Oh bugg'r

[Tribesman]

Playing as Polish , it was going ok until I refused passage to an English crusade .
By the next turn I was excommunicated , invaded by 3 countries( Italy ,Hungarian and Danes ), huge re emergance of HRE in 2 of my provinces and to top it all off a civil war where the bulk of my forces are loyalists but all my good generals are rebels .
Was all this triggered by refusing access to the crusade ?

[Mablung]

Short answer, yes. The excom causes a drop in loyalty from the Christians (catholics) in your land, particularly if high zeal. The drop in loyalty would have increased the chance of faction re-emergences and rebellions. The more provinces you lose the less loyal your generals will become, thus leading down the track to civil war. Once excommed other Christian factions jump on you - opportunist I know but that is the nature of the AI. All in all it may have been better to move your best troops out of that province into a neighbouring one for that turn, saving the decimation of your forces. Even if the AI attacks you because of a weak garrison you will not experience the huge drop in loyalty you did when you blocked the crusade. Another positive is that you are only at war with 1 faction and the others are (probably) less likely to jump on you. Sometimes crusades will nick a couple thousand florin but this doesn't happen all that often and whats a couple thousand florin between mates? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
Sorry if that was a bit long winded http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[Tribesman]

mablung ; Thanks , it was just a big shock to have it all happen at once.

[Borathor]

Thats a kick in the arse, ah?
Seriously, this matter has occurred to me earlier, thought a 1000 vs 1000 battle would bring nothing but joy.. But with the results in my hands I think that I could have let that bloody crusade pass through my lands after all..