How many men can house stark muster by itself?

[Lord Warwyck]

i asked this question before and didn't get a clear answer. How much infantry and cavalry?

[The Holy Goat]

It's hard to decide on the infantry and cavalry numbers, but I'd say that a maximum number of Stark soldiers, if they really scraped the bottom of the barrel would be 8,000 men. Perhaps a fourth would be cavalry? 2,000 or so?

[Nyrhex]

Can't be more than 6,000, and that is if Umber, Glover ,Tallhart, Cerwyn, and Mormont didn't bring any men at all. When Robb raises his host, he has 12,000 men at Winterfell. Karstark has 2,300. Roose has ~3,500. Nearly half the host is from two lords, and we know that Robb takes everyone but 600 men that Rodrik takes later to fight the Ironborn. And that was scarping the barrel for any man who can hold a spear.

So of the ~6,200 men left, we need to figure how many Umber, Tallhart, Glover and Cerwyn had. I don't know how many Mormont had, but assuming an island is smaller than the others, let's put her aside for now. If the 4 larger bannermen have ~1,000 each, which is unfairly small compared with the Karstarks for example, which are not described as that strong a house, that gives Winterfell ~2,800 swords total.

House Stark is not at all powerfull to the extent that people think them to be. Manaderly, who lost ~1,500 men in the war already, still has a larger land army than Roose, who himself has more than Winterfell.

[Sansa_Stark]

How many did the NW have in AGOT?

Jeor said every northern lord(not sure of masters) has more men than the watch does.

So Mormont would at least have an okay amount of strength.

[The Holy Goat]

How many did the NW have in AGOT?

Jeor said every northern lord(not sure of masters) has more men than the watch does.

So Mormont would at least have an okay amount of strength.

The Night's Watch had just under 1,000 Men in AGOT.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

The problem is: what constitutes Stark men? All the men in the North are sworn to House Stark? Or just those without a Lord in between (would get them the Glovers, Tallharts and maybe the Mountain Clans, at least)? Or just those from Winterfell and the Wintertown itself?

[Fire Eater]

The Starks' personal levies may consist of at least 5000 men.

[Sansa_Stark]

The Night's Watch had just under 1,000 Men in AGOT.

So the Mormonts have at least around 1000 men.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

So the Mormonts have at least around 1000 men.

Way more. They are not classified as a petty Lord, but the Wull is - and he got ~1,000.

[Nyrhex]

The Starks' personal levies may consist of at least 5000 men.

Based on what? Even if five different lords had ~4,000 men between them, there cannot be more than 2,800 Stark men (2,900 if we count the 100 that went with Ned). They are either with Robb, or with Rodrik. Rodrik scraped the barrel for any who can hold a spear, so it's not just the standing force. It's all avilable men.

The only way for the Starks to have ~5,000 men is if Mormont, Umber, Glover, Tallhart and Cerwyn combined, brought ~1,800 men. When Karstark brings 2,300 men, and Bolton brings ~3-3,500 men, how likely is it that the rest brought 360 on avarage?

[Siddard Stark]

i think people over-estimate the strength of house Bolton, I recon Roose bolton raise about 2500 men when Robb called the banners. My assumption is based on the text, as Roose eliminates power of all of the the other Northern houses, leaves 600 men to guard the ford. His force of 3000 men is consisted of dreadford men and remaining Karstark foot as he considers them to be dis-loyal to Robb as he beheaded their liege. So i'm assuming Roose raises 2500 to maximum 3000 men and brings them to Winterfell.

So the strength of House Stark should be taken out of of the remaining men 12,000 minus 2300 Karstark minus 2500 Bolton. We are left with 7200 men, i recon the other houses such as Umber, Glover, Tallhart, Cerwyn and Mormont raised around 5200 men while House Stark raised some 2000 men. I recon house Stark can raise around 4000 to 5000 men itself. I also think men raised by Masterly houses such as Glover and Tallhart come directly under House Stark.

[GallowsKnight]

To be fair Lorship doesn't equal lots of men. Peter Baelish is a Lord on paper and he had two men at arms and a lot of sheep.

So if the Mormonts had less than other I wouldn't be surprised.

[Nyrhex]

i think people over-estimate the strength of house Bolton, I recon Roose bolton raise about 2500 men when Robb called the banners. My assumption is based on the text, as Roose eliminates power of all of the the other Northern houses, leaves 600 men to guard the ford. His force of 3000 men is consisted of dreadford men and remaining Karstark foot as he considers them to be dis-loyal to Robb as he beheaded their liege. So i'm assuming Roose raises 2500 to maximum 3000 men and brings them to Winterfell.

So the strength of House Stark should be taken out of of the remaining men 12,000 minus 2300 Karstark minus 2500 Bolton. We are left with 7200 men, i recon the other houses such as Umber, Glover, Tallhart, Cerwyn and Mormont raised around 5200 men while House Stark raised some 2000 men. I recon house Stark can raise around 4000 to 5000 men itself. I also think men raised by Masterly houses such as Glover and Tallhart come directly under House Stark.

Even if the Karstarks suffered no casualties on the Green Fork (despite the fact that they formed the flank that was smashed by Gregor, and so should have suffered the most casualties), there is still no reason to think house Stark has more than what it raised for the war in AGOT, or what Rodrik took (600) to fight the Ironborn. The whole point of Theon taking Winterfell is that there were no more men left to oppose him, other than the skeleton garrison.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

To be fair Lorship doesn't equal lots of men. Peter Baelish is a Lord on paper and he had two men at arms and a lot of sheep.

So if the Mormonts had less than other I wouldn't be surprised.

I've drawn the line at petty Lordship. Lordship is jurisdiction, but petty indicates power.

[Sansa_Stark]

Way more. They are not classified as a petty Lord, but the Wull is - and he got ~1,000.

I'm just saying.

Its basically proof that the Mormonts are at least a reasonable power if anyone wants to argue about it.

[House Lemongrab]

I always took the Starks to have the western portion of the North, ranging from above Barrowton and the Rylls, up to the base of the northern mountains (excluding Cerwyn lands and Bear Island).

Technically the Glovers and Tallharts just run their lands in the name of the Starks, hence their rank as "Masterly".

If this is the case then those lands are quite vast and should contain many villages capable of contributing to the Stark personal force.

[rodrik Cassel]

I think that we can not be sure about the number of men the starks can field from the army rob took south. Some lords did not contribute to the force as they should have (lady dustin) and the army was raised very quickly.

[The Holy Goat]

Based on what? Even if five different lords had ~4,000 men between them, there cannot be more than 2,800 Stark men (2,900 if we count the 100 that went with Ned). They are either with Robb, or with Rodrik. Rodrik scraped the barrel for any who can hold a spear, so it's not just the standing force. It's all avilable men.

The only way for the Starks to have ~5,000 men is if Mormont, Umber, Glover, Tallhart and Cerwyn combined, brought ~1,800 men. When Karstark brings 2,300 men, and Bolton brings ~3-3,500 men, how likely is it that the rest brought 360 on avarage?

But your working under the assumption that all the Lords that are at Winterfell had brought their full forces with them. Who's to say that Roose Bolton, Medger Cerwyn, Helman Tallhart and other lords on the way south hadn't ordered som of their troops to join up later on as Robb's army marched towards Moat Cailin. I mean, 12,000 Men were gathered at Winterfell, and this amount later grew to 18,000 at Moat Cailin and perhaps as much as 20,000 when down the Neck, if Theons estimate that The Northmen outnumber the Frey's (4,000 strong) 5 to 1 is true. So where did these 6,000 men come from? Manderly brought 1,500, and the Flints and others must've brought some, but we know that the Dustins and Ryswells held back the majority of their forces despite being powerful houses. So I personally don't find it unlikely that some of the 4,500 forces that joined Robb Stark on the way were Boltons, Cerwyns, Tallharts and others being on stand-by for when Robb marched south.

This of course based on the assumption that House Stark - being the Great House in the North and having been the most powerful and influential family there for several millenia - are capable of amassing at least as large a force as their more powerful bannermen, the Boltons and Manderlys. The Boltons have shown the capacity for amassing at least 4,000 men; the forces returning north number 4,000 and are mostly Bolton and some Karstarks (How many is hard to say, but I guess about 1,000 are Karstarks), and their remaining garrison in the North consisted of 600 men. That would amount to 3,600 at the least, not counting losses suffered in the south. And the Manderlys probably have even more, if they could send 1,500 men south and still keep a sizeable force in reserve. Not to mention the ~45 ships he has to crew with sailors and soldiers. 5,000 or more is not impossible for Manderly I think, and I guesstimate that House Stark has at least that many as well. My previous guesstimate of 8,000 is likely completely off though, all things considered.

[Fire Eater]

Even if the Karstarks suffered no casualties on the Green Fork (despite the fact that they formed the flank that was smashed by Gregor, and so should have suffered the most casualties), there is still no reason to think house Stark has more than what it raised for the war in AGOT, or what Rodrik took (600) to fight the Ironborn. The whole point of Theon taking Winterfell is that there were no more men left to oppose him, other than the skeleton garrison.

You raise a good point, one that I’ll elaborate in the future when I go into depth about how many men were left in the North and what this means about the future of the Stark war effort.

First things first, you wouldn’t expect Stark men to be disproportionate – the whole point of feudal contracts is that you give away land to get soldiers you don’t have to pay for, so most of the army would be made out of the bannermen. It’s only later in medieval history, when vassals shift to paying scutage so that the king can raise a bunch of cash to pay for professional soldiers, that the king’s own men becomes a larger and larger part of their own army.

Second, the count of 12,000 seems to be the total number of bannermen, not counting Stark men; in part because, since the Stark men are closest they can be summoned last to avoid straining supplies more than necessary. To begin with, given the fact that House Cerwyn, Hornwood, Mormont, Glover, and Tallhart raise additional forces in the North later in the series, I think they sent relatively smaller forces, perhaps 1,000 each for Mormont and Glover (to put them up at the level of independent command) and 500-600 each for the rest.

Third, Robb Stark leaves the North with 18,000 men; Manderly sends only 1,500 men and is keeping the bulk of his forces close to home, which leaves 4,500 men and only House Flint to account for. I think at least 4,000 Stark men marched south with Robb, which explains why there were only 600 left for Rodrick Cassel.

My guess is that House Stark has 5,000 soldiers from its own land, more than any other House, but still reliant on its vassals for large-scale wars.

[The Fallen]

` I doubt the Starks can only raise 2,000 men. How were they able to take control of the North and then keep it with just 2,000 men?

The northern army that Robb raised seemed to have been missing a lot of men. I think Martin is saving them for future use, just like the clans.