The line “What do a bunch o’ bloody peasants know about a lord’s honor?” is used to by peasant lem lemmingcloak to mock the freys claim of ‘honor’ after the red wedding. But did/do smallfolk even have any opinion on what they would consider “a lords honor?”

opinions-about-tiaras:

racefortheironthrone:

Clearly yes, as we see from the smallfolk who cursed the Knight of Saltpans for failing to defend them against the Bloody Mummers. 

I feel like for the smallfolk, their conception of lordly honor is going to be largely tied up in how well that lord upholds their end of the feudal social contract.

Like… I don’t think the smallfolk care that much if their lord fathers some bastards out of wedlock or has behaved less than respectfully to their own liege lord or a number of other things that, to the lordly class, represent middling-to-large besmirchments of their honor and that they take quite seriously. Look at how uncomfortable Eddard Stark is about having publicly dishonored Catelyn with his ostensible affair that produced Jon Snow, something that I can almost guarantee none of his smallfolk give two shits about.

The smallfolk care if their lord defends their rights, if he provides justice, peace, and plenty, if he makes sure their lands aren’t raided and rides forth to defend them in war and feeds them in the winter and remits their taxes if the harvest fails. That’s going to inform their conception of an honorable lord.

Agreed. Indeed, as far as we can tell, the smallfolk like a “merry” ruler as long as everything else is ok – Robert may have been a poor ruler in terms of administration, but he was quite a popular monarch with the smallfolk because the harvests were good, taxes didn’t increase, relatively few wars and victorious to boot, lots of tourneys and other amusements, etc.