HABEMVS PAPAM! Papal States and Catholicism overhaul, and much more!

[Van Kasten]

Hello there!
This thread is something I anticipated for a long time. I wanted to post it before, but I decided to wait for today's dev diary before. Central Italy was perhaps the most dynamic part of Italy during the first half of EU4's timeframe, and I want the game to better represent that.

Now, what are the current problems with Central Italy (and with the Papal States in particular):
- centralized Papal States in 1444 -> extremely ahistorical
- the Papal States is a state like any other, no, even worse, since it has no access to the Papal Influence related mechanics and the Catholic bonuses.

This will change. With this suggestion, the Papal States are gonna be destroyed and reforged, and the Catholic mechanics as well.

Fast links to navigate this thread:

1. Map Changes (following)
2. Nations: here
3. New formable Nation, New Government Reforms, How to Portray an Occult Signoria and Two Little Decisions: here
4. Papal (or Decentralized) Vassals, A new Latin Culture, Latin Cultural Names: here
5. Data exposition and basic statistics on Cardinals, Cardinal-Nephews, Conclaves, College of Cardinals and Concistories: here
6. Current problem of Catholicism in-game, New Papal Influence generation, New Cardinals and how to Influence them, How to influence a Conclave and New Papal Controllers: here
7. Adjustments to Influence spent on Cardinals, How and Why Cardinals go Abroad, Concistories and New Pace/Diplomacy/Espionage options: here
8. Capitulations, the College of Cardinals as a Parliament and How to use (RoM DLC) traits to improve the proposed mechanics: here
9. Internal Problems of the Papal States in 1444, How to Portray and How to Solve them in the game, Kingdom of God and other decisions: here
10. Tithes, Provincial Legates and Some Minor Suggestions: here

I'll add, for all of you who want to know better the Republic of Ancona, the suggestion posted by my friend @Funchi: here

HABEMVS PAPAM

Let's get down to business, here is what this long series of posts will be about:
-Reviving Central Italy, in particular the regions of Lazio, Umbria, Marche and Romagna
-Reviving Catholicism in a historical manner
-Other minor suggestions

I'm sorry, but I will not touch Tuscany (exept from a new province). Maybe in the future
Also, the province histories does not contain the Napoleonic occupations. They will inherit that form the province they were split from.

Speaking about the map I want to propose:
- 8 new provinces
- 7 new nations
- 2 new states

DISCLAIMER: the "?" means I'm not exactly sure but it's my best guess. When denoting ruler's skills, it means that I did not find any information about them or the avaiable information is not enough to draw a conlusion. In game, I'd like them to be random.

But let's not wait longer, see it with your own eyes:

Part 1 : MAP CHANGES

As you can see, Central Italy is now much more fragmented.

- In GREEN, there is the current state of Emilia-Romagna, which will become only Emilia, containing only Parma, Modena and Ferrara. Ferrara is effectively part of Romagna in real life, but to avoid punishing the nation of Ferrara and for having 3 provinces in the state, it will be in Emilia.

- In BROWN, we have the State of Tuscany. A very rich land, it will have a province more. The Republic of Siena is now split in two. That's because the Siena province was too big and round and because the city of Siena was somehow placed on the coast. Now, the province of Grosseto grants Siena access to the sea.

Spoiler: Grosseto

GROSSETO:
-Province:
Marsh
Cattle
Development: 3/3/3
Area: Tuscany

-History:
1336-1559 -> annexed by Siena
1559-1569 -> annexed by Florence (alongside with Siena -> Peace of Cateau-Cambresis)
1569-1821 -> annexed by Tuscany (Florence became Tuscany)

Now we get to the interesting part.

- In RED, we have the new State of Romagna. It consist of 4 provinces, belonging to 4 different nations: we have Ravenna, which was conquered in 1441 by the Republic of Venice, Bologna, which was a semi-independent Occult Signoria, Imola, which was ruled by the Manfredi family on behalf of the Duke of Milan and Rimini, which was a semi-independent Signoria ruled by House Malatesta. What is a semi-independet state or a Signoria? We'll talk about that later. Here, have some data about the provinces:

Spoiler: Bologna

BOLOGNA:
-Province:
Grasslands
Cloth
Development: 5/5/3
Area: Romagna
-Nation:
Republic (Occult Signoria)
Leader: Annibale Bentivoglio (2/4/3), Romagnan culture, age=31, ruling for 1 year (1 trait)
Heir: Giovanni Bentivoglio (6/5/3), Romagnan culture, age=1

-History:
1443-1445 -> Annibale Bentivoglio (2/4/3), Romagnan culture, born in 1413
1445-1463 -> Sante Bentivoglio (3/4/1), Romagnan culture, born in 1424
1463-1506 -> Giovanni II Bentivoglio (6/5/3), Romagnan culture, born in 1443
1506-1511 -> annexed by the Papal States
1511-1512 -> Annibale II Bentivoglio (1/3/4), Romagnan culture, born in 1466
1512-1821 -> annexed by the Papal States

Spoiler: Ravenna

RAVENNA:
-Province:
Grasslands
Grain
Development: from 2/3/1 to 3/4/2 (3/3/1 advised)
Area: Romagna
-Cores:
Ravenna -> Signoria (special government)
if liberated before 1447, new leader will be Ostasio III da Polenta (in exile at the start)

-History:
1441-1510 -> annexed by Venice
1510-1821 -> annexed by the Papal States

Spoiler: Imola

IMOLA:
-Province:
Hills
Grain
Development: from 2/2/1 to 3/2/2 (2/2/2 advised)
Area: Romagna
-Status: decentralized vassal under Milan (or vassal under Milan, or guaranteed by Milan)
-Nation:
Monarchy (Signoria) -> (leader cosmetic title) Signore, Signora
Leader: Guidantonio Manfredi (3/1/3), Romagnan culture, age=37, ruling for 5 years (2 traits)
Consort: Agnese da Montefreltro (?/?/?), Umbrian culture, age=?
Heir: Astorre Manfredi (?/?/?), Romagnan culture, age=32 (brother of Guidantonio)

-History:
1439-1448 -> Guidantonio Manfredi (3/1/3), Romagnan culture, born in 1407
1448-1468 -> Astorre II Manfredi (?/?/?), Romagnan culture, born 8th Decemeber 1412
1468-1473 -> Taddeo Manfredi (?/?/?), Romagnan culture, born in 1431 -> pressed by the Duke of Milan, sells the city to the Cardinal Pietro Riario who gives it to his relative Girolamo Riario (nephew of Pope Sixtus IV)
1473-1488 -> Girolamo Riario (2/5/3), Ligurian culture, born in 1443
1488-1499 -> (consort-regent) Caterina Sforza (4/5/4), Lombard culture, born in 1463
1499-1503 -> annexed by the Duchy of Romagna led by Cesare Borgia (3/4/5), Umbrian culture, born 13 September 1475
1503-1504 -> Interregnum (0/0/0)
1504-1821 -> annexed by the Papal States

Spoiler: Rimini

RIMINI:
-Province:
Coastline
Grain or Fish
Development: from 3/2/2 to 4/3/2
Area: Romagna
-Nation:
Monarchy (Signoria) -> (leader cosmetic title) Signore, Signora
Leader: Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (3/3/4), Romagnan culture, age=27, ruling for 12 years (2 traits)
Consort: Polissena Sforza (?/?/?), Romagnan culture, age=16
Heir: Roberto "il Magnifico" Malatesta (2/2/5), Romagnan Culture, age=4

-History:
1432-1468 -> Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (3/3/4), Romagnan culture, born 19 June 1417
1468-1482 -> Roberto "il Magnifico" Malatesta (2/2/5), Romagnan Culture, born in 1440
1482-1500 -> Pandolfo IV Malatesta (1/2/1), Romagnan Culture, born July 1475
1500-1503 -> annexed by the Duchy of Romagna led by Cesare Borgia (3/4/5), Umbrian culture, born 13 September 1475
1503-1509 -> annexed by Venice
1509-1821 -> annexed by the Papal States

Woah, that is quite a bit of history knowledge, and it may gave you some ideas of some things I want to suggest later. But let's talk about why I added these 4 provinces:
-Imola: point of contrast between Milan, Florence and the Papal States (via an event if necessary). It also takes a diplomatic slot of Milan.
-Ravenna: point of contrast between Venice and the Papal States, it also buffs Venice
-Bologna: important city in Romagna, subdued at the start of the XVI century fter a war.
-Rimini: important state opposed to Urbino, both famous for their contrasts and their condottieri.

Not satisfied enough? Here we go again:

- In LIME (do not judge me for the color choice), we have the new State of Marca Anconitana, in large part semi-autonomous form the Pope's rule. We have 4 provinces here: Urbino (you alrerady know this guy), Ancona, a Merchant Republic, Camerino, a Sgnoria ruled by the Da Varano family, and lstly Macerata, the only part of the state that the Pope controls.

Spoiler: Ancona

ANCONA:
-Province:
Hills or Farmlands
Wine or Paper (as of now)
Development: 6/6/2
Area: Marca Anconitana

-History:
XI century-1532 -> Merchant Republic of Ancona
1532-1821 -> annexed by the Papal States

There will be a level 1 Center of Trade in this province, moved from the nearby Urbino.
My friend @Funchi will tell you more about this Nation

Spoiler: Macerata

MACERATA:
-Province:
Hills
Wine
Development: 4/3/3
Area: Marca Anconitana

-History:
1444-1821 -> the Papal States

Spoiler: Camerino

CAMERINO:
-Province:
Hills
Grain or Cattle
Development: from 2/2/1 to 3/2/2
Area: Marca Anconitana
-Nation:
Monarchy (Signoria) -> (leader cosmetic title) Signore, Signora
Leader: (regency) Elisabetta Malatesta (?/?/?), Umbrian culture, age=37
Heir: Giulio Cesare da Varano (4/2/4), Umbrian culture, age=10

-History:
1444-1449 -> Elisabetta Malatesta (?/?/?), Umbrian culture, born in 1407 (regency uses the same rules as a normal regency in EU4)
1449-1502 -> Giulio Cesare da Varano (4/2/4), Umbrian culture, born in 1434
1502-1503 -> annexed by the Duchy of Romagna led by Cesare Borgia (3/4/5), Umbrian culture, born 13 September 1475
1503-1527 -> Giovanni Maria da Varano (2/2/3), Umbrian culture, born in 1481 -> Becomes a Duchy
1527-1535 -> Caterina Cybo (?/?/?), Ligurian culure, born 13 Semptember 1501 -> regent for Giulia da Varano
1535-1539 -> Giulia da Varano (?/?/?), Umbrian culture, born 24 March 1523 (died 18 february 1547) -> consort of Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino
1540-1545 -> Ottavio Farnese (4/4/4), Umbrian culture, born 9 October 1524 (renounced to become Duke of Parma) -- already in-game
1545-1821 -> annexed by the Papal States

Spoiler: Urbino

URBINO:
the province is more or less the same. I prefer to make it lose 1/1/0 development and then compate it by giving it back with an event on the Urbinese Renaissance. More on that later.
Also, the level 1 Center of Trade should be moved to the province of Ancona, much richer and more of a trade hub than Urbino.

So, here I have to defend myself a little. Those of you familiar with Central Italy in the XVth Century already have noticed them, but for the others I'll say that there are three mistakes in this area:
-Ancona should not border Urbino, however I make them border each other to ease an Ancona start and to make the Macerata province look better.
-Camerino should not have any access to Naples, let alone to the sea! I know, but as an enclave state, no one in their right mind would ever had played this Nation, so I gave them a carrot and not the stick they deserved.
-Macerata shoud not be in the Pope's control yet! I know, there was a large Signoria controlled by the future Duke of Milan Francesco Sforza. But it ended in 1445 and will be excessively difficult to model, so I'll represent things this way.

Last but not least, we have in BLUE the State of Lazio-Umbria. Yes, I know, what about Lazio-Campania and Central Italy? Well, they are gone! They were extremely ahistorical and prompted the Pope and the King of Naples to cut each other's throat, which was again ahistorical. So I made a better state. Here, we have 4 provinces: one of which is not under the Papal States: Perugia. Here we have the Occult Signoria of the Baglioni family, that will rule for a more or less a century before getting conquered by the Pope.

Spoiler: Perugia

PERUGIA:
-Province:
Hills
Wine
Development: circa 4/4/2
Area: Lazio-Umbria
-Nation:
Republic (Occult Signoria) -> (leader cosmetic title) Signore, Signora
Leader: Braccio I Baglioni (5/5/5), Umbrian culture, age=25, ruling for 6 years (2 traits: Martial Educator, Freethinker)

-History:
1438-1479 -> Braccio I Baglioni(5/5/5), Umbrian culture, born in 1419
1479-1500 -> triple signoria of Guido I, Rodolfo I and Astorre I
1500-1520 -> Giampaolo I Baglioni (?/?/?), Umbrian culture, born in 1470
1520-1527 -> Gentile I Baglioni (?/?/?), Umbrian culture, born in ?
1527-1531 -> Malatesta IV Baglioni (2/4/4), Umbrian culture, born in 1491
1531-1540 -> Rodolfo II Baglioni (2/0/2), Umbrian culture, born 1st July 1518
1540-1821 -> annexed by the Papal States

Spoiler: Spoleto

SPOLETO:
-Province:
Hills
Wine?
Development: from 2/2/2 to 3/3/3
Area: Lazio-Umbria
-Nation:
the Papal States

-History:
1444-1821 -> the Papal States

Spoiler: Campagna

CAMPAGNA:
Capital: Frosinone
-Province:
Marsh or Hills (territory is divided in two part: marshes near the sea and hills where the province capital is)
Grain or Cattle
Development: from 2/2/2 to 4/4/4 (3/3/3 is advised)
Area: Lazio-Umbria
-Nation:
the Papal States

-History:
1444-1821 -> the Papal States

Spoiler: Rome

In this proposal, Rome should lose 2 manpower development.

So, here I will say just one thingabout Lazio-Umbria. The Campagna province reprsents the Legation of "Campagna e Marittima". It also serves to separate Rome from Naples and introduce some strategic depth.

I'll briefly talk about the province of Avignon, although there is not much to say. In my suggestion, to better balance the development count of the Papal States, the province of Avignon loses 1/1/1 development.

Well, this is the end of the map changes!
STAY TUNED! Next is coming: new nations, government reforms and Occult Singoria!

PS: also, I will tage here @DDRJake and @neondt to make this thread more visible to the devs, since this area will be touched nex year.

PPS: I do not know yet how many parts I will publish, but they will be a lot!

 

[Van Kasten]

Regarding the Urbino and Romagna flags: Yes, the arms are more accurate, but they are just so incredibly cluttered, and using imagery from nearby tags (such as the crossed keys of the papacy) that i think that maybe using the historical arms may be detrimental. Its a situation similar as to why Savoy has letters in the flag even if it wasnt common, for gameplay; the ingame flag should be recognizable in a way so you can immediatly see to whom a certain army, navy or region belongs to.

Here's what i think could be used for Urbino; its the historical arms sans the overtly papal elements. And here's two ideas for Romagna: one the CK2 flag, which addimettdly has a lesser degree of historical basis (but looks good and creates consistency between games), and one based on the arms of the de Borgia, so it really feels like you're playing as spide.. err i mean Cesare Borgia

EDIT: Also, there were some poorly cropped pixels in the Imola flag, so here's a corrected version without black lines in some edges

The Papal CoA is always a nice touch but, actually, you may be right with Urbino. I’ll update the flag this afternoon

I have to disagree with the Romagna flag, though. The Borgia bull is only one part of the CoA (the original part). I advise you to try to use this flag instead:

The modified Dutch Republic mechanic sounds interesting.

Thanks!
Do you think it might be the best option of the five proposed?

I'm a bit late, later today i'll post about the Republic of Ancona on which i've worked with @Van Kasten sorry if i'm a bit late but had an exam to do

Glad you’re back!
I’ll add your post in the main thread

 

[TheVikingWarrior]

Also, I wanted to ask if it would not be more interesting to have Piombino (with Elba) over Grosseto. It's true that Grosseto was the second biggest city in the Maremma Toscana, but it followed pretty closely Siena in its history. Adding Piombino would add another tag and could later represent the "Stato dei Presidi" owned by Spain

 

[Van Kasten]

Love the post, however, I got to ask who would start with the Libero Comune reform? I guess only Siena and Lucca and that would be a stretch I feel.

Thanks!

Lucca will start as a Libero Comune.
Siena will have the Oligarchy reform since it now has two provinces.

However, Perugia and Bologna both get event to restore the power of the Comune and thus becoming a Libero Comune!

Moreover, any OPM Italian Republic (which means a OPM Monarchy becoming a Republic) will be a Libero Comune. I feel like an Oligarchy simply isn’t fitting enough. It also add flavor. It’s like the introduction of the Imperial Free City reform.

 

[Van Kasten]

Also, I wanted to ask if it would not be more interesting to have Piombino (with Elba) over Grosseto. It's true that Grosseto was the second biggest city in the Maremma Toscana, but it followed pretty closely Siena in its history. Adding Piombino would add another tag and could later represent the "Stato dei Presidi" owned by Spain

You know, I thought a lot about it. I could have carved up Pisa and Grosseto to introduce Piombino, and add the Elba Island to it.

In the end, I chose not to, for two reasons:
- It would be a microprovince, maybe smaller than Ibiza, and this it will be difficult to fit the sprites of a city, a port, and a unit inside it. More so if the city grows.
- Its history is very dynamic and incredibly difficult to model the importance of this principality
- I thought that my map was already dense enough to fit everything I wanted to portray. To represent better Central Italy it would be better to have an Imperator:Rome sized map and also include many other minor Signorie and Duchies, especially in Romagna.

 

[TheVikingWarrior]

You know, I thought a lot about it. I could have carved up Pisa and Grosseto to introduce Piombino, and add the Elba Island to it.

In the end, I chose not to, for two reasons:
- It would be a microprovince, maybe smaller than Ibiza, and this it will be difficult to fit the sprites of a city, a port, and a unit inside it. More so if the city grows.
- Its history is very dynamic and incredibly difficult to model the importance of this principality
- I thought that my map was already dense enough to fit everything I wanted to portray. To represent better Central Italy it would be better to have an Imperator:Rome sized map and also include many other minor Signorie and Duchies, especially in Romagna.

Yeah, the limited map size is sad, I once tried to draw the medium size cities/principalities in Northern/central Italy just for fun, I ended up with 80 new provinces with the size of Frankfurt.

 

[Centuria]

I have to disagree with the Romagna flag, though. The Borgia bull is only one part of the CoA (the original part). I advise you to try to use this flag instead:

The black stripes are not from the Borgia family itself, but from the arms of the Duchy of Gandía held by family at various points. This can be seen, for instance, in the official Borgia arms for the Duchy of Valentinois. I opted not to include them for this reason, since its a fairly unrelated area. The official arms of the family were:

''A bull gules upon a terrace vert in a bordure Or charged with eight flames vert."

The confusion arises from Pope Alexander often slapping the arms of Gandia on things (Such as the historical arms of the Duchy of Romagna) as often as he could, in a way to assert against the claim that the Borgia were foreign lowborns. ''My family has a duke dont you see? I'm a big deal''

 

[Van Kasten]

Yeah, the limited map size is sad, I once tried to draw the medium size cities/principalities in Northern/central Italy just for fun, I ended up with 80 new provinces with the size of Frankfurt.

I understand you.
I tried to avoid unclickable provinces.

The black stripes are not from the Borgia family itself, but from the arms of the Duchy of Gandía held by family at various points. This can be seen, for instance, in the official Borgia arms for the Duchy of Valentinois. I opted not to include them for this reason, since its a fairly unrelated area. The official arms of the family were:

''A bull gules upon a terrace vert in a bordure Or charged with eight flames vert."

The confusion arises from Pope Alexander often slapping the arms of Gandia on things (Such as the historical arms of the Duchy of Romagna) as often as he could, in a way to assert against the claim that the Borgia were foreign lowborns. ''My family has a duke dont you see? I'm a big deal''

I know that the stripes are from the Duchy of Gandia, and the lilies comes from the Duchy of Valentinois. The fact is that the proper Duchy of Romagna did not have a CoA per se. It’s like France: in-game you have the flag of the House of Valois, but if the dynasty changes the flag does not. It’s the same story for almost all of the flags in game. I would use the CoA of Cesare Borgia to represent the Duchy of Romagna. I will conced to drop the Papal CoA from the one I proposed, but since a proper CoA does not exist we could keep talking forever about which to use. We can only leave to the Devs the choice of the flag

 

[Centuria]

Aye its always a complicated matter, especially in such ''spliced'' flags where its different heraldtic origins all the way down. Here's the party per pale version, used by Pope Alexandar's own arms, and a party-per-cross one; pick whichever you prefer.

 

[Van Kasten]

Aye its always a complicated matter, especially in such ''spliced'' flags where its different heraldtic origins all the way down. Here's the party per pale version, used by Pope Alexandar's own arms, and a party-per-cross one; pick whichever you prefer.

Agreed.
I will use the party-per-cross one. I have a thing for that kind of flags

 

[Franciscus123]

Very good job! Loved it. Always found it weird Ravenna was not portrayed given how much tension it could create with Venice and how it was captured just 3 years before the start of the game.

 

[HeptaEpiThebas]

Can you elaborate on the decision not to include Francesco Sforza? He had united virtually the entire Marche - probably controlling more land than any other lord in the Papal States, and dwarfing Ancona/Camerino - and his conflict with the Pope was probably the most overtly significant thing happening around there in late 1444.
A History of Milan Under the Sforza (1907) is on Google Books and goes into detail on Sforza's vicissitudes year by year; it explains he won a decisive battle over the Pope and in October 1444, a month before game start, was "confirmed in his title of Marquis and in all his former possessions save Osimo, Recanati, and Fabriano" in the peace deal. Precisely in November Alessandro Sforza was finalizing a deal to purchase Pesaro, moving in the next month (December 1444), which prompted Sigismondo Malatesta to organize a grand coalition against Francesco, setting off to fight "in the spring of 1445". Though he lost everything but Jesi by the end of 1445, he held Jesi right up to mid 1447 when he "surrendered [it] to the Papacy for the sum of 35,000 florins".

This seems to deserve far more than a province event chain or a modifier or something like that, especially if you're giving a tag to a state that didn't even exist anymore (Ravenna).

 

[Van Kasten]

Can you elaborate on the decision not to include Francesco Sforza? He had united virtually the entire Marche - probably controlling more land than any other lord in the Papal States, and dwarfing Ancona/Camerino - and his conflict with the Pope was probably the most overtly significant thing happening around there in late 1444.
A History of Milan Under the Sforza (1907) is on Google Books and goes into detail on Sforza's vicissitudes year by year; it explains he won a decisive battle over the Pope and in October 1444, a month before game start, was "confirmed in his title of Marquis and in all his former possessions save Osimo, Recanati, and Fabriano" in the peace deal. Precisely in November Alessandro Sforza was finalizing a deal to purchase Pesaro, moving in the next month (December 1444), which prompted Sigismondo Malatesta to organize a grand coalition against Francesco, setting off to fight "in the spring of 1445". Though he lost everything but Jesi by the end of 1445, he held Jesi right up to mid 1447 when he "surrendered [it] to the Papacy for the sum of 35,000 florins".

This seems to deserve far more than a province event chain or a modifier or something like that, especially if you're giving a tag to a state that didn't even exist anymore (Ravenna).

First of all, I appreciate to discuss with someone that has this much knowledge on the topic at hand.

I must say that the Signoria of Francesco Sforza in the Marca Anconitana is an extremely interesting and dynamic phase of the history of Marche before the Papal domination. I considered how to model it and if it was necessary. I’ll post here some of my thoughts on this particular topic:
- the Signoria of Francesco Sforza was short-lived, even if the Sforza ruled in Pesaro afterwards.
- The territory directly controlled by Francesco Sforza is smaller than a EU4uj province. It would be better to have an Imperator: Rome sized map to have the best representation of the Marche and Romagna regions in this period. I had to be more conservative with my suggestion than I initially wanted, not representing many city-sized Singorie or Comuni.
- The event chain would be complex and would drag on longer than the actual facts happened.
- A mechanic to represent historical Condottieri as both mercenaries and statemi armies must be introduced first, and this is a topic I will not touch. For now, at least.
- It’s not possible to expand less than a EU4 province at a time, so there’s no way of modeling little land gains. Maybe you could “transfer development” from one province to anothe but it’s too artificial and requires strict rules to operate effectively. Again, with an Imperator-sized map it would be way better.
- Francesco Sforza must be introduced in a event for Milan, that’s for sure. But in case he wins against the coalition (almost impossible but in EU4 there is no certainty) it could mess things up, since in EU4 there the same person can be two different ones at the same time (look at Navarra/Aragon succession).

After having carefully and thoroughly thought about this issue, I simply chose not to portray it. Don’t worry, the autonomy in Macerata would be huge for the Papal States. After all, it was not the Pope who directly ruled there. But that’s a spoiler

 

[Huldunguldlu]

I like your post and map suggestions, and I don't nearly have enough knowledge of the topic to discuss the historical background of this region.

So the only thing I wanted to comment are the changes you intended for theocratic reforms from a gameplay perspective.
Your reasoning behind the change of making the morale bonus only situational is obvious, and the balance between free policies
and 10% stab cost is indeed funny. However, Theocracies are still much worse reformwise than Monarchies and Republics,
and since morale and free policies are the only argument for staying (or becoming) a theocracy, I think the other possible reforms of these tiers
should rather be buffed instead of these two getting nerfed.

 

[Van Kasten]

I like your post and map suggestions, and I don't nearly have enough knowledge of the topic to discuss the historical background of this region.

So the only thing I wanted to comment are the changes you intended for theocratic reforms from a gameplay perspective.
Your reasoning behind the change of making the morale bonus only situational is obvious, and the balance between free policies
and 10% stab cost is indeed funny. However, Theocracies are still much worse reformwise than Monarchies and Republics,
and since morale and free policies are the only argument for staying (or becoming) a theocracy, I think the other possible reforms of these tiers
should rather be buffed instead of these two getting nerfed.

You are right for saying that Theocracies are disadvantaged in regards to government reforms, but this is WAD. The devs wanted Theocracies to change to Monarchies or Republic much more easily, since many of the Theocracies of EU4 time period secularized. The ideal thing would be having extra tiers to Theocracies that want to remain such. However, Theocracies have no Absolutism malus as far as I'm aware, and usually have very high (or maximum) devotion, which brings a not negligible amount of money.

In the balancing topic, I'm more for removing excessively strong bonuses from Monarchies and Republics (maybe leave the one in the higher tiers) than buffing the Theocracy ones. But of course, I'm no expert on balance, so I'll leave this aspect to the devs.

 

[Funchi]

Hello all on this post i'll write about the Maritime Republic of Ancona which is probably one of the most least known of the Italian Maritime Republics (the most known are probably Venice, Genova, Pisa and Amalfi, which are the four on the Italian navy flag)
The post will be structured on the following way:
- A bit of history of the Republic;
- Formal recognition of Ancona;
- Loss of Independece;
- Form of goverment and currency;
- A couple of maps and a couple of famous people;

After all this "boring" stuff i'll write my suggestions for implementing the Republic inside the game, so let's start!

Ancona the "forgotten" Repubblica Marinara

Flag of the Republic and the Coat of arm

Yes they are big... if you want to help me downsize them you are more than welcome *thank you @Centuria for the smaller flag

History of the Republic...it's a bit long so i've put it inside a spoiler

Spoiler

The Republic history starts after the 2 invasions of the Saracens in 839A.D. and 850A.D. which left the city nearly destroyed especially the one of 839A.D., Ancona allied with Venice to prevent other attacks to the city. Around the year 1000A.D. Ancona was under the HRE sphere of influence but gradually became a complete independent city, even if the Imperial marquis was present and the Church had pretense of control on the city. Ancona didn’t centered her independence around the Bishop, but around a group of citizens that made deals with the Imperial marquis. The independence was possible due to a pact with the marquis acting on behalf of the HRE. (source: Ancona nel Medioevo of Mario Natalucci).

Ancona was quite a cosmopolitan city as Egyptians, Syrians, Berber, Byzantines, Dalmatians, Croatians, Hungarians, Albanians and Jews frequented the port or lived in the city. Ancona had a privileged partnership with the Byzantine Empire, which brought Ancona on collision with Venice various times.

By 1170 Ancona was quite a rich city due to the commerce with the Byzantine Empire and Florentine and Lucca's merchants, at this point Venice which never really thought that another city in the Adriatic could rival them (and they didn't, cause Ancona commerce volume was quite inferior to that of La Serenissima) understands that Ancona could become a treat and decided to ask the HRE emperor to destroy the city even if they were formally in war with him cause they were members of the Lombard league.

In 1173 the city was siege belt and Ancona decided not to yield to the HRE troops and was able to survive the attack remaining loyal to the Byzantine Empire, during this siege we can remember a young widow “Stamira” (also Stamura) that was able to burn down various siege machine and the priest “Giovanni da Chio” that during a stormy day went swimming and cut loose the ropes of the admiral boat that was blockading the harbor and damaged some of the Venetian fleet.

Thanks to their loyalty to the Byzantine throne, as the HRE troops wanted the Byzantine ambassador and kill him. The Byzantine emperor ( Manuele Comneno) gave the city lots of gifts and also rewarded them with the possibility to open a “Fondaco” all over the Empire.

This inspired a painting called “Il Giuramento degli Anconetani” which you can see in the spoiler.

Spoiler: Giuramento degli Anconetani

Ancona and Venice fought during their existence around 15 wars between them.

Ancona and Ragusa considered themselves sisters Republics, a bit cause they were given the title of Republic around the same time and also cause their alliance was to protect one another from Venice power especially the commercial one.

Ancona golden age is considered to be the period between 1400 and 1500.

Ancona lost her independence in 2 periods, the first one in 1348 till 1353 when it was conquered by Malatesta, the second from 1353 till 1383 under direct control of the Papal State, in 1383 Ancona gained back its independence when the population assaulted the palace/castle built by the cardinal Albornoz in 1353 when the castellan started serving the antipope, with the fall of the castle (it was completely razed) the city became independent again till the year 1532.

Ancona was to be the starting point of the crusade to free Constantinople, but Pope Pio II died while trying to organize it so in the end nothing was done.

You have to excuse my poor english sentences, but i got tired of writing fluently...so i just wrote fact sentences

The recognition of Ancona:

Pope Alessandro III (around 1100-1181) gave the title of free city within the Papal state to try and give a de jure title to Ancona while the city was de facto independent , while pope Eugenio IV on the 2nd of September of 1443 (1 year before game start date) gives it the Republic title. (source: Liber croceus magnus, official document that it's in the National Archive of Ancona)

The loss of the independence:

In 1532 Pope Clemente VII proposed to build a citadel all paid by the Papal State under the false information that an imminent Ottoman attack on the city was about to happen. The Papal troops entered Ancona and took control of it. Any further attempt to get back the lost independence where ended in blood. This marked the end of the Republic. This is the short version of the story, in reality if was a bit more complex than this but i will not write it all down. If you are interested, i can refear you to a book that you can find on Google Book from 1867 but it's in italian. I also have to let you know that to mark the end of the republic in 1532, the whole city archive was burned and that is way it's hard to find information on the Republic.

Form of government and currency:
Ancona was an oligarchic republic and her goverment was formed in the following way, 3 "Regolatori" (they could only come from the city nobility, couldn't understand what they did), 6 Ancient/Senior/Lords that where elected from the 3 zones of the city, this 6 people formed the "Magistrato" and the "Generale Consiglio" also known as "il Magnifico" that had the power to create laws, declare war, sign peaces, send ambassadors and receive them. It had her own set of laws named “Statuti del Mare” or also “Statuti anconitani del mare, del terzenale e della dogana”. The “Statuti del Mare” (86 chapters) regulated various types of boats, their armaments, the officials on board and regulated the transport of good and people, the “Statuti del terzenale” (21 chapters) regulated the construction, selling and renting of the boats, while the “Statuti della dogana” (160 chapters) regulated import and export of goods. The “Statuti” also said that in case of controversy the rules from the “Consulate of the Sea” applied.

A page of the “Statuti del Mare” that says that every sailor that landed in Constantinople had to pay a tax to finance the Anconitan church of “Santo Stefano” that the Republic owned in the capital of the Empire.

Spoiler

Ancona even had their own currency (Agontano) that was accepted everywhere, the city started to mint the coins without HRE or papal oversight. The coin was quite liked and other town in Marche, Lazio, Abruzzo, Toscana and Emilia-Romagna used the agontano as reference.

Spoiler: Agontano

This is a map of Ancona commerce routes:

Spoiler

As you can see it was the second port of the Adriatic for commerce with the Orient, this made Ancona the Orient door of Central Italy.

Map of the land owned by Ancona:

Spoiler

The Republic as you can see didn't owned lot of land, but enough for self-sustain, the territory was heavily fortified that was also one of the reason why Ancona could defend herself for so much time.
The city of Macerata was the actual seat of the papal authority of the region named "Marca Anconitana" due to the fact that the city of Ancona was an independent republic, Macerata became the seat of the papal authority in the XV century due to various revolts against the pope in Fermo that was the papal seat since 1210A.D..
Actually from 1433 till 1447 the "Marca Anconitana" was under the rule of Francesco Sforza duke of Milan, that was given the title of Vicar, Marquis and gonfaloniere of the Church by pope Eugenio IV. After this little by little the towns conquered by Sforza all went back to the papal control and the "Marca Anconitana" didn't changed till the fall of Ancona in 1532 and the annexation of the Duchy of Urbino in 1631 with the extinction of the house of "Della Rovere".

Famous people born in the Republic of Ancona:
Benvenuto Stracca (1509-1578) that is considered the father of Commercial Law as he was the first one that separated commercial law from civil law and canon law. He wrote in 1553 the book "De Mercatura sive de Mercatore", the book is divided into 8 section and the one that talk about the "Admiralty law" and "Personal bankruptcy" are quite important. Stracca book was so famous and useful that it was used as the legal basis for trade for the next 250 years, till the publication of the Napoleonic Code and various national codes, the book was also used all around the European courthouses and even the Office of the Admiralty in London used to recommend the book as a reference for court cases.

Ciriaco Pizzecolli also said Ciriaco d’Ancona (1391- 1452) was a epigrapher, humanist and antiquarian from a merchant family of Ancona. He is considered the father of Archeology, and his work on the Romans and Greeks ancient cultures is considered the best in the world until the Age of Enlightenment. I’m not going to write a summary of his life cause it would take too much time, but I suggest you to look him up.

Ancona inside Europa Universalis 4

Form of government: This is a bit tricky, as Ancona was an Oligarchic Republic, but was also considered a Maritime Republic, I propose it as a Merchant Republic with a random leader, i've tried to find if there was any famous leader but the sources i've consulted always said that Ancona never transformed herself in a Signoria and always remain an Oligarchic Republic. The leader title i suggest to use is "Podestà".

Spoiler

A clarification on the Podestà, in reality it was elected every six months and had to answer to the Magistrato, his job was to administrate the law inside the Republic

Also to give it more flavour, i suggest to call the Aristocrats faction with the word "Confalonieri or Vesilliferi"

Diplomacy: it should start with an Alliance with Ragusa and the bonus +25 Historical Friend with Ragusa

Territory: Check @Van Kasten map
Terrain: Check @Van Kasten post
Trade Good: Check @Van Kasten post
Development: Check @Van Kasten post

Defence: It should have a castle already build, I propose this, cause the Republic build around the city of Ancona 20 different castle to protect the city and the land it owns.

Holy Roman Empire: It should be part of the Empire and quits the HRE with the shadow kingdom event.

Traditions, Ideas and Ambition have been written mainly by @Van Kasten with a couple from me.

Traditions:

• FORT DEFENCE +20%
• YEARLY NAVY TRADITION +1

Ideas:

• ARMY MORALE +10%
• SPY DEFENCE +25%
• YEARLY PRESTIGE +0,5 and IDEA COST -5%
• MANPOWER RECOVERY +10%
• NAVAL ATTRITION -10% and SAILOR MAINTENANCE -5%
• SHIPBUILDING TIME -10%
• TRADE EFFICIENCY +10%

Ambition:

• +15% GLOBAL TRADE

The first ambition derives from the three Imperial sieges, in which Ancona was never captured.
The second ambition was inspired by the fact that Ancona was an old maritime republic.
The first idea I took from a battle won by the Anconan army against the one of Galeazzo Malatesta, who wanted to capture the city.
The second idea came to my mind when I read about Francesco Sforza trying to capture the city by corrupting officials and turning them into spies. They were caught, put into sacks and thrown into the sea.
The third idea is about the Adriatic Renaissance.
The fourth idea comes from the noble families which held territories on the border with the Papal States and provided men for the army.
The fifth idea reflects the "Statuti del Mare", laws who regulated transport of passengers on ships and the requirement for the crews.
The sixth idea derives from the "Statuti del Terzenale", in which were written the rules for shipbuilding and their purchase.
The seventh and last idea comes from the "Statuti della Dogana", which regulated import and exports.

The ambition reflects Benvenuto Stracca book that was written in 1553, "De Mercatura sive de Mercatore".

Missions: While the generic mission that are right now available for the Italian state are fine, I think that a few personal mission can be implemented, here a few ideas for them.

Spoiler

Naturally the regions to conquer are right now named after the current regions ingame.

Modifiers:
With the 1.26 new mechanics of the Center of Trade, I think Ancona (region) should start with a Natural Harbor (level 1), you should take it away from Urbino which is completly unhistorical, (Urbino under the duke prospered on the literate art, but it has never been a center of trade as shown right now inside the game. Now you are wondering why I’m putting it so low even if the golden age of the Republic was between 1400 and 1500, well that is because I think there could be some events that can either upgrade or downgrade this new Center of Trade. If you do not own Dharma, unfortunately it will remain locked, (I do hope they will make them more dynamic with some fixed events in case you don’t have the expansion) while if you do own Dharma, or future expansion, you can gain or lose the Entrepot with events or by normal game mechanics. This are a few suggested event for the Center of Trade.

The American routes: (Event, will be explained under)
The Papal Conquest: (Event, will be explained under)
The end of the Republic: (Event, will be explained under)
A flourishing market: (Event, will be explained under)

Events:
A flourishing market:
Conditions for the event to start:

• The year is between 1450 and 1465;
• The Republic of Ancona exist;
• The Republic of Ancona is not a vassal or in a personal union.

Our markets are flourishing and our merchants are being extremely successful all around the Mediterranean sea. With the increase of goods and people we must think of amplifying our port facilities, let’s make sure the Republic will keep on growing through the ages.

Option A - *Amplify the port.*

• Pay 150 ducats and receive a level 2 Center of Trade;
• +5 Prestige.

Option B - *We can’t waste resources on our merchant*

• -15 Prestige

If the country leader is an Architectural Visionary, you get a third choice:

Option C - *Only the best for our merchants*

• Pay 120 ducats and receive a level 2 Center of Trade;
• +10 Prestige.

The end of the Republic: (it fires for whatever conquers the territory)

Conditions for the event to start:

• The Republic of Ancona doesn’t exists.

With the fall of the Republic of Ancona, the city fell out of importance.

Option A - *Too bad*

• Center of Trade is downgraded to level 1. (Natural Harbor)

The American routes:

• Conditions for the event to start:
• The year is after 1500;
• The Republic of Ancona exist;
• Colonialism was discovered;
• The Byzantine empire doesn’t exist.

With the discoveries of the Americas and the fall of the Byzantine Empire, our markets lost importance.

Option A - *Damn*

• Downgrade the Center of Trade to level 1 (Natural Harbor);
• -5 Prestige.

The Conquest of Ancona: (Chain Event starting in the Papal State)
Conditions for the event to start:

• The year is 1532 or after;
• The Ottoman Empire exist and is independent;
• The Papal State exist and is independent;
• The Republic of Ancona exist in independent and own less than 2 provinces.

“A chance to conquer Ancona. Your Holiness, our advisor have made a plan to try and conquer the Republic of Ancona and bring her jurisdiction back into our holy country. We will invent an attack of the Ottoman Empire on the region, and propose to protect them by building a fortress near the town all paid by us.”

Option A - *I like the plan, go for it* (Starts the Event in the Republic of Ancona)

• +5 Prestige.

Option B - *I’m a servant of god!*

• +20 Papal Authority;
• -2% Catholic Reform Desire;
• +75 Relation with Ancona; (They respected our independence)
• +25 Relation with neighboring Catholic countries. (They respected Ancona)

The Papal Aid:
Conditions for the event to start:

• The year is 1532 or after;
• The Ottoman Empire exist and is independent;
• The Papal State exist and is independent;
• The Republic of Ancona exist, is independent and owns less than 2 provinces;
• The Papal State choose Option A in the event “The conquest of Ancona”.

“My Lords, the Papal emissary tells us of an imminent attack on our coasts by the Ottoman Empire, they offer to build a fortress all paid by them to protect us better, what shall we do?”

Option A - *Seek the Pope Protection*

• Ancona gets annexed by The Papal State;
• -40 relations between The Papal State and the neighboring countries. (They deceived Ancona)
• Downgrades the Center of Trade to level 1

Option B - *This sounds fishy.*

• -100 relation between The Papal State and Ancona;
• -100 relation between Ancona and The Papal State;
• The Papal state gets a permanent claim on Ancona.

I know it’s a complex chain event and it can be worked and improved in various ways, but for now I’ve tried to be as much as possible faithful to real history.


Benvenuto Stracca: (Possible advisor)
Benvenuto Stracca was born in 1509 in Ancona and studied law in Bologna from 1533 to 1538, he then returned to his hometown where he practiced as a lawyer. He was the first to consider commercial law as a set of rules distinct from civil law, to elaborate it both from a practical and a theoretical point of view and to give it a systematic exposure and for this he is considered the father of commercial law. In 1553 he wrote the “De Mercatura sive de Mercatore” a book that made him famous around the world. His works have been used for 250 years around Europe as the base for commercial law till the publication of the Napoleonic code.

Trigger conditions:

• Year is 1553 or later;
• None of:
  • Advisor with ID….exists;
• Own province Ancona;
• None of:
  • Year is 1578 or later.

Results:

• An Excellent Minister!
  • Gain 5 Prestige;
  • Gain 75 diplomatic power;
  • Gain skill 2 Master of the Mint advisor named Benvenuto Stracca in Ancona. (50% cheaper to employ)

Ciriaco Pizzecolli: (Possible advisor)
Ciriaco Pizzecolli was born in 1391 into a noble family of merchants of Ancona. He was an archaeologist, humanist, epigraphist and Italian traveler. For his research of historical testimonies, carried out in many Mediterranean countries, in an attempt to save them from oblivion and destruction , he is considered, even by his contemporaries, “pater antiquitatis”, the founder or "father of archeology". Even Nnow a days he is considered the father of archeology.

Trigger conditions:

• Year is 1444 or later;
• Is Republic of Ancona;
• None of:
  • Advisor with ID….exists;
• Own province Ancona;
• None of:
  • Year is 1452 or later.

Mean time to happen 96 months

Results:

• An Excellent Minister!
  • Gain 15 Prestige;
  • Gain 50 administrative power;
  • Gain 50 diplomatic power;
  • Gain skill 2 Diplomat advisor named Ciriaco Pizzecolli in Ancona. (50% cheaper to employ)

I'm working on a third advisor called Francesco Cinzio Benincasa that can start in the Kingdom of Hungary, i'll write in down during the vacations.


Achievement: As Ancona was the sole historical maritime republic that didn’t waged wars against the other Italian maritime republics but had to defend herself, an achievement could be implemented.

The Lonely Republic
As Ancona, own Genoa, Pisa, Venice and Ragusa, and be the dominant power in the trade nodes of Venice, Genoa, Ragusa, Alexandria and Constantinople.

 

[Van Kasten]

Hello all on this post i'll write about the Maritime Republic of Ancona which is probably one of the most least known of the Italian Maritime Republics (the most known are probably Venice, Genova, Pisa and Amalfi, which are the four on the Italian navy flag)
The post will be structured on the following way:
- A bit of history of the Republic;
- Formal recognition of Ancona;
- Loss of Independece;
- Form of goverment and currency;
- A couple of maps and a couple of famous people;

After all this "boring" stuff i'll write my suggestions for implementing the Republic inside the game, so let's start!

Ancona the "forgotten" Repubblica Marinara

Flag of the Republic and the Coat of arm
View attachment 432352 View attachment 432353
Yes they are big... if you want to help me downsize them you are more than welcome

History of the Republic...it's a bit long so i've put it inside a spoiler

Spoiler

The Republic history starts after the 2 invasions of the Saracens in 839A.D. and 850A.D. which left the city nearly destroyed especially the one of 839A.D., Ancona allied with Venice to prevent other attacks to the city. Around the year 1000A.D. Ancona was under the HRE sphere of influence but gradually became a complete independent city, even if the Imperial marquis was present and the Church had pretense of control on the city. Ancona didn’t centered her independence around the Bishop, but around a group of citizens that made deals with the Imperial marquis. The independence was possible due to a pact with the marquis acting on behalf of the HRE. (source: Ancona nel Medioevo of Mario Natalucci).

Ancona was quite a cosmopolitan city as Egyptians, Syrians, Berber, Byzantines, Dalmatians, Croatians, Hungarians, Albanians and Jews frequented the port or lived in the city. Ancona had a privileged partnership with the Byzantine Empire, which brought Ancona on collision with Venice various times.

By 1170 Ancona was quite a rich city due to the commerce with the Byzantine Empire and Florentine and Lucca's merchants, at this point Venice which never really thought that another city in the Adriatic could rival them (and they didn't, cause Ancona commerce volume was quite inferior to that of La Serenissima) understands that Ancona could become a treat and decided to ask the HRE emperor to destroy the city even if they were formally in war with him cause they were members of the Lombard league.

In 1173 the city was siege belt and Ancona decided not to yield to the HRE troops and was able to survive the attack remaining loyal to the Byzantine Empire, during this siege we can remember a young widow “Stamira” (also Stamura) that was able to burn down various siege machine and the priest “Giovanni da Chio” that during a stormy day went swimming and cut loose the ropes of the admiral boat that was blockading the harbor and damaged some of the Venetian fleet.

Thanks to their loyalty to the Byzantine throne, as the HRE troops wanted the Byzantine ambassador and kill him. The Byzantine emperor ( Manuele Comneno) gave the city lots of gifts and also rewarded them with the possibility to open a “Fondaco” all over the Empire.

This inspired a painting called “Il Giuramento degli Anconetani” which you can see in the spoiler.

Spoiler: Giuramento degli Anconetani

View attachment 432354

Ancona and Venice fought during their existence around 15 wars between them.

Ancona and Ragusa considered themselves sisters Republics, a bit cause they were given the title of Republic around the same time and also cause their alliance was to protect one another from Venice power especially the commercial one.

Ancona golden age is considered to be the period between 1400 and 1500.

Ancona lost her independence in 2 periods, the first one in 1348 till 1353 when it was conquered by Malatesta, the second from 1353 till 1383 under direct control of the Papal State, in 1383 Ancona gained back its independence when the population assaulted the palace/castle built by the cardinal Albornoz in 1353 when the castellan started serving the antipope, with the fall of the castle (it was completely razed) the city became independent again till the year 1532.

Ancona was to be the starting point of the crusade to free Constantinople, but Pope Pio II died while trying to organize it so in the end nothing was done.

You have to excuse my poor english sentences, but i got tired of writing fluently...so i just wrote fact sentences

The recognition of Ancona:

Pope Alessandro III (around 1100-1181) gave the title of free city within the Papal state to try and give a de jure title to Ancona while the city was de facto independent , while pope Eugenio IV on the 2nd of September of 1443 (1 year before game start date) gives it the Republic title. (source: Liber croceus magnus, official document that it's in the National Archive of Ancona)

The loss of the independence:

In 1532 Pope Clemente VII proposed to build a citadel all paid by the Papal State under the false information that an imminent Ottoman attack on the city was about to happen. The Papal troops entered Ancona and took control of it. Any further attempt to get back the lost independence where ended in blood. This marked the end of the Republic. This is the short version of the story, in reality if was a bit more complex than this but i will not write it all down. If you are interested, i can refear you to a book that you can find on Google Book from 1867 but it's in italian. I also have to let you know that to mark the end of the republic in 1532, the whole city archive was burned and that is way it's hard to find information on the Republic.

Form of government and currency:
Ancona was an oligarchic republic and her goverment was formed in the following way, 3 "Regolatori" (they could only come from the city nobility, couldn't understand what they did), 6 Ancient/Senior/Lords that where elected from the 3 zones of the city, this 6 people formed the "Magistrato" and the "Generale Consiglio" also known as "il Magnifico" that had the power to create laws, declare war, sign peaces, send ambassadors and receive them. It had her own set of laws named “Statuti del Mare” or also “Statuti anconitani del mare, del terzenale e della dogana”. The “Statuti del Mare” (86 chapters) regulated various types of boats, their armaments, the officials on board and regulated the transport of good and people, the “Statuti del terzenale” (21 chapters) regulated the construction, selling and renting of the boats, while the “Statuti della dogana” (160 chapters) regulated import and export of goods. The “Statuti” also said that in case of controversy the rules from the “Consulate of the Sea” applied.

A page of the “Statuti del Mare” that says that every sailor that landed in Constantinople had to pay a tax to finance the Anconitan church of “Santo Stefano” that the Republic owned in the capital of the Empire.

Spoiler

View attachment 432367

Ancona even had their own currency (Agontano) that was accepted everywhere, the city started to mint the coins without HRE or papal oversight. The coin was quite liked and other town in Marche, Lazio, Abruzzo, Toscana and Emilia-Romagna used the agontano as reference.

Spoiler: Agontano

View attachment 432368

This is a map of Ancona commerce routes:

Spoiler

View attachment 432370

As you can see it was the second port of the Adriatic for commerce with the Orient, this made Ancona the Orient door of Central Italy.

Map of the land owned by Ancona:

Spoiler

View attachment 432371

The Republic as you can see didn't owned lot of land, but enough for self-sustain, the territory was heavily fortified that was also one of the reason why Ancona could defend herself for so much time.
The city of Macerata was the actual seat of the papal authority of the region named "Marca Anconitana" due to the fact that the city of Ancona was an independent republic, Macerata became the seat of the papal authority in the XV century due to various revolts against the pope in Fermo that was the papal seat since 1210A.D..
Actually from 1433 till 1447 the "Marca Anconitana" was under the rule of Francesco Sforza duke of Milan, that was given the title of Vicar, Marquis and gonfaloniere of the Church by pope Eugenio IV. After this little by little the towns conquered by Sforza all went back to the papal control and the "Marca Anconitana" didn't changed till the fall of Ancona in 1532 and the annexation of the Duchy of Urbino in 1631 with the extinction of the house of "Della Rovere".

Famous people born in the Republic of Ancona:
Benvenuto Stracca (1509-1578) that is considered the father of Commercial Law as he was the first one that separated commercial law from civil law and canon law. He wrote in 1553 the book "De Mercatura sive de Mercatore", the book is divided into 8 section and the one that talk about the "Admiralty law" and "Personal bankruptcy" are quite important. Stracca book was so famous and useful that it was used as the legal basis for trade for the next 250 years, till the publication of the Napoleonic Code and various national codes, the book was also used all around the European courthouses and even the Office of the Admiralty in London used to recommend the book as a reference for court cases.
Ciriaco Pizzecolli also said Ciriaco d’Ancona (1391- 1452) was a epigrapher, humanist and antiquarian from a merchant family of Ancona. He is considered the father of Archeology, and his work on the Romans and Greeks ancient cultures is considered the best in the world until the Age of Enlightenment. I’m not going to write a summary of his life cause it would take too much time, but I suggest you to look him up.

Ancona inside Europa Universalis 4

Form of government: This is a bit tricky, as Ancona was an Oligarchic Republic, but was also considered a Maritime Republic, I propose it as a Merchant Republic with a random leader, i've tried to find if there was any famous leader but the sources i've consulted always said that Ancona never transformed herself in a Signoria and always remain an Oligarchic Republic. The leader title i suggest to use is "Podestà".

Spoiler

A clarification on the Podestà, in reality it was elected every six months and had to answer to the Magistrato

Also to give it more flavour, i suggest to call the Aristocrats faction with the word "Confalonieri or Vesilliferi"
Diplomacy: it should start with an Alliance with Ragusa and the bonus +25 Historical Friend with Ragusa

Territory: Check @Van Kasten map
Terrain: Check @Van Kasten post
Trade Good: Check @Van Kasten post
Development: Check @Van Kasten post

Defence: It should have a castle already build, I propose this, cause the Republic build around the city of Ancona 20 different castle to protect the city and the land it owns.

Holy Roman Empire: It should be part of the Empire and quits the HRE with the shadow kingdom event.

Traditions, Ideas and Ambition have been written mainly by @Van Kasten with a couple from me.

Traditions:

• FORT DEFENCE +20%
• YEARLY NAVY TRADITION +1

Ideas:

• ARMY MORALE +10%
• SPY DEFENCE +25%
• YEARLY PRESTIGE +0,5 and IDEA COST -5%
• MANPOWER RECOVERY +10%
• NAVAL ATTRITION -10% and SAILOR MAINTENANCE -5%
• SHIPBUILDING TIME -10%
• TRADE EFFICIENCY +10%

Ambition:

• +15% GLOBAL TRADE

The first ambition derives from the three Imperial sieges, in which Ancona was never captured.
The second ambition was inspired by the fact that Ancona was an old maritime republic.
The first idea I took from a battle won by the Anconan army against the one of Galeazzo Malatesta, who wanted to capture the city.
The second idea came to my mind when I read about Francesco Sforza trying to capture the city by corrupting officials and turning them into spies. They were caught, put into sacks and thrown into the sea.
The third idea is about the Adriatic Renaissance.
The fourth idea comes from the noble families which held territories on the border with the Papal States and provided men for the army.
The fifth idea reflects the "Statuti del Mare", laws who regulated transport of passengers on ships and the requirement for the crews.
The sixth idea derives from the "Statuti del Terzenale", in which were written the rules for shipbuilding and their purchase.
The seventh and last idea comes from the "Statuti della Dogana", which regulated import and exports.

The ambition reflects Benvenuto Stracca book that was written in 1553, "De Mercatura sive de Mercatore".

Missions: While the generic mission that are right now available for the Italian state are fine, I think that a few personal mission can be implemented, here a few ideas for them.

Spoiler

View attachment 432388

Modifiers:
With the 1.26 new mechanics of the Center of Trade, I think Ancona (region) should start with a Natural Harbor (level 1), you should take it away from Urbino which is completly unhistorical, (Urbino under the duke prospered on the literate art, but it has never been a center of trade as shown right now inside the game. Now you are wondering why I’m putting it so low even if the golden age of the Republic was between 1400 and 1500, well that is because I think there could be some events that can either upgrade or downgrade this new Center of Trade. If you do not own Dharma, unfortunately it will remain locked, (I do hope they will make them more dynamic with some fixed events in case you don’t have the expansion) while if you do own Dharma, or future expansion, you can gain or lose the Entrepot with events or by normal game mechanics. This are a few suggested event for the Center of Trade.

The American routes: (Event, will be explained under)
The Papal Conquest: (Event, will be explained under)
The end of the Republic: (Event, will be explained under)
A flourishing market: (Event, will be explained under)

Events:
A flourishing market:
Conditions for the event to start:

• The year is between 1450 and 1465;
• The Republic of Ancona exist;
• The Republic of Ancona is not a vassal or in a personal union.

Our markets are flourishing and our merchants are being extremely successful all around the Mediterranean sea. With the increase of goods and people we must think of amplifying our port facilities, let’s make sure the Republic will keep on growing through the ages.

Option A - *Amplify the port.*

• Pay 150 ducats and receive a level 2 Center of Trade;
• +5 Prestige.

Option B - *We can’t waste resources on our merchant*

• -15 Prestige

If the country leader is an Architectural Visionary, you get a third choice:

Option C - *Only the best for our merchants*

• Pay 120 ducats and receive a level 2 Center of Trade;
• +10 Prestige.

The end of the Republic: (it fires for whatever conquers the territory)

Conditions for the event to start:

• The Republic of Ancona doesn’t exists.

With the fall of the Republic of Ancona, the city fell out of importance.

Option A - *Too bad*

• Center of Trade is downgraded to level 1. (Natural Harbor)

The American routes:

• Conditions for the event to start:
• The year is after 1500;
• The Republic of Ancona exist;
• Colonialism was discovered;
• The Byzantine empire doesn’t exist.

With the discoveries of the Americas and the fall of the Byzantine Empire, our markets lost importance.

Option A - *Damn*

• Downgrade the Center of Trade to level 1 (Natural Harbor);
• -5 Prestige.

The Conquest of Ancona: (Chain Event starting in the Papal State)
Conditions for the event to start:

• The year is 1532 or after;
• The Ottoman Empire exist and is independent;
• The Papal State exist and is independent;
• The Republic of Ancona exist in independent and own less than 2 provinces.

“A chance to conquer Ancona. Your Holiness, our advisor have made a plan to try and conquer the Republic of Ancona and bring her jurisdiction back into our holy country. We will invent an attack of the Ottoman Empire on the region, and propose to protect them by building a fortress near the town all paid by us.”

Option A - *I like the plan, go for it* (Starts the Event in the Republic of Ancona)

• +5 Prestige.

Option B - *I’m a servant of god!*

• +20 Papal Authority;
• -2% Catholic Reform Desire;
• +75 Relation with Ancona; (They respected our independence)
• +25 Relation with neighboring Catholic countries. (They respected Ancona)

The Papal Aid:
Conditions for the event to start:

• The year is 1532 or after;
• The Ottoman Empire exist and is independent;
• The Papal State exist and is independent;
• The Republic of Ancona exist, is independent and owns less than 2 provinces;
• The Papal State choose Option A in the event “The conquest of Ancona”.

“My Lords, the Papal emissary tells us of an imminent attack on our coasts by the Ottoman Empire, they offer to build a fortress all paid by them to protect us better, what shall we do?”

Option A - *Seek the Pope Protection*

• Ancona gets annexed by The Papal State;
• -40 relations between The Papal State and the neighboring countries. (They deceived Ancona)
• Downgrades the Center of Trade to level 1

Option B - *This sounds fishy.*

• -100 relation between The Papal State and Ancona;
• -100 relation between Ancona and The Papal State;
• The Papal state gets a permanent claim on Ancona.

I know it’s a complex chain event and it can be worked and improved in various ways, but for now I’ve tried to be as much as possible faithful to real history.


Benvenuto Stracca: (Possible advisor)
Benvenuto Stracca was born in 1509 in Ancona and studied law in Bologna from 1533 to 1538, he then returned to his hometown where he practiced as a lawyer. He was the first to consider commercial law as a set of rules distinct from civil law, to elaborate it both from a practical and a theoretical point of view and to give it a systematic exposure and for this he is considered the father of commercial law. In 1553 he wrote the “De Mercatura sive de Mercatore” a book that made him famous around the world. His works have been used for 250 years around Europe as the base for commercial law till the publication of the Napoleonic code.

Trigger conditions:

• Year is 1553 or later;
• None of:
  • Advisor with ID….exists;
• Own province Ancona;
• None of:
  • Year is 1578 or later.

Results:

• An Excellent Minister!
  • Gain 5 Prestige;
  • Gain 75 diplomatic power;
  • Gain skill 2 Master of the Mint advisor named Benvenuto Stracca in Ancona. (50% cheaper to employ)

Ciriaco Pizzecolli: (Possible advisor)
Ciriaco Pizzecolli was born in 1391 into a noble family of merchants of Ancona. He was an archaeologist, humanist, epigraphist and Italian traveler. For his research of historical testimonies, carried out in many Mediterranean countries, in an attempt to save them from oblivion and destruction , he is considered, even by his contemporaries, “pater antiquitatis”, the founder or "father of archeology". Even Nnow a days he is considered the father of archeology.

Trigger conditions:

• Year is 1444 or later;
• Is Republic of Ancona;
• None of:
  • Advisor with ID….exists;
• Own province Ancona;
• None of:
  • Year is 1452 or later.

Mean time to happen 96 months

Results:

• An Excellent Minister!
  • Gain 15 Prestige;
  • Gain 50 administrative power;
  • Gain 50 diplomatic power;
  • Gain skill 2 Diplomat advisor named Ciriaco Pizzecolli in Ancona. (50% cheaper to employ)

I'm working on a third advisor called Francesco Cinzio Benincasa that can start in the Kingdom of Hungary, i'll write in down during the vacations.


Achievement: As Ancona was the sole historical maritime republic that didn’t waged wars against the other Italian maritime republics but had to defend herself, an achievement could be implemented.

The Lonely Republic
As Ancona, own Genoa, Pisa, Venice and Ragusa, and be the dominant power in the trade nodes of Venice, Genoa, Ragusa, Alexandria and Constantinople.[/spoiler]

Thanks @Funchi for your suggestion!
I'll add it immediately to the main post.
Enjoy youself with the rest of this thread

 

[Van Kasten]

Hello there!
Time for the fourth part of this suggestion!

This time we will talk about three main topics:
- Papal (or Decentralized) Vassals
- A new Latin culture
-Tons of Central Italian advisor names and leader names (really, I fear counting them)

Let's not wait, life is short!

Part 4.1: PAPAL (OR DECENTRALIZED) VASSALS

In EU4 we have different types of subjects, ranging from vassals to tributaries, from colonial nations to daymios.
Currently, the nation of Urbino is represented as a normal vassal, and what is the result? Some years into the game and it's annexed. This is no good.
I will not turn a blind eye to this injustice.

I've nominated the daymios, and not randomly. EU4's daymios provided some of my suggestions for another type of vassal.
Halfway between a classic vassal nation and an independent one, there is the status of Decentralized Vassal. This name will be applied if this mechanic will become more generic.
In the opposite case, these subjects will be called "Papal Vassals".

What is special about a vassal of the Pope?
The Papal States were far away from a centralized dominion. The Pope's authority had many severe limitations and was limited by many forces and factions.
Let's talk about the centrifugal forces that wanted to escape the jurisdiction of the Papal representatives: the Singori (or Lords) of the most powerful cities and principalities.

A Papal Vassal:

• is formally under the Papal States
• can declare war against other Papal Vassals and other nations, but not against the Pope, or the overlord (only during Independence Wars)
• can ally any other nations that is willing to (acceptance factor lowered for non-papal vassals)
• has a liberty desire that counts only individual strength and strength of supporters of independence
• if annexed as a non-cobelligerant, generates double of the usual non-cobelligerants aggressive expansion and -50 opinion with the Pope for each province taken (risk of Excommunication or Interdict). The Papal States will gain a permanent claim for the annexed provinces and will hold them of the outmost interest., breaking alliances and diplomatic relations with the aggressor.
• can't be annexed by a decentralized Papal States. The Pope must gain the upper hand in the internal struggle for power
• will offer free condottieri to the Pope if they like him and he's the defender in a war
• will pay from 0% of their income to the maximum (actual modifier) based on liberty desire (decreasingly)

There are the basic rules. But there's more!
Monarchies that have no heir become 0/0/0 Interregnums and the Pope will decide their fate:

• if after the Age of Greater Nepotism (well well well another thing to look forward to): incorporate the leaderless principality into the Papal States: the Pope will gain cores in all of the provinces, but will inherit the Estate placement of the defunct nation.
• if during the Age of the Greater Nepotism the Pope can trasfer control of the subject to a kinsman. It will have 0 liberty desire unitl the current Pope dies and will have 0 liberty desire again when a Pope of his dynasty will be elected. What? Papal dynasties? Oh oh... Spoiler

Papal vassals of the same dinasty as the Pope will leave no choice upon inheritance: all their foriegn cores will be released as Papal Vassals in case of republic and monarchies with leaders in exile. The rest will be completely inherited by the Papal States. Again, the eventual Estate placement will be inherited as well.

And yes, there will be special Papal Interaction with his vassals (a bit like Shogun/Daimyo). This interactions will appear in the subject tab instead of the classic ones like Scutage and the like. These interactions are:

• Conscript general (maybe with this addition: rulers or heirs are allowed but will cost papal influence)
• Rent their army as Condottieri (price: liberty desire and the initial army payment)
• Take over trade routes -> gain money and trade power and increase their liberty desire (only for subject Republics)
• Prohibit offensive wars -> target subject may not declare war for X years, greatly increase liberty desire (emergency measure to avoid a massive subject)
• Replace Regent -> increase liberty desire, a Umbrian Noble becomes regent -> friendlier relations with the the Papal States (only for subject Monarchies during regency)
• Appoint successor -> increase liberty desire, in the target country a new random heir is generated, when he is in power friendlier relations with the the Papal States (only for subject Theocracies)
• Use Papal Influence to lower liberty desire

Of course, the numers are entirely up to the devs to balance.
If I come up with other (historical) interactions, I'll be updating this post.
Feel free to propose your own suggestions on the matter, but I'll accept only falvorful and historical ones

Part 4.2: A NEW LATIN CULTURE

Ohh yes. The Balcanic fanbase will understand me when I talk about adding cultures.
In this case, let's look at the Latin culture group.
Let me start by saying that here in Italy were have lots and lots of different cultural identities: North vs. Center vs. South, Region vs. Region, City vs. City.
Currently, the Umbrian culture covers 3 regions: Lazio, Umbria and Marche. That's a bit too much, since with my suggestion there will be a lot of Umbrian provinces.
So, let's split this in two!
The Umbrian cutlure will now be used only in the four Lazio-Umbria provinces.
Let me present you the new culture I wish to introduce in the area called Marca Anconitana: the MARCHIGIAN culture. The traduction is a bit difficult. MARQUESAN or MARCHESAN can be used too, but its the same, really.
Urbino, Ancona, Macerata and Camerino will belong to this new culture. This will also help to define the differences between the various lords under the Pope.

"That's it? Only some sentences and no actual suggestion?"
"Of course no, read the next paragraph"

Part 4.3: CENTRAL ITALIAN CULTURAL NAMES

As I mentioned in another thread (the green on in my signature), all Latin cultures have more or less the same names for leaders and advisors. This does not cause immersion and does not bring flavor. The solution?

HOURS OF RESEARCH

That's no going around it. Quite some time must be put to the task.
But, thanks to the devs, I have invested that time and put together this suggestion.

I have:

• searched for important families (leaders and advisors) in the areas that are the focus of this thread (Romagna, Marche, Umbria, Lazio)
• classified them into advisor names and leader names
• classified advisors names by specific culture (Romagnan, Marchigian and Umbrian)
• classified leader names by specific nation (every nation I mentioned here)
• put together, for each nation, a list of male and female leader names (all of them reflect naming conventions of the dynasties at hand

DISCLAIMERS:

• Behind each male or female name there might be a roman number in parenthesis, like e.g. Gentile (III) . This means that if a new ruler with that name is generated, it must have that number since he is the third of the dynasty called "Gentile". If he is the first, then no number is listed behind the name
• For Republics, I have listed important families, but also advisors can be used sometimes is there are not enough names
• Some names are divided even for the same nations: some reflect an eventual monarchic side, some the republican counterpart. For reference, see Bologna.
• In the special case of Bologna (republic), i have a link to a wikipedia page (in Italian) that lists every important family that got a seat in the Bolognese Senate.
• the leader names for Ancona were researched by @Funchi.

That said, I will include those documents in the thumbnails.



To end this part, I would like to thanks those of you who had the patience to read this post.
I also would like to announce what's next...
STAY TUNED!
Next time: the Catholicism rework most of you were patiently waiting for!
I won't spoil anything, I'll just say that I will talk about 4 things, each of them begins with the letter C

See you next time!

 

[Funchi]

Part 4.2: A NEW LATIN CULTURE

Ohh yes. The Balcanic fanbase will understand me when I talk about adding cultures.
In this case, let's look at the Latin culture group.
Let me start by saying that here in Italy were have lots and lots of different cultural identities: North vs. Center vs. South, Region vs. Region, City vs. City.
Currently, the Umbrian culture covers 3 regions: Lazio, Umbria and Marche. That's a bit too much, since with my suggestion there will be a lot of Umbrian provinces.
So, let's split this in two!
The Umbrian cutlure will now be used only in the four Lazio-Umbria provinces.
Let me present you the new culture I wish to introduce in the area called Marca Anconitana: the MARCHIGIAN culture. The traduction is a bit difficult. MARQUESAN or MARCHESAN can be used too, but its the same, really.
Urbino, Ancona, Macerata and Camerino will belong to this new culture. This will also help to define the differences between the various lords under the Pope.

"That's it? Only some sentences and no actual suggestion?"
"Of course no, read the next paragraph"

More than Marchigian, i suggest you call them PICENTES or PICENTINI, this would be more accurate to reality as that zone of Italy as always been populated since ancient times from a civilization called Picentes that where different from the Umbrian people, the language (dialect from italian people) herself is different!

 

[Van Kasten]

More than Marchigian, I suggest you call them PICENTES or PICENTINI, this would be more accurate to reality as that zone of Italy as always been populated since ancient times from a civilization called Picentes that where different from the Umbrian people, the language (dialect from italian people) herself is different!

Like the discussions about flags, here we can talk for centuries about which name is the best.

I will simply leave it to the Developers' wisdom to judge which name fit better

 

[Centuria]

Yes they are big... if you want to help me downsize them you are more than welcome

Looks like we have need of some resizing once more Here's the Ancona flag you posted with proper EU4 proportions.