Were there, historically, any repercussions or limits to how and when a lord could choose to disinherit one or more of his heirs? Robb could cite the fact that Sansa is a woman forcefully married into the family of his mortal enemies and Tywin could point out that Tyrion is a dwarf (and thus cursed by the gods) but could any heir be disinherited at any time by their liege?

alamutjones:

racefortheironthrone:

There could be – civil wars have definitely been started over disinheritances or disputed successions. On the other hand, there are plenty of cases where that didn’t happen – Alfred the Great, for example, succeeded his brother despite his brother having adult sons, but Alfred had more support among the nobility of Wessex so managed to tough it out. 

It really depends on the political circumstances. 

Er, @racefortheironthrone? Minor correction. Alfred’s brother did NOT have adult sons. Have you been watching The Last Kingdom and getting mixed up?

King Aethelred of Wessex was born circa 847, and died in 871. I’m not great with numbers, but by my count that only puts him in his mid 20s. We know of two sons by the date he died, but if he’s only 24 those sons would be young boys – definitely under ten years old, and possibly very young indeed. Given the situation with the Danes and the structure of Saxon kingship (which may have liked the ease of primogeniture where possible but wasn’t as strictly bound to it as some later polities) Aethelred’s little boys were kind of screwed.

Alfred himself was only around 21 when he was crowned. Born circa 849.

The dispute from the TV show is something Aethelwold should be having with Alfred’s son Edward. They’ve moved it forward a bit for drama.

Sorry, should have said sons not adult sons.