Have the Seven Kingdoms ever had matrilineal marriage?

[Thor Odinson]

Outside of aberrations like Dorne, have there ever been cases where a marriage resulted in the husband taking the name of his wife in order to continue the name of the more powerful house? For example, say you have a great house with a name going back thousands of years, but one generation they only have daughters and there's no male heir anywhere in sight. I would expect that the name wouldn't be allowed to die out, so would one of those daughters be wedded to a minor lord with the intent of her keeping her family name and passing that on to their children so that the name of the great house may continue (I'm thinking of something similar to Queen Elizabeth II, here. Despite marrying, the House of Windsor name remained, and Prince Charles is Charles Windsor, not Charles Mountbatten)?

[Universal Sword Donor]

28 minutes ago, Thor Odinson said:

Outside of aberrations like Dorne, have there ever been cases where a marriage resulted in the husband taking the name of his wife in order to continue the name of the more powerful house? For example, say you have a great house with a name going back thousands of years, but one generation they only have daughters and there's no male heir anywhere in sight. I would expect that the name wouldn't be allowed to die out, so would one of those daughters be wedded to a minor lord with the intent of her keeping her family name and passing that on to their children so that the name of the great house may continue (I'm thinking of something similar to Queen Elizabeth II, here. Despite marrying, the House of Windsor name remained, and Prince Charles is Charles Windsor, not Charles Mountbatten)?

The Lannisters did at one point. http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Joffrey_Lannister

I'm sure it's happened to others but none else have been mentioned. We have seen several cadet branches take over the name or primacy though (Arryn, Gardner, et al).

[NorthernXY]

Bael the Bard's son took the Stark name and became King in the North.  Not technically a marriage though.

Read a while back her husband was none too happy about that, despite him taking his mother's name.  I like calling the English monarchy Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and will call Charles a Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg-Saxe-Coburg and Gotha  because that's how dynasties work.  Sheesh, I'm an American and I know how monarchy works more than the English monarch.

[IdoTheChoombi]

I recall during the dance of the dragons there was a lady Arryn, supposedly, Jon is her grand-grand grandson or something, so I'm assuming she married matrilineally.

[Lemon of Lemonwood]

Since  ladies Tanda Stokeworth, Arwyn Oakheart and Anya Waynwood are ruling ladies of their houses and have heirs with their house name, either they all had a conviniently distant same-surname cousin to marry or they married someone willing to take theirs. Probably someone of a somewhat inferior social status or from s less significant family I guess.

[Protagoras]

Yeah, they must have been many matrilineal marriages considering that we do have ruling ladies in the first place and as Lemon said above - we can´t assume distant, same name cousins all the time. Most likely, this is a requirement for the marriage to be legal and take place at all. 

If I had been a second-born son and had the option between becoming a steward or a hedge knight I would switch my surname in an instant. The first born sons will think different, of course but its easy for them to be snobbish since they inherit. 

[1000th Lord Commander]

8 hours ago, Thor Odinson said:

Outside of aberrations like Dorne, have there ever been cases where a marriage resulted in the husband taking the name of his wife in order to continue the name of the more powerful house? For example, say you have a great house with a name going back thousands of years, but one generation they only have daughters and there's no male heir anywhere in sight. I would expect that the name wouldn't be allowed to die out, so would one of those daughters be wedded to a minor lord with the intent of her keeping her family name and passing that on to their children so that the name of the great house may continue (I'm thinking of something similar to Queen Elizabeth II, here. Despite marrying, the House of Windsor name remained, and Prince Charles is Charles Windsor, not Charles Mountbatten)?

 

From the world book, it's happened at least once, with the Lannisters. I'm surprised it didn't happen with Rhaenyra Targaryen and Laenor Velaryon, just to keep the name of the ruling house as the original.

And I believe there was the expectation that upon the accession of Elizabeth that they would be known as the House of Mountbatten. Liz's grandmother intervened and had a chat with Winston Churchill, and they decided to keep the name as Windsor. So I don't think it's quite the same thing.

[The Dew]

How about Maege Mormont and her legitimate daughters of unknown father(s)?

[Dofs]

It is actually a common occurrence in Westeros.

[Lemon of Lemonwood]

@The Dew Maege's marital status is a bit of a question mark really. 

Quote

"Aye, Dywen says. And the last time he went ranging, he says he saw a bear fifteen feet tall." Mormont snorted. "My sister is said to have taken a bear for her lover. " Jon I , ACOK

Given the animosity between Jeor and Maege and that quote, I suspect her girls are either born out of wedlock or of a father so insignificant the marriage is considerred an embarassment for the Mormonts, with my personnal opinion tending on the former.

Of course, normally a lordly house would not easily consider bastards as heirs, but given Jeor's and Jorah's poor record of fertility, I guess they accepted the girls as legitimate to preserve the line. Afterall, while the Mormonts are a proud and honoured house, they are rather poor. Therefore, I don't see many houses of the North with potential claims rigorously investigating the girls' paternity or causing them any trouble other some mean gossip.

[estermonty python]

WIth Tanda dead and Falyse in Qyburn's hands, Bronn, as the husband of Lollys, has styled himself Lord Stokeworth.  So there's that.

[Ferocious Veldt Roarer]

13 hours ago, Thor Odinson said:

Outside of aberrations like Dorne, have there ever been cases where a marriage resulted in the husband taking the name of his wife in order to continue the name of the more powerful house? For example, say you have a great house with a name going back thousands of years, but one generation they only have daughters and there's no male heir anywhere in sight. I would expect that the name wouldn't be allowed to die out, so would one of those daughters be wedded to a minor lord with the intent of her keeping her family name and passing that on to their children so that the name of the great house may continue (I'm thinking of something similar to Queen Elizabeth II, here. Despite marrying, the House of Windsor name remained, and Prince Charles is Charles Windsor, not Charles Mountbatten)?

(Actually, according to the British royal family themselves, Charlie's surname is Mountbatten-Windsor, only he doesn't use a surname often in the first place). Seems what you're asking about is not the husband taking the wife's name, but the children taking their mother's, instead of father's, name. And apparently there's nothing particularly unusual about it, judging from the conversations revolving around the Hornwood inheritance. Oh, and Lady Mormont's daughters are all Mormonts, too (the father's name was never disclosed, AFAIR).

[The Dew]

1 hour ago, Lemon of Lemonwood said:

@The Dew Maege's marital status is a bit of a question mark really. 

Given the animosity between Jeor and Maege and that quote, I suspect her girls are either born out of wedlock or of a father so insignificant the marriage is considerred an embarassment for the Mormonts, with my personnal opinion tending on the former.

Of course, normally a lordly house would not easily consider bastards as heirs, but given Jeor's and Jorah's poor record of fertility, I guess they accepted the girls as legitimate to preserve the line. Afterall, while the Mormonts are a proud and honoured house, they are rather poor. Therefore, I don't see many houses of the North with potential claims rigorously investigating the girls' paternity or causing them any trouble other some mean gossip.

Very plausible! In our historic reality, matriname adoption (and actual matriarchy) was and is still a fact. However, I do not think that she actually mated with a Bear, I mean no offense to the Bear or Lady Mormont of course; but with GRRM one cannot be so sure! Unless the word "Bear" is a surname of a lesser house, and Maege had the hots with Sir Bear, who was cheating on Mrs. Bear, and, there were plenty of males on this house who could have been romantically or carnally involved with Maege, and she did not want to reveal his name, hence "a Bear". I am only speculating here, and it is still a mystery to me about her daughters having this surname, unless late Lord Eddard Stark, allowed Maege's daughters to adopt the surname "Mormont" officially as a matriname.

[Universal Sword Donor]

5 hours ago, Lemon of Lemonwood said:

@The Dew Maege's marital status is a bit of a question mark really. 

Given the animosity between Jeor and Maege and that quote, I suspect her girls are either born out of wedlock or of a father so insignificant the marriage is considerred an embarassment for the Mormonts, with my personnal opinion tending on the former.

Of course, normally a lordly house would not easily consider bastards as heirs, but given Jeor's and Jorah's poor record of fertility, I guess they accepted the girls as legitimate to preserve the line. Afterall, while the Mormonts are a proud and honoured house, they are rather poor. Therefore, I don't see many houses of the North with potential claims rigorously investigating the girls' paternity or causing them any trouble other some mean gossip.

I don't think it's animosity between the two. Alysane Mormont has two daughters and said that their father was a bear in a joking manner. It might just be a family joke.

[Lemon of Lemonwood]

4 hours ago, The Dew said:

Very plausible! In our historic reality, matriname adoption (and actual matriarchy) was and is still a fact. However, I do not think that she actually mated with a Bear, I mean no offense to the Bear or Lady Mormont of course; but with GRRM one cannot be so sure! Unless the word "Bear" is a surname of a lesser house, and Maege had the hots with Sir Bear, who was cheating on Mrs. Bear, and, there were plenty of males on this house who could have been romantically or carnally involved with Maege, and she did not want to reveal his name, hence "a Bear". I am only speculating here, and it is still a mystery to me about her daughters having this surname, unless late Lord Eddard Stark, allowed Maege's daughters to adopt the surname "Mormont" officially as a matriname.

No offence to the carnal prowess of the bears of Bear Island, I think it is a euphemism for her having an actual lover. Could he be named "Bear" or be bear related (strong like a bear, have a bear sigil too, wear a bear pelt or have made the two-back beast with a bear )?

Bear Island with its indipendent and militant women, quite ironocally, has a much more wilding-like culture compared to the rest of the North. It might be that they have a more liberal attitude on illicit relationships aswell and the Starks just leave them to their devices as long as they remain faithful and fullfill their obligations as vassals. Ned in particular seems to have been quite tolerant to unconventional cases of female rulers.

1 hour ago, Universal Sword Donor said:

I don't think it's animosity between the two. Alysane Mormont has two daughters and said that their father was a bear in a joking manner. It might just be a family joke.

Well, while her brother says he does love her dearly, he also calls her a "hoary old snark" and states that he can't be around her for long, so I don't see them easily seepping mulled wine and enjoy a polite conversation over a venisson steak.

[Jon Fossoway]

I think matrilineal marriages are more common than it seems. As of now, several non-dornish houses's heads are women. Unless they marry with a more powerful and prestigious house, it's safe to assume their husbands will take the house's name to continue the line.