I really dislike the current mayor of Genoa and would like to replace him with a friend of mine. So I revoked his title, but I am having a bit of trouble making my courtier the new mayor. If as a king I own an entire county, it used to be possible to simply grant some courtier a city title inside that county and that would automatically make them a mayor of the city (which could be used to create vassal merchant republics). I own the county of Genoa now, the City of Genoa is the capital holding, and all other holdings in the county are owned by vassals.
Now when I take a friend of mine from my court and attempt to grant him the county, he does not become a mayor. Instead, he becomes a count (suffering from a wrong demesne holding type penalty). I am not sure when this was changed, but how does one create a vassal merchant republic in this case (without suffering any penalties)?
Best Answer
There are two ways you can do this. Probably easiest way would be to grant your friend a barony level city holding anywhere in your realm. If you don't have one in your demense already you'll need to obtain one. You can revoke the title, build a new city holding or gain it from conquest. Making him a mayor will turn him into burgher. When you grant him the county of Genoa, he'll remain a burgher making him the lord mayor of Genoa.
If that's not an option, another method would be to somehow acquire another holding in the county of Genoa, but in this case it can be of any type. It doesn't have to be city. To do this, you can build another holding, revoke a title or try to obtain a barony by inheritance. Once you have it, switch the county capital to that holding and then make your friend the mayor of city of Genoa. Grant him the county and he'll be lord mayor of Genoa.
To make your friend doge of a merchant republic you'll need to go one step further and grant him a duchy.