What's the point of count tier vassal bishops?

[kingzombee]

In my current run I'm trying to get the 7 centuries and iron crown achievements as well as restore the Roman empire. At the moment the byzantine emperor has inherited Italy and subsequently created a prince bishop then granted me him as a vassal, I've never had this kind of vassal before how can I best use him?

[Sergent H]

nothing much : no much troops nor tax if he prefer pope to you.
Revoke him would be the best

[kingzombee]

He's orthodox and hates me so I guess I'll just try and get rid of him I have enough disloyal vassals now that I was suddenly appointed theme of the aegean isles

[Ea0]

If Catholic, Prince-Bishops (count rank) get a high Secular Power, Prince-Archbishops (duke rank) even more. They are more likely to get appointed as Cardinal, useful if you have Free Investiture.
If Orthodox, they're probably useless.

[pi73r]

Well, they aren't really great but here's what they are good for:
Compared to feudal vassals:
-more money
-piety
-less dangerous since they don't really make alliances and with free ivnestiture you can apoint them

Compared to republics:
- better troops
-easier to keep good opinion
-piety

You could probably harsh tax np if your character was a saint.

[kaiyl_kariashi]

he's orthodox...they don't pay anyone but their liege.

Bishop vassals are kind of a mix between a feudal and a republic. They have average everything, average income, average levy, average defensiveness etc.

and unlike republic vassals, clergy doesn't get a -30% for being a vassal of Feudal/Republic/Tribe/Nomad.

If you're catholic or fratecelli, if they like their pope better than you they provide their tax and levy to him instead.

For everyone else as long as they like you, you'll get your amount required by law, but they'll give more if they really like you.


if you have conclave, having a really strong vassal bishop is nice as non-bishop landed characters can't occupy the clergy advisor slot so you'll always have at least 1 angry powerful vassal since there's an open slot but they can't occupy it.


As Orthodox, once you get to King level, if you make a vassal bishop duke level or higher, he becomes a patriarch and gains additional powers to do stuff like grant divorces or excommunicate orthodox rulers within your realm (kind of like an Anti-pope, but none of the downsides).

[kingzombee]

The idea of having a pet patriarch sounds sick. I'm working on the kingdom of Sicily and just freshly converted to orthodox after forcing the waldensian heresy to take over catholicism by marrying cultists into every powerful foreign leader I could find. Should I switch back to waldensian and ignore the patriarch route since there is no waldensian religious head

[Firsty]

he can pray for god to smack the greed out of you, you wastrel

[hurepoix]

If you are a catholic ruler with free investure have an archbishopery instead a duchy is a great advantage. You will be able to choose the next archbishop. Usually you will choose a docile one. It allows you to have a quiet duke and you have not to worry about succession. If you re still in salic law you can even nominate a son (except the first one) to eliminate him from the succession and avoid your personals fiefs to split.