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Hypothetically, if Robb had won the war and married Roslin Frey, who would have been tw best internal marriage options for Edmure and Sansa to help integrate the two portions of Robb’s kingdom?

theladiesmormont:

racefortheironthrone:

Assuming that Robb doesn’t need external alliances, it would be a good idea to marry Edmure into the Manderlys – they’re a powerful Northern House, but they’re also the most conversant with Southern culture of any of Robb’s original bannermen. Moreover, their naval and commercial presence at White Harbor would enhance North-Riverlands connections if properly exploited. 

As for Sansa, I’m not sure who I would handle. But one idea that does come to me is for Robb to settle Harrenhal on her – Harrenhal is going to be incredibly important for him holding the Riverlands from attacks from the south, so a Stark presence there will probably be necessary for making it actually perform. 

Except that the curse of Harrenhal is real and even if it weren’t, Catelyn is superstitious and from the Riverlands. She would never stand for Sansa holding Harrenhal.

She is, but she’s also of House Whent on her mother’s side. 

I just read that link on Henry VII and bonds, pretty interesting, thank you. Just one question, the article mentioned that Henry recieved money for knighting his son, could you please elaborate on this occurrence?

So this is an example of Henry VII looking back into the statute books to find old rights or powers that hadn’t been invoked in a while – in part because earlier kings had abused the hell out of them and in the process helped to provoke the Barons’ Revolt and the Magna Carta – and then using the hell out of them.

In this case, Henry VII was invoking the right of feudal aid. Feudal aid was a special one-time payment to be made to one’s liege lord on special occasions: when the oldest son became a knight, when the eldest daughter was to be married, when the lord was going on crusade or needed to be ransomed, etc. 

Henry VII missed few tricks, so not only did he invoke feudal aid when he knighted his eldest son Arthur, but when Arthur died and Henry became his new eldest son,  he did it again, and then again when he married his daughter to the King of Scotland. And each time, he raised the equivalent of at least £11-20 million pounds in today’s money. 

Where do you think Daeron I got his martial spirit and supreme self-confidence? Was he just a born military prodigy or do you think he had a specific tutor/master-of-arms who shaped him into a fourteen-year-old boy conqueror? His father Aegon III seems like he would have been too reserved/depressed/brooding to be a confident warrior (though Daena was said to idolize her father). Perhaps from Oakenfist or Uncle Viserys, even though they were more cautious about trying to conquer Dorne?

We don’t have much information about Daeron’s youth, so it’s hard to say. But the Oakenfist seems to have best fit the bill as a mentor figure – he was a good thirty years older than Daeron, already a storied (and daring) naval commander, and was heavily involved in Daeron’s planning for his Conquest of Dorne. 

But given his extreme youth at the time of his great victories, I think we have to assume that he was a prodigy, because an average student even of a great teacher wouldn’t have been able to do what he did in the time he had. 

Hypothetically, if Robb had won the war and married Roslin Frey, who would have been tw best internal marriage options for Edmure and Sansa to help integrate the two portions of Robb’s kingdom?

Assuming that Robb doesn’t need external alliances, it would be a good idea to marry Edmure into the Manderlys – they’re a powerful Northern House, but they’re also the most conversant with Southern culture of any of Robb’s original bannermen. Moreover, their naval and commercial presence at White Harbor would enhance North-Riverlands connections if properly exploited. 

As for Sansa, I’m not sure who I would handle. But one idea that does come to me is for Robb to settle Harrenhal on her – Harrenhal is going to be incredibly important for him holding the Riverlands from attacks from the south, so a Stark presence there will probably be necessary for making it actually perform. 

Some time ago, you theorized that Bittersteel could’ve conquered the Disputed Lands, as well as Myr, Tyrosh, and Lys. Do you think Daemon Targaryen would have been able to do that? He didn’t have a disciplined army like the Golden Company, but he had a dragon and a powerful fleet under the command of Corlys Velaryon.

Taking Myr, Tyrosh, Lys, and the Disputed Lands would be a prolonged affair – in addition to the naval campaign necessary to knock out their fleets, and the land campaign against the free companies they’re going to hire, the cities themselves will involve three major sieges, all of which are going to require siege works on land and a naval blockade to cut off the cities from resupply and reinforcement. And that’s assuming that everyone else – Braavos, Pentos, Volantis, etc. – stays out of it. 

I don’t think Daemon himself had the discipline for it – as we saw with the Stepstones, Daemon doesn’t have the patience for sticking it out for a whole campaign, and other than Corlys, didn’t seem to have anyone around him capable of leading in his absence.

So while he’d definitely enjoy some early successes, I think he’d lose interest a year in, and then the war effort would completely collapse in his absence. 

Did Aegon IV die of a real-world disease, or are those symptoms just part of the fantasy world?

theelegantbookworm:

nobodysuspectsthebutterfly:

racefortheironthrone:

Aegon IV’s death is heavily inspired by the death of Henry VIII, although Henry VIII also had an ulcerated leg wound on top of everything else. 

There weren’t any kings in our history who were eaten alive by maggots (“fleshworms”), though, were they? I have to think that’s GRRM’s fantasy/horror touch, and a nastily gross one, too.

@nobodysuspectsthebutterfly There’s a legend that eaten alive by maggots was how Herod the Great died I think.

And Henry VIII’s blood was supposedly lapped by dogs as his body laid in state. It’s all out of a standard playbook of “divine punishments of impious tyrants.”

“And this strategy tended to be played out in partisan politics, with the “Whigs favoring the Navy and the Tories the Army. ” I’m fairly certain that’s not correct. During the war of the Spanish Succession, it was the Whigs who favored engagement on the continent (and thus the Army) and the Tories who favored a “blue water” strategy (and thus the Navy), and this was more or less the split through the first two Hanoverians – Whigs catering to Kings’ continental interests, Tories not.

You’re quite right about that period. I was conflating the Whigs with the 19th century Liberals, and should have been more clear on this point.