Stuck in Tanistry Succesion Law. How can I avoid to lose half of my kingdom?

[Jofe]

I started a game as a count in Ireland. Eventually managed to conquer all of it and become king. Some time after that in a case of dumb luck I made a ramdom matrilineal marriage and my son in law ended inheriting more than half of Scotland. I went and made the Kingdom of Alba. The problem was that either Scotland or the newly formed Kingdom of Alba had tanistry succesion laws and so I got a heir that wasn't my son.

I went online and found people saying that tanistry was better than primogeniture because it gives you the most beloved character, so I let it run. Eventually my ruler died in battle while trying to get the rest of Scotland and got that heir and turned out I lost the Kingdom of Ireland becuase it went to the son of the previous character I had. How can I avoid losing this land since I can't change the succesion law?

[Velvet Waltz]

a) don't use your ruler in battles
b) if you want to hold more than one king-title, tanistry/feudal election is obviously a bad choice as you have to keep track on 2 different elections.Thus, either stick to primogeniture or one kingdom.

€: Also, did you usurp Scotland? If you create it, the succession laws usually match the ones from your former primary title will be applied

[Jofe]

Originally posted by jj_vita:

a) don't use your ruler in battles
b) if you want to hold more than one king-title, tanistry/feudal election is obviously a bad choice as you have to keep track on 2 different elections.Thus, either stick to primogeniture or one kingdom.

The problem is that it was already set to tanistry when I arrived and to change it I need High Crown Authority and since I already changed to Medium Crown Authority I can't change it till the next ruler.

[grasshopper]

When you hold more than one kingdom you need to pay attention to secession laws to make sure they don't go to seperate heirs when you die. You can accomplish this by either destroying extra titles (or not creating them in the first place) or by checking the laws of both and making sure they're pointing to the same heir.

On the kingdom laws screen you can switch between kingdoms and check what kind of secession they both have. If you match them both up to something like primogeniture or ultimogeniture they end up going to the same person. I personally like elective, and think it's fairly easy to control the heir since you're the one handing out elector titles, so you can get away with that (with some management). But if you have more than one kingdom you definitely do not want tanistry. Too many electors, too many eligible candidates, you never know what's going to happen.

Either ditch tanistry or destroy one of the titles.

[{110th}DoomedEagle(LegioDamno)]

This happened to me, I got the kingdom of Scotland by dieing and have the Irish tanistry heir set as the leader of Scotland. I then bum rushed England and set up the Empire of Britannia. (Note, I already had parts of Mercia and all of Wales.)

[Lemilys]

As Alba does not have gavelkind you should be able to destroy the title and then reform it. When you form it it will have the same succession law as your primary title (Ireland). Your Alba vassals won't like you for it but when it comes to succession sometimes you need to be brutal.

[Jofe]

Gonna try switching to elective monarchy and see if I can make it work. Tried destroying the title just to check and the problem is that it lowers the opinion of all of the vassals that form part if it, so gonna leave it as a last resort if I can't make elective work.

[truecore]

This is a problem built in to the game design in order to represent historic challenges the rulers of the period faced. For example, if we look at the historic reasons the Anglo-Saxons conquered England, it was because the Briton's were afflicted by a succession system that afforded heirs equitable parts of the land, similar to if you had 8 ducal titles, no king titles, and 8 sons in a gavelkind succession. This prevented the Britons from becoming strong.

In game, the only way to prevent your Kingdom from falling to a different heir or splitting apart to gavelkind is to send your secondborn and younger sons to join the Church. The best way to do this is to change your Investiture laws to Free before you make any plans to improve Crown Authority. When you believe your character is approaching his final years, appoint your unwanted children to be successors for various vassal bishops in your land under the Religion tab. This removes them from succession, even if they have not yet taken on the position as Bishop, and thus they can not inherit any titles. This is the only real way, and frankly the best way if you want to maintain relations with vassals, to prevent your Kingdom from falling apart after all your hard work. If you happen to die before they become Bishop, and your chosen heir gets all the titles, you can appoint a different successor and free up that family member for other work, like marrying him off for alliances. I believe, however, that you can not appoint married men to become Bishops.

Which is good, because generally you don't want to marry off excess male potentates int he game because it creates too many title claimants and creates instability in the future. This is also the best way to make sure that ugly dwarf firstborn son of your doesn't inherit the realm over your favorite thirdborn genius son under primogeniture succession. Just make sure you own enough counties with churches. Also, remember you cannot appoint children as successors to Bishops. If you die and still have children under 16, while all other sons are successors, those children under sixteen , even if they would normally be eleventh in line for succession, will get titles and lands in gavelkind succession if all sons before them save one are not eligible for succession.

Otherwise, you have to deal with the realistic fact that a single man cannot so drastically shape the landscape AND politics of an entire realm in one lifespan. No man, not even William the Conqueror, could do that.

[Jofe]

Well looks like it will work. Had to murder the main candidate because he had his vote (he had 3 duchies because of random son-in-law matrilineal marriage who inherited half of Scotland, he was supposed to have 4 but took one from the previous ruler because of a rebellion he led) and one of another duke that supported him because they were of the same culture. But after murdering him the other duke supported my son and also managed to create another duchy and gave it to someone of my culture and that duke also supports my son.

[SPAMbuca]

Can you destroy one of the kingdom titles?

[oldhanz]

bahh half the fun of the game is getting relatives into seats of power. I had a retarded welsh brother with no hope, inherit the duchy of Tuscanny and then he went ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and became the king of italy.