I started as Croatia, did an invasion CB and took over the HRE. Now I'd like to take over the Byzantine Empire and form the Roman Empire. What's the best way to go about this?
Best way to form the Roman Empire as the HRE?
- Thread starter phunbaba
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Acquire the a claim on the byz empire through marriage, take it over, then expand your territory until you have all the requirements for the 'restore the roman empire event'. You probably need to switch to byz empire as your primary. Being HRE you also already have most of the italian territory, and the rest (other than Rome and southern italy) is under Islamic control, so it shouldn't be too hard to get. You may also want to consider going orthodox in order to end the great schism, as this gives you a religiously united Christendom.
The problem is the trigger is completely_controls, and includes Rome, so you'll need to boot the Pope out of his house temporarily. What could work is that you take Latium with a claim, restore the Empire, give the pope his house back, set up an Antipope (I chose the Bishopric in Constantinople for this), then push his Papal claim. Then you're back in the Pope's good graces and you've got the Empire. Of course, then you'll not get the "Borders of the Roman Empire Restored" event unless you've already restored them before forming the Empire and giving the pope his house back.
Or you just don't give the pope his house back. Just make sure he doesn't get the time to drift Latium into the Papacy.
You can stick an antipope in Rome indefinitely, if you think the Catholic faith can take the hit to authority. (Actually, in a test game, I could install a Catholic bishop of Rome who is neither pope nor antipope, but this is absurd.) You could also convert to another form of Christianity, such as by tutoring your heir. In fact, the flavor text assumes that a Byzantine emperor who reconquers Rome will be Orthodox.
You do have to be Byzantine Emperor, and Christian, but it does not have to be your primary title.
You do have to be Byzantine Emperor, and Christian, but it does not have to be your primary title.
Playing as HRE/ERE emperor atm with HRE as primary title, and I do have access to the event and the popups whenever I control a certain stretch of land. Still need to get Latium tho.
Question about the shism: is that another event, and can I do it as catholic too? Already converted most of the world to catholic...
Question about the shism: is that another event, and can I do it as catholic too? Already converted most of the world to catholic...
Mending the Great Schism is another event. You can only do it as an Orthodox ruler.
So is marrying in is the best way to get the Byz crown? Does it need to be my heir to become a part of my empire or just a family member? Also it seems like their claimants don't really want to marry my family unless it stays in their dynasty. Do I just have to keep checking until they have someone I can invite to court? Any easier methods? Thanks for the replies!
Hover your mouse over the no which appears over the send button for a detailed explanation of what you can do. Sending a gift might work, but only if you are close enough, so might taking some titles etc. Like I say have a look first, if its close it might be a case of finding someone with similar traits or sending money.
I ended up getting a claim through one of the daughters, reclaiming Greece via Crusade from the Fatimids, and at some point the ERE had switched to elective. Placement of family members on all the duchies of greece gave me a fair amount of votes, then I just assassinated the people ahead of me in succession (plus the Emperor). If they're still in Primogeniture, you/your heir can marry one of the daughters, then assassinate all of her siblings (hopefully before one of them has kids). Or you can do it less murderously and try and invite the heir to your court before they're married.
You could try to marry the heir and unify the thrones that way; it would take either luck or ruthlessness. Byzantine princesses get weak claims to the throne, so you could marry one to your heir and then go to war to press her weak claim, putting her on the throne. Note that sons born after you succeed at this will be porphyrogenitos, and therefore inherit before sons born before, so if you have primogeniture in the West, you could end up with two brothers as separate heirs to the Western and Eastern empires. With elective succession, you might be able to breed a claimant of your dynasty and elect him heir of the Wastern Empire.
The other way of doing this would be to conquer a majority of the de jure territory of the empire and usurp the throne.
Bah, dang. Being catholic is vastly superior to being orthodox. Maybe I'll change for some luls in the 15th century if some Orthodox remain until then.
You should go heretic and holy war all the catholic land you need, it will add another challenge to the game 
(but it's not like anything can stop A HRE + BYZ combo)
That's how I did it as the duke of flanders anyway
(If you don't like being a heretic you could convert back to catholicism through the intrigue tab right after taking all the land you needed)
(but it's not like anything can stop A HRE + BYZ combo)That's how I did it as the duke of flanders anyway
(If you don't like being a heretic you could convert back to catholicism through the intrigue tab right after taking all the land you needed)
It is still possible to vassalize the pope as an emperor. You'll need a king-bishop, make him antipope, and then press his claim. This also gets you Latium. Making a king archbishop can be challenging, tho the easiest way is to invite a claimant to a foreign kingdom, make him a vassal bishop in your empire, then press his claim on his kingdom. Also, as long as the pope is your vassal and is bishop of Rome, he doesn't seem to mind if you hold the county personally. At least, I never got the event where the pope demands Rome back.
For me that makes this particular decision only half finished; since the Great Schism was a two way split split, IMHO both sides (Catholics and Orthodox) ought to be able to mend it.
I agree; the schism was only twelve years old in 1066, and the bishops came close at the Council of Florence as it was. So maybe there should be a more peaceful ecumenicism in the game? In history, the Latins sacking Constantinople and setting up a Catholic as archbishop probably made it harder to convince the Orthodox to sign on, not easier, but if the Crusades had all been more successful and held not just Jerusalem, but Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch, maybe everyone would eventually have agreed that the Latin Patriarchs were the real patriarchs, and gone back into communion with Rome.
Trying to sell Orthodox rulers on papal supremacy and sending their tithes to Rome would be harder than offering Catholic kings a system of weaker autocephalous bishops under their control, so I don’t think just replacing Orthodox with Catholic and vice versa would make a lot of sense.