I am not sure if this qualifies as a bug or not, but basically: If a country with no primary-culture provinces suffers a successful pretender revolt spawned by event or disputed succession, it ceases to exist due to the unrestful, but not yet spawned, patriots and nationalists in its foreign provinces.
In my current France game (where the Inheritance did not fire), Burgundy was eventually reduced (between my attacks and the defensive labours of Austria on behalf of various Imperial princes) to consisting of Anvers, Gand, and Rethel. (None of which have Burgundian culture, and Hainaut was in play as an independent state.)
They then got a pretender revolt larger than their force limit by event, and were eventually broken by it.
Result: They ceased to exist, because on being broken, the latent Flemish Nationalists in Anvers and Gand and the latent Wallonian Patriots in Rethel were among the parties whose demands were enforced. Flanders was released as an independent state, and Rethel defected to Hainaut.
Conclusion: The AI should probably be taught, when placed in such a situation, to either (a) Accept Cultural Shift (which it currently never does) or (b) treat culture conversion of its capital as an absolute priority above all other demands on its DIP power (except possibly buying down WE).
In my current France game (where the Inheritance did not fire), Burgundy was eventually reduced (between my attacks and the defensive labours of Austria on behalf of various Imperial princes) to consisting of Anvers, Gand, and Rethel. (None of which have Burgundian culture, and Hainaut was in play as an independent state.)
They then got a pretender revolt larger than their force limit by event, and were eventually broken by it.
Result: They ceased to exist, because on being broken, the latent Flemish Nationalists in Anvers and Gand and the latent Wallonian Patriots in Rethel were among the parties whose demands were enforced. Flanders was released as an independent state, and Rethel defected to Hainaut.
Conclusion: The AI should probably be taught, when placed in such a situation, to either (a) Accept Cultural Shift (which it currently never does) or (b) treat culture conversion of its capital as an absolute priority above all other demands on its DIP power (except possibly buying down WE).