If someone more knowledgeable could help me out…I’m only a casual Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire fan, at best, but I was wondering: how much political and legal autonomy did the Seven Kingdoms’ constituent regions have, under normal circumstances (i.e. when the continent wasn’t engulfed by rebellion or war)?
Dorne, it seems, has some amount of autonomy guaranteed as a condition of it’s annexation, but I’m not clear on how much real difference to the other regions this makes on an everyday basis, or even a theoretical one.
I mean, the very nature of a feudal system implies a great deal of delegation to the various fiefdoms, as I understand it, but I’m less clear on what the limits on this would be, aside from the really obvious. (Like, I dunno, just outright invading and conquering other realms—although “obvious” might be a little harder to pin down, as, for all it’s artistic heritage, this isn’t a setting with a precise 1:1 analog of medieval Europe. 'Not as much religious pluralism, dynasties of open close incest, or dragonriders in Richard I’s England.)
So…can anyone enlighten me, at least for a Cliff’s Notes level? What could (or couldn’t) you do as a Lord Paramount in Westeros?
I’m a huge fan of the series but not a medieval historian, but I think they were mostly autonomous – they were sworn to fight for the crown in any military struggle, and sworn to obey the crown’s judgment in any disputes, and sworn to obey the crown’s laws (such as a ban on slavery), but otherwise were pretty free to rule their regions as they saw fit, I believe. There are frequent discussions of small-scale military disputes and battles (I don’t know if they’d be called “wars”) between smaller lords, including the uprising by the Tarbecks and the Reynes that made Tywin Lannister famous (or infamous). I don’t recall significant discussions of taxes that went to the crown, but I suspect that these existed, though they may have been in the form of resources (grain, lumber, etc.) rather than currency.
Prior to Aegon’s conquest, they literally were seven separate kingdoms.
Afterward, they were still mostly autonomous regions, with each major noble house reigning in the King’s stead. ISTR reading something about only the Lord of Winterfell (House Stark) having the actual legal ability to execute people in the King’s name in the North, and presumably the other main houses (Tyrells in the south, Baratheons in the Stormlands, Arryns in the Vale, Greyjoys on the Iron Islands, Lannisters in the West, and Martells in Dorne) had that same charge in their lands.
As evidenced by Tywin Lannister’s handling of the Reyne-Tarbeck rebellion, they retain a lot of outright feudal power over their vassals.
There’s also the military title “Warden”, given to a specific lord in an area- traditionally the head of the great house of the area, but sometimes to one of the more powerful vassals, if the head of the great house is not of age. For example, in the first book, Robert Baratheon confers the Wardenship of the East on Jaime Lannister, because Robert Arryn isn’t of age yet.