Ok, here we go. A mix of extended and word-for-word today.

Governance Under Aegon I:

A lot of this builds on what we already knew about this era from WOIAF, but there’s somet interesting new detail.

Bringing younger sons and daughter to court as “pages, cupbearers…squires, handmaidens and companions” is very good feudal politics, although now I’m really curious about which “westermen…stormlanders or northmen” were there at the first royal courts.

I’m not so thrilled about having Visenya and Rhaenys both conducting marriage alliances, because it blurs the distinctions we used to have between the two sister-wives; I preferred it when Visenya was all about hard power and Rhaenys about soft power. However, the new info is good: in addition to Ronnel Arryn and Torrhen Stark’s daughter, we get Loren Lannister’s heir marrying a Redwyne, the Tarths marrying quite highly and broadly to the Corbrays, Hightowers, and Harlaws, a double wedding between the Blackwoods and Brackens (a tried but sadly only a temporary solution), and a Rowan girl’s troubles being handled discreetly, whci his quite kind.

“Save perhaps for Good Queen Alysanne…no other queen in the history of the Seven Kingdoms ever exercised as much influnece over policy as the dragon’s sisters.” We kind of already knew this, but it’s good to have it stated outright.

Now we know how Aegon split his time, and it’s interesting how little time he spent in his own city.

We also knew about Aegon’s progresses, but we now have a more complete list, and it’s a good mix of the various parts of the kingdom, which makes sense. I’m surprised as hell that he visited the North six times and Winterfell once, which does make the Alysanne visit a bit less special.

I’m particularly glad that we have a better picture of the law under Aegon, where very little changed, with “the existing feudal structures were confirmed” kind of summing up his basic approach. Powers of the lords don’t change, inheritance and succession don’t change, local admin of justice doesn’t change, and first night says.

We also get more clarity on the King’s Peace (lords and landed knights lose the right of private wars, which took the HRE until the 15th century to abolish, and we see that lords act as circuit courts for inter-lordly disputes and the Crown as the Court of Appeals, which proves Pycelle wrong).

We also learn that Aegon “issued decrees regularizing customs, duties, and taxes throughout the realm,” although we don’t know what levels they were set at. What’s really interesting is that he also made the Faith tax-exempt and doubled down on clerical courts, which runs in a completely different decentralizing direction than everything else. Shows how much he needed their legitimizing authority.

A lot of the rest of the chapter about the growth of King’s Landing was in the Hollywood Reporter excerpt, but since I didn’t do a post on it then, we’ll cover it now.

So the expansion of the Aegonfort into the Red Keep – which builds on the Aegon I chapter of WOIAF – is a quite gradual process, where first there’s a new keep out of wood, then you need a kitchen out of stone b/c of fires, then you need a new palisade so you have space for “a barracks, an army, a sept, and a drum tower.” Which explains why the Red Keep is so compartmentalized.

We learn a lot about the economic development of King’s Landing, where commerce shifts from Maidenpool and Duskendale to King’s Landing, then you get a fish market (which is now Fishmonger’s Square), then a cloth market (which I guess is the Street of Looms, although that’s not exactly between all three hills)…which helps to explain how the city goes from a few thousand people in 2AC to more than a hundred thousand by 25 AC. We also get a sense of religious development, where a beached ship ministering to the fishermen becomes a proper building turns into the Sept of Remembrance because the High Septon wants to have a presence in the capital.

The bit about the walls we already knew about, but now we know that Osmund was the fourth Hand, that Orys served as Hand from 1AC-6AC (the “King’s Stump” is very Baratheon), then Edmyn Tully from 7-9AC and that he resigned due to his wife’s death (although accurate, the childbirth deaths are a bit repetitive), then Alton Celtigar (I wonder what happened to Crispian, since we now know Aegon had multiple masters of coin) from 10-17AC, then Osmund Strong from 17-34AC.

I did find the bit about all of the Grand Maesters dying off because they’re starting off as Archmaesters, which means they’re already quite old, to be morbidly funny, given how much real-world academia is a bit of a gerontocracy. As a historian, I’m particularly pleased that we know that bronze is the metal for history.

Most of the Rhaenys and Visenya stuff is straight out of WOIAF as well, although we get a bit of new stuff about Visenya. The Lord Monkeyface business is a trifle odd, although it made me think about the story of the Targaryen prince who dressed an ape in lord’s clothes. Martin’s definitely leaning on the Visenya killed Aenys story here.

Sons of the Dragon:

A good bit of Sons is word-for-word from the Book of Swords version. I’ll just point out differences here.

An interesting difference: “while many still debated whether Prince Maegor or his niece, Rhaena, should have precedence in order of succession, it seemed beyond question that Aegon would follow his father, Aenys, just as Aenys would follow Aegon.” Which suggests a somewhat unsettled law of succession, where it’s not clear whether an uncle beats a daughter, but everyone agrees that a son beats a daughter. So it’s not quite Dornish, not quite Andalish, not quite Targaryen.

There’s a good bit more about Princess Rhaena, who now emerges as a real person with a distinct personality in a way that she didn’t before. (Also, GRRM seems to be hinting that Rhaena was a lesbian or at least a 5 on the Kinsey scale, what with her close relationships with Larissa Velaryon and Samantha Stokeworth and Melony Piper and Alayne Royce, and so on and so forth.)

It’s also interesting that Rhaena’s bond with Dreamfyre started as a hatchling not as an egg, a different methodology there. It also might be the class that Rhaena had more of the dragon blood than her peers, since she’s the one who put the eggs in the cradles, leading to successive hatchings.

Here’s a bit that’s very relevant to the Blackfyre Rebellions: “the bequest would prove to be most unwise…Prince Maegor now possessed both of the ancestral Valyrian steel swords of House Targaryen.” More of a sign that the sword mattered to people vis-a-vis legitimacy.

There’s a lot more detail about Aenys’ progress to Oldtown. Not so much a fan of this: “Princess Rhaena was fourteen years of age, a beautiful young girl who stole the heart of every knight who saw her.” C’mon, George.

Confirmation that the Vulture King’s uprising is counted as the Second Dornish War.

So Ceryse Hightower’s father’s name was Manfred, a common Hightower name it seems.

We learn a bit more about Prince Aegon, who seems to be somewhat in the vein of Sir Gawaine, a good knight but one very fond of women.

We get a bit more about the wedding between Aegon and Rhaena, with Aenys being unusually stubborn, Visenya recommending that he burn down the Starry Sept, it’s all getting quite aggro.

The progress of Aegon and Rhaena is a nice addition, providing a good sense of escalation leading up to the Revolt of the Faithful, and giving more of a sense of Aegon and Rhaena’s courage under pressure.

The dragons setting Aenys’ pyre alight is a nice detail.

There’s some details in Sons that doesn’t seem to be here: Ramont Baratheon saving Aenys’ life, a line from Visenya about Vhagar being old, etc.

Aww, good on Alayne Royce and Melony Piper backing Rhaena.

We get a bit more on Prince Aegon’s precarious political situation, not good when you’re being called “Aegon the Uncrowned.” (Although it makes things easier on us historians.) Interesting that Rhaena wanted to leave Westeros rather than fight.

Here’s a major change: Prince Aegon seized King’s Landing, although “Aegon dared not seat himself upon the Iron Throne, for he knew he could not hold it.” And here we get an explanation for how Prince Aegon got Quicksilver. It’s a bit weird, but extending Maegor’s stay in Oldtown to six months makes it a bit more plausible. I will say that all of this rushing back and forth across the Riverlands seems like it could have been consolidated into one trip.

I like Melony Piper turning Pinkmaiden into Aegon’s capital in exile, who turns out to be very much a Sabitha Vypren in times of war.

Ser Tyler HIll as a cut-out for Lyman Lannister is a great detail. Lyman’s shaping up to be quite a cunning Lord of Casterly Rock.

Bit of an odd change: Lord Peake rather than Lord Rowan leads the Maegor forces from the Reach. Man, the Peakes cannot catch a break in GRRM’s narrative.

Ah, poor Melony Piper. A brave lass to the end.

Rhaena seems to have become way more calculating as she got older, holding back at Pinkmaiden, refusing to cry for either her husband or her lvoer, and then finding refuge at Fair Isle.

I still don’t get the business about Rhaena marrying Maegor rather than fighting, seems out of character for her.