Okay, I'm trying to for a list of accurate (or as accurate as possible) historical succession laws to be represented in this mod. Here is the list of my suggestions with sources included, but this is open to discussion. My knowledge is limited, and would like to ask people with greater insight to help me complete the list. Let's make it as accurate as possible before introducing the laws into the game.
@ GAGA Extrem Is it possible to make gavelkind as default law for those titles that have no other law specified as was in vanilla? This would make things much easier.
Iberia
All counts, ducies and kingdoms start with Gavelkind
The strongest argument in favor of Gavelkind is the succesion of Ferdinand I of León, where different kingdoms passed to his 3 sons, this was according to his will, mind you – not a set law, but still represents the atmosphere where primogeniture was not already seen as the one and only way to go. Also, after the unfortunate end of the Jimenez dynasty, Alfonso VII, first king of the Burgundy dynasty (And the son of Ferdinand's granddaughter, through whom he got the titles) also divided his kingdoms upon his death, leaving Galicia and Leon to Ferdinand II, and Castille to Sancho III. From what I have read and dug up it turns out that the usual practice in Iberia at the time was that of the will of the former ruler, but there was a folk-law behind it. Usually all the children got something with the oldest male gaining the house and 1/3 of all the estates. So Gavelkind is definitely the way to go here. I have not been able to find anything specific for dukes and counts, so also giving them gavelkind seems the way to go.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_of_Castile
http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspec...alogies/Spanish_Monarchs/Spanish Monarchs.htm
http://www.friesian.com/perifran.htm
France
Kingdom – primogeniture
Capetian French kings abided by primogeniture, but usually gave titles as appanage to their younger sons, meaning that they will have something after the father dies. Still, the sizes of those grants were minuscule when compared to the crown. The problem is that even though the system was primogeniture, all sons had a right to a landed title, but they were all counties, not duchies (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appanage). So I guess primogeniture for this one as it is.
Dukes – hard to say, most likely gavelkind
Normandy – primogeniture
British Isles
Saxon England - gavelkind
Norman England – Primogeniture, although William the Conqueror nominated his successors, his 3rd son inherited the crom, while his 1st son inherited the duchy of Normandy. Primogeniture became commonplace through Norman law later on.
Dukes in England– gavelkind, although primogeniture became the law in England at a later point, and all had to abide by it.
Ireland – gavelkind
Irish case is very complicated, and if I understand it right, it was a mixture of gavelkind and seniority, where the eldest member of the house got the main estate, and the sons divided the rest. Later the seniority aspect was lost, and equal partition among sons was common.
Wales – gavelkind
Equal partition was commonplace in Wales, and many historians argue that this was the reason why they were never strong enough to stand up to England.
Scotland – gavelkind
Scottish kingdom and duchies should start with gavelkind, but Scotland turned to primogeniture early in the game time (
https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/733/4/Royal-Succession-in-Medieval-Scotland.pdf).
Scandinavia
Kingdom of Norway – Gavelkind, turned primogeniture later in the game (13th centiry).
I guess gavelkind fits best, although the situation was far from clear-cut (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereditary_Kingdom_of_Norway)
Kingdom of Sweden – Elective
Kingdom of Denmark – Elective
Dukes –gavelkind
Hre
Empire – Elective
Bohmia - Seniority
Dukes – gavelkind
Russia
Dukes – Gavelkind
Things are complicated here, and certain instances have elements of Seniority as well. Seniority might not be good in game terms, as it would mean that eventually all the Rus lands would be united in a single entity too easily and too early.
Hugary - seniority
Again, very complicate. I would argue for seniority here, although there were elements of primogeniture claims, as well as partitions of the territory (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Árpád_dynasty). I guess it should start out as seniority later maybe changed to primogeniture. The reason is that members of the Arpad dynasty felt they had the right of seniority for the crown and often rebelled with that cause.
Dukes – gavelkind
Poland - gavelkind
Hard to say, again, but I would go with gavelkind. There were numerous partitions of the land in the early part of the game time to justify this. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Poland_(966–1385))
Dukes – gavelkind
Croatia
Kingdom – Elective
Again, not an easy task of deciding this, but elective seems like a good choice even though the title remained within the dynasty.
Dukes – elective
Accordding to the document
Chartvlare Sancti Petri the dukes (bans) were elected from the „tribes“.
Ere
Elective, I guess.
Dukes – gavelkind
