Habsburg Megacampaign: Part 03: 1080-1086: Crusade For Egypt

I'm playing with so many mods, I had to restart this campaign 5 times in first few years due to mod issues. And then I needed to fix mods halfway (Realistic Battles; Mistress minor title).

I wrote automatic mod conflict scanner, which can tell me if a mod conflicts with another, but it won't tell me if mod got messed by CK2 upgrade, or was never properly working in the first place.

So, my son Otto and his wife Gruoch, princess of Scotland, were not having any babies, so I gave her a title of official ducal mistress, and tried to help them a bit. Otto was really offended by this, but it motivated them to try harder, and they had a baby Cecilie before I did anything.

Kaiser Heinrich of Salian dynasty died of cancer, and a much weaker Kaiser Folmar von Metz, duke of Trier, got the throne. He wasn't even independent prince, he was a vassal of king of Lotharingia. He decided to recreate duchy of Translujania, and this time gave it to me.

Duchess Matilda and her husband king Jarumir of Bohemia took another go at rebelling. That ended up in white peace, suggesting Imperial weakness.

My son in law duke of Swabia died without having any babies with my daughter Ida, but leaving her pregnant. Once the child was born, I sent her to marry heir to throne of Castille. I betrothed posthumous Werner, heir to Raetia and claimant to Swabia, matrilineally with Cecilie, in a good granddaughter - grandson arrangement.

After some convincing, king Philippe of France agreed of a betrothal between my third son Engelbert and his daughter Sybille, second in line to throne of France.

My youngest Stefan got betrothed to second in line to duchy of Saxony.

One day some of those those dynastic long-shots will pay.

The Pope called for crusade for Egypt. I pledged my troops, and provided a lot of money in support.

While preparing for the crusade, I had one more claim against a baby, to get duchy of Carniola, my 5th.

I went crusading with my two oldest sons. Unfortunately my physician informed me that I have cancer and not much longer to live. Meanwhile duchy of Savoy and Susa, rightfully belonging to my daughter-in-law, got divided between two children.

I did 2% contribution. Top contributor is duke William the Bastard, who was first duke of Normandy, then king of England, and now is English vassals of Essex, East Anglia, and Somerset. If he couldn't get a kingdom in his first attempt, that's his second, and Egypt is a much greater prize than England.

Cancer acted quickly. Before I could win those claim wars, I died a horrible death.

I left behind family who can continue dynastic quest.

Children with Reginlind;

• Otto, 20/7/6/10/13 possessed crusader, with 3 children, married to Scottish princess
• Radbot, 14/7/11/14/12 homosexual, married to rightful duchess of Savoy whose claims we're pressing, no children
• Ida, 13/4/12/8/19, widow of duke of Swabia and Raethia, and mother of future duke, now betrothed to future king of Castile

Children with Cicca, princess of Croatia:

• Engelbert, betrothed to Sybille princess of France
• Stefan, betrothed to daughter of duke of Saxony

Our realms are divided into 5 disconnected parts:

• ancestral lands of Basel and duchy of Transjurania
• duchies of Provence
• duchies of Friuli and Carnolia
• duchy of Meissen
• county of Weinsberg which I received as gift from the previous Kaiser

Otto's task will be uniting this into a powerful vassal kingdom under the HRE.

Getting advanced warning that I'm about to die soon really helped make this an orderly transition

Otto is on his way to kingship, but his hold on power is not secure - hostile Kaiser, Pope, or other vassals could easily destroy what duke Werner built