Okay so I can't guarantee that I won't miss important detail in this first write-up
also it's non-chronological because I write in what comes to mind first and not the actual course of events completely linearly (but it's not too bad)
About 15 years have passed
First off most of the family heraldries are just black for me so I the first thing I did was redisigning the van Vlaandern one because prioirites
It has french, dutch and holy roman symbols and a dove on green because I couldn't find anything englishy
(Get's a little bit redisgned later so the spear-thing looks less janky)
During the first few years the bishop in england created another three or four duchies, so revoking all of them is pretty eeeehhhhhhhh now and I haven't made any progress on that
So I win Normandy (and later scotland takes the king of England's last holding in actual england) and because demesne limit I give it to one of my brothers because I couldn't find any better candidates
in my experience landed relatives usually try to take your titles so I rarely do it
right before I did that I gave the Braunschweig county to another count there because I'm a dum-dum
it at least made one vasall pleased
also I gave the same guy the duchy of Saxony which was kinda stupid because now I can't vote for emperors :/
I was to focused on making happy vasalls...
Also it's kinda lame but that crusade for Normandy was the majority of the territorial expansion during my reign so far...
Anyway I give a bunch of gold and honerary titles to my vasalls to please them. I also get my chancellor to better relations with several of them. except giving one guy the duchy of tolouse (which I usurped later) there wasn't anything particularily clever I did to better my relations to my vasalls, but there hasn't been any revolts against me so I guess I did a good job?
the guy I mentioned
I also made a lot of retinues so my finances weren't brilliant for the first years (got less than 1 gold a month, but I didn't go in minus)
this compositions is probably terrible
I didn't like my wife so I plottet to kill her
despite the high plot power it took a long time to kill her, so she actually gave me a son despite the plot being revealed (also had a daughter from before I started playing)
ROLE PLAY IS DEAD
so as mentioned my plot to kill my wife was revaled (multiple times, actually...) which has been a stain on my name ever since
I marry this woman instead. I was torn between her, a woman with high diplomatic, a young girl with decent diplo and steward and quick trait, and a princess with a strong claim to the byzantine empire, but landed on this one (because steward)
she eventually gave me my second son
After many years of tossing money and titles on vassals and giving them lower vassals they want, I get high crown authority in France
Now I just need to get positive relations with all my vasalls to make France primogeniture
easier said than done :/
I haven't made England yet(title was destroyed when scottish king took the last county the english king had), because I want to get primogeniture in France first, because I believe that England then will have primogeniture succession as well (same goes for crown authority level)
unfourtunately it's not going as well in Aquitane, where very few are supporting raising the crown autority to
medium. I actually kinda hate that the kingdom of Aquitane is a thing, and personally kinda want to destroy it, but gavelkind titles can't be destroyed so those of you who want me not to do that can sleep soundly at night.
BTW at some point I conquered the territory of one of the small independant realms in de Jure Aquitane and took Vermandois from the duke of upper Burgundy, and that's basically all the rest of the territorial expantion I have done :/
got a third son along the way
also at some point the emperor appoints me as chancellor
I have also plotted to kill him, and being chancellor gives me a lot of power, but very few are joining the plot so it hasn't gone anywhere
I eventually realise I should try to retake Flandern, so I send my chancellor to fabricate claims. Since I only have two of the six counties in de jure Flandern I realise I need to do two wars before I can usurp, so when I see I can get someone in my realm to get the county of Artois (because of claim) I do it. I was hoping that he'd be my vasall at the end of it.
After a not very long, but rather bloody war (at least half of my retinues died because they where attacked when I wasn't looking
) it turns out that didn't happen and the new count of Artois only answers to the emperor
however, this new count of Artois starts a faction (very bottom)
now it's getting interesting
one of my sisters was shortly after wed to the king of Hungary, and my daughter is married to the duke of Swabia, so I hope I somehow can get the means to take down the emperor and usurp the throne through warfare. But I think I'll wait until the retinues recover, and hopefully find a good opening to attack (like for example the emperor ends up in war against Polnd, which has happened a few times)
For the record the emperor at the time of me getting the throne died early, and his son has been emperor since
to round up this update, IIRC we've had duke Robrecht the great, his son duke Robrecht the monk, his son Rollo the shadow, and now his grandson
