Crusader Kings 3 – Marriage Guide

• Your female children should be married for alliances
  • Pick alliances carefully; you will be called into war
  • Allies should be close to your own territory to be useful
• Consider marrying your female children matrilineally to ensure that children are born to your dynasty
• Arrange marriages for courtiers to get more children in your court
  • Educate those children to maximize their skills and get a steady stream of highly skilled councilors
  • Arrange marriages for male court members with characters from outside your realm to gain their spouses as additional court members
  • Arrange matrilineal marriages for female court members with characters outside of your realm to gain their spouses as additional court members
  • Try to keep as many congenital traits in your court as possible to ensure availability for future marriages
• Culture has minimal impact; faith has a high impact on the willingness to accept a marriage proposal
• Consider claims potential spouses hold
  • A pressed claim will be passed down as an unpressed claim to children; unpressed claims end with you
• Fertility goes down dramatically with age; choose young spouses
• The list of all possible spouses is usually too long to show all the possible candidates; use the filter function
• Choose your main spouse mainly by her skills
  • The skills of the main spouse should improve your worst skills; you can assign them to assist with a certain area
• Prioritize congenital traits when choosing a spouse (use the filter)
  • Children have a small probability to inherit those traits
  • If you’re able to combine all 3 trait groups in one child you can use the “Strengthen Bloodline” decision
    • “Strong Blood” modifier for your dynasty
      • Health: Small Boost
      • Chance of inheriting good congenital traits: +40%
      • Chance of new good congenital traits: +400%
• Keep an eye on the prestige gain/loss associated with marriage; decided by the characters standing/influence
• Utilize perks and traits to increase the willingness to accept marriage proposals via opinion increases
• Dynasty Legacy “Desirable Match” from the Glory tree will increase the marriage acceptance chance by 30

Useful perks for marriage proposals

Lifestyle	Tree	Perk	Effect
Diplomacy	Diplomat	Defensive Negotiations	Fellow vassal opinion: +15 Independent ruler opinion: +15 Can propose one Alliance without a marriage
Diplomacy	Family Hierarch	Befriend	You can use the Befriend Scheme (Befriend rulers of children you want to arrange marriages with)
Diplomacy	Family Hierarch	Flatter	Befriend Scheme Power: +30%
Martial	Gallant	Promising Prospects	Marriage Acceptance for yourself: +50 Marriage Acceptance for your Close Family: +25 Marriage Acceptance for your Extended Family: +25
Learning	Scholar	Open-Minded	Different Culture Opinion: +15 Ignore Negative Culture Opinion: Yes
Learning	Scholar	Apostate	Different Faith Opinion +15 Faith Conversion Costs: -75%

Useful traits for marriage proposals

Lifestyle	Tree	Trait	Effect
Diplomacy	Diplomat	Diplomat	Diplomacy: +3 Independent Ruler Opinion: +20 Personal Scheme Power: +25%
Diplomacy	Family Hierarch	Matriarch	Fertility; +20% Stress Loss: 20% Close Family Opinion: +15 House Opinion: +10