Matt Asks:

Not a ASOIAF question, but considering your avatar…Do you think Martellus is right when he claims that had the Baron proclaimed himself emperor instead of insisting on a lesser title that the Fifty Families of Europa would have played along?

I think there would have been less friction, but probably not a lasting peace. To take a similar example from world history: when Napoleon ended the Republic and proclaimed himself Emperor of France and married into the Hapsburgs, it made France more of a normal player in the politics of European monarchies.

But that didn’t mean that people stopped going to war with France – after all, the historical rivalries, geopolitics, economic conflicts, etc. were all still there. But the tenor of the wars changed a little, and occasionally France was able to get the Austrians or the Prussians or the Russians on-board for a while, which was less the case back during the Republic.