. She was two years younger than Uther and they had fallen in love while he lived with her family. They wed in 798 and had their first child of many in the year 800.

image.jpg

Uther Paladin and Briggetta of Ansfidal

Uther's entire reign was focused on fighting the Danes. He built a navy to counter their raids and made Ansfidal a fourth High Castle of the Royal Family, to give him a base in the north.

Under Uther the kingdoms of Brythia were united, except for the Dane settlements, in accepting his High Kingship. But there were small factions without power who always considered him a usurper as he wasn't a Pendragon but a Paladin. These tensions remained under the surface, but Eric and then Leif, when he reached his majority, and then Lief's son continued to stoke them

At the age of 41 Uther suddenly died complaining of chest pains. It happened while once more he was engaged in battle with Jorvik and was with his Warriors on the field in their tent planning the next stage of the siege. His last words were, "My sword" as he reached towards Excalibur.

He was succeeded by Arthur III, the son of Liam Pendragon.

[14] The legend goes that when Uther’s reach and knocked Excalibur onto the floor, the blade dug into the ground and was unable to be lifted by even the strongest of men present, with the generals unsure of their next move, the Jorvik danish army, engaged causing mass panic. A figure riding a white horse aimed directly for the tent; dismounting with such speed, the Brythonic generals were in shock, when this man single handily pull the sword out and ordered them all to kneel and do began the reign of Arthur III.

But the story begins 19 years earlier in a long hall, in the settlement of Ribe; Arthur Harold Halfdan Leifson is born to 16 year old, Leif Pendragon and 20 year old, Ysra Ericdóttir, daughter of Eric Bloðorn, whom arranged the marriage following the raid in 790, Eric had his sights on his grandson being future Emperor and taught him the way of ruling and fighting.
Arthur was a keen horse rider and swordsman, training daily with his grandfather, father and his grandfather’s trusted warriors.
As well as this Eric taught him of the “Pendragon Past” how Danes had visited the Brythonic Empire years before man was even on the island and how most Brythonic people descend from the northmen.

In 815, Arthur’s father died in a storm and the body washed up on the shoreline, with the bad waves causing a sword to slice his throat.

Eric believed that at the age of 18, Arthur was ready to travel with a large army to the settlement of Jorvik to see his birthright, the fleet that left was one of the largest array of boats any living man at the time had seen, with many joining when they heard Eric promise land in Brythonic once his grandson held the throne.

At the battle of Jorvik, Arthur was already wearing the crown of Emperor Pryderi II, which Eric had “secured” during the “rescue” mission at Kilmadock, all those years ago.

With superior number of warriors, Arthur and his Danish allies were able to “Liberate” the Empire and secure the throne for the rightful heir.

Uther’s widow, Princess Briggetta of Ansfidal Castle, was sent to a secure nunnery. While the older two sons of Uther and Briggetta, were sent in exile, the younger two were adobted by Arthur to be raised as his own and the daughters were married out to lower Viking lords who were loyal to Arthur and his cause.

Arthur built his new capital, a fortified city located by mthe River Witham on the Eastern coastline calling the settlement Arthurius (otl Boston)

Here Arthur arranged the trading empire that stretched from the fishing villages of Ireland, going all the way around the Baltic to ports of Novgorod Slavs, creating merchant jobs for his Danish population while the Brythonic population prospered from the new cheap goods coming into their empire and selling their items on.

The two people although divided by religion, Celtic Christianity and Odinson or Paganism, were able to tolerate one another under a just and noble Emperor, who allowed freedom of religion.

His death in 856, came following a long battle with an illness that caused him to lose weight and weakened him into a mere shadow of his youthfulness. This illness forced him to be seen less in public and allowed his son and heir, ________, to rule in presence only.

[15] Arthur the IV was a in his mid thirties when he became King, though he had been in charge for several years before that and is in many ways considered a transitional figure from the Warrior Kings before him to the successors who were more concerned with comerence and exploration. He steadily became wealthy by managing his coffers and avoiding wars, though he was spooked into action when Uthur Paladin's exiled grandson in far off Rome being elected Bishop of Rome or 'Pope' and denounced both Norse Paganism and Celtic Christianity and encouraging the King of the Franks to invade. Clovis the VIth, recognizing that the Emperor had more and better ships, and privately thinking the Pope an idiot, politely declined).

Still Arthur was spooked and so he turned to the people he trusted most, his three sisters. Turning to their grandparent's example, they began to use Celtic fostering customs to encourage the spread of Norse culture, quietly making sure the sons and daughters of Celtic households tended to be fostered with Danes. Over time, the aristocracy and those who wished to ascend became increasingly Norse and Pagan. They, set up paralell religious institiutions, including sriptoriums and supporting skalds/bards to tell the kind of stories their brother wanted while still surpporting Christian institutions just enough to promote national unity. The result was the beginings of the Atlantic Cultural flowering that would spread to Norwayand Sweden and even the Far Rus in the East.

The other was the discovery of the Faroes and then Greenland (otl Iceland) by Norweigen Explorers also fostered growth and Arthur saw an opportunity. He set up settlements in Greenland and claimed the island, sponsoring explorers who discovered Iceland (otl Greenland). Settlements were set up there as well, though in time, a holdings in Iceland became a byword for royal disfavor. He married the daughter of the King of Norway and sired children. They got along well, but he is noted that he never took thralls or mistresses to bed it is suspected, in retrospect, now that he was discretely homosexual. He was succeeded by his Son, Constantine.

[16] Born as Constantine, he ascended the throne aged 27, and took on the regnal name of "Brittanicus II".

His epithet, "The Just" came from a tale in the first year of his reign, in which a Saxon man by the name of Edward came to him, and complained of the lords discriminating against those who were not Brittanic Christians/Pagans. The Emperor is said to have flown into a rage and ordered the lords to be publicily whipped and said that the taxes on such discriminated peoples to be dismissed for an year. This, although adding to his popularity,was largely not carried out on the lower levels.

He had been married to queen Emma of Aquitaine, at age 14, with whom he had a loving marriage.
This had the added effect of bringing the Empire and Aquitaine under a personal union and uniting the Pendragon-Paladin claims, as her father had been Uther, was the younger brother of Pope Hilarious II.

Ruling for 3 years, he died at the age of 30, being succeded by his daughter, Rhiannon

[17] Born Princess Aslaug, second youngest daughter and child of Brittanicus, , Rhiannon assumed the throne at the young age of 5, when the Sweating Death (the bane of Europe for the next 700 years) came to the empire, killing one in every six people (nearly extinguishing the Vandal and Anglo-Saxon minorities that lived in the realm and killing around a third of the nobility) and massacring the Imperial Family, killing most of the descendants of Arthur III

A young ruler who assumed one of the largest empires of Europe, controlling an empire whose reach went as far as Hyperborea (ATL Vinland) on the west to northern Rus on the east, that was ravaged by an calamity of unimaginable levels (the plague would run its course for 3 long years, before finally burning itself out). Rhiannon's early reign would be marked by great strife and war, as without the central figure of her predecessors, the empire built by her great-grandfather crumbled on its own weigh.

The various petty kingdoms in Scandivania and northern Europe broke away one after the other, with a branch of the Pendragons, the House of Drekabarn (descended from the younger brother of Leif Bloðorn, Agnar) taking over as kings of the Geats and Swedes. The Franks and Goths descended upon Aquitaine, leaderless after the death of Queen Emma, and the Danes (who had remained free from the Pendragons) raided the coasts of Albion and Ireland, carving to themselves petty kingdoms (including taking Arthur III's capital of Arthurius). The Picts broke away once more, as did some of the major kingdoms of northern Albion and Ireland, while one of her uncles claimed the throne for himself, bringing a civil war to the realm as well

While that happened, the young empress grew on the halls of the old imperial residences of Camelot (considered much safer than any other capitol), raised mostly by peasant servants while her aunt (Princess Lagertha, unmarried but unhealthily close to her brothers) tried to protect her nieces' inheritance. With them, she learned of the christian ways of her ancestors (as even with Arthur IV's actions, most of the population was still predominantly christian, from one of the various celtic variations), and was entranced by the legends of her distant ancestress, Rhiannon, whom she would later would rename herself as.

Taking the helm of power at the age of 15, Rhiannon was a complete surprise to her weary and tired court, a staunch christian while her court was mostly some sort of Norse Pagan, she surrounded herself with commoners and lower nobles, and, most surprising of all, proved herself to be a military genius and administrator. It was at that time that she became known as "the Fairy" due to her almost miraculous luck, defeating the armies of the self-proclaimed "Ragnar the First" time and time again (taking control of southern Albion in the span of months after her forces had been bottled around the Inner (OTL Irish) Sea for over 5 years) and being said to practice rituals and magic (she had a strangely intelligent crow as her favourite pet, and seemed to be all-knowing over the happenings in her court

When she married Prince Rhodi of Dyfed at the age of 21 (ironically, doing something her own heponym did centuries before and marrying a Pendragon cousin), she did so in the halls of Ragnar's palace in Verulamiun, having conquered it less than a forthnight before. On the end of the festivities, she executed him and his descendants by building a great pire and burning them on it, as a punishment for daring to defy her "god-given-right" to the throne and for being outspoken pagans, declaring "they deny God's great power and reign over all other gods (she was a Celt, after all), and so they must be executed not for being heretics, but traitors to the Almighty". Many of the High Nobility would be horrified, and while some would resist, the norsification of the isles would be reverted as the petty kings and nobles added God with the capital letter to their prayers and started once more using Brythonic as their courtly speech.

She would take some years to secure her rule following that, having her first children and sending her younger sister, Gunhilde, as her regent in Aquitaine, and there Gunhilde would make peace with the Franks (who would soon later see their own empire break apart) and ally with Gallæcia to take down the Visigoths, killing their last king in battle and causing the final collapse of their nation.

In the chirstmastide of 910, she would once more go to war, spending the next decade subjugating the breakaway states in northern Albion and in Ireland. She showed herself once more to be genial in her plans of battle, once disguising her army as a forest using branches and leaves to ambush the King of Fortriu, and also merciful, preferring to take hostages and maim her defeated lords instead of executing them all. After them, it was time to deal with the Danes, and with them, she was merciless and at times cruel, sacking the nordic state of Dublin and flaying its leaders alive and, after taking Arthurius, sacking the entire city to the sword for the trouble it gave (and possibly due to its mostly pagan population), not leaving a single building standing and enslaving those who were not slain. Any pagan priest she found she burned, and made a collection of drinking cups with their skulls.

The next 29 years of her reign were ones of peace, as the empire, much smaller than when she became empress, recovered from the plague and the wars, in the new year of 934 she would formally abdicate as monarch of Aquitaine, seeing as her sister had been doing the job for decades and she had no interest in continuing to rule over what she considered at best a distraction and at most a burden following an expensive war with East Frankia. Aquitaine would pay an annual tribute to the empire, and would slowly turn away from the Papacy (who was seemingly on a long era of political blunders and brutal infighting, exemplified by Pope Simplicius III's achievement of offending literally half of all Christedom)

A healthy woman, known for her dislike of killing animals and preference for not eating meat, Rhiannon died at the age of 64 in 949, being succeeded by her son, Brutus.

[17] When Brutus was born in 909, his mother the Queen had already intentionally abandoned the royal family's Danish roots and was engaged in restoring the Empire of the West (a term she used as often as the term the Holy Brythian Empire) to all things Brythian. On the day of his birth, she decreed that her family House was once again simply the House of Pendragon and the Danish part of the name was removed. She stated on her son's birth, "This child will be a Brythian King, not a Danish King, not a Brythian-Danish King, but a Brythian King." She named him after the first legendary king of the Brythians, a supposed descendant of Aeneas, Brutus of Troy.

Brutus grew up in a stable Empire and fully embraced his Brythian heritage. He studied in his youth at the monastery of Avalon on the Isle of Avalon in the Lake of Avalon on the Holy Isle. (By this time the evolution of the name of 'Afon Alaw' to 'Avalon' was complete.) There he absorbed the tales of his heritage and the Celtic Christian faith of his fathers and mothers.

He married one of the Priestesses of Avalon, a descendant of Viviane in the maternal line, who also was named Viviane. (In Celtic Christianity, priestesses could marry.) They took up residence in the 2nd High Castle of Trewar Venyd Castle in Kernow and he was proclaimed by his mother the High Queen on his wedding as not just a Prince of Brythia but the "Duke and Prince of Kernow." From then on this title became the standard title for the heir to the throne.

His kingship, however, was not as stable and peaceful as his time as the Duke and Prince of Kernow. Aremorica was lost to the Empire as the Vikings who'd settled in the northern peninsula and had become acculturated as Latinized Franks, or French, conquered the entire peninsula and made if part of their Duchy, now called Normandy, which was officially in fealty to the French King in Paris. He fought wars with these Normans to regain Aremorica, but it was to no success.

It was in the 18th year of his reign that he was once again at war with the Normans and was sailing across the channel to lead his forces when his ship sunk in a storm and he and his crew, closest advisors and younger children were lost at sea.

[18] Brother of Brutus, son of Rhiannon, Uther was born 913. As a child he developed a stutter and an accident him burned him (and extensively legendarily caused by his Mother, who had the title "the Burner" for other reasons). This meant that his mother openly destained him, calling him 'her curse' and included him as little as possible in royal functions. In turn he turned to books and and learning, becoming quite the scholar and on the his brother's first son was born, he was given estates in Ulster, Ireland and told by his mother to never enter her sight again.

This suited him just fine. Fluent in nine languages, he conversed with scholars across the Pagan and Christian world as well as natives as far away as Heastland in Hyperborea (OTL New York), had eleven children with his mistress Lageartha Ui'Neil, who was quitely pagan and the love of his life. Most importantly he ran an experimental station where he and the scholars he assembled, designed a water shuttle, for spinning wool. One of his occasional guests Raund Bjornson, was designer of the Drekabarn Press, on which the first printing on paper and the Drekabarn Eddas (first printed books of this TL) were printed. When his brother became King he became an occasional advisor, where his water shuttles were adapted to provide sailcloth for the navy and then spread to general use. He also designed a runic script that was adapted to Brythonic that became the standard in printing (Runes, with their straight lines were easier to adapt to block print rather than the curved latin alphabet). He quietly encouraged his brother to not to persecute the remaining Norse Pagans, pointing out the political cost with trading partners and that he couldn't afford internal instablity.

He would have remained known mostly as scholar and inventor had his brother's son and heir had not dropped dead (probably from a heart attack) the day before Brutus boarded his ship.

Already fifty four, he married the niece of his mistress, Viviane Ui Neil, who thirty years younger, from the powerful Irish Ui Neil family, respectably Christian, widowed and most importantly one of his highly intelligent former students. Aware of the need for a legitimate heir, he had three more children in five years. After a short war with Normandy where he destroyed their naval power for a generation but failed to retake Aremorica, he made peace. Expected to rule only a short time he defied expectations, living until his legitimate children were grown, making sure they were on relatively good terms with their half siblings.

During his reign he concentrated on two goals, the first being internal improvement in the realm, including education. He also wished to avoid any percecutions like that of not so dearly departed mother. To do that he made huge land grants lands in Hyperborea to leading pagans and subsidized the immigration of poorer pagans. Among those recieving lands were several of his own bastard sons and daughters. Seeking to make sure the tyranny of his mother was not repeated, he set up a Senned Bythonic modeled on the 'Things' of his Drekabarn cousins. Most importantly, theoretically, the Senned had the power to veto any taxes of the crown.

He died suddenly in his sleep and was succeeded by his son, Emrys
[20]Inheriting the throne at the age of 19 upon his father's sudden death (in fact, the old emperor died less than a sennight after his birthday), Emrys II's early reign was shaped by two great matters: the finances of the government and the resurgence of the Normans.

The first was caused by Uther III's own actions in his public projects (as all of his schools, universities, roads and the like were sustained from the Imperial Treasury, and were drinking more gold than taxes could bring back to the coffers) and his creation of the Imperial Senned, as although it was deferential to the emperor during his reign, the institution, which had been created by Uther mostly as a great f*ck you to his mother, soon bashed heads with his son on taxes, as they, confident in the weakness of a young monarch, vetoed all taxes he put through to sustain both the crown and his father's projects. The second was a direct result of Uther's death, as the Normans, then under Duke Robert the Magnificent (who was rather miffed after his brother inherited Aremorica, as Norman inheritance laws meant that any lands he conquered would go to his other sons), saw his death as a sign of weakness and once again rose, rebuilding their fleets as Emrys and the Senned fought.

Those problems came ahead when Robert, under the influence of Pope Silvester II, decided, in 994, to invade the empire and claim it for himself (he was a descendant of the second son of Uther II, Lancelot, through his mother), landing in the shores of the Kingdom of Caerwynt with an army 20.000 strong on the 10th of July. The war that followed was started by a great deal of problems for the Brythons, as even while war was waged, the Senned continued vetoing taxes, by which point the emperor, and even the people, were getting rather tired of them. On early 995 Emrys decided to close many of his father's institutions to simply save money for the army, and used a rather forgotten law made on the reign of Rhiannon II to call all monks to serve as his soldiers (we must remember that most monasteries were small fortresses inhabited by warrior monks (in part due to Rhiannon's efforts to restore them after her nordic predecessors tried to sideline them), meaning that in a swift move Emrys gained himself a shiny new army).

The war lasted until 996, when the last normans retreated, and when it ended, Emrys was looking for blood somewhere else.

The next ten years of his reign would see him milk his military might for all it was worth within the realm, and although he would not end the Senned, he would basically force it into giving all the rights it had gained under Uther III, becoming a nigh powerless institution with solely consultative powers on government. Many of the emperor's institutions would also be never reestablished after their closing.

In relation to religion, Emrys was rather similar to his father, if only not because of spite, but was also somewhat biased in favour of christianity, and during his reign he would invest on the expansion of Gaelic Christianism on Northern Europe, as he saw it as the version of the faith that would most easily enter the pagan faiths of the region (by the time of his death he had succeded in part, with Denmark and some of the petty kingdoms of Norway having been partially or mostly converted through it), using his large progeny (had with his wife, Princess Aslaug of Denmark, and his six concubines) as well as his three sisters to bring christianity through marriage to other lands. In Hyperborea, interestingly, he would not do so, preferring to leave his half-siblings to their own devices (he basically considered the sparsely settled and disconnected lands of Hyperborea as basically a different country, and activelly supported his siblings as they carved their own basically independent petty kingdoms who had a relationship with the empire not dissimilar from Aquitaine), reason why Paganism would continue to thirve in those lands to this day.

Following the turbulent years of his youth, Emrys' reign was quite calm, besides a renewed bout of hostilities against the Normans in the 1020s (but that was much less serious than the conflict that predeceased it) and an invasion of the region of Holland following an attempted invasion of mercenaries backed by the Holy Roman Emperor (The HRE was established a little later than OTL from the eastern half of the Frankish Empire) and the Pope, which resulted on Emrys creating the Duchy of Holland, which was given to one of his younger sons as a vassal of the empire. He invested on the wool trade, which had become a main source of revenue for the empire following the development of the water spinning wheel.

Emrys II died at the age of 62 in 1033, being succeded by his ______, __________
 
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Why would the HRE come up if there's already a succesor to the WRE in Europe ?
Just like OTL, the pope crowned the ruler of East Frankia Roman Emperor, the HRE was never considered a successor to the WRE, but to the entire roman empire, reason why it and the Byzantines tended to not be in the best of terms in OTL
 
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Seriously? I was hoping for the list to go through the madness of the middle ages (since it has been a good while since we got one of those), but will at least hope everything doesn't immediately becomes "powerless monarchs, revolutions and republics" within minutes of the list reaching the industrial age.
Just like OTL, the pope crowned the ruler of East Frankia Roman Emperor, the HRE was never considered a successor to the WRE, but to the entire roman empire, reason why it and the Byzantines tended to not be in the best of terms in OTL
Dude,I was kidding
 
As to the HRE... to the Pope the Western Empire while it may be Brythian was not "Holy" as to Rome those Celtic Christians were more like Pagans than Christians.
 
OOC: Can I beg everyone not to make the industrial revolution begin 7 centuries ahead of schedule?


But I also think it's reasonable that every change in culture, for example, a Senned or a Norsification of the upper class, not be undone by the next author or three authors down.

I think that's reasonable on industrialization. 3-4 centuries (just kidding, partially) might be cool because this TL has not heard of this "schedule" thing you speak of.

Introducing chocolate earlier would be proof of the superiority of this tl to otl and thus I highly encourage the introduction of Chocolate.

This TL does not need to and hasn't followed the same pattern of otl. For example, this tl has no Holy Roman Empire equivilent and the Saxons are hardly a blip on the cultural radar.
 
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Actually on my pre hurricane walk I realized something important.

I am a big part of the problem because I'm putting my

'cool and interesting ideas in' (and some may make into my next series of novels) and arguing with others.

That's on me. So I'm going to graciously withdraw. Understand, I am truely not ticked at others, but I am effecting the fun level of others.

Take Care and will be reading with interest.
 
Actually on my pre hurricane walk I realized something important.

I am a big part of the problem because I'm putting my

'cool and interesting ideas in' (and some may make into my next series of novels) and arguing with others.

That's on me. So I'm going to graciously withdraw. Understand, I am truely not ticked at others, but I am effecting the fun level of others.

Take Care and will be reading with interest.
Wut? What happened? Did I miss something?
 
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