Quick answer
- Grant land to a vassal: hold a title you do not want, select a landless courtier or existing vassal, and use the Grant Title interaction. Granting a higher title automatically transfers every lower title fully inside its de jure borders.
- Vassal limit: each vassal over the limit cuts taxes and levies from all vassals, up to a cap. Barons do not count.
- Contracts: change once per lifetime, up to 4 things at once; increasing an obligation without compensation costs 20 tyranny per point of lost value.
Vassal management is the quiet skill that separates a realm that funds your ambitions from one that drains them. It is also the source of two of the most-searched CK3 questions — how to hand land to someone else, and why your income collapsed when you took one county too many. This guide covers granting titles, the vassal limit maths, contract editing without the tyranny trap, and keeping the powerful ones loyal.
How to grant land to a vassal
You grant land to offload titles you should not hold yourself — because of your domain limit, because a title is far from your capital, or because you want a loyal client running a border duchy. The mechanic is straightforward: select a title in your personal domain, choose Grant Title, and pick the recipient. That recipient can be an existing vassal, or a landless courtier, who becomes a brand-new vassal the moment they receive the title.
The rule that saves the most micromanagement: granting a higher-tier title carries lower titles with it. When you grant a title, every lower-ranked vassal whose realm sits entirely within that title’s de jure borders is transferred to the new holder. Hand someone a duchy and the counts inside it become their vassals, not yours — which is exactly how you shrink your own vassal count while rewarding a follower.
Two habits make granting work for you rather than against you. Grant to people you have reason to trust — high opinion, a hook, or a dynasty tie — because you are giving away real power. And grant duchies to consolidate your vassal limit, since one duke absorbing five counts is five fewer direct vassals for you.
The vassal limit, explained
Every ruler has a vassal limit, and every vassal over it reduces the taxes and levies of all your vassals by a percentage, up to a maximum penalty. This is why annexing “just one more county” can crater your whole economy: the penalty is realm-wide, not local. Critically, baron-tier vassals do not count toward the limit, so holders of baronies inside your counties are free.
How the limit is set depends on your government:
| Government | Vassal limit driven by |
|---|---|
| Feudal / most landed | Your title rank |
| Administrative | Title rank plus authority law level |
| Clan | Dominance law |
| Theocracy | Devotion level and Capital Temple Complex |
| Tribal | Increased by tribe buildings |
The practical fix for being over the limit is almost always the same: grant a duchy to a trusted vassal so their counts stop counting as yours. If your income looks wrong, check the vassal-limit line before anything else — it is the most common invisible tax on a growing realm.
Editing vassal contracts without wrecking your reputation
Feudal-style vassals hold a contract that sets their obligations — how much tax and how many levies they owe — and any special rights. The contract has three hard rules you must respect:
- It can be changed once per lifetime of either the liege or the vassal, and that single use is shared between you both.
- You can change up to 4 things at once in a balanced change.
- Raising an obligation makes the contract less desirable to the vassal, and every point of lost desirability costs you 20 tyranny.
That tyranny cost is the trap. To raise a vassal’s taxes cleanly, you either offset it — grant a right the vassal values in the same change to keep the score balanced — or you spend a weak hook, which compensates for one point of increase without tyranny. The workflow that avoids nasty surprises: line up a hook first, then raise the obligation, then watch the contract score preview before confirming. If the change already incurs tyranny, the game will not let you pile another liege-favouring change on top.
Keeping powerful vassals loyal
Your powerful vassals are the handful whose strength earns them a council expectation and a loud opinion. Neglect them and you get factions. A vassal can only join or start a faction against you under specific conditions, and the levers you control are opinion and fear: a vassal with sufficiently high opinion of you cannot join, and one who is terrified cannot join unless discontent is already rising. AI vassals who are your friends or lovers will not move against you at all.
Faction military power is calculated by weighing the members’ armies against yours plus every vassal not in the faction — so a realm where most vassals are content isolates the malcontents and starves their faction of strength. There is also a grace period: AI vassals cannot form factions in the first ten years under an emperor, five under a king, or one under a duke or below, which gives a new heir breathing room. The steady-state answer is unglamorous: keep opinion up through the levers you control — same faith and culture, granted rights, marriages, council seats — and the faction problem mostly manages itself.
A working routine
Each generation, run the same check. Are you over your vassal limit? Grant a duchy. Is a powerful vassal’s opinion sliding? Find out why — usually a law, a faith gap, or a missing council seat — and fix the cause. Is a vassal absurdly rich and under-taxed? Line up a hook and raise the obligation once, cleanly. Do this and your realm funds your wars instead of quietly bleeding out between them.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make someone a vassal from scratch?
Grant a landed title to a landless courtier. The act of receiving the title makes them your vassal. You can also gain vassals by granting to existing lesser rulers, or by conquest.
Why did granting a title give away more than I expected?
Because lower titles fully inside the granted title’s de jure borders transfer with it. Grant a duchy and its interior counts go too. If you only meant to give one county, grant the county, not the duchy above it.
Can I change a vassal contract more than once?
Only once per lifetime, shared between you and that vassal — so if they changed it, you cannot, and vice versa, until one of you is succeeded by someone new. Spend the change wisely.
How do I raise taxes without getting tyranny?
Offset the increase inside the same contract change by granting a right the vassal values, or spend a weak hook to cover one point of the increase. Check the contract score preview before confirming.