the custom of fostering?

[Maia]

-In the last 15 years, no Lord or landed knight neither wanted or manage to have one of their kids fostered at WF, RR, CR or Pyke, while HG, SS, Eyrie and SE had wards/squires/fosterlings.

Eh, the Lannisters certainly had pages and squires and so did the Tullys. Not sure what the deal was with Tywin allegedly never taking a ward, but Ser Addam Marbrand used to be a squire at Casterly Rock. At WF, yea, no fosterlings other than Theon, but it may have also been due to Jon's presence. The Ironborn, I am not sure if they normally practice fostering.

Re: Robert's "children", they were royal princes high in succession. Are such normally fostered/squired away from the capital? Rhaegar used to be a squire at KL, according to Connington, who was also a fellow squire there.

Myrcella was fostered out of necessity and was certainly a hostage as well as a ward.

P.S. Robert was around 20 when he became king. Ned was 18 during the Tourney of Harrenhal and Robert was a year older than him, IIRC.

[new djinn]

Eh, the Lannisters certainly had pages and squires and so did the Tullys. Not sure what the deal was with Tywin allegedly never taking a ward, but Ser Addam Marbrand used to be a squire at Casterly Rock. At WF, yea, no fosterlings other than Theon, but it may have also been due to Jon's presence. The Ironborn, I am not sure if they normally practice fostering.

Re: Robert's "children", they were royal princes high in succession. Are such normally fostered/squired away from the capital? Rhaegar used to be a squire at KL, according to Connington, who was also a fellow squire there.

Myrcella was fostered out of necessity and was certainly a hostage as well as a ward.

P.S. Robert was around 20 when he became king. Ned was 18 during the Tourney of Harrenhal and Robert was a year older than him, IIRC.

But Adam Marbrand is in his mid twenties, that a long time going without other mentinoed squires. But that no western lords had any kid fostered there is odd. Can't recall ward at RR other then LF. None of the Karstarks or Manderlys or Mormonts foster at WF and why would Jon's presence be a issue? Daemon Sand, Mya Stone, Edric Storm didn't stoped others from being fostered along.

But Bob's ''kids'' weren't just not fostered, even in CR or SE, they weren't squired either(which is very odd, since someone like Bob would be very keen on warrior offspring like Tarly and himself clearly loved being fostered).

So Stannis was about 17-19 when he became(briefly) Lord of SE? You would think that he would at least be fostered in the Riverlands,maybe even RR, since the rationale for Bob's was that Steffon and Jon were buddies from the Wot9PK, so Hoster fostering Stannis would've been a reasonable choice.

[Lady Blizzardborn]

There several odd situations in relation to fostering:

-None of Ned's kids are fostered, but i suppose Ned traumas about Brandon/Lyanna and lack of political foresight play a part in this.

-Robert is fostered but Stannis isn't.

-Loras is fostered/squired but were Garlan or Wyllas?

-None of Robert's kids are anything untill Tyrion does the Dornish deal. Cersei likely browbeat Robert, again!

-It's clear that Ned/Bob hoped to foster the ironborn out of Theon(so that he would pro-7K), but by isollating him from the IB, they significantly lowered his chof ever ruling Pyke, which defeat the purpose.

-In the last 15 years, no Lord or landed knight neither wanted or manage to have one of their kids fostered at WF, RR, CR or Pyke, while HG, SS, Eyrie and SE had wards/squires/fosterlings.

I agree. Ned took an isolationist approach to his own children. Keeping info about Jon to a minimum might have also played a part in this.

No idea why Robert was fostered by Stannis wasn't. No idea about the older Tyrell boys either. They might have been.

Robert's children weren't fostered because royal children usually weren't. It would represent a safety risk for the heirs to the throne. Myrcella's going to Dorne wasn't fostering. It was common for princesses to be shipped off to the homes of their betrotheds, so that they could learn all the necessary customs, languages, whatever else might not be part of their original home environment.

Little note on the issue of Theon's marriage (I know, you didn't mention that, but I don't remember who brought it up): given that the wardship was decreed by the king, likely any marriage for Theon would have to go through Robert for approval.

Interesting point about the fostering trends of the last 15 years. Tywin was lord of CR before and according to Robert had never had a ward/fostered anyone, so I'm not sure we should even count him. Do the Ironborn do fostering? After Balon's rebellion he wouldn't have been high on any "greenlander's" list anyway. Hoster Tully was on the old side for taking on wards/squires and look what happened with his last one. Ned had Theon to deal with already at about the time he would have been approached about the custom or started to approach others about it, and he had no interest in fostering his own boys out, so it kind of makes sense for him too.