Royalty game…

This meant as a lecture about history or a proclamation about a royalty game must be played in the Sims 4. This is merely how I’m playing my royalty game and you can choose how to play your game.

First of all this is more of a long/role play rather than a royal/dynasty challenge. Although, the challenge is to keep going for as long as possible/until I get bored with it.

Downloads: MCCC, Royalty Mod and various medieval CC (I can’t remember the links to various, but even if I did I probably wouldn’t post because I’m not even sure we can do this). However, I really like one of the light armour all-in-one sets as it looks (to me) something the early Plantagenet kings of England (Henry II to Edward I) would have worn for ‘everyday’ wear - certainly less pompous than the clothes of Henry VIII. Also, the queen’s crown I found looks more like St Edward’s Crown - the English Imperial Crown came in to use when the Tudors sought authority of the Church as well as being the King of the Nation-State. I’m currently looking for more early medieval CC as I’m more interested in the Norman/Plantagenet era and this will help me with variety (I’ve thought about royalty, the aristocracy and the gentry or peasantry all wearing particular types of clothing). I know, playing a medieval role play with a mobile phone lol. Well, let me just pretend that it’s a messenger on horse back and the king going off to work as grand marshal is him going some place either on progress or to meet with others or for some other reason (like going to meet an off-screen mistress) with the salary being feudal dues.

Clothing and household colours (starting off): red, red/yellow or gold (when available) as per the houses of Normandy and Plantagenet

I’ve adapted one of my own creations - that of Hound’s Head Castle (https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion-Feedback/Hound-s-Head-Castle/m-p/10252352#M47174). I’ve taken away the inner curtain wall of the castle which has allowed me to have buildings outside the Keep which not only allows more room for the royal family, but gives me the option for buildings like a Chapel, stables. I’ve also put a gatehouse at the castle entrance as a place to meet for official royal business. To make the game a little less completely predictable all the direct linage monarchs are going to have the active trait, I've put fires in most rooms and have the royal couple try for a baby once a day without the using of the fertile reward trait. I've not chosen how to think about kings who did not have children (Richard I and II) or the alleged murders by/for Henry II, Kings John, Edward III, Richard II, Edward IV, Richard III or 'hunting accidents' like that of William II's. I’m yet to decide how many of my royal children are to die before maturity/accession (frequency) and at what point to start.

The jobs and titles the first generation of children have are going to be:

Sovereign: to be Grand Mashal

Heir Apparent: starts off as a lieutenant and promoted to grand marshal (if not already achieved) on accession

Chief justiciar (is similar to that of the politician career) and to be given the title Earl of Willow

Lord High Chancellor (is similar to that of he judge career) and to be given the title Earl of Springs

Lord Privy Seal (is similar to Lord High Chancellor) and to be given the title Earl of Newcrest

Lord Great Chamberlain (is similar to that of the administrator career) and to be given the title Earl of Windenburg

Lord High Constable (is similar to that of the military officer career) and to be given the title Earl of Brindleton

Earl Mashal, (like Lord High Constable) and to be given the title Earl of San Myshuno

Those mentioned are the English Great Officers of State. Whenever I write them below (part of the fun for me is in the telling of the story) I’m going to write them in as the English title. However, at times these posts were not always filled, so I’m not all that fussed about someone having that a job. I will be forming a group called ‘Royal Council and Household. I’m also tempted to create Magnolia Promenade and Britechester as non-hereditary baronies, for the consort and the eldest daughter of the current monarch. Sims with Earldoms get the invested trait and the duties associated with being an earl are to be imaginatively carried out by their heir if an earl is a great officer of state. Also, I've just realised, that the future husbands of royal daughters could already be Earl of _. Earl is about equivalent to a French Count and comes from the Norwegian term 'Jarl' (I've explained it as being similar to that of a combined US Federal Senator and State Governor).

There is a lot of information about various royal dynasties internationally. Not all dynasties are the same. The French used Salic (male only and claims can only pass through a male line - which is why it was wrong for Edward III to claim legitimacy to the French throne, but there were other justifications for battling the French) Law. William I (of England) used the Norman rules of dynastic inheritance. This was changed by Henry I who used Primogeniture as intended to his son and daughter. The usurpation by Stephen of Bois caused a sort of return to the Saxon monarchical change, but this was to do with the circumstances of his usurpation - the Saxon model being a choice of the Earls (as English kingship is by acclamation not coronation) in a Whiten or Parliament. Henry II returned to Norman inheritance. King John inherited all of his lands from his brother who had no heir and from his nephew who he was allegedly involved in murdering. After King John, the lands belonging to the King of England were not diverse in jurisdiction (the loss of the dukedoms of Aquitaine, Brittany and Normandy) enough to be split apart - England has been a unitary (different to federal) authority since creation even if some powers are delegated to local authorities. I know, not even English/UK monarchy has a single system, but a combination of different systems. The Holy Roman Emperor was a system similar to that of pre-conquest England (or vice versa).

The last name (one of the many long-standing changes England then and the UK now has accepted since 1066) I’ve chosen is Fortescue. The name means strong (fort) and shield (escue) - the name also has a French echo which evokes images of chivalry and towers with pitched roofs (both now a romanticised thing). The story is that the Fortescues rose to prominence through emotional, intellectual and physical strength and so it was decided when the previous dynasty died out, they should be Kings of SimNation. Other names I toyed with were Fox (cunning, guile), Gabriel (after the leading Archangel in the Abrahamic religions), Portcullis (a metal gate at the entrance of a castle - used by the Beaufort and Tudor families as well as a symbol for the UK Parliament) and Simming (this one got me smiling as a nice play-on-words). That said, change happens - the House of Windsor came about as a PR exercise during WWI. First names are going to be used with reference to the Houses of Normandy and Plantagenet with specific names (Edward, Henry, Richard, William - my favourites being the first two) for the heir apparent with other names being used for the heir(s) presumptive and wider family.

I will be using male primogeniture for inheritance just so I don’t have to think of new last names and a new household colour every time there there is to be a new marriage of the female heir. This is not about patriarchy as I have seen some posts claim (on this forum and others). A possible constitutional crisis every time there was a pregnancy and birth given the death rate in pregnancy and/or giving birth (as well as when a queen gave birth to what extent would she have been able to carry out her role as head of state, being the sole legal authority of a jurisdiction or being at the head of an army), the loss of a kingdom to another family/kingdom as well (when Mary I married Philip II of Spain an Act of Parliament was passed for Mary to rule England without deference to Philip in England) as the problem with social mobility in a fragile (no standing army and no police) and hierarchical society. Perhaps it was just the case that male primogeniture was a path of ‘least resistance’ rather than a plot to deliberately exclude women. All the other problems (disease, famine, violence) of life would have probably been, so this was a way of taking out more problems. For me its more about not having to think of another name every time there is a marriage (I don’t know why it is women who loose their last name, perhaps a historian of marriage could tell me).

I’m not sure how royalty operates in Asian or Middle Eastern countries and this is only a general history of royalty of England/the UK between 924 and 1917. There is jstor which is free (limited access, by number of articles, but you can sign up as a person who has an interest in history) for those with an academic or a gaming interest in history/royalty. You’re welcome to ask me anything, butt I’ll leave you to use or not use this as a template of rules or template of a non-template - I’m increasingly taking the view that English State formation happened as a result of crises management and dispute resolution rather than being an arc that bends a particular way. One reason I find English/UK State formation interesting as an area of historical investigation is because of the question ‘how did we get to where we are today?’ Looking back and asking, ‘what was the precedent/reasoning for that idea?’ Learning about history helps me to learn and understand which battles between my own values are best let go and which are worth resolving.

However, whilst this is my plan I can also change that plan. My favourite English monarch is Henry II because of the way he resolved the crises which arose from the civil war between 1135 and 1152. In my opinion, he is also probably England’s greatest King (although contenders would be Athelstan, Henry III and Edward I). I tend to lose interest in the monarchy at about 1689. Certainly, Henry II and III are of England’s least written about kings who arguably do more for the country and than the Tudors do. I’m not surprised by that and is probably one reason so much is written about the Tudors. Yes, there is a legacy (national and parliamentary sovereignty coming together), but the excessive vices of the dynasty make it a good way to attack and denigrate an institution lacking in popularity, an institution which seems to go against our current values, an institution with little power and seemingly without purpose.

As I’ve alluded to above, I’m going to also use this as a descriptor of the process of the game. I’m going to do it in Anglo-Saxon Chronicle style too. A record of the nation rather than a personal diary of the family. As well I'm best leaving updates until the death of each monarch - that way I can start each post with an accession, finish each post with a funeral, of a sovereign. I think that would creates a manageable load. I just thought this might help people struggling to create their own ‘rules’ for how they might want to play a royalty game and/or gain some knowledge about the finer details - above all, to really show that you can create your own rules, your own acclimations, your own aristocratic structure etc. I'm not very creative and sort of happy with a traditional template.

Congrats you made it to the end of this epic post lol. I've had to edit it a little for SPG - hopefully its better rather than worse (my writing style is 'write down when you have the idea and make sense of it later'. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment… I hope you’re enjoying the way you game too. Stay well.