A small and quick tip for people whom are around turn 40 - 60, if your still not at war with the english try to increase your reputation with england then later one ask them to give you caen for mariseille, in all my tries they always agree if i throw in some 1000's, and after that let milan crush them and you can use them as a shield from milan, well that helped me in my french campaign a lot from getting comptly pwned by milan.