Maintaining a Dynasty, Part 1

In my review of Crusader Kings 2, I mentioned that the difficulty (and the uniqueness) of the game came from the fact that your own vassals and children will squabble over what is left of your empire when you kick the bucket.  Assuming you've overstretched, or you know your citizens are ready to pick up the pitchforks, here are a few things to keep in mind both before and during a crisis.

Here's part 1, what you can do before a crisis.



Pretenders
On your Law screen (the gavel at the top left hand of the UI, near your portrait), pay close attention to pretenders.  Do any of them actually have the resources (and the claims) to challenge your chosen heir for the throne?  If so, you might want to assassinate them.  A quick knifing now can lead to a lot less of a headache later -- and if you fail, oh well!  You're expecting to die soon anyway.  It's not like their opinion of you as a ruler makes much of a difference once you're in the ground.

Foreign Pretenders
As much as Duke Jerk McJerkface might be a pain, he's still a vassal.  Do a quick check of who has a claim to your throne by looking at your daughters.  Are any actually in a position to challenge you for the throne?  If so, you might consider either the assassin approach, or marshaling your troops in a preemptive war to get them under a peace treaty.  The treaty will hold for ten years, giving you enough of a barrier to solidify your ground and approach them again.  If they break the treaty, and they're of the same religion, they get quite a poor reputation, which can influence allies to come to your aid.  Save up some coin to hire mercenaries, in any case.

Rebellion
Rebels are a nasty bunch, and they have a penchant for spoiling things.  If you have no foreign pretenders, raise your personal levies (through the military screen).  If you're expecting your landed nobles to rebel, get your coffers ready -- if you can assassinate the duke, the revolt ends, and things quiet down quickly.  There's more to it, however.  Is your chosen heir competent?  Do you have a territory you've recently conquered?  Grant it to him as a kingdom.  Let him start fighting the pretenders early, so that he starts fixing those relationships and doesn't get attacked on all fronts at once.

Religion
 Always, always, always have your court clergyman improving relations with your religion.  It helps to keep you from being excommunicated, and it converts the locals.  Build cathedrals when you can.  And, the most important part (no, not searching out people of differing religion and slipping them a knife -- though it can work wonders, it can backfire) -- hand out duchy titles in every region where your religion isn't the only region.  Because each duke has his own council, he's got someone out converting on double-duty.  Given that there's a significant revolt risk increase when your religion doesn't match that of your subjects, this is a godsend.

Distribution of Titles
Worried about claimants stealing titles or for some reason have Gavelkind as your chosen succession plan?  Go ahead and distribute titles as evenly as possible.  Give everyone a county -- only one.  Give your male relatives duchies, so that in case they go wrong, you haven't lost your dynasty, and you have a chance to get it back without revoking the title and making all of your vassals mad.  I suggest getting them married before you give them a title, so that you have control over who and when they marry.

To be continued in Part 2, how to survive succession