The Guild II. It's pretty much Sims, except better and during the Renaissance.
You basically play a random German (Although French, English, Scandinavian, and Italian maps are available). You start with one business (Ranging from Tavern to Weaponsmith to Hospital to Witch's Den and everything in between) and a crappy house. You select a wife/husband from the town's population, woo her, make babbies, run your business (Very in depth), upgrade your home, expand your business (Always pick a wife of a different class, so you aren't competing with yourself), become and international trade, run for parliament, move up through parliament until you can become king. When you die, you take over as your oldest kid and continue.
It's the Sims meeting a very good trading/business sim, with a sort of good political sim thrown in. It's very buggy, but if you get The Guild II: Renaissance on Steam, then most bugs are fixed and you get a lot of extra content (It's a stand alone expansion, you get everything from the main game, the first expansion, plus Renaissance for the price of one.)