You can indeed vassalize holy orders. To do so, they need to not hold any land other than baronies (so if the Templars won a crusade and were given the kingdom of Hungary, for example, they could no longer be vassalized until they lost all that land).
An additional positive side-effect of raiding is that you can use raiders to decimate the enemy troops without them hiring any holy orders or attacking your homelands like they would in an official war. Keep track of what the holy orders are doing. Holy orders can only join one war at a time. Crusader Kings II: Sons of Abraham expansion brings Holy Orders and the Kingdom of Israel to the party For Crusader Kings II’s fifth expansion Paradox have turned to God. Apr 3, 2012 - When CK2 launched, you could steamroll the infidel with a single maintenance-free Holy Order unit by hiring them in defense, and then letting. Download subtitle rise of the gladiator lyrics.
Ck2 Holy Orders Not Spawning
You usually have to give them some land inside your de jure primary title so that you'll be their de jure liege (you can revoke the county later if you want).If you are a king rank, then the leader of the order also has to be the same culture as you. All holy orders are culture locked, so if a character who isn't German becomes Grandmaster of the Teutonic Knights, for example, his culture will change to German, so the culture you have to be to vassalize particular orders as a king is always the same. A brief list:Templars - FrenchHospitallers - OccitanTeutonic - GermanSantiago/Calatrava - CastillanBektashi/Hashashin - PersianJomsvikings - NorseEmperors can vassalize holy orders of the same religion using the above method irrespective of culture, so it's actually possible for a Catholic Empire to have all the Catholic holy orders as vassals.
However, holy orders of the wrong culture will still get a foreigner penalty towards their liege and I believe (unlike most titles) they can actually rebel even if they only have baronies. I could be wrong though, I just remember that happening to me a few patches back.As for mercnearies. They cannot normally be vassalized. A few mercenary companies start the game as vassals to particular rulers in certain historical bookmarks, and the Byzantine Emperor can create the Varangian Guard using a decision.Either of these cases is very, very powerful as it gives you the ability to hire them at extremely low cost.
A handy tip I've always found particularly useful when playing as the Byzantines is the emergence of the Holy Order of the Sephulcre when you reconquer Jerusalem as a See of the Pentarchy. They form almost immediately and provide any ruler with enough piety and gold a stack of 7150 elite troops.Now, as stated beforehand by other people, Holy Orders usually gain control of minor baronies and I always try to get my dynasty in charge of a Holy Order whenever possible. You should find it easy to vassalise a holy order if;A) they own land in the de-jure part of your kingdom/Empire.B) The leader is of your dynasty.Or C) You grant them a duchy title (not always the case though) - the leader will love you and therefore accept vassalisation.Of course, another boon of having the Holy Order of the Sephulcre vassalised as a Byzantine ruler, is that any land they own will count as being owned by your Empire, therefore negating the potential need to Expel them from your realm in order to reform the Roman Empire.