I let the French king buy a favor from me...

[.Raistlin.]

So I let the French king buy a favor from me, the Duchess of Anjou, while my 18 year old daughter & heir was banned from marriage so I could pick a proper matrilineal marriage when I croaked. Turns out favors can be used to enforce marriage despite the marriage ban toggle, so I was forced into a normal marriage between my daughter/heir and the French prince.

I croaked soon after, and now I find myself stuck as the Duchess of Anjou, in a patrilineal marriage to the French prince, and pregnant. The only person left in my dynasty is an older aunt, so how do I get out of this? The pope doesn't like me enough to get a divorce, and I'm not sure if +50 from sending a gift is gonna be enough to sway him. Plot to kill my husband is only at ~50%.

The real concern is already being pregnant. If I have his kid, then either divorce or assassinate him & have a kid of my own, is my kid with him the heir to my duchy?

 

[Rags17]

I had a similar problem once and wrote about it in another thread.

First off - join a holy order quick, either the Dominicans or Franciscans. Donate to charity, take any mission given and get to Level 2 as fast as you can, this will allow you to take the Become Celibate option. Stay in the order for now but make no more effort to go up unless you want to for some other reason.

Your first step will be to get rid of your unwanted husband. Apart from divorce there are zillions of ways to do this, from simple assassination to making him a Councilor in a job with his worst stat eg Intrigue 3 ? => Spymaster, Stewardship 4 ? => Steward etc. Then assign him to dirty work and wait for RNGesus to do its work. A Court Chaplain with learning 3 doesn't last long preaching to Zealous Vikings for example . . .

Apart from that you can of course Imprison him, either validly after Spying On him or with straight out with tyranny. You don't have to execute him though, the Oubliette will do the same job although it will take a bit longer unless you help it along with some Torture first (must have game rule active torture without release).

Next you will need to remarry and start popping out new sprogs. Renounce your vow of celibacy and get to work, use gifts, honorary titles etc on your new husband to get him to like you, this will increase the chance of a pregnancy. Alternatively, take the Seduction option and get to work, you can then legitimize whichever one ends up having the best stats.

Now you will have to deal with your unwanted child. This is a lot harder as you can't plot kill your own kids, nor can you put them into a dangerous job. You can imprison and kill/oubliette though so that's a possibility. If the child is male then when he gets older you can also make him leader of a tiny army and send him out to fight bad guys until he croaks, if the child is female then she should be excluded from succession as soon as you have a son anyway.

Good luck !

 

[.Raistlin.]

I had a similar problem once and wrote about it in another thread.

First off - join a holy order quick, either the Dominicans or Franciscans. Donate to charity, take any mission given and get to Level 2 as fast as you can, this will allow you to take the Become Celibate option. Stay in the order for now but make no more effort to go up unless you want to for some other reason.

Your first step will be to get rid of your unwanted husband. Apart from divorce there are zillions of ways to do this, from simple assassination to making him a Councilor in a job with his worst stat eg Intrigue 3 ? => Spymaster, Stewardship 4 ? => Steward etc. Then assign him to dirty work and wait for RNGesus to do its work. A Court Chaplain with learning 3 doesn't last long preaching to Zealous Vikings for example . . .

Apart from that you can of course Imprison him, either validly after Spying On him or with straight out with tyranny. You don't have to execute him though, the Oubliette will do the same job although it will take a bit longer unless you help it along with some Torture first (must have game rule active torture without release).

Next you will need to remarry and start popping out new sprogs. Renounce your vow of celibacy and get to work, use gifts, honorary titles etc on your new husband to get him to like you, this will increase the chance of a pregnancy. Alternatively, take the Seduction option and get to work, you can then legitimize whichever one ends up having the best stats.

Now you will have to deal with your unwanted child. This is a lot harder as you can't plot kill your own kids, nor can you put them into a dangerous job. You can imprison and kill/oubliette though so that's a possibility. If the child is male then when he gets older you can also make him leader of a tiny army and send him out to fight bad guys until he croaks, if the child is female then she should be excluded from succession as soon as you have a son anyway.

Good luck !

Thanks for the tips. Would you not recommend trying to bribe the pope into a divorce?

 

[Ilion]

If you can't rescue the situation, such that it's Game Over at this character's death, you could turn it into a game of "Jumping Dynasties", in that you at the end of each ruler's life, you either re-load as your next non-dynastic heir (or use the console to play as the heir before your current character's death). Obviously, this heir must be landed before the current character's death.

My idea for this self-imposed rule is that the heir at each generation must be of a different dynasty than the current character. So, if your character (or heir) is female, then she marries normally, but if male, then then he marries matralineally.

 

[.Raistlin.]

It's ironman so I can't jump around, but after wasting a few hundred gold trying to bribe the pope for an excom (no dice), I failed to imprison him after spying on him, so he fled, after which I bribed a bunch of people at the foreign court to join my plot to kill, which succeeded.

Unfortunately I have a boy and a girl by him, whom I imprisoned and tyrannically threw in the oubilette. Not sure how long I should wait before just executing them if they don't die.

edit: well, I finally had a son of my dynasty, but of course he was born slow. Maybe there's time for another, but I'm 35 now and it took several years for this one.

 

[Geglash]

Get a bastard, legitimaze him/her and switch to elective

 

[Rags17]

It's ironman so I can't jump around, but after wasting a few hundred gold trying to bribe the pope for an excom (no dice), I failed to imprison him after spying on him, so he fled, after which I bribed a bunch of people at the foreign court to join my plot to kill, which succeeded.

Unfortunately I have a boy and a girl by him, whom I imprisoned and tyrannically threw in the oubilette. Not sure how long I should wait before just executing them if they don't die.

edit: well, I finally had a son of my dynasty, but of course he was born slow. Maybe there's time for another, but I'm 35 now and it took several years for this one.

Time for the seduction focus - make babies and legitimize whichever one looks the best. Your "Slow" child might also want to join his half siblings in the dark room . . .

 

[FifthMonarchy]

Can you go seniority? Will at least keep things in dynasty (even if only mad old aunt for now) while you wait for the slow son to grow up.

 

[Lingvort]

Friend, the game is buggy right now. If you kill your husband right now (or he dies on his own) before the baby is born, it will be of your dynasty.

I suggest you just straight up arrest and execute him if the chances are good and/or you're getting desperate.

 

[Ilion]

Time for the seduction focus - make babies and legitimize whichever one looks the best. Your "Slow" child might also want to join his half siblings in the dark room . . .

The character is a *she* ... which means at most, about one baby per year. And the character is now about 35 ... which means, not too many more babies are in the pipeline (and, in real-life, a higher chance of any being "slow").

 

[.Raistlin.]

The duchy is default agn-con gavelkind - haven't been able to get my vassals to like me enough to change.

 

[afrodius]

Friend, the game is buggy right now. If you kill your husband right now (or he dies on his own) before the baby is born, it will be of your dynasty.

I suggest you just straight up arrest and execute him if the chances are good and/or you're getting desperate.

This. Although it sounds like you just kept playing and now have 2 non dynastic heirs. If I were you I'd play it safe and just execute them. Role play as an awful tyrant.

Another option I don't think I saw here was the satanism route. I know they can murder their children and get a buff to boot, but I'm not sure what rank you need to be for that.

 

[Urzhail64]

Try to use the character finder to find a potential unlanded husband that you can marry matrilineally. Preferably one with good claims to the area around you. Invite to court and if you can't do that, keep tabs on him.

Send your husband out in your army. A small one into small, useless conflicts in hopes of getting him killed in combat. Send him to work in plague infested provinces. Sending him on Crusade with a very small army and beeline it towards the biggest Muslim army you can find. Make sure Shattered Retreat is on so you can try again and again if he wasn't killed the first time around although if he gets captured, that might be a problem unless his captor is exceptionally bloodthirsty because he might linger on for years and years in prison.

Start an affair with a very strong duelist in hopes that either your husband or your lover get angry and try to kill each other. (The duelist should win this one handily. Although a duelist with a high intrigue rating is even better)

And start fornicating outside of marriage. Alot. If your child gets born, and is a female, you're somewhat okay provided you get a legitimate MALE heir of your own dynasty or two. If it's a male, start thinking of ways to off him..especially if he becomes of age (send him on suicide missions etc)

Actually, you could consider entering your husband into the holy orders by nominating him as a bishop. Which is pretty much a defacto divorce as clergy can't be married. Or revoke/build a bishopric and grant it to your husband. Woohoo. No longer married.

 

[Woifee]

If he is unlanded and in your court you might be able to give him a temple. This will end the marriage. So build a temple or conquer one. Or if the laws are right nominate him for a vassal temple. And murder the bushop there.

Make him spymaster and swnd him into a county suffering from a terrible sickness. Fire your court physician first.

Maybe canibalism. Close your court and wait till someone eats your husband.

Suffer the tyranny, imprission and kill him.

Spyfocus on him till you get a reason to imprisson him.

Seductionfocus to get a bastard.

Become devil worshiper and get inpregnated by a demon. The kid will murder all his siblings and will have awesome stats.

Rival your husband and duell him. Not sure how this works with catholics tough.

Change your succession law to elective gavelkind, feudal elective, seniority or tanistry.

You also cam increase your plot power by landing him. Sometimes this works.

 

[Woifee]

How ti get rid of this 2 older unwanted boys:

Spyfocus and imprissonment as soon as they are grown up. As your prisoners you can order them to become monks.

Demonspawn. Might ve a little late to join cult tough since you are old already.

Also most of that I mentioned above works with kids as well as for husbands.

Get a lustfull husband or a few lovers. Ambution to get heir is good as well. A landed hisband might help, he might also take this ambition. Familyfocus helps as well.

 

[DPS]

Something's wrong here. Favors can be used to force acceptance of marriage offers, but not for your primary heir.

 

[Karlingid]

Now you will have to deal with your unwanted child. This is a lot harder as you can't plot kill your own kids, nor can you put them into a dangerous job. You can imprison and kill/oubliette though so that's a possibility. If the child is male then when he gets older you can also make him leader of a tiny army and send him out to fight bad guys until he croaks, if the child is female then she should be excluded from succession as soon as you have a son anyway.

Good luck !

Scurvy is an incredibly efficient and reliable killer. I've only done it on purpose once, because I don't like being "gamey", but if you campaign relies on it then consider it an alternative form of assassination.