Dubhlinn Dynasty

I picked up Crusader Kings 3 last week. May have been a mistake, given the 30+ hours already spent in play, plus watching videos and reading the wiki. Ah well. Here's the story of my first post-tutorial playthrough. I started as the Earl of Dubhlinn because one video suggested that it was an interesting start, and the terrain of Ireland was somewhat familiar from the tutorial. Earl Murchad (1066)Rather quickly inherited Leinster, which I think was the point of the 'interesting start' video. Then in rapid succession gained Athelone and Oriel. That gave our earl 4 counties, over his limit, and the right to create the Petty Kingdom of Meath — which he did not. Having four sons and knowing something about the confederate partition laws (maybe I'm wrong), he held off and so each of his sons inherited a single county and no ducal title. Maybe I was wrong about that and it'd have made no difference, apart from him spending the gold. Toward the end of his reign, King Malcolm of Alba invaded…