Maybe this has something to do with him being available to play as a faction?
You may well be right, Deus ret, I hadn't considered that. Certainly seems as though the faction has acquired a personality the "unplayable" version doesn't adopt.

From the top of my head, I think they currently hold Provence, Savoy, Lorraine, Burgundy, all of Italy bar Rome and Genoa (English), Swabia, Tyrolia, Croatia, Sardinia and Corsica. Earlier they held Serbia and Austria too, but lost them to the Hungarians, who lost them to me They also have quite a navy, too, but the English are the naval superpower, my big worry right now!

The French are holed up in Switzerland, a little blue dot in a sea of gold, quite funny really.

One other thing in this camapign, not sure why but the first five turns or so of the campaign, the Pope gave me the 1000 florin gifts for services to Church etc, never had so many, and certainly not all in a row like that. Needless to say, our alliance has lasted intact from 1206 through to 1330ish. It's probably the only campaign I've played where the Pope hasn't been his usual Holy Pain-in-the-buttness. It makes a nice change