Doesn’t seem to take that long. The Arryns of Gulltown are technically nobles but shunned because they married into trade, likewise the Westerlings despite their ancient heritage fell down the marriageability index after marrying into a house two generations out of trade. 

Yes. 

I think we would have heard of it from Ser Eustace, given his fixation on the amazing knights who followed Daemon. My guess is that he was holding out those positions until after he took King’s Landing, using them as a carrot to get a better performance out of his knights. 

Well, keep in mind that I wrote that before the World of Ice and Fire came out.

But, using historical interactions between the British Isles and the European continent, it is quite surprising that we only got First Men, Andal, and Rhoynar migrations to Westeros, or that Targaryen kings mostly stayed out of Essosi politics (seriously, not one of that crazy bunch tried to rebuild the Valyrian Empire? Moreover, after Aegon the Conqueror, the importance of a balance of power on the continent seems to disappear as a foreign policy objective), or that outside of the Triarchy and the Rogares there seems to be little Essosi involvement in Westerosi politics (especially during the various civil wars). I’m certainly a bit surprised that there aren’t more Essosi merchants and artisans living in King’s Landing or the other major cities. 

poorquentyn:

racefortheironthrone:

poorquentyn:

Bong Joon-Ho, director of (among others) The Host and Snowpiercer. Best action director working, other than his idol Spielberg, of course. 

As long as we’re being completely hypothetical, I’d love to see Kurosawa do it. 

Hot damn, yes please. Mifune playing Tyrion or Davos? 

Could work as either. 

poorquentyn:

Bong Joon-Ho, director of (among others) The Host and Snowpiercer. Best action director working, other than his idol Spielberg, of course. 

As long as we’re being completely hypothetical, I’d love to see Kurosawa do it. 

I am currently participating in an online course that discusses war and its relationship with society. The instructor asserted that the ability to collect taxes efficiently is the best indicator of a strong centralized authority. You have discussed the power of the law and how monarchs in ASOIAF and real life have used the law to strengthen the central authority. 

Don’t both depend on the authority having a monopoly on violence? Your thoughts?

Well, monopoly on violence might also depend on your ability to collect taxes efficiently, in so far as much as a standing army needs to be paid regularly. So both factors move in the same direction – if your tax system breaks down, it becomes harder to keep armies in the fall; if tax receipts are up, the quality and quantity of soldiers in your army improve. 

Now, judicial power ultimately does require a monopoly on violence, in the sense that if someone refuses to surrender to the constables, that’s a challenge to royal authority that ultimately has to be answered with soldiers. But it’s also a means of legitimizing and helping to establish monopolies on violence – enforcing the law against powerful noblemen who might otherwise challenge your rule is a good way to head those challenges off before they become rebellions, etc. 

Heads on spikes on the walls of Winterfell. 

As with everything having to do with the Middle Ages, the answer is it depends on when and where you’re talking about. Generally speaking, the later in the Middle Ages you get, the higher the proportion of professional soldiers who weren’t knights serving as men-at-arms.

Well, keep in mind I was talking about taking undergraduate-level courses; standards are different at the masters or PhD level, where there are language requirements. As someone studying the U.S, I had an easier job of it just having to prove proficiency in French (even though you don’t really need French to study 20th century U.S public policy); a medievalist, for example, would have to prove proficiency in French, medieval French, Latin and/or Greek, and paleography. 

But in general, for undergraduate and intro-level graduate courses, primary documents would be read in translation. For higher-level grad courses, you’d be expected to read in the language.