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Hi, Steven. I was wondering about the borders between the kingdoms, or even local lords. Would a traveler be able to journey the length of Westeros unchallenged, or would they have to check in with the different lords whose lands they passed through?

It depends. By and large, there seems to be freedom of movement across the countryside – no internal customs barriers (and back in the day they were actual barriers), no checkpoints or toll-roads, etc. However, entry or exit from a city or walled town or holdfast is in the control of the lord of that town.

Which house has the most cadet branches? Like after the rebellion there were three branches of house Baratheon; Kingslanding, Dragonstone, and Stormsend. And now house Tyrell has a branch at bright water keep (on paper) but which house in westeros has the most official cadet branches?

Are we talking official cadet houses or extended family pure and simple?

Because the Tyrells have Garth the Gross’ line, Ser Moryn’s line down in Hightower, Quentyn’s line, and Victor’s line, in addition to a bunch of Maesters. And it’s a rare Tyrell who doesn’t have at least two children.

 However, if we’re going by official cadets, I think the Lannisters win it with the Lannisters of Lannisport, the Lannys of Lannisport, the Lannetts of Lannisport, the Lantells of Lannisport, and any number of unimaginative relations. 

What is the point of wardens apart from a nice title for king to use in feudal politics? Whenever there’s an actual war it always seem to be the king, hand or a knight of the Kingsguard leading the forces.

I don’t think that’s accurate. The Wardens were activated for the War of Ninepenny Kings and led significant forces, Ned as Warden of the North was one of the leaders of the armies in the Greyjoy Rebellion, Harlan Tyrell and Lyonel Tyrell were both army leaders during the wars with Dorne as Wardens of the South, etc. 

Who is the bigger monster? Ramsey Snow, Aerion Brightflame, or Joffery so called Baratheon?

Fairly sure I discussed this on my season 6 podcast, riffing off of something that Red & Ivan @boarsgoreandswords said:

– Joffrey is less than Ramsay, because when you get down to it, Joffrey was a coward and an incompetent – someone with sufficient willpower and power (Tyrion and Tywin most notably, but even Arya in the moment) could make him back down. He made people’s lives miserable, but usually in small numbers. 

– Whereas Ramsay, though a sadist and a bully, is not a coward – if you stand up to him, he’ll just hit you harder. And he’s directly involved in the killing of hundreds if not thousands of people, between the Hornwood Affair, the battle at Winterfell, the Sack of Winterfell, the retaking of Moat Cailin, etc. 

– Aerion is somewhere in the middle. He’s personally tougher than Joffrey, hence his spirited effort to try to murder Dunk during the Trial of Seven, although he’s still a bit of a coward as you can see from the fact that he went for a Trial by Seven instead of taking him on one-on-one. However, his bravado will crack if you apply pressure – hence Dunk beating him into submission at the end. 

Whereas Maegor and Daemon Targaryen were the worst, because they were brutal on a personal and national scale, they were brutally competent and competently brutal, and completely unafraid. 

RFTIT Tumblr Weekly Roundup

RFTIT Tumblr Weekly Roundup

Hey folks, I hate to do two of these in a row, but I didn’t want to leave you with no content this week. Tyrion I of ASOS is well under way, with four pages roughed out, and Politics of the Seven Kingdoms Part II is almost done, but neither are ready yet. For the moment, we’ve got Tumblrs: On Daeron’s Conquest. The strategic and economic benefits of Dorne. Dornish silk production. A discussion of…

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RE: Founding of White Harbor. I guess it was headcannon, but do you think Manderlys brought other people from the Reach with them such as skilled shipbuilders? Also explains the high concentration of Seven worshipers in White Harbor since Northerners, granting a liege lord’s push, seem VERY reluctant to convert. If don’t think Reach folks came with the Manderlys, curious on backstory of converting Wolf’s Den to the Seven? Would it have been forced or local smallfolk did so on their own accord?

Oh, I’m absolutely certain they did – as a powerful noble House, the Manderlys would have brought their bannermen, soldiers, servants, etc. on their flight from the Reach, along with their wodgers of cash. You can even see that in the traditional title of the House as “Defender of the Dispossessed” – at the beginning at least, this likely referred to the people who the Manderlys brought with them who had lost their lands and property during the Manderlys’ expulsion. 

I have a few questions regarding chartered cities, if that’s alright. First, how did the populations of the cities break down in terms of class? You’ve said that the people living in one are legally considered burghers, but surely not everyone would be of the middle class. Would many people be working higher income jobs than serfs, and be wealthier on average due to the lack of feudal taxes? Would there be taxes, if slightly lower, for the upkeep of the city? (1/2)

(2/2) As well, would cities have militia or a police force, similar in size, equipment and role to the goldcloaks in King’s Landing? Finally, would burghers be expected to join in military campaigns? If so, would they commonly have better equipment than the average serf due to their greater wealth? Thanks, and sorry about all of the questions.

So, as a legal term (as opposed to a class distinction), burgher originally meant that you are a citizen of the town (burgh means a town, and going further back means a fortified settlement), with the right to reside in the town and enjoy its rights and privileges. The social class of burghers that emerged in the 11th century were the elite of the towns and cities who were leaders of the guilds and who had the status necessary for being a city official. 

In terms of Medieval urban class structures, we don’t have anything like good enough evidence to give detailed population breakdowns – and there’s a lot of social categories that don’t fit well into modern conceptions of class. For example, by the Early Modern period (when we have better statistics), about 20% of the population were servants – do we see these people as part of the poor or working classes, when  being a servant was almost always a time-limited occupation where people in their teens from a range of backgrounds would work as servants until they had enough money set aside to set up their own household? 

Likewise, I’ve seen some Early Modern figures that say that around 27% of the population of London were apprentices  – again, our perspective of these people’s class position depends on how likely they were to make the climb up to journeyman and then master, which would radically alter their class position. Certainly, apprentices would have been seen as better off than unskilled laborers.

In terms of income, yes, city-dwellers tended to have higher wages (and living standards) than rural peasants, but you have to balance that against their significantly worse mortality statistics – living in a medieval or early modern town or city was a recipe for epidemic disease, so lots of people died in the cities. So city living was something of a gamble of higher wages in the short-term vs. increased likelihood of death in the long run? 

There were taxes – burgage taxes for leasing property (and later on, being a voter), murage taxes for building and maintaining walls, pavage taxes for streets, pontage taxes for bridges, and so on. But most of these taxes were property taxes, so if you didn’t own property (or if you were a sub-tenant), you didn’t pay. There were fairly hefty import, export, and other customs duties, which your average laborer would pay indirectly. 

Yes, there were militias, and they did tend to be better trained and equipped, because the towns and cities could support them from public revenue. And if they had enough money, they could even hire a mercenary company.