why the marriage alliances?

[Graydon Hicks]

i have been thinking back on this stark/tully alliance concept people mention, this strange alliance of hoster tully, rickard stark, robert baratheon and jon arryn. i know most of what i see is coming from other fans, looking at how strange this alliance seemed, given just how rare it is for the greater houses to marry their children  off outside their individual kingdoms. some are claiming that it might have been a conspiracy of lords looking to overthrow the targs, or at least aerys, seperate from rhaegar's own plans. i dont think it might have been that. i have been thinking back on the world book and the history of the targ dynasty, and i notice that most of the decisions being made for the realm, or at least affect it greatly, seem to come from the houses of the westerlands, crownlands, stormlands, or reach. the often, not always, but often, seem to be made with little regard to the north, whose culture is so different from the seven worshipping andals of the south, the vale, with its sense of isolationism, and the riverlands, which just seems to get trod on by everyone. i wonder if the starks, tullys, and arryns were trying to forge a political bloc that would stand united before the more politically active houses of the southern regions. provide a front that would show that their realms werent just gonna sit back and let the future of the realm be dictated from the Rock, or highgarden, using the iron throne as the spokesperson for their choices and giving those choices the backing of the royal house.

and these more northern regions were making inducements to the stormlords, by betrothing lyanna stark to robert baratheon, to gain the support of the slightly more politically active stormlands. it makes some sense, looking at how hoster was arranging marriages right and left, or trying to at least, ned and robert both being fostered at the eryie. trying to build those bonds needed to create this power bloc.

does this make sense? its just a theory that popped into to my head.

[Livesundersink]

Google the Southron Ambitions theory, that will tell you more

[punzerknacker]

Jaime and Lysa were initially supposed to marry though...

[Graydon Hicks]

doesnt necessarily kill the thought. could have been one of hoster's plans to bring support to the bloc by joining the westerlands. it just seems that nearly all political power of the realm was resting with the houses of the westerlands and reach, after the royal family. of course in this culure, the political power follows the wealth, and those two regions are the wealthiest. but many of those decisions seem to have either nothing to do with the regions of this "southern ambitions" group, or very little, for the reasons i listed. would it be out of the park to see this alliance of rivers, mountains, and north as a means to make a stand for their own political authority?

[TMIFairy]

Effect of the marriages:

North - Riverlands

Riverlands - Westerlands

North - Stormlands

With the Vale - with Robert's foster-daddy - providing the "in darkness bind them" element.

Five of the Seven Kingdoms with close ties ...

 

[Graydon Hicks]

so a large political bloc. bound by ties of marriage in most cases.

[Julia H.]

3 hours ago, Graydon Hicks said:

i have been thinking back on this stark/tully alliance concept people mention, this strange alliance of hoster tully, rickard stark, robert baratheon and jon arryn. i know most of what i see is coming from other fans, looking at how strange this alliance seemed, given just how rare it is for the greater houses to marry their children  off outside their individual kingdoms. some are claiming that it might have been a conspiracy of lords looking to overthrow the targs, or at least aerys, seperate from rhaegar's own plans. i dont think it might have been that. i have been thinking back on the world book and the history of the targ dynasty, and i notice that most of the decisions being made for the realm, or at least affect it greatly, seem to come from the houses of the westerlands, crownlands, stormlands, or reach. the often, not always, but often, seem to be made with little regard to the north, whose culture is so different from the seven worshipping andals of the south, the vale, with its sense of isolationism, and the riverlands, which just seems to get trod on by everyone. i wonder if the starks, tullys, and arryns were trying to forge a political bloc that would stand united before the more politically active houses of the southern regions. provide a front that would show that their realms werent just gonna sit back and let the future of the realm be dictated from the Rock, or highgarden, using the iron throne as the spokesperson for their choices and giving those choices the backing of the royal house.

and these more northern regions were making inducements to the stormlords, by betrothing lyanna stark to robert baratheon, to gain the support of the slightly more politically active stormlands. it makes some sense, looking at how hoster was arranging marriages right and left, or trying to at least, ned and robert both being fostered at the eryie. trying to build those bonds needed to create this power bloc.

does this make sense? its just a theory that popped into to my head.

Good idea. Perhaps the king's increasing madness was an additional incentive to form a strong political alliance. 

[Ser Tristan Flowers]

But what´s the point of this alliance? That´s the interesting question to me. Lords are usually pretty occupied with their own regions, forming a wide political bloc like this brings risks of it´s own and no reward, unless you plan to act on it. Did Rickard have plans to make a move, just because there was mad king sitting the iron throne? Then why didn´t he act on it, when Lyanna was abducted, but rather go down south alone? Did any of the other Lords really have a reason to do this, effectively putting all the pieces in place to usurp the Targaryens?

It rather seems like a coordinated scheme and not like something that just happened naturally. Nothing like this had ever happened before and I think it´s safe to assume that all these Lords didn´t just happen to come up with the same innovative idea around the same time.

There has to be a global player behind this, someone to coordinate the whole deal.

And who would be better suited to coordinate and spread information than the Citadel? 

[Buried Treasure]

The point of the great lords of the realm coming together as a political bloc would surely be to limit the power of the throne. In broad terms a Magna Carta type situation where strong lords can unite against a weak king (in this case due to his weakening mental state) not to overthrow him, which could be costly to themselves in case of war, but to limit his authority and this strengthen their own positions.