Dominate the Game of Thrones with Mount and Blade

Chapter 197 Crown of Valyria

According to the bachelor's observation records, it was late autumn and the continent of Westeros had officially entered the third hundred years of Aegon's conquest, but the common people and nobles did not feel this deeply.

The reason is simple. The long summers and winters that last for several years and the spring and autumn that last for a year have seriously reduced ordinary people's ability to perceive seasonal changes.

The uncertainty of seasonal changes makes months disappear from ordinary people's concept. In fact, most people only remember the day of the month when their name day is, and the rest of their view of time is only the alternation of day and night and the repetition of weeks. .

But the top nobles would also find more important days to do some things, so that historians would record them with a layer of sacredness.

For example, now, on the first day of the 300th year of the Conquest, King Arthur I announced his next marriage.

"In order to comply with the Targaryen family tradition, to make the true dragon blood more pure, and to prevent the royal family from civil war, I, Arthur Targaryen, have decided to enter into a holy marriage with Daenerys Targaryen Stormborn." God and all the adults present will witness our engagement ceremony.”

Arthur, who was wearing a pure gold crown, stood on the high platform in front of the Iron Throne and announced the decision loudly to six members of the Royal Council, more than forty nobles, and nearly a hundred selected wealthy businessmen and civilians in the throne room.

Behind him, the Dragon Queen in a white brocade robe sat proudly on the Iron Throne, looking carefully at the red castle and throne room of her dreams.

The reason for this embarrassing situation is simple. Arthur came later than Daenerys, and it was difficult to pull up the Dragon Queen who was sitting on the Iron Throne, so he simply stood on a high platform to perform the ceremony.

"Let me correct you. Arthur's surname is not Targaryen. He can only take my family name after marrying me."

As if to compete, Dany spoke in a louder voice than Arthur.

Her statement also makes sense. Even if the king orders a surname change, the consent of the family governor of that surname must be obtained.

After the Usurper's War, the only legitimate Targaryen members were Viserys and Dany.

After the sleeping dragon experienced the challenge of the golden barrel, even though Daenerys was a woman, she was still the well-deserved Targaryen governor.

In other words, the process of changing Arthur's surname was a bit out of order, but at that time the people of the River were eager to have a king of the Seven Kingdoms, and the people of the River did not mind their king being upgraded to the King of the Seven Kingdoms, so the matter was passed in a muddle.

"My surname is recognized by all the nobles in the Seven Kingdoms, not by marrying you. If you have any objections, we can let the nobles vote in the Grand Council to discuss the correctness of this matter."

Arthur responded to the question without looking back.

While the two people on the high platform were arguing, hundreds of people in the hall listened quietly. Even a restless person like the little devil behaved himself a lot.

Many people are keenly aware that this marriage is not so harmonious.

Daenerys was not to be outdone, "The nobles are just vassals of the king. What right do they have to express opinions on the royal family. If you insist on discussing this matter at the Grand Council, then the date of our wedding will be postponed until before the Grand Council."

Arthur thought about it and realized that it was not unacceptable. At least at that time, representatives of all the families would come, so they had no reason not to send congratulatory gifts to the king's wedding.

"As you wish!"

The Great Council they were talking about was the result of discussions between Arthur, the queens, and several close ministers.

In the 101st year of the Conquest Calendar, in order to select a convincing heir from Viserys, the eldest son of Prince Baelron, and Lannino Velaryon, the son of his eldest daughter Rhaenys (the uncrowned queen), Renrui King Jaehaerys I held the first great council at Harrenhal.

According to the records of Bachelor Galdan, it was the result of this meeting that allowed the nobles to reach a consensus that the succession order of women or male descendants of women was weaker than that of male descendants of the second son.

The Great Council in 136 was to elect a new regent, because King Aegon III was underage at the time, and the old regents fought for power and made the kingdom a mess.

As for the Third Great Council, which was the Great Council in 233, the peasant king Aegon V was successfully elected as the new owner of the Iron Throne after many twists and turns.

These three great councils were all intended to resolve major issues in the kingdom at that time, and their essence was to determine the right to rule and inherit.

What Arthur wanted to discuss in the Grand Council was not the inheritance rights, but the obligations that the nobles should fulfill.

The entire Targaryen conquest actually took place over three generations.

The first generation of the Conqueror Aegon I and his sisters only formally merged the Six Kingdoms into the Targaryen Dynasty. The second generation of Maegor rode his own dragon Balerion to cripple the very threatening church armed forces at the time. The third generation of Jaehaerys reconciled with the church on this basis and took back the right to judge from the monks and nuns.

But Sandai did much more than that. He and Queen "Good" Alexa pushed for the establishment of written laws and established circuit courts to limit the power of the nobles; five avenues were also built during his reign, which greatly strengthened the Seventh Avenue. connections between countries.

To southerners, the meaning of the Five Avenues is just a spacious road, but to the north, which is short of food during the long winter, the King's Avenue is a life-saving road.

That is a magical heavenly road~ It brings happiness and health to us northerners!

Even during the Jae I period, the king was not the director of King's Landing, the largest toilet in the Seven Kingdoms. King Jaehaerys I vigorously reorganized King's Landing and actively built deep wells and sewers to maintain sanitation.

In the late Jaehaerys, the prestige of the royal family reached its peak.

This peak period of the Targaryens lasted until the death of Viserys I. From 103 to 229, when Viserys I ruled, dragons laid eggs steadily and hatched one after another, and the prosperity of Westeros reached its peak since the ancestors crossed the West.

After the Dance of the Dragons, the Targaryens lost most of their dragons, and only Aegon III and his two sisters (daughters of Daemon Targaryen and Lana Velaryon) were left, and his brother Viserys II was still a son-in-law in Lys.

The seven regents and maesters selected by the nobles greatly fooled these children, so all the measures to strengthen the royal power implemented during the reign of Jaehaerys I were abolished, and the national circuit court disappeared into history.

By the time of Aegon V, he was called the Peasant King and wanted to follow the example of his ancestor, Jeremiah, to strengthen the royal power and weaken the power of the nobles to improve the rights of the common people, that is, to make the common people live a better life. However, this aroused opposition from the nobles. In addition, his experience of free love affected his offspring, so that most of his children fell in love freely and broke the marriage agreements with the great nobles, which further reduced the prestige of the royal family.

The decline of royal power stems from the disappearance of the dragons, but now the royal family has a total of four growing dragons, and has obtained the support of the strongest Riverland through marriage. Arthur decided to strengthen the power of the Iron Throne first.

Therefore, after unifying the North and the Stormlands, it is urgent to hold a great council that can gather consensus among all forces.

In addition to restoring some practices during the Jeremiah period, Arthur and Daenerys also want to implement more measures that benefit the royal family and the common people.

For example, during the transition of the throne, no non-royal nobles were allowed to lead troops out of their own territory. Without the decree of the previous king, royal nobles and the royal standing army were not allowed to leave their territory or garrison privately. Violators would be beheaded or exiled to the Wall.

Another example is the full implementation of the written laws formulated during the reign of Jason I: the punishment for betrayal and perjury is death, poachers and thieves will lose a hand, the punishment for intentional injury is discretionary mutilation, rapists will be castrated, and many minor crimes will be flogged.

Of course, Arthur also wants to play a trick: re-mint and issue gold dragon coins.

The main power of the Chancellor of the Exchequer is to manage the coinage system of the entire kingdom and collect coinage taxes from it.

This process is achieved through three mints outside King's Landing.

In the late Robert period, Little Finger Petyr Baelish began to tinker with coinage.

A proverb circulating in the Seven Kingdoms: Give Lord Baelish a gold dragon, and he can turn it into two by snapping his fingers.

The secret is very simple, that is, the old gold dragon coins with a gold content of more than 70% are melted into new gold dragon coins with a gold content of only about 30%.

The clever little finger turns one old gold dragon coin into two new gold dragon coins, and the remaining 20% ​​of gold goes into his own pocket.

Thanks to the lack of education, only a few knowledgeable nobles in the Western Continent guessed Baelish's trick, such as Lady Olenna, the Queen of Thorns, and Lord Tywin, the former Duke of Lannister.

The former actively hoarded old gold dragon coins and traded them with the gold hand coins stored in the High Court - gold coins issued by the descendants of Garth Greenhand, which are only half the size of gold dragon coins. The latter stopped sending gold to the mint and money to King's Landing in the name of the huge debt owed by the royal family to the Lannister family.

Littlefinger seized a large amount of property in this way, but because there was no official provision of the Royal Council, he could only do this secretly.

But Arthur was different. As a king, he could openly order nobles from all over the country to send all the gold coins stored in their cellars for hundreds or even thousands of years to the mint to be minted into gold dragon coins with the upper body portraits of Arthur I or Daenerys III printed on them.

"One for two", it sounds like a good deal.

After the new marriage relationship was established, the invited people began to applaud and celebrate, and said auspicious words.

"The glory of the dragon family will reappear!"

"King Arthur's happiness will reach a new level."

"May the gods bless you."

Although the majority of people believe in the Seven Gods, most of them cannot say the words of the Seven Gods' blessing. After all, in the Seven Gods' belief, marrying more wives is a blasphemous act.

This is just a small detail. In fact, the party announcing the engagement was very successful. The selected civilian representatives rushed to express their support and support for the royal family's move with the nobles.

After all, those who do not support will not be selected.

As for the witnessing of the Archbishop, it was ignored by everyone. In addition to the king's obvious violation of the Seven Gods' Creed, the fact that there is no Archbishop in King's Landing is also a very important factor.

After the meeting, Arthur returned to the Great Council Hall with his courtiers and guards to continue discussing the war in the south.

Daenerys, who is keen on the Iron Throne, is actively meeting with nobles and civilian representatives of King's Landing.

On the stairs leading from the throne room to the conference hall, new good news was delivered to the king.

Tristan, the commander of the King's Landing garrison who is temporarily in charge of the Crow's Nest, read the letter to the king and others.

This is not because Arthur is too arrogant to let others read the letter, but because the nobles of the Seven Kingdoms have the tradition of letting scholars read the letters sent by ravens.

Because the great nobles use words less frequently and have not received much education, they may make mistakes when reading by themselves.

"My eldest daughter, Arianne Nymmellos Martell, will marry King Arthur I... A vanguard of 5,000 people has assembled near Sky and Sky at the southern end of Prince's Pass. They will first capture Nightsong City, and then continue to attack the rebels to the north... A follow-up force of 10,000 people is gathering, including the Ellwood family, the Dayne family of Starfall, the Gegenleth family of Salt Shore, the Santagar family of Spottedwood, and the Uller family of Hellgate, who will continue to fight for the Dragon Family."

The content of the letter mainly has three points. First, Prince Doran agreed to the marriage between Arianne and Arthur, but the letter did not mention whether the next generation of Dorne's heirs would still be Arianne or Arianne's descendants.

Second, a 5,000-man army has been assembled at the southern end of Prince's Pass, mainly including the nearby Sky and Sky Lord Fowler family, the Lord of King's Graveyard, the Blackmont family of Blackmont, and the Dayne family branch of High Hidden City.

It is worth mentioning that the leader of this army is the knight Gerold Dayne of High Hidden City, also known as the "Dark Star".

The third point is also military-related. The army of the family far away from the Prince's Pass is still gathering. They will be the second Dorne army to attack the Stormlands. Prince Doran promised that at least before the decisive battle with the main force of the Golden Group, these 10,000 people will appear under the Storm's End to participate in the battle.

"Your Majesty, the Dornish people are sincere enough, and my brother's determination to support the Targaryen family is no less than any northern noble."

Prince Oberyn rarely speaks for such things.

No wonder, Dorne's expedition this time not only got the position of a queen, but also got Nightsong City, which has not been taken for thousands of years. This will greatly improve Dorne's offensive and defensive situation in the war with the Stormlands.

The lord of Nightsong City is the Cullen family. The head of the family often has the title of commander of the Stormlands. The former head of the family, Bryce Cullen, died outside King's Landing for Stannis, and the entire family only has a bastard named Roland Storm.

At present, Roland has been renamed as Carron by Stannis, and has taken over the position of Earl of Nightsong.

As for Roland himself, he should be outside Storm's End, surrendering to the Golden Company.

In the case of the Carron family, it is entirely possible for a Dorne family to inherit the territory of Nightsong.

"But you have gained a lot, Nightsong alone is worth an expedition of 15,000 troops."

Arthur said as he walked into the meeting hall.

He thought about it and had to add a few more clauses, "You must also return the Valyrian crown that Daeron I brought to Dorne."

Daeron I was the eldest son of Aegon III and the eighth Targaryen king to ascend the Iron Throne. His most famous political achievement was the expedition to Dorne.

During his expedition to Dorne, his crown, the only Valyrian ring crown of Targaryen, was lost in Dorne.

If nothing unexpected happens, the crown is currently being kept in a castle in Dorne.

With the strength of the Martell family, it is not difficult to order the vassal to hand over the crown.

PS: Tomorrow is 2023. I wish all book friends good health, good luck, and all their wishes come true next year.

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