Rupert Betrays the King - Inconceivable!

[Rick]

Seriously, in the first couple of turns playing the monarchy Rupert betrays the King and becomes a rebel. (sigh).

[gaunty14]

What was his loyalty? Never happened to me personally with the Princes.

[Rick]

I don't recall his loyalty, but I guess I should pay more attention to that in the future.

[Hanti]

There should be probably that line (rebelling_characters_active) removed from file (descr_strat.txt), so no more betrayals from both sides would be. Anyone can edit this in his mod folder.

Or one can edit characters in that file (descr_strat.txt) with increasing loyalty of characters but still making possible betrayals of low loyalty characters (mostly new, adopted ones).

Example:

character ThomasFairfax, named character, male, heir, age 30, x 117, y 155, portrait fairfax
traits Factionheir 1 , GoodCommander 1 , Intelligent 1 , PublicFaith 1, BattleChivalry 1, StrategyChivalry 1, NaturalMilitarySkill 1, GoodAttacker 1, GoodInfantryGeneral 1, Upright 2, Loyal 2,
HaleAndHearty 2, CampaignSeason 2, ViewIncrease 1

to

character ThomasFairfax, named character, male, heir, age 30, x 117, y 155, portrait fairfax
traits Factionheir 1 , GoodCommander 1 , Intelligent 1 , PublicFaith 1, BattleChivalry 1, StrategyChivalry 1, NaturalMilitarySkill 1, GoodAttacker 1, GoodInfantryGeneral 1, Upright 2, Loyal 4,
HaleAndHearty 2, CampaignSeason 2, ViewIncrease 1

Loyalty 2 is "Loyal" with Effect Chivalry 1 and Effect Loyalty 2.
Loyalty 4 is "Loyal_Beyond_Question" with Effect Chivalry 3 and Effect Loyalty 4, so effectively adding 2 points of loyalty.

It's simple to change all those Loyalty 2 characters to Loyalty 4, which should be sufficient. Not save file compatible though.

[streety]

Actually, Rupert (or any other main character in that very messy and politically complex war) going rogue isn't far fetched at all! It happened briefly in 1645. Rupert was always a hot-head, very argumentative, started falling out with some of Charles' inner circle from the very first battle, and gradually fell out with many of Charles' court and commanders such that when Rupert was made General of the whole army in 1644 it caused major ructions in the Kings remaining court/councillors. The King himself then fell out with Rupert after he told the King to sue for peace after the battle Naseby in June 1645, and when Rupert surrendered the city of Bristol just 3 months later the King actually dismissed Rupert from the Army.

PRINCE RUPERT THEN WENT ROGUE - ALONG WITH PRINCE MAURICE - and a small force of a hundred men, fighting across country toward the King at Newark. Fearing a military coup by Rupert, the King repeatedly ordered Rupert to stand down, but Rupert reached court and after a tense meeting the King agreed to formally exonerate him via a military court-martial which meant Rupert could leave the country and return to Europe with his honour (and employability as a mercenary) intact. But many of Rupert's experienced cavalry captains left with him.

So anyway, one could imagine his relations with the King going badly even more quickly, or a plot by courtiers who hated Rupert to falsely implicate him in treachery (or plots by Parliament's spies to do the same) could have happened at any time.

The ECW is a deeply fascinating history of war and politics. As for Rupert, he later returned to fight in the 2nd ECW (1648-49) and 3rd ECW (1649-51) mostly in royal naval command with mixed results, then later quickly left the country again in 1655 after being implicated in a 1654 plot to assassinate Cromwell. He then later came back yet again after the Restoration in 1660 and served as an admiral in the 2nd & 3rd Anglo Dutch Wars (1660s, 1670s).