Should I Keep Any Theocracy Counties?

[MarkDey]

I get the idea on why it may be useful to have Merchant Republics as my vassals - more money in exchange for less troops. I'm not sure why I would want to have a church as the capital of a county though for my vassals (outside of setting up an Anti-Pope.) Is it a good idea to take all of the Prince-Bishoprics and revoke titles to turn them into Feudal Counts?

 

[jonjowett]

If you have HF and you're a Catholic king/emperor, it's usually worthwhile to have a vassal duke-tier bishop to give you another coronation option. (Sometimes the Pope's requests are unreasonable.)

If you have vassalised your religious head, it's usually a good idea to give them a holy site as their personal demesne. (If the religious head personally holds a holy site then the religion gets +5% MA.)

Theocracies are generally very stable and very non-expansionist, so if you really want that kind of vassal somewhere then, sure, go for it.

Otherwise, there's not much use other than role-play. (Eg: If I was playing as Byzantium then I'd give all of the Pentarchs duchies and make them my direct vassals.)

 

[Aardvark Bellay]

Additionaly to what Jonjowett said above, i believe to recall (haven't played catholic for a while)
that theorcaties don't join factions. They don't rebel either. If that isn't a perfect vassal, then i don't know.

Apart form providing heirs to marry and maybe better attribute stats later in game a feudal vassal
has not much more positive i can think of to prefer.

So no, not a good idea, not really bad either.

 

[MarkDey]

Hm! Thanks - I hadn't realized those effects. I don't have any DLCs but it sounds like having a theocratic vassal on a border that I don't want expanding could be a good plan. There's also the different contribution laws too, so that vassal could provide different levels of income and troops.

 

[jonjowett]

There's also the different contribution laws too, so that vassal could provide different levels of income and troops.

Churches naturally produce a medium amount of money and troops. Compare with castles, which produce a lot of troops (many of which are very high quality) but little money. A theocratic vassal is probably never going to be able to provide the same quantity and quality of levies as a feudal vassal.

Also, if you're Catholic, vassal theocracies (of any tier) will often choose to pay the Pope instead of their liege lord. (If they like the Pope more than you, they pay him. If they like you more than the Pope, they pay you. And they usually like the Pope a lot. See the religion tab for current details of who's being paid.) So, a vassal theocracy may be very safe and stable, but it might also contribute very little.

Finally, there's a game rule which restricts the amount of territory controlled by theocracies (and republics) in your realm. This rule is enabled by default, so it's probably enabled in your current game. And game rules cannot be changed mid-game (except by save editing). You can get around the limit on vassal republics/theocracies, via minor exploits, but it's a bit hard to explain. So, even if you wanted to turn all of your vassals into theocracies, it might be a bit tricky to do so in practice!

 

[majdavlk]

youre blurring temple holdings with theocratic government. you can have a theocratic character which has castle as his capital. if you want more taxes but less troops out of castles you can give them to republican or theocratic vassals.

Also, fully built up merchant republic should provide more troops than a regular vassal