Author: stevenattewell

Where did Stannis get his naval command experience prior to the battle off Fair Isle? There was no Targaryen fleet to oppose him when he took Dragonstone, and there was no great naval threat in the years between Robert’s and the Greyjoy Rebellion for him to hone his skills, afaik. Do Baratheon sons receive some kind of basic naval training, given their proximity to the sea?

There was a Targaryen fleet opposing him, it just got wrecked in the storm. Regardless, overseeing the construction of an entire fleet and then coordinating that fleet on a successful amphibious attack in those circumstances is a hell of an entry-level work experience gig. 

Afterwards, Stannis was the Master of Ships and Lord of Dragonstone, and we know from ADWD that he was extremely active in fighting pirates, which would give him lots of smaller-scale experience. And of course, Stannis being Stannis, odds are that he read and memorized manuals of naval warfare as due diligence for his new job. 

Why did the hunnic invasion lead to the Germanic people migrating west but the rise of Rome didn’t cause a eastern migration

I’m guessing that by the rise of Rome, you mean the expansion of Rome north and east into Gaul, Germania, Illyricum, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Dacia, etc. 

I think part of the reason is that the Romans actually didn’t push that far northeast; the decision to stop at the Rhine and the Danube limited the “push” factor eastward. Likewise, the Roman policy of trade and tribute, establishing client kingdoms in Germania, Dacia, Sarmatia, etc. created a buffer zone that could absorb eastward migration.

And sadly, I think another part of it has to do with the Roman practice of imperialism, that the focus was on conquering and then Romanizing people where they were as opposed to driving them off the land, but even more so the focus was on enslaving people, which meant that people who might have become refugees to the east instead moved south into the Mediterranean slave markets. 

Isn’t 200 men too few to hold a castle the size of Harrenhal against a determined enemy? Also, why did Tywin leave all of his noble POWs at Harrenhal instead of taking them with him back West, where he could leverage them against their Northmen brethren he’s about to fight?

It is, but A. even 200 men would inflict significant casualties on an enemy before losing, B. Tywin couldn’t afford to leave a bigger garrison behind and fight a western campaign, and C. trying to escort large numbers of prisoners on a forced march through enemy territory is a great way to lose prisoners. 

If Harrenhal needs a Gold Cloaks-sized garrison (circa 2000 men?) to be defensible, how many men did Tywin leave behind when he headed west to face Robb? If it is about 2k, how did Roose pull off his takeover with only the 100 traitorous Brave Companions and their couple dozen northern “prisoners”?

Tywin left 100 men, and Roose (or rather, Robett Glover) won because he had 100 Northmen and 100 Bloody Mummers, for a 2:1 advantage and the element of surprise. 

Prior to Aegon’s conquest, would you say that the area that became the Crownlands was sort of like Poland or Belgium? That is, a flat, open region that lacks natural defended and is regularly overrun by its more powerful neighbours?

Well, that comparison is made more commonly to the Riverlands. 

The Crownlands is a bit more complicated, because there’s very different parts of it: Crackclaw Point is different from the northern coastal centers of Duskendale and Rosby, which are different from the island territories of the Bay, etc. 

Do you offer public policy courses online? Or know if any institutions that do offer hist of pub. policy? I’ve gotten really into it over the past few years reading your wordpress and tumblr stuff

First of all, I’m thrilled that I’ve managed to spark an interest in policy history. 

Unfortunately, I don’t have an online course, although that’s an interesting idea. (Maybe if I ever have some free time and finish all of my competing side-projects, I might do something like that.) I teach at CUNY’s Murphy Institute in NYC.

There are many institutions that offer the history of public policy, although it can be a bit difficult to find which history departments have sizable programs. (Or it least it was when I was applying to grad school back in the day.) I would recommend cross-referencing various universities’ history departments with the Policy History Conference’s program or the Journal of Policy History’s back issues, to find a department that has multiple scholars, because those places will offer more courses. 

How exactly does slighting a castle work?

To quote Richard Nevell, an archaelogist who did his thesis on the subject:

“One of the key challenges in identifying slighting is that the methods used to slight a castle were the same used while attacking it. For example, mining or undermining was used in siege warfare to bring down outer walls. But you could use the same approach to demolish a castle. This can be seen at Bungay Castle (Suffolk) where excavations in the 1930s identified an unfinished mine gallery underneath the great tower. Documentary sources show that the King had ordered its destruction, but it was evidently reprieved at a late stage.”

Given that the objective is to render the structure incapable of being used as a fortification, the focus would be on those aspects of a castle that give it defensive advantages: 

  • the outer walls, which allow a small garrison to hold off the enemy from a safe distance. 
  • the towers, which provide further height and protection compared to relatively open ramparts.
  • gatehouses, which protect the most important entryways with portcullises, arrow-loops, machiolations, and murder holes.

Depending on how emphatic the slighter wanted to be, they could leave the rest of the structure intact and allow it to continue to exist as a

château

(a non-fortified stately home), or they could render the interior unlivable and let the ruins be subsumed back into nature. 

Generally, slighting would be accomplished by mining at the base of the structure in question and then burning down the props of the tunnel (i.e, undermining). Later on, the process was sped up enormously with the use of gunpowder, which could be straighforwardly detonated in mere minutes. For the destruction of interior elements, pulling down roofs and then firing the interior was usually sufficient.