Vingoldas, Part Two: Things Fall Apart
Vingoldas might be Compassionate, but I was not.
Zygimantas had a single daughter to pass on his territory to, Kenna Palemonaitis. And while Kenna was still young, she had not yet produced an heir of her own. So should any sort of misfortune occur to Kenna, the counties of Yatvyagi and Trakai stood to be inherited by Vingoldas. And so robbed of a chance to exact some kind of vengeance upon the instigators of the rebellion, I decided to take it out on Zygimantas' heir.
Perhaps the stress of such a scheme took its toll on Vingoldas in different ways, and took comfort in an excess of food and drink.
![[Image: palemonaitis%20-%2003.02%20-%20obese.jpg?raw=1]](https://www.dropbox.com/s/sy473n9gxqhs24z/palemonaitis%20-%2003.02%20-%20obese.jpg?raw=1)
![[Image: palemonaitis%20-%2003.02%20-%20drunk.jpg?raw=1]](https://www.dropbox.com/s/2im718n3rkobe83/palemonaitis%20-%2003.02%20-%20drunk.jpg?raw=1)
Somewhat ironically, this was what produced the exact method for which the scheme was completed. In his decent into drink, Vingoldas found that Kenna also liked to quench her thirst in wine. And all of the plotting came down to one simple drunken afternoon in the cellar:
The whole of the duchy was now under Vingoldas' rule. It was here that everything seemed to be going exactly the way the emperor had hoped: his daughters and sisters married off to secure powerful alliances, the rebellion of his uncles was put down successfully, his son and heir was King of England, his brothers were all friendly and held kingdoms of their own.
It all began with the Kingdom of Poland. That poison pill Skirmantas had worried about when he conquered it decades ago, it was in constant revolt and in-fighting. And now again, with the first set of wars put down a new revolt came up against Kesgaila. His levies still depleted from the last war, Kesgaila had no hope to win this on his own. But he had allies: his other brothers. As emperor Vingoldas seemed unable to step into the fray, but Tovtivilas and Lutuveras both came to their brother's call and sent forces to put down the Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia yet again.
The war continued on, and it was two years of slowly building up funds and using them to build logging camps in the newly acquired counties. Lithuania was slowly building upwards, but it was not rich and the progress was slow. But the next blow would be a devastating one
But that was not the last tragedy to befall the Palemonaitis family. The Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia would continue to add wins against the combined forces of the three brother-kings, and in one victory captured King Lutuveras.
He won his war, lowering crown authority again and taking prestige from King Kesgaila. Then he tortured the captured king.
Vingoldas swore revenge, and immediately moved to imprison the Duke. With little chance to succeed the plot to imprison Duke Karol failed, and the duke then rose up in rebellion.
As our forces were gathering to meet the Duke, King Lutuveras died of the after-effects of his torture:
Our forces met the Duke's at Kalisz, and in victory we captured the traitorous Duke
He was punished appropriately for his crimes:
Vingoldas was sorely tested by these events. The stress of his brother dying, of his son's disease, and of testing his compassionate nature with these killings, was all finally too much and the Emperor suffered a break.
Vingoldas returned to his drink and his food for comfort. But this was not the end of the bad news.
Ringaudas had still yet to produce a child with the Queen of England, and now as a leper the queen had no longer taken him to her bed chamber.
Further, she had used his disease to petition the pope for a divorce. The pope would accept, and Ringaudas would be stripped of his crown and yet stayed in the court at Middle Saexe to receive care from the English physicians.
Looking for some bit of good news, Vingoldas decided to invade Smolensk. The northern lands from Ruthenia had splintered off and there were several easy counties available and without allies. Vingoldas could reclaim some fame as a warrior, like his grandfather he reasoned. But in the meantime there were still feasts to be eaten and wine to be drank.
It turned out there was too much.
And that too much drink and food turned out to be more deadly than leprosy.
*****
Other Happenings:
- Lithuanian Culture discovered Gavelkind, the last of the Tribal era technologies. We are currently working to open up Early Medieval tech, and that is still a little over a year away
- England called me to defend a rebellion in their lands shortly after Zygimantas' death. My forces raised, and I sailed for English shores only for the war to be over by the time I arrived.
