How to make get council under control

[The Keisari]

Hey, so after conclave I have had problems getting my vassals (mainly counsil members) under control.
So does anyone have any suggestions on how to stop them form rebelling to increase their authority every 5 years?

 

[Naughtius Maximus]

1. Give them all council authority. You defeatist. Just kidding. It's an option.

2. Give them everything except powers you absolutely can't stomach losing. In my case it would be grant/revoke titles, and perhaps imprisonment.

3. Make a firm stand after Council War Declaration. War declaration locks anyone in your council from forming factions unless the entire council is discontent. If you lock up all your power in said 8 vassals, your other vassals can still faction, but they will likely not have the power to fire off the civil war. Just be sure with every succession you have good standing with council members, as for about 1-2 years after a succession they will be discontent.

4. Absolute. Pretty much the only way you will be able to pull this off reliably is to do the same as Council War Dec. Lock up your power in a few powerful vassals. Then marry your kids to those vassals for non aggression pacts. I only ever prefer doing this once I have almost everyone in my religion group under my control. Marrying off to vassals causes you to miss out on a lot of claims your dynasty could have acquired.

 

[The Keisari]

Thank you! I'll give it a try.

 

[RagingJaws]

Note that most of my advice is geared towards medium sized kingdoms.

1. Keep council members of your strongest vassals. They will not be able to faction, so long as the council is content.
2. Pay attention to the vote tool tips. You can often find out why this Councillor votes for or against an action and fix it.
3. The wiki has a great bit on why the AI picks a certain stance. Pay attention to your potential Councillors traits and make sure they have a high opinion of you before you place them on the council.
4. Unless you really need to lock up another vassal, keep the Advisor(s) spot for someone guaranteed to be loyalist (friend, lover, close family member, high opinion content vassal) to use as voting leverage, sparing you from giving out too many favors.

For some numbers:

1. Council members will usually support increasing centralization at +20 opinion. They will always support reducing centralization.
2. Revocation will almost always be voted down at an opinion below +60, above +60 turns voting assumption to undecided. Special rules for zealots (will vote for stripping titles of religious enemies) and pragmatists (will vote yes with opinion above +20)
3. Most voters will be opposed to any increase in laws concerning inheritance, vice-royalties, and administration.
4. Feudal councilors will be opposed to increasing their levy obligations, mayors will be opposed to increasing their tax obligations, and bishops will be opposed to any change from a balanced obligation. Councilors will be undecided on obligations that do not affect their own government type.

There is a lot more to it, all listed on the wiki. Worth checking out.

 

[Ferrumius]

Also signing NAP by marriage is useful. Vassal with NAP can't start or join any faction AFAIK. I'm not very sure they can join a faction by a favor though.

 

[Redwulf_Storm]

The advice others have given you is very soild...Here is my addition:
The main thing you need to do is make sure you have a lot of troops under your personal command. The higher number of troops the less likely that factions will be able to form strong enough to be a threat to you. What I like doing for this is building my capital province "tall," meaning, that province should first be big at least 6 holding slots and I build castles in all available holdings and keep the baronies for myself. Then you send your marshal to train them. In my present game my capital province has about 12,000 troops. I have a retinue of over 20,000. I haven't had a council war in about two centuries and I have absolute power. Your personal troop count is a huge deal in maintaining your authority. Raise your heir with martial if you must. Focus on techs that can increase troop numbers either by giving you a bigger retinue or by allowing you to build more troop buildings in your personal holdings. Show those incompetent vassals who is boss.

 

[RX2000]

If you have a powerful vassal that wants to be on the council but you dont want to put him there, or dont have room for him, he will turn not angry (red fist will go away) if you can put him in jail. If you have WoL & decent intrigue you can choose intrigue focus & spy on him & that will usually let you slander him & imprison without tyranny. Once he's in jail you wont have any problems from him.

As far as how to actually manage the council you have, the tips above are all good. If you have a lot of money always try to keep some favors with the members of your council so you can call them in. If you dont have much money you can just request their support, but then you will owe them a favor & they might use it to call a vote on something when you arent ready for it (dont have any favors to call in yourself) so watch out for that.

All in all though, I dont usually find the council too annoying. Since the ruler gets to break a tie, you just need to have like 3 loyalists, or have favors from 3 members, to pretty much always get anything you want through, & block whatever you dont. Its not too bad to control once you understand the mechanics. And if someone is powerful but doesnt have many good stats to actually be a good councillor, make him an adviser, or just find a way to imprison him (spy on, excommunicate, etc.)