Given their environment, would crannogmen frog spears be closer to regular spears or zulu iklwas? Also, opinions on Shaka Zulu?

Crannogmen frog spears are light tridents.

As for Shaka Zulu, while he was absolutely a military genius, you also have to take into account the damage he inflicted both on neighboring tribes, and on his own people after his mother’s death.

Would the axes used by the Northern Clansmen during the liberation of Deepwood Motte be closer to Dane Axes or Atgeirs?

Atgeirs were more spears than axes.

But to answer your question, we don’t know.

Speaking of Charleses and Jameses, any idea why Queen Elizabeth’s two elder sons are named Charles (negative connotation) and Andrew (never used before)?

Secret Jacobite plot, clearly…

Anon who asked about the Plate armor development. I was referring to the difference between 13/14th century plate (plate with chainmail covering the joints) and the suits of the 15/16th century which encased the wearer from head to toe (you would need a can opener to get at him)?

Ah, I see what you mean now. The problem is that we don’t really know whether Westerosi plate is the former or the latter.

Hey I loved your “Politics of the Westerlands” series. Had Aerys died at Duskendale do you think Tywin would have succeeded in wedding Rhaegar to Cersei? If so how would it have affected the politics of Westeros? The Southern Ambitions?

Good question!

I think the politics would have been quite complicated – on the one hand, Tywin has been Hand for 15 years, he represents stability and competency in government, he’s the Crown’s major creditor, he’s got the army in hand de facto. It would be rather difficult for Rhaegar to refuse him in the moment.

On the other hand, Tywin’s power is in Rhaegar’s powers to dispose of, simply by naming someone else as Hand. (Indeed, if Rhaegar is really Machiavellian, he could publicly blame Tywin for causing Aerys’ death and really go to town on him.)

On a third hand, it’s not clear how many alternatives to Cersei there were at the time…there’s no Arryns,

In terms of the political effects…there are going to be quite a few Aerys loyalists who will run a rumor campaign that blame Tywin and Rhaegar for killing Aerys. I don’t think it’ll be given much credence by most (Rhaegar was quite popular among the smallfolk)…until something goes wrong and then people will start to whisper.

There’s definitely going to be tension between Tywin’s faction and Rhaegar’s faction (Connington, Lonmouth, Mooton, the Daynes and the Whents) over access to offices. Rhaegar’s going to want his own men around him, and Tywin’s going to want jobs for Tygett and Gerion and Kevan and Illyn Payne and the like. And I would argue this tension would expand as other Houses get tired of Tywin’s monopoly on royal power – the Tyrells, the Martells, the Southron Ambitions bloc, these folks want their fair share of honors and offices and if they feel like A. Tywin’s never going to leave and B. he won’t share, you’re going to get some “evil councilors” politics brewing fast.

Are the lack of Daemons outside of Blackfyre pretenders post First Blackfyre Rebellion the result a the name being attainted as a result its association with the Blackfyre cause? Are you aware of any real world cases where a formerly common name similarly fell into disuse?

Most likely, yes.

And I think there’s plenty of examples – look at royal names in the U.K in the transition from the Stuarts to the Hanoverians. Lots of Georges and Williams and Edwards, but no Charleses or Jameses because of the Jacobite implications.

Do you think its possible for the powers that be in Slaver’s Bay to resettle the upper reaches of the Skahazadhan (sometime in the 300 years after the Century of Blood), would this be a smart move on their part and can these settlements survive for an extended period of time in such close proximity to the numerous khalasars on the Dothraki Sea? TY

It’s possible, but I’m not sure what the advantage would be. As you point out, it seems like it’s nothing but downside.

Would the widespread implementation of heavy crossbows (Steel bowed, bodkin headed knight killers) be sufficient to jump start the development of the armor worn by the Westerosi nobility? If not, what, besides the discovery of gunpowder, would it take for this to happen? Thank You

Not entirely sure what you mean by “jump start the development of…armor” – plate armor is already quite prevalent in Westerosi warfare, especially among the nobility.

Would it be possible to “tailor” chainmail in such a way that it does not hang down and feel heavier than it actually is?

There are ways to limit it – belting at the waist to distribute the weight a bit better, for example – but at the end of the day, chain is going to hang straight down because that’s how physics works.

How common we’re war hammers and axes in the Middle Ages? I feel they’re over represented in fantasy

Answered here.

Warhammers and axes weren’t uncommon, especially during the Late Middle Ages once armor got good enough that you couldn’t easily cut through it with a sword. In that situation, a warhammer or axe were really good at concentrating force to a point, hopefully smashing through their armor, but if not definitely knocking them down so that you could put one of these through a weak point:

That’s not to say that people stopped using swords – there’s a whole bunch of rather clever folks who’ve gone back to arming manuals to rediscover how people used half-swording and other techniques to deal with opponents in plate – but those techniques were rather advanced and involved. It’s a lot simpler and easier to grab an axe or a hammer and smack someone in the head until they fall down.