I murdered a lowborn unlanded somehow rich courtier… why didn't I get his gold?

So I had this courtier that was lowborn, unlanded, had no family at all.

He was super rich.

I assumed that I would be his heir, so I murdered him.

And… nothing happened, his gold didn't get into my pockets for some reason.

So banishing is the only way to steal gold? Is it correct that this procedure doesn't work? I assumed it did because if a vassal of mine dies without heirs, I get their land (dunno about their gold though).

PS: this is an Ironman game, please consider this when writing your answer.

Solution 1:

Why would you get his gold?

You're right that holdings from vassals gets inherited upwards in case of no heir but money doesn't flow that way largely because of game balance, you could make a killing finding random lowborn in your realm and snuffing their lights out with no repercussions. When you imprison and banish you at least suffer a tyranny penalty so you don't overuse it.

In a simplified feudalistic society as overlord you get a claim on your vassals holdings because it's actually your holdings, and your holdings are actually your overlords holdings, so inheriting holdings makes sense from a non-gameplay perspective as well.