Best way to deal with being in matrileneal marriage?

[Tim O]

I fucked up. I'm the king of Italy and I just changed my inheritance law from seniority to primogeniture. I thought my 3rd son was going to inherit since the older two joined crusading orders. However I forgot that my eldest son (genius grandmaster cardinal of the Templars) had several kids by the duchess of Saxony before joining. His eldest is now married to the queen of England in a matrileneal marriage. He had a daughter and two sons already.

Of course, I die almost immediately after since I'm 74. At least Mario is 26 so I hopefully got some time to fix this. Will I have to wait ten years and switch back to seniority, or can I divorce or sire some bastards and legitimze one? My character is gay, so banking on future kids is a little risky

 

[Dragatus]

Fathering more children of your own dynasty won't help you by itself as you already have two sons that have precedence under Primogeniture. You'd have to disqualify them by giving them bishoprics or making them take the vows. Or just get them killed (either by executing them or by having them lead armies).

If you're Catholic getting a divorce will be difficult as you'd need the pope's cooperation. If you were Orthodox however, it would be a matter of giving the wife some money. Being Orthodox would also allow you to get your two sons excommunicated and executed without tyranny, provided you have 200 Piety to pay for the excommunications and that the bishopric of Rome is NOT held by an Orthodox bishop.

In any case you should try to have some children of your dynasty, which may require you to murder your wife if you can't get a divorce. If you also kill your two sons you'll have the "get a son" ambition available and that gives a hidden 25% bonus to fertility. Make sure to get yourself a new wife that doesn't have any daughters yet so that she can pick the "get daughter" ambition and get a hidden +25% fertility of her own.

You'll probably be fine though as long as you kill the children you have. If your ruler dies childless the kingdom will pass to his uncle, who from what I understand is of your dynasty.

 

[Rubidium]

If your son is married matrilineally to an independent ruler, then their kids that are already born will be in her court, which will make assassinating them/disinheriting them difficult. Also note that your son won't be able to plot against his own kids (although he can against his wife).

Fathering more sons won't help; the non-dynastic kids will still be ahead in succession. I suspect you are going to need to pray that your son lasts long enough to change the succession law.

The only other measures I can think of are significantly more extreme (things like becoming Byzantine Emperor or converting to Islam for their special succession), neither of which seems likely to be practical.

 

[DPS]

If you also kill your two sons you'll have the "get a son" ambition available and that gives a hidden 25% bonus to fertility. Make sure to get yourself a new wife that doesn't have any daughters yet so that she can pick the "get daughter" ambition and get a hidden +25% fertility of her own.

Op doesn't say what DLCs he's running, but if he using conclave, the "get a son/daughter" ambition isn't there anymore.

 

[JustynS]

Switch back to Seniority, or go straight Elective if your vassals like you. Then once your dynastic succession is secured, switch to primogeniture.

 

[Naufragus]

I wouldnt go with seniority. EVER. If you want to change succession the your best option is elective. If you get a bunch of old people they often dont live 10 years and you never get to change laws

You can also change the crown law about titles going to other realms. This could at least prevent the English from taking your country.

What you want to do is go Seductive, even if you cant seduce you will increase your fertility. Forget about stats and politics. GOTO the find chararcter screen. ( doing ~charinfo is very helpful). Set search to ALL, Women, Not married, adult, and enter the term Lust in the seach field. Sort by age so the 16 yos are on top. Then hover and check the fertility. Find one with really high fertil. Ideally you want a lustful 16 yo who has over a 50% opinion. If she doesnt pop out a kid in a couple of years off her and rinse repeat.

If you assassinate the spouse, you might be able to get the kids to you court.

Also check factions and see if you can let them work for you - IE I wanted to change succession laws but would never meet the requirements. But my son being a duke could start a faction and I just encouraged that and went with so sad, guess i have no choice. Likely there is an elective faction. Let them force your hand and save your law giving for something else

 

[Dragatus]

I agree on seniority. It's really hard to change to another law once you have it in place because all the kings are old. You also have a lot of short reigns and rulers with poor stats. Though I guess on the upside it is safe as you're sure to have an heir of your own dynasty and you don't have to worry about child rulers.

I still prefer elective though.

 

[Rubidium]

If you assassinate the spouse, you might be able to get the kids to you court.

Although if spouse is a ruler, then at least one of the kids will probably inherit her titles, so they will stay in the foreign court.