Feudalism, such as it is, in "A Song of Ice and Fire", is an interesting concept when peasants are not bound to the land.
There was no Westerosi emperor Diocletian.
The great houses operate very much like the old kings of Ireland, and India during the Raj also. In both cases the English monarch became the overlord of these peoples in the same way Aegon the Conqueror conquered six of the seven kingdoms. The Lords are petty kings with the iron throne belonging to an overlord (or High King as was the equivalent case in Ireland).
I would assume that every local lord is able to demand some from of tribute from nearby peasants but even this may not be certain. What the main lords subsist on, I would imagine, is their ability to enforce the king's laws and their rights over the lands they rule. This specifically means being able to fine poachers (and criminals in general). One could imply from the television adaptation that each of the main lords depends on their control of some monopoly or other e.g. iron for the Greyjoys and gold for the Lannisters, either of which commodity may or may not only be mined in those lands respectively due to their rarity in other locations.
What the landed knights and "Bannermen" depend on in particular is being in service to the main lords and participating in tourneys. "A knight of the seven kingdoms" goes into this in some detail as tourneys (consisting of both jousts and melees) are the principal livelihood of several characters.
A description of the seven kingdoms as being feudal mostly applies to the North. Stark's Bannermen provide tribute during peace time and warriors during wartime. Tithes are-or were-paid to the Night's Watch by landholders living in the immediate south of the Wall.
The institution of knighthood is more common in the "southron" kingdoms but the actual position of knight is being more of a retained warrior rather than actually part of the nobility. The promise of being knighted is an incentive to serve a particular lord as is the promise of being able to marry into the nobility.
In fact the idea of knighthood as it is presented in "A Song of Ice and Fire" is much closer to it's modern counterpart in the modern United Kingdom and the idea of citizenship in the ancient city-states of the ancient real world and Roman empire.
The feudal aspect is much more apparent in the concept of Lordship. Any lord can be disinherited if they commit treason or otherwise offend the King. The position usually involves the tenure in perpetuity of a particular castle and fiefdom to an individual and their legitimate heirs. This can be granted to any subject of the Iron Throne as a reward for a particular service to the throne, or to send potential troublemakers away from the court and Small Council.
Lords and landed knights depend on a great deal of free labour. This is a result of the unique weather conditions in Westeros: thousands (hundreds of most likely) of peasants die during Winter so it is better to send one's children to serve or (hopefully) squire for a local dignitary where they will be housed and fed than risk almost certain starvation in the case of insufficient Winter stores.
There was no Westerosi emperor Diocletian.
The great houses operate very much like the old kings of Ireland, and India during the Raj also. In both cases the English monarch became the overlord of these peoples in the same way Aegon the Conqueror conquered six of the seven kingdoms. The Lords are petty kings with the iron throne belonging to an overlord (or High King as was the equivalent case in Ireland).
I would assume that every local lord is able to demand some from of tribute from nearby peasants but even this may not be certain. What the main lords subsist on, I would imagine, is their ability to enforce the king's laws and their rights over the lands they rule. This specifically means being able to fine poachers (and criminals in general). One could imply from the television adaptation that each of the main lords depends on their control of some monopoly or other e.g. iron for the Greyjoys and gold for the Lannisters, either of which commodity may or may not only be mined in those lands respectively due to their rarity in other locations.
What the landed knights and "Bannermen" depend on in particular is being in service to the main lords and participating in tourneys. "A knight of the seven kingdoms" goes into this in some detail as tourneys (consisting of both jousts and melees) are the principal livelihood of several characters.
A description of the seven kingdoms as being feudal mostly applies to the North. Stark's Bannermen provide tribute during peace time and warriors during wartime. Tithes are-or were-paid to the Night's Watch by landholders living in the immediate south of the Wall.
The institution of knighthood is more common in the "southron" kingdoms but the actual position of knight is being more of a retained warrior rather than actually part of the nobility. The promise of being knighted is an incentive to serve a particular lord as is the promise of being able to marry into the nobility.
In fact the idea of knighthood as it is presented in "A Song of Ice and Fire" is much closer to it's modern counterpart in the modern United Kingdom and the idea of citizenship in the ancient city-states of the ancient real world and Roman empire.
The feudal aspect is much more apparent in the concept of Lordship. Any lord can be disinherited if they commit treason or otherwise offend the King. The position usually involves the tenure in perpetuity of a particular castle and fiefdom to an individual and their legitimate heirs. This can be granted to any subject of the Iron Throne as a reward for a particular service to the throne, or to send potential troublemakers away from the court and Small Council.
Lords and landed knights depend on a great deal of free labour. This is a result of the unique weather conditions in Westeros: thousands (hundreds of most likely) of peasants die during Winter so it is better to send one's children to serve or (hopefully) squire for a local dignitary where they will be housed and fed than risk almost certain starvation in the case of insufficient Winter stores.
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