The Reign of King Harald
King Harald only received fifteen votes when he was elected King of the union; the lowest amount of votes ever received by the winning king. The twenty-two jarls had a small celebration afterward for their new king, but in the middle of the party Harald left. A messenger arrived from Harald's close friend, King Hadd of Akershus. The messenger came up to him during the party and told him that many of the Norwegian kings had left Francia to return to Norway. Immediately after receiving the news, Harald left the hall with two royal guards. The three men mounted horses and rode east. The other jarls were too intoxicated to care that their king had just left to do battle. When Harald became the king of Norway he had only won by a single vote and many Norwegian jarls were upset when he became king. The fact that many of the kings and their armies left Francia for Norway before the end of the war made Harald suspicious. He said he was returning to his kingdom to make sure the were no problems with the army, but he knew that his countrymen were trying to stage a coup while he was away in Stockholm. King Harald and his guards, forced to change horses twice along the way, reached Oslo in only a day. When he reached his kingdom, it was quiet; no soldiers, no treasonous jarls, no ships in the river. The royal guards met their king as his entered the city, My liege, why have you returned so early from Stockholm? King Harald explained the situation to his men and began to make preparations to defend the city. Even enlisting the help of the people of Oslo, Harald's forces had the disadvantage against the hardened army returning from Francia. Fortifications were constructed and ships were prepared for battle on the river. Eight days after Harald's arrival, a scout came riding into Oslo from the south and burst into the hall. In between breaths he said, My liege, a large armada of ships is approaching. The king rushed out of the hall and toward the docks. He spied the armada about ten miles downriver. King Harald called for all soldiers and civilians to prepare for battle. The ships were only about a mile downriver by the time Harald's forces had dug in. Then the lead ship broke ahead of the armada and raised a white flag. Harald was confused by this act, but kept his soldiers on the alert. Then from around the bend in the river, another armada of ships appeared, slightly larger than the first. As the ship bearing the white flag approached the docks, the others drifted in the water to join the other armada. Harald now even more confused, left the fortifications for the docks to meet the small party that had come ashore. A ten year old boy approached King Harald and bowed, I am King Kjotvi of Akershus. My father's last wish was to protect the Kingdom of Norway from these traitors. Hence I am here to aid you in the fighting. The two armadas collided downriver and even from miles away, it was obvious that a large battle was underway. Harald turned back to the boy, I owe you and your father my gratitude King Kjotvi, but now is not the time for talk. He ordered the royal guard to prepare the longboats for battle and climbed aboard the ship with Kjotvi. The soldiers on board rowed until the ship was within arrowshot of the battle and then took up their shields and weapons. The battle unfolded before King Harald. Ships were lashed together and berserkers were pouring from one ship to another. Many ships were on fire or simply breaking apart in the river. Harald's ship crashed into an enemy ship, piercing its hull. The surprised soldiers tried to jump from their sinking ship into Harald's, but were met with swords and axes. The enemy ship sunk and Harald moved on the next ship. The battle continued all day until the river was littered with shredded masts and broken shields. Almost one thousand men were left at the bottom of the river at the end of the day, but Harald stood at the bow of his ship triumphant.
It was only a day after King Björn had died and the Norse army had been laying siege to Brest for almost a month when the Carolingians launched a counterattack. In the middle of the night, the defensive forces sneaked out of the city and set fire to the Norse siege equipment. Seeing the blazing fires, the raiders rushed to the siege equipment and caught the Carolingians on their heels. The result was a slaughter. Full of rage and adrenaline, the Norse soldiers continued and rushed into the undefended city and burned it to the ground. The next day, many of the soldiers loaded up onto their ships and headed back to Scandinavia.
The Norse explorations uncovered another distant people who called themselves the Tamil. Relations with the Tamils were short lived as the exploration party continued on.
Trade relations with the Byzantines deteriorated due their persistent wars with the Abbasids. The Norse economy began to suffer so King Harald established trade with the Holy Roman Empire, even if there was still bad blood between the Saxons and the Danes. The merchants running these short distance trade routes would form what would be called the Hanseatic League.
Abbasid cavalry trying to flank around and attack the Byzantines from the west got lost in northern Europe and attacked the German city of Hamburg. The Danish took advantage of this and recaptured Holstein from the Saxons.
In preparation for an invasion of England, King Harald conscripted thousands of soldiers from all over Scandinavia and Francia, but mostly Sweden. Harald's policies greatly angered the people of Sweden and the tensions eventually boiled into a riot in Stockholm. When the riot neared the great hall, King Harald called upon the royal guard to put it down by any means necessary. In the end, over one hundred Stockholmians and twenty royal guards lay dead in the streets.
Even after the riot in Stockholm, Harald continued with conscripting his army. By the end of his reign, the Norse army was larger than it ever had been. Because of this King Harald's unpopularity continued to grow in Sweden and many of the local kings and jarls grew to resent him. So it was not all too surprising when he was found drowned at the bottom of a large vat of mead after a party in the hall of a Swedish jarl.
! Also we have a 10 turn compulsory peace with Britain so we have to wait whether we want or not.
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