Theocracy Kingdom

[SkiRich]

As one of the most bizarre events to happen to me in this game ...
I watched as the european continent was at war with dozens of little fifedoms fighting each other, revolts, etc.
My empire being relatively stable and having a powerful poland expanding east I wasnt affected, yet I kept getting vassals over the years in the middle of europe due to only external wars in my realm.
Ok, fastforward, one tiny bishopric in my empire du jure went to war with a the king of Aquitaine which was at war with 4 other people and won. It was a claim press.
Bam, I have a new king under me owning a massive chunk of europe, and I can make 5 new titles.
Its this King Bishop, and now Aquitane is a theocracy.

So question ... Keep the theocracy, usurp the title and give it a feudal lord, or create all these little kingdoms again (they drifted a long time ago) and make smaller kingdoms.
Any pros/cons to a kingdom theocracy?

[SkiRich]

I see one so far.
The pope is gonna pick the heir, since there is no heir and I at the moment havent been able to change investiture.
I believe, correct me if I am wrong, if the pope picks the heir the kingdom goes to the papacy on succession or become independent since its not du jure part of my empire except that bishopric back in my lands. Oddly, thats the only held property of the king-bishop.

[Azoniar]

If hes your vassal i dont think he will become independent, since the papacy is king tier he can never become a vassal of the pope.

[Meewec]

he should remain your vassal, the only time he should be able to get free is if you were over your vassal limit when you died or if he successfully rebels against you. i would aim for getting that investiture change asap so you can make that king an anti-pope and then press his claim for the papacy. otherwise you have to worry about his opinion of you vs the pope to determine where he'll pay his taxes.

[galadon3]

That or revoke the title and make it a feudal kingdom instead.

The fact that the pope picks the next king-bishop doesn't mean he gets the kingdom, basically as long as papal investiture is on the pope chooses bishops no matter at wich rank.

One warning though don't take free investiture without pressing for an anti-pope. The pope really HATES free investiture and you are pretty likely to get an excommunication comming your way if you just set it.

most likely something of a wink to the historical Investiture Controversy

( if interested in the historical model for this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investiture_Controversy )

[Malus]

Depends on which dlcs you have. I kinda do not understand what do you mean by

Originally posted by SkiRich:

So question ... Keep the theocracy, usurp the title and give it a feudal lord, or create all these little kingdoms again (they drifted a long time ago) and make smaller kingdoms.

The pros to a theocratic vassal opposed to a feudal one, is that you get more % taxes out of them. If you have conclave or legacy of rome, this translates into a bigger army.

Another advantage is that theocracies have lover change of passing out of your realm, as theocratic rulers are less likely to marry and produce kids, with certain religions they are even forbidden to marry and are disinherited

A disadvantage would be that they cannot inherit land from outside to bring into your realm and that their successions are hard to controll unless youre both Catholic/Fraticelli , but that brings a whole of other big disadvantages. So you have a harder time educating the heir with the correct traits.

Another disadvantage would be that they give less levies, but that is not really a problem if you have legacy of rome or conclave enabled.

A neutral thing (considered advantage by some and disadvantage by others) is that theocracies tend to be less aggressive and forge less claims (dont quote me on that, i am not sure)

Also you should keep the theocracy vassalized even if the pope chooses successor.