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Why would Harry the heir marry a bastard?


RK Rajagopal

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I was just wondering - if Harry Hardying is the heir of house Hardying, and possibly the Vale, in case sickly SweetRobin dies. In this scenario, wouldn't he probably be having suitors from several houses in the Vale, and possibly elsewhere? Why should he marry a bastard girl with no claim? If he does, won't people start to wonder why and ask questions? This probably has a simple explanation. Maybe Petyr has named Alysanne his heir to Harrenhall? Maybe he has revealed his identity to Harry (unlikely, in my opinion)? Someone please tell me if I'm missing something simple.


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I was just wondering - if Harry Hardying is the heir of house Hardying, and possibly the Vale, in case sickly SweetRobin dies. In this scenario, wouldn't he probably be having suitors from several houses in the Vale, and possibly elsewhere? Why should he marry a bastard girl with no claim? If he does, won't people start to wonder why and ask questions? This probably has a simple explanation. Maybe Petyr has named Alysanne his heir to Harrenhall? Maybe he has revealed his identity to Harry (unlikely, in my opinion)? Someone please tell me if I'm missing something simple.

Alayne comes with a huge dowry. Petyr is a very powerful guy with the crown and other powerful friends behind him. I am also pretty sure that Harry still has the final say on the matter that is why Petyr wants Sansa to make him fall for her.

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Well LF claims, that the dowry is good enough to guarantee the match, but really that's another reason, I'm sceptical about the whole deal. I think LF maybe was trying to sell Sansa a story he thought she would like to hear, when in fact he plans on marrying her himself. After all, it's not just the Vale, but noble houses in the Reach, and Stormlands who would be aching to marry their daughters to Harry-and could offer enormous dowries as well. Hell, there are some unmarried Tyrrell girls out there.


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Well first Harry is young and Sansa is beautiful so he'll probably be all for it based on that alone. Second LF apparently offered him and the Waynwoods a massive dowry. Also although Harry is the technical heir to the Vale with Robert Arryn alive he's just a landed knight so a marriage to The Lord Protectors natural daughter is only a let down if Robert dies. It seems that LF is poisoning him but Harry doesn't know that so a Marriage to Alayne probably seems to him a lucky break.

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I'm sure there would be several houses willing to wager on SweetRobin's eventual death, given his sickness. Hell, he might even be murdered by one of them.



Secondly, Alysanne comes with just a dowry, and nothing else. I would expect there would be heiresses who would bring much more to the table than just some money.



Thirdly, Alysanne is just a bastard, which is generally looked down upon.



The two things she has going for her are that 1) She is very pretty. and 2) Possibly a very sizeble dowry


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The dowry is the selling point. The Vale doesn't know how bad SR actually is, so there is still a chance that HtH is left with nothing.



Bronze Yohn would likely want him to marry a daughter of him. But unless said daughter is an heir there is simply nothing able to compete with the huge dowry, influence at court and perhaps even a claim to Harrenhall which LF brings to the table (and then we aren't even talking about Sansa's looks and education).



So, basically Alayne is a save bet. If SR survives and manages to produce an heir HtH has something to fall back on.


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Some expect Robert to die while others do not, so it is never certain if this boy knight will succeed him. And he is not such a good match that his claim to the Vale will automatically make him LP. As LF himself says, there are other branches of the Arryns hanging around out there, so it is unknown how the dice will land when they are cast.


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Well that would be a twist! Still, it doesn't explain why LF thinks they would be agreeing to the match

Well, they are giving him explanation he wants to hear: dowry, Governor's daughter etc...

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Petyr said that the knights of the Vale will all swear to win back Sansa's birthright when they see her all lovely dressed in the Stark colors (or some bullshit like that), so yeah, he plans to out her before the wedding.

He's actually speaking of the wedding itself and the bride cloak at that point, but yes he is planning a big reveal.

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Hmm, I'm not a fan of the big conspiracy theories as I believe that, in ASOIAF, developments and overturns come on a more chaotic pattern and well laid plans seldom come into fruition, so I'm not really sold on the theory that the Vale lords already know about Alayne/Sansa.


Littlefinger's big plans are doomed, IMO, just not because of a conspiracy but because Sansa has a will of her own and she will be developping the means to make it matter.


I think that Littlefinger's answer to Sansa, when she posed the same question, is valid.



Lady Anya has financial problems that she hopes to solve with Alayne's dowry. I don't think that other lords would be so open-handed about their trueborn daughters' dowries - they are more "marriageable" than a bastard. Also, their welth is in land, not necessarily on cash money (in real history, that's how the bourgeoisie took the upper hand over feudal lords, they got them indepted). So it wouldn't be so easy to find a noble bride with bigger dowry.


Harry is a young and immature man with a weakness to female charms. If marriage is what it takes to have sex with Alayne, I don't think he will think twice about it, or that he will be terribly concerned about her social status and/or political implications (Robb didn't, when a lot more important things were at stake).

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