String of bad luck.

Of my first 15 rulers, 12 of them never made it past the 40. The 3 that did make it past 40 all inherited when they were already past 40. The youngest one was a 7 year old that got pushed off the balcony about a month into her reign.

Didn't help that I had the Demon Spawn and then have elective succession. For the love of God, why can't they vote for the genius, strong, seducer dude? Went through about 4 rulers until they got the right one. Then I thought that I was going to be clever and duel the rival of the demon spawn and the spawn got deleted.

Then the black plague showed up and I got a visitor with a mask and then 75% of my Court is dead including my ruler in one fell swoop. I am pretty sure that he was #16 and was the first ruler to inherit before 40 and live past 40. He died at age 42.