A man of his times and his class, who didn’t think too closely about the ideas behind his ideals. 

To answer a question with a question: do you think Gerold Hightower is the kind of man who would have answered Dunk’s challenge to the crowd at Ashford? 

Much more the second. Euron, Balon, Dagon, Dalton, etc. There is a pattern. 

True. Although in the early modern period this came under strain when a lot of the institutional choices that made that idea possible – smaller feudal armies that didn’t require regular wages, a Catholic Church that did a lot of the heavy lifting for you, and fewer demands on a much more decentralized and limited state – broke down. 

Armies got huge and professional, the Catholic Church now became something to plunder, fight for your life against, defend against the people doing the first two, or any combination of the above, and in order to do any of that you need a larger and more professional bureaucracy that could extract the taxes and provide the services that merchants and landowners demanded in return for their tax dollars. 

So I guess what I’m saying is that it’s something of a moving target. 

joannalannister:

Oh gosh, this sounds like a fascinating topic, and one I would love to read about, but while I’m good with fake ASOIAF history, I’m afraid I’m not the person to ask when it comes to real-world medieval history. The most I could say is, “Yeah, that sounds about right.” But I’m sure my favorite historians on my dash could say more; @racefortheironthrone, @poorshadowspaintedqueens, @catherinedemedici, @bethwoodvilles, @sansaregina, @morgauseloveshersisters, and anyone else knowledgable on this topic, any thoughts?

Well, both positions are kind of true – the pomp and ceremony of the court was a vital component of overawing one’s subjects and instilling devotion to the monarchy, to say nothing of drawing in nobles looking to gain royal favor. At the same time, the fiscal pressures of such pomp at times created more political tension than they were worth – look at how many rebellions in English history started with a king running out of money and pissing everyone off by “innovating” ways to get money. 

OTHO, pomp wasn’t usually the major drain on the public purse – war was, due to the early modern military revolution that dramatically increased the already considerable cost of going to war. So if we look at Henry VIII who blew through several fortunes that Henry VII, Cardinal Wolsey, and Thomas Cromwell made for him, most of the money went into mostly pointless French, Scottish, or Irish wars rather than productive investments. 

It’s a standard castle – stone walls, defensive towers, moat – but it’s pretty solid. Not up there with the more crazy Westerosi castles like Storm’s End, Casterly Rock, the Eyrie, etc., but definitely better than your lesser wooden keeps. Somewhat less strong than Riverrun, since they have a regular moat rather than rivers. 

Because not all of the Dornish agree on what Dorne is or ought to be. From the Yronwoods perspective, the Martells and  all the Rhoynish are colonialist bastards who took their land. 

So I think the Yronwoods fought for Daemon Blackfyre, because Daemon’s pro-war solution to the Dornish question was to crush the Martells, rewrite Daeron’s treaty, and make House Yronwood the new Lords Paramount of Dorne.

I think it would be. The Boneway is the largest pass, but it’s not the only one. 

Yes. Excellent historical novels. Although the latter ones do shade very much into Julian propaganda. That being said, I’m far more on the side of the Populari than the Boni.