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Feudalism (Guide) - Crusader Kings II Wiki

Feudalism (Guide)
From Crusader Kings II Wiki
(Redirected from The Feudal System (Guide))
Feudalism is a system for distributing land and responsibilities, typical of the middle ages. Under feudalism, rulers grant parts of their personal property
(their demense) to vassals, in exchange for a cut of the vassal's taxes and troops. Thus, it is a type of decentralization that makes ruling easier, at the
expense of personal power. Vassals can in turn distribute lands to vassals of their own, which is called subinfeudation. In Crusader Kings II, a baron
owns a holding, the smallest land unit. A baron may be vassal to a count, who may be vassal to a duke, who may be vassal to a king, who may in turn be
vassal to an emperor. A vassal's direct ruler is called their liege. Any landowner can be a vassal to anyone of higher rank, so that a count can for
example also be vassal to an emperor, with no duke or king in between. Count-level rulers and above can be independent; answerable to nobody.
Rulers derive their power primarily from their vassals; a king whose dukes rebel against him is king in name only. It is even possible for a single duke to
be more powerful than the king, because they have a wealthier demensnea good example of this would be the relationship between the King of France
and the Duke of Aquitaine in 1066, where the duke of Aquitaine has massive personal holdings and a larger power-base than his liege.
Proper management of vassals is crucial for any ruler whose realm is too large to own personally. A ruler's vassals must be powerful enough to defend
against foreign invasion, yet weak enough that they can not rebel and depose their liege.

Contents
1 Income from vassals
2 Vassal levies
3 Rebellion
4 Strategy
4.1 Keeping nobles happy
4.2 Distributing power
4.3 Summary

Income from vassals

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Main article: Economy (Guide)

Every vassal has the potential to pay tax to their liege, and how much of their income they give up is dependent on three factors:
1. Their income
2. Their liege's tax laws
3. Their opinion of their liege
The first factor is simple: the more a vassal earns, the more they can potentially pay you. Secondly, laws decide what percentage of their income they're
supposed to pay. However, they'll only pay the legal maximum if they have a high enough opinion, which is the third factor. Thus, a ruler can boost their
own come by investing in buildings, setting higher tax laws, or making vassals happier. Because high tax law decreases opinion, a balance must be struck
between the two.
Note that Catholic bishops will pay all of their taxes to the pope if their opinion of the pope is greater or equal to their opinion of their liege.

Vassal levies
Main article: Levies (Guide)
Vassals have a legal obligation to provide troops to their liege. Like taxes, how much of their own levy they will provide depends on three factors:
1. Their manpower
2. Their liege's levy laws
3. Their opinion of their liege
These three factors work essentially the same way as they do for tax. The more powerful a vassal, the higher the levy laws, and the higher their opinion of
you, the more military power they'll have. Note that crown law and levy laws both determine the percentage vassals must provide their liege, but they do
not stack; whichever of the two requires the largest percentage takes precedence. And as with taxation, Catholic bishops won't provide their liege with
any troops if they prefer the pope.
Because opinion determines both levy size and a vassal's chance of rebellion, an unpopular liege is a lot of danger. They risk a situation whereby part of
their realm rebels, while the rest of the realm provides very few troops to counter the rebellion.

Rebellion
Main article: Rebellion
Vassals will not always like their liege. As described above, this hurts the liege both economically and military, but there's one final aspect to the vassalliege relationship: the vassal attempting to end it.
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If a vassal is pushed too far, or they're simply too ambitious, they will rise in rebellion against his liege, and forcefully attempt to gain what they want. A
successful rebellion can result in anything from independence to reduced crown authority, depending on what sparked it. Because vassals can only rebel
against their direct liege, ruler need not be worried about vassals of vassals' opinions. If a vassal's vassals win a war of independence, they become
vassals of the original liege instead. E.g., if a count rebels against a duke who has a king over them, success will result in the count becoming a direct
vassal of the king.
A vassal's chance of rebellion is affected by several factors that are added together, rather than multiplied. The base chance is 0%, and the factors
modifying it are:
Negative opinion - Increases chance of rebellion by as many percent
Positive opinion - Decreases chance of rebellion by half as many percent
Shared culture - Decreases chance of rebellion by 15%
Shared religion - Decreases chance of rebellion by 15%
De jure liege - Decreases chance of rebellion by 15%
Pretender - Increases chance of rebellion by 50%
Crown authority - Modifies chance of rebellion by -20% to 20%, increasing by 10% per level
Hence, characters of the same culture and religion holding de jure territory make the most loyal vassals.

Strategy
Having a stable realm requires keeping nobles happy and preventing any one noble from becoming too powerful. Keeping vassals happy discourages
them from rebelling in the first place, while keeping power spread out makes it unlikely that a rebellion will succeed.

Keeping nobles happy

One way to keep nobles happy, is by bribing them. Gifting them gold through the diplomacy screen will increase their opinion for 5 years, the bonus
depending on the gifter's diplomacy attribute. This method is not ideal, but can sometimes this can make the difference between surviving a succession or
not, or between winning a war and suffering defeat. Faction members are likely to rebel, so gifting them gold is wise.
Granting honorary titles is another way of improving opinion. There are two honorary titles which increase opinion by 15, and four titles which increase
opinion by 10, two of which can be granted to both genders. Honorary titles and their opinion modifier persist until death.
Handing out titles to a vassal is a good way to make them happy very quickly; it increases opinion by 20 to 100 per title, depending on its tier, and the
effect will persist for 10 years. However, vassals become more powerful in the process, making them that much more dangerous if they (or their
descendants) rebel.
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Distributing power
The larger a realm becomes, the more titles need to be distributed, and the less significant the liege's individual strength becomes. It is critical that a liege
hands out titles in such a way that vassals stay loyal and any rebellions can be crushed.
First and foremost, titles should only be granted to people who share the liege's religion, and preferably their culture. Together these reduce the chance of
rebellion by 30%. It also avoids the "Foreigner", "Infidel", and "Heretic" opinion penalties.
It is also important to keep vassals weak. As a general rule, vassals should not control more than one duchy and the counties inside it. Particularly large
duchies should not be held completely by single vassals, especially if they are rebellious, but 2-4 county can generally be held directly. When distributing
land like this, it is important to keep inheritance in mind; granting a duchy each to a husband and wife may lead to the heir controlling both duchies when
they inherit.
Not forming ducal titles and holding individual counts as direct vassals is possible, but is more difficult to manage. In general, forming and distributing
duchy titles is a good idea because it increases prestige (which increases opinion). Holding only counts as vassals is a safe but more difficult option.
When distributing titles, keeping them inside the dynasty increases dynastic prestige. As dynasty members also get a +5 opinion bonus, they are also
somewhat more loyal.
Keeping the de jure structure in mind is important. Vassals are much less likely to rebel if they are vassals to their de jure liege, and vassals get opinion
penalties with their liege if the liege holds titles that (de jure) belong to that vassal. Hence, it is good to use "Transfer vassal" in the diplomacy screen so
that all direct vassals have their de jure vassals under them, keeping them happy.
Finally, whenever someone rebels and fails, their liege can revoke a single title from them without incurring an opinion penalty with vassals. This can be
used to strip a disloyal vassal of their power, and to keep power distributed across many different vassals. If there is no threat from abroad, intentionally
provoking certain vassals into rebellion can be used as a means to gain and redistribute their titles.

Summary
Keeping vassals happy and powerless keeps the liege powerful. Letting them get too strong and unhappy is a recipe for disaster. In short, to maintain a
stable realm:
Bribe powerful and unhappy vassals
Give out honorary titles to powerful and unhappy vassals
Give out landed titles as a last resort
Avoid giving titles to infidels and heretics
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Avoid giving titles to those of a different culture

Avoid giving vassals more than one duchy and a few counties in it
Try to keep titles within the dynasty
Don't put crown authority too high
Hold all de jure titles for the area
Form and distribute dukedoms
Revoke titles whenever it doesn't incur tyranny
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