Lombard Princesesses

[nhgrif]

When starting a new game at the Charlemagne starting point, 769, the King of Lombardy has 3 unmarried daughters, ages 22, 24, and 25, I believe. Their stats seems to be randomly generated, but the alliance they bring is not randomly generated.

And maybe I'm missing something, but at the 769 starting point, not every nation has access to boats (again, maybe I'm missing something), but the Kingdom of Lombardy certainly does have access to boats, and he has a relatively large military.

Most importantly, as long as Lombardy isn't busy fighting some other war, the King is perfectly willing to sail 3k-8k troops anywhere on the map to help his son-in-law (or once the original king dies, then the new king's brother-in-law).

Up to this point, everything is okay.

The problem I'm having is that the King seems perfectly willing to marry his daughters off to just about any Catholic ruler. This afternoon I will try starting as a count, as I think I've only tried as a duke or independent petty king. Perhaps it wouldn't bother me so much if I could simply RP opt out of marrying into that alliance as Petty King of some British Kingdom (because to me, it seems like the King wouldn't accept that marriage), but the problem is, without fail, if I don't marry one of his daughters, then some other lowly Petty King on the British Isles will... and he will use that alliance to get 3k-8k Lombard troops to fight his wars against me.

And the silly part? When I, as an independent double-duke with 6-9 counties under me, try to offer my daughter off (normal marriage just for alliance) to say...the petty king of East Anglia with his two counties, he will not accept and one of the reasons is that he desires a better alliance.

Why would a petty king 1/3rd my size refuse a marriage into his dynasty for reason of wanting a better alliance, but a king with a kingdom 10 (or more) times my size is perfectly willing to marry one of his daughters into my dynasty and use his troops to win my wars?

 

[nhgrif]

I was also able to confirm that the King of Lombardy is also perfectly happy to marry his daughters off to a single-county count. He is even willing to accept to characters with relatively low diplomacy (5). The next thing I should check is whether he'd agree to marrying all 3 of his unwed daughters within my realm (marry one of them myself and arrange the other two to marry my courtiers).

 

[Araanor]

Yeah, that sounds pretty droll.

There's a quite similar issue on the 867 start. The King of Italy has two daughters and I've seldom had him decline any offers from me...

 

[Urnathok]

There should definitely be stricter factors for who agrees to marry whom. As the king of tribal Picts, for example, I was capable of marrying the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor. In terms of strict mechanics, that's all well and good, I'm a king and he's an Emperor, one step down isn't bad at all. But I mean...there should at least be restrictions based on tribal rulers or rulers that are a certain number of tech advances behind. I know, I know, the starting Iconoclast emperor's first wife was a Khazar, but couldn't you just put a "neighboring strong power" bonus into effect? That way, say you're the king of Germany and ordinarily wouldn't mix with the Pomeranian tribes, if their power is roughly equitable, the king could make an exception that crosses tech/tribal/religious boundaries. Put it under "Political Concerns" as a bonus (the political concern being that marrying an infidel might prevent a war).

 

[Onisuzume]

And the suggestion here is... what?
Make him less likely to marry of his daughters?

 

[nhgrif]

The suggestion isn't to make him less likely to marry off his daughters. The suggestion is to make him at least as picky as random counts/dukes throughout the game who consistently deny marriages because they desire a stronger alliance.

I see the "Desires Strong Alliance" regularly listed as the reason why someone doesn't agree to marrying their daughter to me (even as a reason why they won't accept my daughter into their family in a normal marriage). Yet the King of Lombardy is perfectly willing to marry his 3 daughters to seemingly any Christian noble. One of the three goes to Charlemagne. The Karloman heirs are too young to take the others, but after Charlemagne, is the field really so wide open that anyone is acceptable, irregardless of position, stats, dynasty, etc.

I'm not a historian. I assume it's historically accurate that one of his daughters married Charlemagne based on the events... what happened, historically, with his other daughters (assuming he's a real ruler and his family is accurately depicted).

OR... get rid of the "desires better alliance" reason for denying marriages. It really bothers me that as the count of a single county, I can marry a Lombard princess, and my second generation can challenge for the throne as soon as that ruler dies... but as the King of England and Wales, an Irish double-Count won't accept my daughter into his family because he desires a better alliance.