Slavery, Thralldom, Polygamy, Andals, First Men

[Jak Scaletongue]

The Pope refused to annull Henry VIII's marriage, so Henry VIII had to start his own national church with himself as head so he could give himself permission to divorce. So long as Henry VIII remained a Catholic, he couldn't annull a marriage, not even his own.
It is the same in Westeros. The High Septon is the only one who can annull a marriage, and the king can pressure him, threaten and blackmail him into compliance, even, but not overrule him. Tywin told Tyrion that he would tell the High Septon to annull his marriage to Sansa if he didn't impregante her, not that he would tell Joffrey to annull it.
Of course, Dany or Stannis could start their own religion and seize all the prerrogatives of the High Septon, just like Henry VIII did, but we are speaking of the current situation here.

In that case, couldn't Sansa (theoretically) say "my marriage wasn't real because I worship the old gods and we weren't married in front of a heart tree"? I realise that Sansa *did* tend to worship the seven over the old gods, but at the mercy of Littlefinger, a little bit of lying and some misdirection is the least of what he's teaching her. Theoretically, couldn't Sansa (read:Baelish) use that as their excuse to get her out of her marriage to Tyrion and married "properly" to Harry under a heart tree?

ETA; Basically, they don't have to start a new religion, like Henry VII did. They already have another religion to use to their advantage.

[Caspoi]

Jak Scaletounge@ The Seven and the Old Gods have coexisted for so long that using different relgion as an argument would not really work, and the argument that Ser Lepus takes up is if they founded or converted to a religion that allowas free anullment, which the Old Gods do not, as far as I am aware.

[Ser Lepus]

In that case, couldn't Sansa (theoretically) say "my marriage wasn't real because I worship the old gods and we weren't married in front of a heart tree"? I realise that Sansa *did* tend to worship the seven over the old gods, but at the mercy of Littlefinger, a little bit of lying and some misdirection is the least of what he's teaching her. Theoretically, couldn't Sansa (read:Baelish) use that as their excuse to get her out of her marriage to Tyrion and married "properly" to Harry under a heart tree?

ETA; Basically, they don't have to start a new religion, like Henry VII did. They already have another religion to use to their advantage.

 

From the point of view of the Pope and of all the Catholics Henry VIII's marriage didn't become real because he started a new religion. But Henry VIII had the power to kill or imprision anybody within England who dared to tell him so. Sansa doesn't have that power.

 

From the point of view of the Faith it doesn't matter what you believe. The Seven are very real beings, and she made a vow to them. What Sansa believes is irrelevant, because the Seven are real no matter what she believes.

 

Oh, yes, the king allows the heathen northmen to worship their wild gods and even acknowledges their senseless, fake marriages in front of ridiculous trees as if they were real for political reasons, but young lady, you have made a real vow to the real gods now, and there is no escape.

 

Saying that she isn't really married because she doesn't believe in them is like being a soldier that voluntarily signs to serve in the army and later defects because he doesn't believe in violence.

[Jaak]

For example, with respect to the vows of Watch, both Faith and Old Gods recognize these vows - although the septon at Wall lists Jon having given Watch vows before Old Gods as one charge against him.

But Melisandre tells Jon to discard Watch vows because they were invalid because sworn to false gods.

Are the marriage vows to Seven also invalid for Melisandre?