Tag: team smallfolk 4 life

Hey, It seems like there’s not much the lord actually does in the feudal economy? How easy would it be to just cut him out of the process? (I understand it was extremely hard in practice but I’m curious if there were any attempts to cut them out of the process and just manage the estate without them)

Well, primarily what the lord did was to take all the rent and taxes, the free labor, the extra income from mills and bridges and the like, and all the other feudal privileges to which they felt entitled, and not work for a living and instead focus on hunting and jousting and war and politics and really stupendous levels of conspicious consumption. 

In terms of how easy it would be to get rid of them, well, that was most of what the 14th century peasant revolts were all about. When you look at how the revolts start, one of the first targets of the peasantry were court records – chiefly manorial court records that were the only source of information about who was a serf and who wasn’t, who owed feudal obligations and who didn’t. Even before they got to the point of capturing capitol cities and demanding royal charters of liberty, the peasants would just burn the records that said they were serfs or villeins or owed any kind of free labor and then dare their landlords to prove that they weren’t free men. 

image

So ultimately, I’d say the main difficulty with getting rid of the nobility is that they were perfectly willing to 1. renege on any agreement or oath made to rebellious peasants, 2. ignore a flag of truce and murder the peasants’ leadership, 3. call out the army and kill thousands of people to restore compliance with the ancien regime. 

Given how you are Team Smallfolk 4 Life, how come you are Pro-Blackfyre in your essays. The blackfyres are representative of the Warrior Caste of Westeros and to a man are aristocratic snobs who opposed reform initiatives put forth by Daeron and resented the presence of philanthropic Dornishmen on the court?

It’s a fair cop, guv; I find the Blackfyres interesting in much the same reason that I find the Brackens interesting – they’re the unloved losers of historical conflicts and I’m curious as to what motivated them.

But I do want to push back on something: Daeron and Co. were not on Team Smallfolk. 

Were there women in Daeron’s court? Yes, noblewomen. Were there Dornishmen? Yes, highborn Dornishmen. Did any of them care or understand about the smallfolk in the slightest regard? Ask Tansell Too-Tall.

image

To the extent that Daeron was a reformer, he was an elite reformer focused on questions of efficiency and honesty in administration, and the project of peacefully unifying Dorne under Targaryen rule. He was not Aegon V.