Overlord Titles (transferring and taking by force or Act of Parliament)
Updated January 22, 2001
Here is the procedure for transferring overlord titles from one player to another.
If a title is held by anyone but a King (England or France) or the Emperor, either the
normal Parliamentary option for returning the title to the Crown.
Parliamentary Proposals to remove Overlordships from Nobles must state WHO THEY ARE BEING REMOVED FROM [Name and ID#] in order to be valid. It goes without saying that removed Overlordships return to the King. This information is not necessary. The information as to who is being stripped of the title, IS. The King is free to bestow overlordships in his control on any Noble, without a vote of Parliament. The purpose of the Parliament vote is to remove the overlordship from a Noble; and that Noble must be named. Each proposal must name only ONE title to be removed. Each separate title requires a separate proposal. Removal of the Gascony (FGA00) and Guyenne (FGU00) titles is subject to the conditions of the Aquitaine Rule (below).
Otherwise, the Conquest procedure below can be used to remove it. If a King/Emperor
holds the title, the Conquest procedure must be used.
Transferring Overlord Titles by Conquest Procedure:
a) If a King/Emperor personally holds a majority of the active fiefs in a province, he may
declare that he is disputing the ownership of the title. For example, if a province
has 13 fiefs, the King/Emperor must hold 8 fiefs to strip the title, if a province has 12 fiefs, the King/Emperor must hold 7 fiefs.
b) A King/Emperor may only have one title under dispute for each four points of stature he
possesses. Stature is checked, only once, just before the strip process begins. If the
king/emperor dies while a strip is in process, the strip is aborted. You have to start
over again with a new monarch.
c) The above declaration starts a Year and a Day (five resets) counter. If the disputing
King/Emperor maintains possession of a majority of the active fiefs at each reset, he may then
petition the Pope for transfer of the title.
d) The Pope may approve or deny the petition as he wills for titles in France and England.
For titles in the Empire, the emperor must also approve for the transfer to take place.
e) If the petition is approved, the title will be transferred to the disputing
King/Emperor.
3) The above does not apply to the Gascony, Guyenne, and Ponthieu (FGAxx/FGUxx/FPNxx)
titles which are handled by the normal Aquitaine Rule (see below).
For the purposes of this rule, "King" means the King of France or the King of
England, and "Emperor" means the Holy Roman Emperor.
Since you cannot strip titles from an inactive PC, the Herald supervising the strip checks for inactive status before making the transfer. If the title is owned by an inactive PC at that point, the strip is aborted.
Any problems with the interpretation of this will be decided by the College of Heralds
(whose judgment is final, don't go running to the developers if you don't like the
decision, the College of Heralds have the last word in these matters.)
If a transfer of an Imperial magnate title is otherwise allowed by the rules, the Emperor
may allow or forbid the transfer. He may only allow the transfer if the player gaining the
title holds more fiefs in the affected province than the current holder.
Inactive Non-Ancestral Titles
There is one exception to the rule that non-active fiefs and titles will never be transferred or removed by Parliament. An overlordship title held by an inactive position which is not ancestral to that position may be returned to the Crown by a vote of Parliament. As before, under no circumstances will ancestral titles be removed from inactives by vote of Parliament. This applies only to overlordships, not fiefs; and is mentioned only because titles do not purge as fiefs do. Otherwise, non-active overlordships will not be transferred, just as non-active fiefs cannot be transferred.
The Aquitaine Rule
Removal of the Gascony (FGA00), Guyenne (FGU00), and Ponthieu (FPN00) titles from
the King of England is subject to the conditions of the Aquitaine Rule. The Aquitaine rule
reduces the English king's stature to 1. Pretty, bad, actually. Starting the Aquitaine
Rule timer requires keeping the English from holding a Gascon, Guyenne or Ponthieu (FGAxx
/ FGUxx/FPNxx) fief for two years (over nine seasonal resets).
Starting the Aquitaine Rule timer requires keeping the English from holding a Gascon,
Guyenne or Ponthieu (FGAxx / FGUxx/FPNxx) fief for two seasons. This means that
if the English do not hold at least one of these fiefs (the same fief) over a
reset, the timer can be started.
Brittany and Flanders
Two titles, those of Brittany and Flanders, require special treatment. Both of these
regions are considered "Others," and their titles FBR00 and FFL00 sometimes have
to be taken by conquest (the sysop decides how to play this in each game). See the
Transferring Overlord Titles by Conquest Procedure: above.