Lombardy vs. Tuscany
There are two factions struggling for power in northern Italy. On the one side we have the supporters of the pope headed by the ambitious Margravine of Tuscany and Duchess of Spoleto, Matilda di Canossa. She is supported first of all by the bishops and nobles of central Italy. She was considered “the pope’s best general”, stiffly resisted the emperor and his allies for decades, and finally became viceroy of Italy.
Matilda’s opponent is one of her relatives: Guiberto die Canossa, Archbishop of Ravenna, and later as Clement III imperial antipope. His supporters are the nobles and bishops of northern Italy. This is not so much because they had been most loyal subjects to the king, but because they preferred the distant imperial rule over a closer papal one. In case of the House of Este a traditional rivalry with the House of Canossa also played a role.
Later these parties were called the “Guelphs” and the “Ghibellines”. But for now the knights on the one side are commanded by a priest, those on the other side are commanded by a lady – extraordinary times demand extraordinary means.
The Kingdom of Italy
During the reign of Otto the Great the Iron Crown of Lombardy became part of the imperial possessions. Historically the emperor ruled as King of Italy as soon as he had been elected Rex Romanorum – i.e. King of Germany. In dHRR 0.9 it will not be that easy and the Crown of Italy needs to be acquired distinctively. This can happen in two ways:
Coronation in Reichsitalien
If the Rex Romanorum ends his turn in a city that is part of “Reichsitalien”, that is any Italian city north of Rome, excluding Verona and Aquileia but including Sardinia and Corsica, he will be crowned King of Italy. We call this a “strong kingdom”, what has nothing to do with the character of the king but means that he is actually present in Italy holding lands there (to end his turn in an Italian city he needs to own it). This “strong kingdom” is shown by an ancillary with Crown of Italy given to the king.
Imperial Coronation
In order to become emperor crowned the German King is not required to end his turn inside an Italian town; it is sufficient to end his turn somewhere inside the province of Rome. As result of the imperial coronation the Rex Romanorum also becomes King of Italy. This time he doesn’t receive the ancillary but only the trait “Rex Italiae”. We call this a “weak kingdom”: the King of Italy has no possessions in Italy and will most likely head back across the Alps after his ceremony.
Acquiring the Crown of Italy as a “strong king” has a couple of advantages for a German king. On the one side he will be able to appoint royal officers for his Italian kingdom (see below), on the other side him holding this ancillary prevents everyone else from having himself crowned King of Italy.
Other Factions
The leader of another faction can become King of Italy too by holding Pavia, Genoa, Milan, Florence, Spoleto, Bologna and Pisa, and by not being allied to the Rex Romanorum. If that’s the player’s faction he needs to move his faction leader to Pavia for coronation. Once this title was re-created by another faction it also becomes hereditary (again). To inherit this title it is sufficient to control Pavia. German factions, of course, cannot acquire this title that way; but Tuscany and Lombardy can.
The Royal Court
The King of Italy can appoint a Count Palatine of Italy (Conte di Sacro Palazzo). This one gets a local bonus wherever a palatinate was built. Additionally an Archcancellor (Gran Cancelliere) can be appointed from amongst the royal bishops. This is not possible for German factions because within the Reich always the Archbishop of Cologne is holding the title of an Archcancellor of Italy.
Additional offices are those of the Conestabile, Siniscalco, and Camerlengo. These three can also be appointed by the Margraves of Lombardy and Tuscany and by the Duke of Spoleto, but only once per faction. Each of these three gets a feudal bonus wherever a level II governmental building was built in Italy.
The “Duchies”
Reichsitalien is composed of the Duchy of Spoleto (added by Bologna and Ancona), the Margraviate of Tuscany (Modena, Lucca, Pisa and Florence), and the Margraviate of Lombardy (northern Italy between Torino and Padua). The Margraviate of Verona (i.e. Verona and Aquileia) is part of the Duchy of Carinthia and that way of the Kingdom of Germany. Corsica and Sardinia are also part of the Kingdom of Italy with the Archbishop of Pisa ranking as some kind of duke.
These three ducal titles are hereditary the usual way. They need to be worldwide unique. In case one of these Houses die out the King of Italy may appoint a new holder by having a character sitting in the respective capital for two turns. The appointment by the king may happen directly, means the King of Italy is a member of this faction, or indirectly:
By the name of the King!
Several titles can only be appointed by holders of other titles; for example only the king can appoint bishops. Of course, the game wouldn’t work properly if we would limit the appointment of bishops in Italy to the faction that has the King of Italy. To solve this we have developed the concept of “indirect appointment”. “Indirect Appointment” is possible in cases when a faction does not hold the required royal title but is allied to a faction leader who is holding this title, here is allied to a faction which leader is King of Italy. We assume that in this case the faction allied to the king is acting according to his wishes. N.B. some titles still require direct appointment, for example the above named count palatine.
Royal Government
Besides the following royal government there also will be a huge amount of local feudal titles available in Italy. These will not be listed here.
The Vicarii
The royal government in Italy is based on the same building tree as the governmental system in use in Germany. The 1st level of governmental building grants the margraves/dukes a local bonus inside their duchies and allows them to recruit knights there. The 2nd level gives the same bonus to the above named holder of court offices.
The 3rd level (Gaugrafschaft) allows appointing a non-hereditary Vicarius. This Vicarius is the royal governor of the respective city. He can only be appointed directly by the king or by the margraves/dukes in their margraviates. Another problem is that in the 11th Century this kind of office already was occupied by the local nobility. This means in order to become Vicarius a character needs to be a member of one of the local noble houses. For example, in Pavia there are the counties of Pombia, Biandrate, and Lomello. In order to become vicar of Pavia a character must be a member of one these three houses (not necessarily the count himself).
That way this offices de facto becomes hereditary again, in particular because a 3rd level governmental building only allows for the 1st level of fiefdom. In this example only the county of Pombia would be available in Pavia, and if the only member of the House of Pombia would be the count himself, the vicariate would become redundant because it would give this character a bonus he has anyways for being count in the same province.
Because a Medieval didn’t have a standing army he often had no other choice than to give this kind of office to someone with a strong local power base. At least no holder would be able to prevail against the strongest local families.
The Reichskirchensystem
To solve this problem the German emperors developed the so called “Reichskirchensystem” (i.e. system of the imperial church). A bishop always is someone with a strong local power base. More importantly, the bishop was always appointed by the king and his office would never become hereditary. That way the king could grant a vicariate, or Gaugrafschaft in Germany, to the local bishop by being sure to pick any character of his liking as successor of both the bishop and the vicar.
In dHRR 0.9 the Reichskirchensystem in Italy works in the way that in a province with a 3rd level governmental building where both the bishop’s and the vicar’s title are vacant a character can acquire them both simultaneously. He doesn’t have to be a member of the local nobility but needs to qualify as a bishop: be over 30 years old, don’t have children, don’t be faction leader or heir, and don’t hold any feudal titles. This “imperial bishop” can only be appointed by the king of Italy directly or indirectly (i.e. by being allied to the king).
This system will of course work pretty much the same in Germany. Please note the Investiture Controversy, already ongoing on game start, is about denying the king exactly this right to appoint bishops at his liking. That way it indeed is a matter of life and death for the imperial factions. Later more on that…..
The Principato Vescovile
This is a special building that also allows appointing bishops in northern Italy. In this case the bishop is (directly or indirectly) appointed by the pope. It allows the pope and his allies to exercise clerical rule over the Italian cities. Different to the later German prince bishops, they don’t appear as feudal lords but only as lords of their city. Therefore this kind of building can not be erected in cities with a city hall, or higher level of town hall. In cases it had been constructed in cities where the town hall was upgraded to city hall, and higher, later this building will cause severe unrest. But it is destructible.
Urban Rule
Northern Italy in the Middle Ages was the region of powerful city states. In 1080 the bishops and nobles were still ruling this region, but the cities were able to acquire more and more independence. A hundred years later the political landscape in northern Italy had completely changed, and also in dHRR it will be possible to turn Italian factions into powerful “Contados”.
Podestà and Signore
The following options are only available to the factions Lombardy and Tuscany. Other factions that expand into northern Italy will have to stick to counts and bishops, and that way will have to live with severe unrest in growing cities.
The first step in independent urban rule is the election of a podestà. The requirements are a minimum of 4 loyalty and no dread. Podestàs usually were nobles from outside the contado, last but not least because it was theirs to negotiate between the struggling parties inside the city. Therefore a character can only be elected podestà in a city where is not holding a county; and of course never the local bishop. The requirements for the city are to have a town hall of the level city hall.
This office isn’t hereditary. A podestà also is no true lord of his city. This means he isn’t able to recruit knights in the town he became podestà. To do so you would still need a local count.
When the town hall was upgraded to mayor’s palace (highest level) a character can be elected signore. Different to the podestà the signore needs to be the holder of a local title; again no bishop, but a local vicar does qualify as well as the margrave.
Different to the podestà, a signore is a true lord of his city and that way able to recruit knights inside. This title also is hereditary; that way it is not needed for every signore to qualify by election as long as there is a suitable heir. The signore also replaces all other feudal in his province. This means that feudal in this province can still be inherited but no longer be newly acquired (only for the faction of the signore). The signore also is immune against local unrest traits that counts and bishops suffer from in their cities when these cities had been given further city rights.
Another feature for the signoria is overthrow: usually hereditary titles can only be acquired by sitting for two turns in the respective town in order to allow the game checking all characters for suitable heirs. The signoria can be acquired by an eligible character sitting in this town within one turn even though there might be suitable heirs. Whatever you make out of this depends on your preferences in roleplaying….
Laetus
Re: Preview dHRR 0.9: Baronies
Originally Posted by konny
Artifex
"Harzschütze"
Domesticus
Domesticus
igni ferroque
Retired
Decanus
Remember to smile
Too bad that all this sripting is burning my laptop in 2 each time I try to start dHRR .... deam!
BTW: who should I credit here? Only you?
