Lowborn female courtiers

[unmerged(623008)]

I bought this game a couple weeks ago and am loving it, even tho not greatly successful so far. Anyhoo I was wondering what other people did with all those 16 yr old girls that keep appearing in your court. I marry them off and they go away but immediately get replaced by another one who badgers you to find her a husband. If they have a good spying stat it'd make sense to keep them, but no one with a claim is going to accept matrilinear marriage for some peasant lady's maid. Why doesn't it spawn 16 yr old males to lure good female heirs/prospects INTO my court?

I've played two games (both in the south of France) as a count and duke so far and this leads me to question number 2. As a count I was offered the job of the chancellor to the duke, which I accepted. So he sends me off fabricating claims, meaning I'm not at my 'home' court as the years pass by. Would this be detrimental at all? ie might receive less intel from my own advisors, can't get wife pregnant, can't lead armies myself?

thanks

 

[DeaTh-ShiNoBi]

Hmm I don't get too many 16 yr old lowborn female courtiers popping up in my court. I thought they only pestered you to find them someone to marry when they were your relative, but then I'm new too so maybe I'm not a great authority on this matter. For your second question, I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter whether you're at home or doing other things. I usually use my character to lead my retinue army 100% of the time (assuming his martial skill is decent), and he still gets his wife pregnant and can react to intel and what not. Could be different for "going abroad," though, not sure.

 

[unmerged(623008)]

Well unless it's just the area I happened to have picked, it was the same when I played as the Duke of Toulouse (now playing as count of Marsan). There's always some random lowborn Agnes, Isabel or Adelaide etc aged 16 and wants to get wed. They don't appear to be anyone's daughters, never mind it's no big hassle - just wondered why there's a need for a spare female in your court that you can't get much of a marriage from.

As for being a duke's chancellor I have to say I haven't noticed any lack of news reports (from my advisors) playing on from my original post. But I definitely show as 'abroad' in Forez while my wife's location is in my county of Marsan. Will have to see if she manages to get pregnant.

 

[yezhanquan]

Lowborn females are for you to marry off to your sons or vassals. I only pay attention when my court gets too many of them.

 

[Zireael]

Do we get a lot of lowborn 16-year-old males?

 

[Sopot]

I usually marry them off to the sons of barons in my realm since they will never marry until they are a baron themselves, and by then, they are often really old. I also marry them off to dynasty members who have no wife and wont be inheriting anything any time soon, in a generation or two, those dynasty members will be ready for lands of thier own.

As for being chancellor, or away from your own court for any reason(other than being in jail), this will not affect your own realm in any way, you'll still be able to have babies and there will be no detrimental effects at all, unless of course you get murdered while fabricating claims.

 

[NewbieOne]

The problem with those lowborn females is that they end up being chosen by the AI for wives for even the heirs of emperors. In my current game, I constantly see lowborn queens, emperesses, let alone lower titles. I remember the heir of the king of England marrying a lowborn woman 15 years his senior. This mechanic sucks and needs to be patched out. I'm considering stopping playing CK2 for this reason.

 

[unmerged(623008)]

Lowborn females are for you to marry off to your sons or vassals. I only pay attention when my court gets too many of them.

But surely I would want someone of higher status for my sons or nephews, even as a lowly Count? Maybe it could be a good thing to marry them to a widowed or ageing vassal, but I've never actually noticed if you get some sort of 'Thanks for the marriage' bonus to his opinion.

 

[yezhanquan]

Are the stats of the lowborns good? Besides, the main reason to get married is to have kids and to increase the size of the demense limit. Of course, you can marry for claims, but I personally will still choose a lowborn with a good Stewardship score and traits over the daughter of the HRE Emperor with ok stats and traits.

As for opinion boost, you will only get it if your vassal's ambition at the point of marriage is to get married.

 

[unmerged(623008)]

OK thanks for all the replies, guys. Lots to ponder with this game, glad I found this site. Definitely a different animal to Total War!

 

[Notho]

With the lustful trait, I know what I do with them...

Giggity

 

[Revshawn]

Basically, lowborns appear when you don't have many people in your court. ^^

 

[Vasious]

Damnable Merchants Daughters looking to better their place

 

[OrdepNM]

The problem with those lowborn females is that they end up being chosen by the AI for wives for even the heirs of emperors. In my current game, I constantly see lowborn queens, emperesses, let alone lower titles. I remember the heir of the king of England marrying a lowborn woman 15 years his senior. This mechanic sucks and needs to be patched out. I'm considering stopping playing CK2 for this reason.

This used to be a real issue in the past, but with the latest patch, it seems to be much much better. In my current game I have a sizeable realm and I was hard pressed to find any duke and above who didnt marry someone of similar status. By luck or genius, I even saw some preety smart matches that look like attempts to land-grab.

As an example, I allowed 4 of my characters sons to marry whoever they wanted. Their choices were:
1st: duchess of Dyrachion (or whatever its spelled, somewherein Greece)
2nd: princess (later queen!) of Leon
3rd: princess of Sweeden
4th: duchess of somewhere in poland

As for the lowborn girls, if you need an old fart to have a kid so he doesnt lose his claim before you can press it, marry him to a young girl as they have increased fertility early on (the things we write in this forum...). As they always have the same culture as you, I also try to match them to my foreign vassals as this increases the odds that their children will be of my culture. Regardless, as long as you dont allow your court to grow over 30, you should always have a few laying around just in case (after 30 your courtiers get hardcoded fertility penalties).

 

[User4035]

The problem with those lowborn females is that they end up being chosen by the AI for wives for even the heirs of emperors. In my current game, I constantly see lowborn queens, emperesses, let alone lower titles. I remember the heir of the king of England marrying a lowborn woman 15 years his senior. This mechanic sucks and needs to be patched out. I'm considering stopping playing CK2 for this reason.

Lol, you should read up on King Henry the VIII of the England. His 5th or 6th wife was lowborn.

I haven't noticed the problem of AI kings and such marrying lowborns. Heck, I try to marry off some of my lowborns to them and they never accept if its their heir.
Lol, I even had a lowborn courtier with the 'ugly' trait. I tried to marry her off to the count heir next to me and they wouldn't accept it!!! I then picked another lowborn courtier in my court and they said yes.


If you don't marry the lowborns off, most of the time they just sit there and get old. And it takes a while for a new one to pop up. If you marry them off right away then you almost instantly get a new one.


You know there is an intrigue event thing you can use to invite a new noble lady or gentleman to court. It costs money and their stats usually suck. But if you constantly get 'free' courtiers poping up then this event is never worth it.


In my games I also care about characters culture. And sometimes a suitable bride of the right culture with a house name just doesn't exist. So we use the lowborn females.

 

[Sopot]

But surely I would want someone of higher status for my sons or nephews, even as a lowly Count?

Kate Middleton is a lowborn, no one is bothered by that.

 

[Talq]

The game spawns one unmarried male and one unmarried female in every court if there isn't one. Part of the reason is supply advisors & generals (males), and marriage partners (for females). Its not really unrealistic, there are more nobles in the land than just the ones in the fiefs in-game and their families & some of them do hang around court in hopes of preferment. Technically they should be minor nobility, but for some reason Paradox decided (in some cases) to call them lowborn.

Also the historical files I suspect are a bit light on daughters in some places (to take an example, there is not one unmarried female in all of scotland or ireland at game start), so a fair number of counts at game start are left with the option of marrying courtiers or marrying nothing.

But in summary, ignore them, unless you want to marry them off to someone for a bonus. It is rarely to never that I've had the random courtier bug me for a marriage (unlike your daughters/dynasty members), & if they do well who they marry is 99.5% of the time irrelevant to you.

 

[Kimberly]

Kate Middleton is a lowborn, no one is bothered by that.

Well, yes, but times have changed somewhat--even for English aristocrats.

 

[Chevaresqye]

Married her to some infidel talent and invite her back. You got a free super councilor follow after her.

 

[tuareg109]

On an unrelated note, what are bastards born to Lowborn women surnamed?
If you acknowledge them as, say, a Norman, do they become FitzWilliam (or FitzHenry or FitzJohn or you get my point by now); if you don't, do they stay lowborn or are they Fitz(mother's name)?