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I have two sons now, one is of my former husband's side and older than the second son of my side from matrilineal marriage. The first son won't leave the succession line. I can't conspire to murder him since he's my child.

What must I do to take him out and bring my second son forward?

EDIT. A bit of update, that stupid non-dynastic heir somehow inherited a petty kingdom nearby, meaning he was not of my court anymore, there was nothing I could do. I could not ask him to take the vows (since he's not my courtier), couldn't imprison him though I was willing to suffer the opinion penalty. I tried to fabricate claim and declare war with hope to capture him as POW but wasn't a success. He took over the kingdom after my passing, leaving my dynasty to oblivion shame and putting an end to yet another noble house that couldn't survive the feudal hardship.

Gerry
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    Please remember that comments are not intended for extended off-topic discussions. Yes, Crusader Kings II leads to some funny situations, but that doesn't mean we need 20 comments about it. It just makes the comments section completely useless. – Wipqozn Nov 30 '17 at 22:32

3 Answers3

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There are 3 viable options:

  • Disqualify him from inheritance/holding titles, by making him a monk.

  • Change your succession laws, so the oldest child can't inherit (Elective, Elective Gavelkind, Ultimogeniture, Seniority.

  • Kill (Imprison/Execute) him or blind/castrate him (If Greek)

You could also give titles to your prefered son, so you won't trigger an immediate game-over if the non-dynastic son inherits your main title, and then, after you die, (the new) you can just press his claim.

Making your son a Commander and sending him into losing battles may also work out nicely. You could also use the Intrigue Focus to spy on him, and imprison/have him killed without plotting. Same for Martial Focus and Dueling if you're capable.

Oak
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    Short version: kill him :) – Mixxiphoid Nov 27 '17 at 13:27
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    There is a plot which works on one's own children, and once it succeeds the event gives you the option to kill them secretly instead of imprisoning. – IllusiveBrian Nov 27 '17 at 13:29
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    If you make your disfavored son a commander for a long time he's liable to grow in martial skill (if you have a good marshal), making him harder to defeat as your dynastic heir if it comes down to that. – SudoSedWinifred Nov 27 '17 at 13:33
  • Making him a councillor and sending him on missions to provinces with an epidemic might make him more likely to catch the disease, but I'm not sure. If it does work it would help him meet an untimely demise. – Marijn Stevering Nov 27 '17 at 16:30
  • Yes that too, but it's a bit unreliable because you may find yourselef in a period without diseases. You could also send him to convert pagan lands and hope he's imprisoned and killed, but once again, it's unreliable – Oak Nov 27 '17 at 16:38
  • Can you actually imprison and execute your own son? Also, you usually can not usually plot to murder your own kids. Does intrigue focus really ignore that restriction? I am not sure. – Philipp Nov 27 '17 at 16:47
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    @Philipp You absolutely can imprison and Execute your own son. It's likely to be VERY unpopular (Unjust Imprisonment Tyranny penalty, Execution Tyranny penalty, Kinslayer), but that just means people will hate you. If you can keep your thrown with that many opinion penalties though, you can do it anyway. – CrusaderJ Nov 27 '17 at 17:42
  • @Philipp Oh yes, you definitely can. As CrusaderJ already mentioned there is the straightforward way, while incurring massive opinion penalties. The other one is that this restriction is only for children, and not for grandchildren, which is an oversight IMHO. If you marry your crown prince/princess early, you can use quite a bit of un-natural selection to get a good long-term heir. But this does not help with OP's dilemma, of course. – Ordous Nov 27 '17 at 19:26
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    @Philipp It doesn't, but the spy on pops an event that allows you to either try to imprison or murder your target. If you imprison you can then execute. If you murder... well, job's done. It's not considered plotting. – Oak Nov 27 '17 at 20:38
  • I have no idea what the game "Crusaders King 2" is so I also have no idea if the comments above are still referring to the game or if they've gone off the rails and are referring to real life. P.S. Apparently it sucked to be in an intrigue-ridden Greek royal family... – davidbak Nov 28 '17 at 04:16
  • Never underestimate the number of problems you can solve by assassinating the other party. Doesn't make you popular though. – Kaithar Nov 28 '17 at 18:25
  • The giving preferred son strategy seems to not work. I did that but after death game was still over. – Gerry Dec 20 '17 at 12:09
  • @Duc It does work, what can happen is that you give all of your titles (except your main one), and your primary heir is not on your dinasty, which leads to him inheriting your main title causing a game over. – Oak Dec 20 '17 at 13:40
  • @Oak Ah okay you meant giving the main title to the preferred son, and I continue playing until death, the non-dynastic son gets the remaining titles while I go back to play with the main title as the preferred son? What I did was giving everything to my real son except the main title. – Gerry Dec 20 '17 at 17:58
  • @Duc That's what's supposed to happen, but you still have to make sure that your main heir (the one in your character page) is from your dinasty, else you still lose. Giving titles helps you control who inherits, but you still have to make sure the main title goes to your dinasty, else it's a game over. – Oak Dec 20 '17 at 18:23
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There are a couple of ways not yet mentioned in Oak's answer (pre question edit though):

1) Excommunication.
If your child is not in good standings with the Pope or you have some variety of PocketPope, you can ask for him to be excommunicated. At that point you can freely imprison them and either execute (no penalty), or order to take the vows (disqualifying from succession). If they are not in your court anymore, you can still start an excommunication war.

2) Entrapment.
Give your child some land and make him rebel against you. This is easiest done by waiting 5-10 years until title grant opinion bonus has disappeared and then doing something nasty to them - like revoking a title, giving the jester title, or simply uncovering a plot on them with your spymaster (if you were the same sex or you were homosexual you could also try to seduce their spouse). You could do this immediately as well, but in that case you will almost certainly anger your other vassals as well, because of the sheer amount of opinion bonus you need to burn. Once they rebel, they are fair game to imprison and then, well... bad things can happen in dark dungeons. Not all of them allow you to take up the throne afterwards.

Ordous
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Depending on the relative titles, you may have been able to grant a duchy to the bad son, which may have put him in your court. I'm not 100% if that would work though.

JerkyTreats
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    First, no, it would not work. Dukes have their own courts. Second, even if it would work, what would that achieve? Being in someone's court doesn't change their dynasty. – Philipp Nov 28 '17 at 10:25
  • I don't think you can grant a landed title to someone who's not in your court, even not in your dynasty. Next time, for small remark that you are not really sure about, I would suggest that you add a comment to the OP's question ;) – Gerry Nov 28 '17 at 10:31