House Hoare and realpolitik in the Iron Islands

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight9]

Of the great houses that have once ruled over Westeros I always had a special interest for house Hoare of Okmont that ruled the Ironborn between the arrival of the Andals and Aegon's conquest. Already one of the most powerful and prestigious families amongst the Ironborn, with the Ironborn empire having been at its peak under Qhored I Hoare during the Age of Heroes, the Hoares truly showed a sense of pragmatism, progressism and cleverness after the arrival of the Andals with them marrying with the Andals, adopting the Faith of the Seven and getting the Andals' support to win the Seastone Chair and become the new kings of the Iron Islands after the end of house Greyiron.

During their reign the Hoares, who had obviously realized the obsolecence of the Old Way, encouraged the spreading of the Faith over the Iron Islands and protected it from Drowned Men and traditionalist Ironborn, fought reaving and thralldom, built strong ties with the mainland (especially the Westerlands and the Reach) as well as the Free Cities and strongly developped trade with them which greatly enriched and empowered the Iron Islands, with the Ironborn using their boldness at sea to take quicker and riskier ways to sail and transport merchandises, as well as them maintaining their fighting skills and power by being paid as corsairs or mercenaries by the Free Cities against each other in their countless trade wars, proving that the Ironborn didn't need the Old Way and reaving to make a living. The Ironborn

This New Way and the Hoares belief in and protection of the Seven of course enraged the Drowned Men, who deemed them as heretics with black blood and black hearts and constantly opposed them, with the Hoares violently fighting and often repressing them. The most infamous and violent case of this was the drowned priest called the Shrike who led the Ironborn into revolting and overthrowing Harmund III for having outlawed reaving and the taking of salt wives and trying to do the same to thralldom, with poor Harmund being mutilated of his nose, eyes and tongues and thrown in a cell alongside his Lannister mother with the complicity of his brother Hagon the Heartless, until his Lannister relatives came and crushed the rebels though did give him the mercy of death as the ordeal has driven him insane.

The best Hoare king was possibly Qhorwyn the cunning who developped trade the best, greatly expanded his family's wealth and avoided wars as he knew that they were bad for trade, though he did understand that the Ironborn couldn't let themselves be weak as he tripled the size of the Hoares' fleet and added armory to dissuade others from attacking them.

This wealth and increased military power were used by his son Harwyn Hardhand who, unlike his Greyjoy future successors, learned how to conduct war on land and mix it with the Ironborn's naval superiority and use of longships in the Riverlands' lakes and rivers to conquer the Riverlands using the ressentment of the riverlanders against the weakening and unpopular Durrandon kings to rally them behind him and chase the stormlanders from the Riverlands. After that the Hoares and the Ironborn reigned and focused majorly on the Riverlands, with the Iron Islands having become more of a support base than their home and seat of power.

Though they had their flaws and limits such as their great use of cruelty and authoritarism which prevented them from getting popular support and solidifying their hold on the Riverlands with the riverlanders hating them and turning to the Targaryens as soon as they got the chances, and of course Harren the Black's arrogance which caused his and sons' doom at Harrenhal; the Hoares' cunning, pragmatism and use of realpolitik and adaptation make them most certainely the best ruling house that the Iron Islands ever had, and greatly contrast with the constant tradionalism, dellusions and narrow-mindness that would characterize much of house Greyjoy (with the exception of Quellon Greyjoy) after the Conquest and make them an unique house in the Iron Islands and Westeros history.

[Roswell]

They were a very warlike house.  Their style was piracy on land.  They were takers who never gave anything back to the land and its people.  The Targaryens offered the Riverlands relief from their exploitation.  It would not be accurate to say the Hoares were different from the other ruling houses.  Many were cruel and selfish too.  The Targaryens gave the people some protection from the whims of their lords.