My entire realm was at risk of passing outside our dynasty because my own son and successor was a fool. With disgust I realized that while I had been conquering new realms I had not paid sufficient attention to the doings under my own roof.

Even worse, he had allowed his bastard - who was legally not of our house at all - to become his heir!

In lust, he had sired his own first son not with his wife but with a young unmarried trollop in his own court. When I returned home from my years of campaigning I realized with horror that all I had wrought had been imperiled by the licentiousness and poor judgment of my oldest son, Prince Mael-Maedoc, Duke of Leinster and scion of the Kingdom of Ireland. I knew my remaining days above this soil were short, precious, and I looked forward to enjoying them in prosperity and peace. From my castle in County Tyrconnell - the same bastion whence my father started our family’s march to power almost a century before - I surveyed the entire emerald isle at my command. A hale and venerable 68 years of age, with nine children my issue, I surveyed my kingdom with pride. “The Great,” they called me - King Flann I, unifier of Ireland.