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Traditions of royal progresses


Jaak

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Aegon I used to go on progresses with about 1000 people. Expensive on his hosts (though not as much as an army) and limited him to bigger lords.

Jaehaerys I used to go on progresses with just 100 people. Cheaper on hosts, and enabled him to visit places too small for Aegon.

How was the prior tradition?

How many people did Torrhen Stark, Mern Gardener, Loren Lannister or Argilac Durrandon habitually take to a royal progress? His unpopularity might have prompted Harren to take more men than he otherwise could have, or else not go on progress.

And what happened after Conquest?

Eddard Stark keeps 200 men standing garrison at Winterfell, and takes 50 men along to Red Keep. Plus unspecified number of servants male and female.

Could Eddard Stark also go on royal progresses with 50 guards+some servants? Did he?

Did the other paramount lords keep habit of going on royal progresses?

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I don't know if the rulers of the seven original kingdoms ever went on royal progresses, but I'm sure it had to be a much less frequent event that with the Targaryens, for three reasons:

  • They had an established seat. A big reason why Aegon and Aenys had to do progresses was because they didn't have any castle in the mainland. If they wanted to hold court, attend parties, etc. they could only do it at other lord's castles.
  • They were already a consolidated dynasty. The Targaryens were newcomers, and were in dire need of propaganda and public relations. They needed to pareade their presence,  authority, and dragons around. The centuries old kings of houses Gardener, Stark or Lannister did not need that.
  • Their kindoms were much smaller. Probably, going from the seat of one old king to any point of his realm would take a month at maximum. Usually less than a week. Therfore, they'd usually have recent first hand information of what would happen in thei realm, and every subject wanting to have an audience with the king could manage to visit him. Meanwhile, Westeros as a whole would be much harder to manage if you don't move around.
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59 minutes ago, The hairy bear said:

I don't know if the rulers of the seven original kingdoms ever went on royal progresses, but I'm sure it had to be a much less frequent event that with the Targaryens, for three reasons:

  • They had an established seat. A big reason why Aegon and Aenys had to do progresses was because they didn't have any castle in the mainland. If they wanted to hold court, attend parties, etc. they could only do it at other lord's castles.
  • They were already a consolidated dynasty. The Targaryens were newcomers, and were in dire need of propaganda and public relations. They needed to pareade their presence,  authority, and dragons around. The centuries old kings of houses Gardener, Stark or Lannister did not need that.

These two arguments are actually equally applicable to Hoares. And Hoare rule of mainland lasted less than a century, too.

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True that. Although while the Targeryens used the "stick and carrot" approach, the Hoares seem to have favored just the stick. I don't imagine them much interested in being viewed as fair and wise rulers by the riverlords.

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There's no mention of pre-Conquest progresses, but there had to be some - though, obviously, within the kingdoms themselves. No Lannister, Arryn, Hoare, Gardener, Durrandon, Martell or Stark would travel the whole of Westeros.

After Conquest? Obviously, the Targaryens had to remind everyone they were kings, to make sure people saw the people who ruled them. It was necessary, considering Targaryens were just lords of some small island in the narrow sea before, unlike the great kings Stark, Gardener, etc. It depended, I think, on how much popular each king wanted to be. Aegon and Jaehaerys needed to show everyone who's boss, Aenys wanted to be loved, Maegor just did not care, nor did Aegon III...

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The pre-Targaryen kings I'm sure did their own progresses, and the Lords Paramount probably did little progresses/travels themselves.

We know Ned used to go visit the mountain clans. We know Lord Renly went on a "coming of age tour" throughout the Stormlands. And Cately Stark says that her father, Lord Hoster Tully, was always traveling around the Riverlands.

It probably depends a lot on the lords, too. Ned seems like homebody, while Hoster clearly liked to be on the move.

Its always good for lords/king to be seen among the people. As Ned said, people are more willingly to die for a lord they know.

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We have progresses for various Riverland kings, both Harwyn and Benedict, I think.

The Starks must have done regular progresses, too. Else they would have never kept their kingdom together. Same for the Gardeners.

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7 hours ago, LucionLannister said:

Its always good for lords/king to be seen among the people. As Ned said, people are more willingly to die for a lord they know.

And Sansa´s boredom and Winterfell´s character set being limited to 200 low status, mostly mononymous guards plus likewise low status, mononymous servants points out that Eddard did NOT get to know his people/their upper class by inviting them to join his court at Winterfell.

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On 1/6/2019 at 11:32 PM, LucionLannister said:

The pre-Targaryen kings I'm sure did their own progresses, and the Lords Paramount probably did little progresses/travels themselves.

We know Ned used to go visit the mountain clans. We know Lord Renly went on a "coming of age tour" throughout the Stormlands. And Cately Stark says that her father, Lord Hoster Tully, was always traveling around the Riverlands.

It probably depends a lot on the lords, too. Ned seems like homebody, while Hoster clearly liked to be on the move.

Its always good for lords/king to be seen among the people. As Ned said, people are more willingly to die for a lord they know.

In asoif is mentioned that Edard visit White Harbor already two times with Arya. Arya is very young so my guess is he is quit often on the road and much more than you think. Dont forget the North doesnt have many important lords like the Riverlands and the Reach. If he allready went up tot little houses like the clansman he would surely visit some other houses like Karstark, Umber and Glover.   

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