Interpreting History: Artistic Media as Historical Source
Jacob Scranton
History methods (HIST-2200)
12/7/16
We were asked to choose an artistic representation of a historical event to analyze as a
historical source for this project. I decided to choose the computer game Crusader Kings II (hereafter
referred to as CKII) published by Paradox. Due to the complexity of the game, I will spend some time
familiarizing the reader with how the game works. I am also playing with a number of expansion packs,
so my experience with the game will be different than the basic version. I have included pictures at the
end as visual aids.
The medieval period is a familiar inspiration in popular culture particularly in computer games.
As computer games have become more elaborate over the years, many game developers have
attempted to provide increasingly realistic simulations of medieval life be it of personal combat, war,
economics, politics, etc. Some of these games attempt to simulate actual historical settings; other
games take historically inspired themes (such as medieval martial arts or the social structures of a feudal
society) and apply these themes in non-historical settings. Out of these games, CKII is well known as the
premier historical medieval strategy game.
CKII is played on a map, similar in basic concept to the board game Risk. The map is made up of
various territories (known in the game as “provinces”) stretching from Iceland in the North-West to the
Indian sub-continent in the South-East. There are 1,463 provinces on the map, not including those
provinces such as ocean and river territories. Each land-based province is known as a “county” and
contains “holdings” for instance the county of Middlesex in England (post Battle of Hastings) contains
the castle of Westminster (the county seat) and the city of London (as well as another castle and a
bishopric). Each holding can be upgraded over time with new and improved buildings. The names of
counties, duchies, kingdoms, and empires will dynamically change as the game progresses due to
changes in cultures and government. Although CKII has an overall Western European bent, the game
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includes a large amount of historical content for Eastern European, North African, Middle Eastern, and
Indian cultures.
Unlike most other strategy games, the mechanics of CKII are based on characters, which is one
of the main attraction points for the game both mechanically and thematically. There are thousands of
characters in the game; as the player you control one of these characters who will be the head of a
dynasty. Each character has traits, negative and positive, that they may be born with or develop through
the course of their life. The player’s job is to increase their character’s prestige (a sort of score, but also
sometimes an expendable currency) as a ruler by gaining control of new vassals and territories, throwing
tournaments, winning wars, etc. When your character dies, you will gain direct control over their heir if
they should have one. If they do not have an heir, the dynasty will be ended and you will need to select
a new character leading a different dynasty.
The game incentivizes the player to fret over the direction and future of their dynasty. For
example, one may have to change your realm’s succession laws to prevent the realm being divided upon
your death. You will need to find appropriate tutors for your children and also to find suitable marriages.
Much of the game consists of scanning through the lists of who’s who to find the right match for your
children or to find the best courtiers for your small council. You may at times need to plot against other
rulers or even your own family.
The third primary mechanic is how the game progresses. When starting a game the player
chooses from a list of historically significant start dates ranging from 767 to 1452 A.D. Each start date
will alter the ownership of the provinces on the map based on historical reality. For example, one may
choose to start in 1066 A.D. either before or after the Battle of Hastings, which will change who owns
the majority of the English counties: Harald or William. During the game, the player will alternate
between playing and pausing time. When time is played (there are five speed settings), the days and
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months will tick by, events will pop-up, taxes will be collected, and the computer AI will make decisions
characters, etc. The game may be paused at any time so that the player can make careful decisions for
their character. The game moves slowly enough that even on the highest speed settings it can take
several days to “finish” a game. I put finish in quotes because there is no real win condition for the
game. CKII is more of a sandbox in the sense that the player makes their own goals. The entertainment
is in watching an alternate history unfold and experiencing all the gritty details of a medieval dynasty
over many generations.
Being that my topic for the last project was the Domesday Book, I decided to play the game as
William the Conqueror in 1066 after the Battle of Hastings (William commissioned Domesday). I had not
played the game as such an influential character before, and admittedly I am new to the game, so I was
initially overwhelmed by the number of vassals and territories I needed to manage, especially given that
I was both a Duke of the Kingdom of France as well as the sovereign of the newly conquered Kingdom of
England.
My first big issue was that my demesne was too large. In the game and historically, a demesne
consists of the properties that a ruler holds directly rather than through a vassal. Because William had
just conquered England, he had not yet doled out counties and holdings to his vassals, thus all his vassals
received a substantial negative diplomatic penalty with me; they were upset that I, as William, was not
being generous enough.
To ease the tension, I did three things. First I initiated a change in law from “minimum” to “low”
kingdom centralization. The benefit would be that my max demesne size would increase by 1, although
my maximum vassal limit would decrease somewhat. The law change did not happen immediately
because I would need the support of the majority of my vassals.
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The second thing I did was to create a number of duchy titles in my realm. For example, because
I had the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey I could create the duchy of Kent over them. I then
bequeathed these duchies to the angrier of my powerful vassals. For example, to Count Odo (my halfbrother and influential historical figure), I gave the duchy of Kent because he was lusting after it. His
opinion of me increased dramatically. The only duchies I ended up keeping were the Duchy of Normandy
and the Duchy of Bedford for strategic reasons. I also kept the counties in my demesne for revenue
purposes.
As I parceled out more and more land, my vassals thought better and better of me. Eventually I
saw the support for the new increased centralization law swing in my favor. I also announced a huge
feast to which I invited my remaining opponents. Some of them refused, but many accepted my
invitations and I gained prestige and diplomatic advantage. Eventually the law passed.
The other interesting choice I made was to take a loan from the Jews, before promptly expelling
them from my realm, thus keeping the money they gave me as well as confiscating a large sum of gold.
The choice had positive as well as negative consequences, but the massive amount of gold was
necessary to pay for the creation of England’s ducal titles.
My second major problem was the threat of Norwegian raiders in the English Channel. They
made raids into both Essex and Normandy requiring me to levy troops in defense. Sending the raiders
off was relatively easy, but levying the troops did give me a slight opinion decrease with some of my
vassals.
The third issue I dealt with was a rebellious Anglo-Saxon faction in Northumbria and York. One
of my recently assimilated Anglo-Saxon lords had created a faction within my realm in support of the
Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of England title claimant, who was exiled in Toulouse at the time. Given that the
majority of my vassals were Norman, I was not worried that the faction would grow rapidly in size, but
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these Anglo-Saxon lords would always be nostalgic for their own culture and thus I decided to plot
against them. Although it took a few years, I gradually picked off these lords via assassination and
installed trustworthy Normans in their place. I will need loyalty in the North when I press my claims for
the remaining counties England and then beyond to Scotland.
As a historical source, do I consider CKII valid and reliable given my knowledge of the subject
matter? Well of course not. It is a computer game after all, notwithstanding its comparably excellent
simulation value. Ultimately the game is about alternate histories, that is, “what if, given such and such
initial historical configuration, changes were made?” Not only that, but I have read some critiques of the
game by professional historians who, despite praising the game in general, take issue with some of the
design choices and smattering of historical inaccuracies and anachronisms. Beyond these doubts is an
even more seemingly insurmountable problem: that the methodological issues of computerized
historical simulations vex scholars even with professionally developed software.
Despite these reservations, can CKII be of interest to historians? Yes, in particular to students of
history. Playing this game gives one something that history books struggle to do, which is to impress
upon the reader a visualization of setting that is memorable and provokes the proper associations of
name to face and deed and place. Often when I am reading history, I find at times that my eyes glaze
over at all the name–dropping. People and places that have long ago passed out of the popular mind
and thus lack accessible mental representations escape memorization and contextualization. When one
plays a game like CKII however, the obscurities of history receive a visual and contextual narrative that is
far more accessible to our primate brains.
Previous to playing CKII, even after reading whole books of about medieval England, the various
counties and duchies were a morass of flickering names, mostly divorced from spatial relevancy. Where
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is Wiltshire again? What was Ireland up to at the time of the Norman Conquest? Who is Sweyn
Forkbeard again? CKII gives you a map, quite literally.
One might respond, “Well can’t you just look at a normal map?” Yes, maps do help, but
insignificantly compared with something like CKII. The reason is that in playing the game, one forms
both logical and emotional connections to the contents. Northumbria is not just static print on the map
or a few frames of a video: It is the key to whether I am getting my armies into Scotland easily or with
difficulty and that damn Anglo-Saxon Earl Morcar better wise-up before he too is replaced by one of my
Norman buddies. The narrative becomes the constellation by which the historical content is connected
and made relevant, causing the sort of easy recollection that we find when summoning memories of
people, streets, highway exits, towns, etc. in our own lives. As a supplement then, I highly recommend
games like CKII for the history student.
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Two images taken offline for reference
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