Anon from before. Thank you for answering my question (so quickly at that!). I’m personally fascinated by the genealogy of Martin’s Westeros — how these individuals/families are tied together by ambition, circumstance, & more; how relationships b/w men are fundamentally (w/ historical RL basis) cemented by a sexist exchange of women; how these women can affect the alliances themselves; and how these relationships impact the larger landscape — so I appreciate you taking the time to answer. :)

No problem. It’s a fascinating topic – one of the things that really does make the pre-WWI period different from the political systems that follow is the way in which monarchy and aristocracy commingle the personal and the political, private and public. 

If anything, Martin downplays it a bit by having the Great Houses rarely marry each other. In our medieval era, all of these warring kings and dukes and earls and barons and counts are relatives, which adds this interesting personal dynamic to political intrigue and warfare.