TL;DR: Read below the line.

Hello y'all,

This is a follow-up to a thread I posted a few days ago about how to optimize Castile in the 1400s.

I actually got really lucky with how the events fired off so early. Got rid of my shitty heir and got a female heir really quick, gurenteeing the Iberian Wedding in the 1460s. Got 150 MP from each estate. Allied Portugal, Navarra, and Aragon. I started a no CB war against the Byzantine and vassalized them and Athens (though I probably should've let Athens go free because of the diplo-limit later on. This dragged in the Ottomans and I dragged in my allies who actually stopped an Ottoman landing in Castile. I took almost of all of Greece from the Ottomans but that left me with a ton of debt and I had to take 10 corruption to stop the interest spiral. The war also took a toll on my bird points. The Burgundy Inheritance actually fired off during this war. Vassalized Navarra. I then took Grenada and a province in Tlemcen (spelling?) since they were allied. I saved the game here which is 1455. All my further playthroughs revert back to this save because this get screwy really fast.

I would always get crippled by debt, corruption, and high liberty desire due to being behind in diplo-tech. Also I think I was expanding too fast in North Africa and Ottomans lands. The extra vassal in North Africa only makes the liberty desire worse.

This time I'm taking a more chill approach. Annexed Navarra and then Athens all the while I was paying off my debt and fabricating claims all over the North African coast. My king finally died and the Iberian Wedding fired off in 1467. Used the opportunity to break alliance with Portugal and RM Austria again so I stay under the diplo-limit. I paid off all my debt and built an army up to the force limit trying to counteract Byzantine's high liberty desire which is in the mid 60s.

I had no intention in invading North Africa or Portugal until I got rid of my corruption but Morocco declared war on Portugal and took two of their provinces leaving them both weak.

Also somehow managed to somehow avoid the Castilian Civil War this time around.

Its now 1475 and I'm not really sure what to do next. Money flow is good, army is at force limit, PU's are happy, Portugal has Exploration ideas and no army, North Africa is weak, Kebab is partially removed. But my corruption is at 12, I'm behind 3 diplo-tech compared to Byzantine, prestige and legitimately is crap, diplo-relations is crap, Byzantine liberty desire is in the mid-60s, and creating another vassal in North Africa only make liberty desire worse.

Questions:

How should I deal with Byzantine's high liberty desire and what caused it to be so high? They are up 15% due to diplo-tech difference, but they are still in the high 40s without it even though my army is much larger. Their liberty desire was always this high.

Should I vassalize Portugal after 2 wars and feed them lands from my North African wars or should I create a vassal in North Africa first that I intend on annexing before vassalizing Portugal?

How can I catch up in diplo-tech? I can exploit the estate mechanics and be conservative in my peace demands. I can also either hire an advisor or try to bring down corruption, but I can't do both at the same time without going into debt again.

Should I consider getting rid of some of my forts for more money? I got 3 in Castile and 5 in the Low Countries.

I would post a picture and the save file if anyone wants it but I'm currently on mobile.