Friday 21 August 2015

Succession of the Iron Throne after GoT Season 5 (spoilers) - who's in line?

In the canon of the show, if you assume that it is somehow proved that Robert Baratheon has no legitimate heirs, then the Baratheon line is effectively over.



According to GRRM, if there are no legitimate heirs to a House left alive, then it's possible for an illegitimate child to inherit. So if any of Robert's kids were still alive, and acknowledged, they'd become Lord of House Baratheon.



However, I strongly doubt that rule applies to the Iron Throne itself -- and since you need a King to legitimize a bastard, by the time Gendry came up in the rotation he'd have no one left to do it.



At that point, we start walking back up the family tree. On TV, we know next to nothing about Robert's extended family, and things aren't much better in the novels. There's no indication that Steffon Baratheon had any brothers, though there's no confirmation that he didn't. Similarly, grandpa Ormond is, as far as we know, an only son.



While the line of succession can pass down through the female side of the family, it's only female children of a male heir. For example, there's no hopping over to Cassia Estermont's branch of the tree just because she married Steffon.



In theory, someone in Westeros would have to dig up the complete geneology of the Baratheons and trace it back until they found a male in Robert's ancestral line who had a brother or sister, then back down until they found someone alive.



In practice, the noble families of Westeros would just pick someone to support as the next King, who may or may not have some tangential claim to the throne. They would likely start a civil war over it, and whoever was left standing would win. Which, of course, is exactly what happened anyway.

No comments:

Post a Comment