Peasants' Revolt, a Wat Tyler's Rebellion event chain

[SgtSmuckers]

I have been re-reading Jean Froissart's Chronicles (English translation) and one event chronicled by Froissart that makes me laugh just as much as his account of Charles VI going mad is his account of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. It is given to exaggerations as are many early chronicles, yet nonetheless makes for some interesting dialogue.

Spoiler: Jean Froissart's depiction of an earlier river side meeting with the rebels

One of the chapters in the Chronicles makes note of this event. In it there is a mass uprising of peasants in Essex that quickly spreads through the South-East of the English Isle. The rebellion manages to corner King Richard II in the Tower of London, and then proceeds to loot the city and even the Palace of Westminster.

Eventually the king rides out to Smithfield with sixty lancers, in front of the abbey of Saint Bartholomew where the "60,000" revoltees have gathered (exaggerated number). There the revolts leader (Wat Tyler) rides out going "so near that his horse's tail was brushing the head of the King's horse" where he proceeds to flaunt himself and make demands of the king for all these men to receive written pardons for revolting. There is some back and forth here with the 14-year-old King Richard II before Wat Tyler notices a squire whom he has meet before and dislikes. He demands the squires dagger, which the king commands the squire give to him. Then he demands the squires sword. Tempers flare even more at this, and so when the Lord Mayor of London rides up with a dozen others he throws insults at Tyler, draws a sword and strikes him on the head knocking him off the horse where a squire then thrusts his sword into Tyler's belly.

The peasants become riled at this and begin forming up for battle as the king gets reinforcements. Nothing happens yet as the tension builds, so the king demands of his newly appointed knights that he wants his banners back, of which the rebels have. So the three knights made known to the revolting folk that they wanted to talk. There they managed to disperse the peasants, get the banners and any pardons previously given out returned back to the king. On threat of death of course.​

So, given this entire spiel... what I want to ask is if a large scale peasants' revolt can be modded to have the potential to turn into an extensive event chain whereby artifacts can be given to satiate a very powerful revolt. Say in steps too. First you concede to taxing obligations, then if you cannot quell the rebellion, more demands are made in the form of artifacts. And if that fails (depending on the artifacts rank to determine the % of success) you eventually end up losing the rebellion, or through another event chain manage to kill the leader of the rebellion and diplomatically persuade the revolt to end.

I understand what I am asking is perhaps too much, but what do you all say on the matter? Like, dislike, feasible, or do you see it as something too out there.

 

[Snow Crystal]

At least from a scripting perspective, it is probably easier to have an event chain that can turn into a peasant revolt, rather than a peasant revolt that can turn into an event chain. Then it is only a matter of how deep, wide etc you want to take it, and how many options and events you want in the whole thing. And if things go sideways, you end up in a revolt war.

 

[tfjs]

At least from a scripting perspective, it is probably easier to have an event chain that can turn into a peasant revolt, rather than a peasant revolt...

and tbh with peasants revolts don't most players just defeat them anyway, not sure many would really need to appease a peasant revolt as it isn't something that you'd tend to loose to? Unless of course following bad choices in an event chain you end up with a really big revolt...

 

[SgtSmuckers]

and tbh with peasants revolts don't most players just defeat them anyway, not sure many would really need to appease a peasant revolt as it isn't something that you'd tend to loose to? Unless of course following bad choices in an event chain you end up with a really big revolt...

I think for a peasant revolt of the scale that took place in 1381 (late medieval era) it is a very powerful revolt, as many chroniclers of that time recorded the massive amounts of people that took part in it. So for ck2, I would design it to be more than an easily put-down peasant revolt like we see in the game now.

Nonetheless, this was an idea I just wanted to share and see opinions on. I have no knowledge of how to mod other than a few custom buildings, so I'm not too sure if a complex event chain can be initiated during the war. I would say a design similar to the joan of arc events would fit.

 

[Rags17]

In another thread I made a proposal to turn some peasant revolts into plots by creating a dynamic peasant leader with a titular title and making him a vassal, then giving him all sorts of events to add to his faction strength. The player could use a decision to lower that faction strength (eg lower taxes, pay bribes, etc) or even simply have the offending upstart murdered or imprisoned, but the event chain would look for this and either disperse the faction or make it explode in revolt.

I think that revolts themselves are too deeply coded to change, but the above suggestion could be added on top of the existing mechanics, I reckon it would be a great addition and could come with all sorts of event-driven pop ups, events and decisions. Pay the upstart off ? Meet some or all of his demands ? Bribe him ? Kill him ? Imprison and torture him in a grisly public spectacle ? All while trying to deal with the usual slate of faction demands, murder plots etc.

This could really make running a big blobby empire a lot harder, which IMHO would be a good thing.

 

[Urzhail64]

On that note, maybe turn the Albigensian Crusade into an event as well? As it stands now, it just consists of "sending an Inquisition" to Carcassone and Beziers even though historically it was much more significant than that including sieges of several castles including the two aforementioned. And maybe work in a little mysticism considering the connections to Rennes le Chateau which would make for an natural tie in to one pr more of the secret orders. Possibly dealing with Mary Magadalene especially since the Cathars were surprisingly egalitarian for their time when it came to women joining their order. They could become perfecti just like men and perform the consolamentum as well.

 

[AjayAlcos]

Well obviously such a event-chain would have to be restricted to feudal government types - with certain acclimatisations regarding locale and culture group. A successful peasant revolt along these lines for example could lead to more favourable law policies for burghers, complete reversal of certain "peasant-unfriendly" laws as well as a hefty penalty to tax income for feudal sovereigns/vassals.

For Iqta (Islamic) polities however, something similar yet unique might warrant a look at. For example, a revolt lead by ghilmans/mamelukes that might take place, the trigger for which is beholden to a certain culmination of factors involving high decadence, low piety, lack of funds and so-on etcetera. But yeah, an event chain revolving around the peasants revolt would be a neat idea.

 

[Thure]

Well obviously such a event-chain would have to be restricted to feudal government types - with certain acclimatisations regarding locale and culture group. A successful peasant revolt along these lines for example could lead to more favourable law policies for burghers, complete reversal of certain "peasant-unfriendly" laws as well as a hefty penalty to tax income for feudal sovereigns/vassals.

For Iqta (Islamic) polities however, something similar yet unique might warrant a look at. For example, a revolt lead by ghilmans/mamelukes that might take place, the trigger for which is beholden to a certain culmination of factors involving high decadence, low piety, lack of funds and so-on etcetera. But yeah, an event chain revolving around the peasants revolt would be a neat idea.

For Iqta it would be slave rebellions. They were some important ones and some cases were slaves became rulers.

 

[moscal]

Maybe not "event chain" but few events based on anti-feudal rebellions would be.