See!? Not even a year, and the good peoples of Kent return to worship of our God like lost sheep return to the flock of their shepherd.
We can only hope that this is an example, not an exception, of how easy the English people wish to be converted.
Conversions aside, the loan is drawing near to repayment, and we're low on funds.
Pope Clemens XV orders mints to do 300% of their usual quota, with disregard to inflation. We must meet the required funds by next August!
Somewhat unorthodoxically, Clemens XV passes away in his sleep one night.
Habemus Papam! Pope Martinus V is a diplomat, and that's about it.
We hope he can manage the States to avoid taking a new loan.
We pay off the scary loan. We go down with the minting immediately.
However, even if we're trying to cushion our expenses, we either lose money per month, or allow the inflation to rise...
Simply put, we need more money.
Habemus Papam! The short reign of Martinus Vi was rather uneventful, I have to admit.
His successor, Pope Benedictus XIV, is his opposite; mediocre diplomat, good administrator.
His first order of business is to annex Bishopric of Aquileia.
A one-province minor that was occupying an alliance slot. It's better that we manage Friuli directly.
We might have quite a few provinces, but our armies will never be huge.
Therefore, we must maximize our potential to quickly capture enemy provinces.
Espionage idea will get us greater and more frequent chances to bribe the defenders.
We don't trade abroad - mercantilism it is!
And so comes to pass that the Innocenzo Scandal begins! This is a Disaster type of event series for Papal States I modded in.
The other option would be to kill the Pope with -20 Prestige and -3 Stability hit, but that would also end the event chain.
I wouldn't be myself if I didn't showcase the event chain to you guys, especially with such lovely modifier description, don't you agree?
As you can imagine, it is meant to sap your stability and prestige over the course of several years.
Or, if the RNG is particularily angry with you, within few months' time.
The French gave up on us a while ago, and Swedes once again offer us friendship.
We agree - just hoping they won't drag us into too many wars.
Fortunately, we can usurp the title of Defender of Faith from Netherlands.
This will help us negate the prestige drain occuring thanks to Del Monte's scandal.
Speaking of Cardinal Del Monte, even Benedictus XIV is fed up with his shenanigans.
So we send them to our neighbour - the Netherlands. "But Haspen, Netherlands is up north!"
Well, they also directly control the province of Parma, having inherited the tiny state in the last century or so.
Gloucestershire, and then immediately afterwards, Wessex, convert to Catholicism.
This means we can do this:
The Duchy of England has been created! Catholic and English, it will serve as a springboard for our future operations against Sultanate of Britain.
Just as we prepare for war against Salzburg (we have a mission to vassalize them), Benedictus XIV dies suddenly.
Habemus Papam! Pope Paulus III, despite his only mediocre Military skill, turns out to be quite capable commander.
Sweden goes to war with Denmark, then ditches us just as Salzburg calls up its friend, the Bohemia, against us.
Despite this diplomatic setback, we shall emerge victorious.
They have a LOT of troops, but that shall be their undoing.
See, they have to fork them through Salzburg and Niederbayern, which have low supply limit (especially the mountainous Salzburg).
And we have spies who can cut that supply limit even more, causing desertions and starvations to deplete Bohemia's alliance troops.
Papal spies even manage to inflitrate Prague itself, giving us knowledge of enemy provinces and troop movements.
Blessed be the late Benedictus XIV for choosing Espionage!
Aaaahahahahahaha!
*click*
Salzburg will be ours in next few months!
Even better, we can now reach Sandomierz, Brandenburg and Saxony via Bohemian lands.
Some sieges and we can force them to convert back to Christianity! Down with the heretics!!
Bam!
Oh man, France got its ass kicked by Netherlands.
A sign that we should not enter military alliance with the French for a while.
Bam, and bam again!
And then we get Salzburg made a vassal, just as intended in the beginning.
In the whole war we gain 70+ Prestige. All it took was some sieges and spies to regain all the prestige lost by Cardinal Del Monte's antics.
...Speak of the devil. The option we take should've read 'Someone in the Curia must've framed him!'.
The option on top, the correctly labeled one, damages Prestige and raises Infamy, and we want neither, considering we just regained our Prestige, and our net infamy gain is *only* -0.14 per year, thanks to Paulus III being antithesis of a good diplomat.
Hopefully, it won't take long before Cardinal Del Monte stops being a nuisance. We just gotta wait!
"Eh, alright, fine..."
