The previous owner was me - I was count of Malaga. In the event, if it were to be inherited out of the realm I should still get a notice at the top of the screen, but I got nothing. I suspect republican shenanigans; both Genoa and Pisa are poking around down there.
1229
My son and heir needed to take some real responsibility, so I granted him the County of León and also made him Duke of León. I hope this doesn’t interfere with his other duty of giving me a grandson.
As expected, the Duchess of Badajoz came and took the County of Badajoz away from García. He is now a prince without a land. He should have accepted my offer of vassaliation while he had a chance. I would have let him keep his county.
1230
Onwards to Portucale. As I mentioned before, my chancellor found some interesting documents while we were at war there. We’re going to war there again, but this time to assert my claim by force.
1231
(What has come over the king? He writhes, spits, speaks in tongues. As if he has been possessed by a foul demon. I hope this isn’t a spell cast by his enemies. - Queen Benoîte of Aragon)
Ha! The Duchy is mine! That drunkard Martín didn’t know what hit him. Hahaha! Now to take care of that fat pig in Badajoz. I should just take their land but they’re conducting yet another one of their little wars. I’ll wait until they’re weak and exhausted. Heeheeho!
Duke Osorio has grown lazy and entirely too kind, not good traits for a spymaster. So I replaced him with Count Luís of Toledo. He doesn’t like me much and I don’t like him, but you know what they say about keeping your enemies close. To keep him even closer, I made him my cupbearer. Hoho!
You know, I’m King of Aragon and León and Galicia. Why should I just be a Duke of Castille? Bam! No more duchy. I’m King of Castille! Wooooo!
[spoiler]In truth, I was getting a opinion penalty with my vassals for too many held duchies. So I “promoted” myself from duke to king of Castille. I didn’t expect the Fatimids (see below) to cave quite so quickly.
And, yes, my guy is indeed Possessed.[/spoiler]
1232
It is time. Time to take back the lands that were once ours. Time for us to war upon the infidel. Time for a Holy War for Seville!
Alelelelelelelelelelele!
After a short and glorious war the infidel caved. Who is your god now? Ahaha! Ahahahaha!
Pics:
Fatimid vs Vahhabid in the east. The Fatimid sultan was losing the war against the Vahhabid shah, so it seemed like a good time to strike.
Portucale and Seville acquired. I am one county away from forming the Empire of Hispania.
You own 15 territories for a max demesne of 8?
I think it was 25/8 right after I had conquered Seville. With the minor holdings I just used the “create new vassal” button, but the counties need to be given to real people in my realm. I was tired and wanted to report my accomplishment, so I held off on giving away anything more until the next session.
A full report is forthcoming, but I just had to show everyone this picture now: http://i.imgur.com/0Fbzkfv.jpg
Told you that heir was kickass.
1232
I’ve finished disbursing all the lands of Seville. All I got was this lousy haircut.
My daughter-in-law Marina stands to be come queen of all the Spanish lands when her husband Bernardo inherits everything. So why does she seek to put Duke Artau on the throne of Aragon? And people say I’m possessed. Ha!
1233
There were still some small independent Sunni holdings in Algeciras. The new Count Muño was still unable to take control of them, so I did it for him.
1234
At last! My chancellor has discovered some papers that prove Plasencia doesn’t belong to Duchess Dalia the Careless. The big bitch of Badajoz won’t know what hit her.
1235
Simon my brother-in-law is on the throne of England? When did this happen? He’s calling me to war. I’m still dealing with dowdy Duchess Dalia, so I’ll send help when I can.
The Duchess Dalia asked the pope to excommunicate me. That terrible trollop doesn’t even know how to govern her own lands. That’s why there’s so much war here. I’ll show her how it’s done.
The Kaiser declared war on me! He wants to make some point about keeping to the path of all that is holy and to replace me on the throne with my own son So I wrote a fulsome letter to the pope along with a large tithe, and the Bishop of Rome agreed to lift the excommunication. Without a casus belli, the emperor had to call off his troops.
12 March 1236
Know all men by these presents, on this day the twelfth of March in the year of our lord one thousand two hundred thirty-six, Jaime by the Grace of God King of Aragon, Castille, and all the Spains, Duke of Granada and Zaragoza, proclaims himself Emperor of Hispania. Let all good Christians be awed by his greatness. Let the infidel tremble before his might.
I made my son King of León and my steward King of Galicia. I am, of course, King of Castille and I shall remain King of Aragon for the time being.
1237
England! It was cold and rainy but a welcome change from the hot dusty clime of Iberia. Here I am in this northern land, helping my brother-in-law defend his realm. I’ll have to teach him about controlling uppity vassals.
The Fatimids are breaking up. One good thing about having kings and strong dukes as vassals is that they don’t need to consult with me. While I ‘vacation’ in England, they have taken the initiative to restore Beja to the realm.
1238
King Simon made peace with his vassals. Which is good since King Savary of France declared war to reclaim England. I wasn’t about to get involved in that and went home.
My son Bernardo, King of León was at the forefront at the Battle of Lisboa. I didn’t make it home in time to see him, but they tell me he acquited himself well.
I wasn’t willing to send Bernardo to the far north, but his younger brother could certainly go. The Duchess of Trøndelag is said to be quite attractive. I wish them well.
As if the Ilkhanate wasn’t enough, yet another mass of Mongols is coming. They call themselves the Golden Horde.
12 January 1239
**On the twelfth day of January in the year of Our Lord one thousand twelve hundred and thirty-nine, Jaime by the Grace of God Emperor of Hispania, King of Aragon & Castille, Duke of Castille & Granada & Zaragoza, Count of Burgos, Valladolid, Soria, Asturias de Satillana, Salamanca, Granada, Almería, Málaga, & Plasencia, died at the age of fifty-six. He ruled for forty-nine years.
The Emperor is dead, long live the Emperor!**
Pics:
The crowing of the emperor in 1236
Death of Emperor Jaime I
The Empire of Hispania in 1239
Direct vassals of the emperor
The world in 1239
I’ve sent the savefile to appleciders. My successor should be able to complete the conquest of the Iberian peninsula with little problem, unless the Fatimids come back with a vengeance. My predecessors and I have also managed to plant members of our dynasty all around the known world so you’ll have some opportunities outside Hispania. Good luck!
Congratulations!
That was obviously a great reign (although Rosello still isn’t ours as it should 
). I’ll be excited to see where Appleciders will go from there.
Congratulations on the empire! Of course, it’s all downhill from here… 
By the way, what happens if the player gets usurped by their heir? Do we finish out the lifetime of the former king/emperor (probably short and uneventful in prison), or pass the game on to the next player?
I was getting tired of having to continuously monitor the internal politics of both France and England in the hopes of grabbing the county while they were distracted. I’m sure that’s why my guy died.
You keep playing as long as you have lands to control. You’ll get a succession screen which will tell you when to pass the game to the next player.
Incidentally for taking notes while playing, I’ve found that running the game in windowed mode was very useful. It’s much easier to switch between the game and your favorite text editor. First, change the resolution in-game to something smaller than full resolution. Exit the game then you’ll need to find your “…\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings II” folder. Open the file settings.txt and change the line “fullscreen=yes” to “fullscreen=no”. Voilà!
OK, I’m up and running. Pleonast is on deck.
I have only one question: Who made the captain of a mercenary band a landed vassal? I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, it’s just something that would never, ever have occurred to me.
EDIT: Oh, it’s titular, not landed. How do you do that? You sure can raise his force cheaply.
Before unpausing:
Why are you holding so many Duchies personally? Or maybe you had granted some of them to your heir (me), and so they’ve combined. We’re getting some big penalties from holding too many elector titles and from having too large a demense, so I’m granting them to my son Jaime, who I’m also nominating as my heir. I hope he can be relied upon to vote for himself. Doing so removed most of my council, who I had not actually looked at yet, so I’ve appointed so pretty good (all 17+) folks, many of whom had an ambition to reach that position, so they’re pretty happy with me. The only oldster is the Marshal, the Duke of Asturias, who’s both not very good at his job and really upset with me. He’s ambitious, he’s dangerous, he’s going to be looking at an assassin’s blade pretty soon.
Here we go!
They were already like that when I got them. You can hire them cheaply but they usually won’t have enough troops to make a difference; often, they won’t have any troops at all. The White Company were my mercenary band of choice, or the Knights Templar when fighting infidels.
A couple of tips from your father: Your wife hates you and you need to watch out for the Duke of Aragon.
x-posted
I made you King of León and gave you the Duchy of León as well. You may want to give those to your heir. That should leave you with the duchies of Castille and Granada as well as the titular Duchy of Zaragoza. You may just want to give the latter title away.
At the end of my reign I had so many relationship bonuses that I didn’t mind having a few penalties. Your experience may be different.
I don’t have Crusader Kings II, but I’m enjoying following along. Sounds like a lot of fun.
Perhaps we can have another one of these when EU IV comes out. 
Sorry for the delays, folks; I’ve been busy and had computer issues. But in just the first couple years: Holy factions, Batman! One got up to 80% before I caught the leader, the Countess of Toledo, backing a foul plot to kill her own husband. She desisted upon my insistence, but not two weeks later, she was back at it again and this time refused to quit! I imprisoned her and revoked her only title, thereby entirely removing two dangerous factions. And no, that’s not hypocritical, even if I did assassinate my own wife. She was bad, and I’m the Emperor, which makes it totally ok.
A quick Holy War managed to snag us Beja when the Fatimids weren’t looking. Most of the rest of my time has been spent managing factions, which has been fairly successful. But just as I was ready to take a break, I get a notice that a Jihad has been declared on… Andalusia! Stay tuned, folks. This might get ugly.