Spoiler alert: Although this blog post will mainly focus on laws which are inconsequential to the plot of House of the Dragon, there are a few spoilers on what happens in the released episodes.
The first season of the new Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon, is over and because I could not wait to know who would end up on the Iron Throne, I read the book Fire & Blood by G. R. R. Martin, on which the HBO series is based. As a nerdy international lawyer, I was pleased when Fire & Blood discussed the laws of realm and how they came into existence. What interested me the most however (from a legal perspective), was the enactment of laws to protect women and that such laws were only adopted by or thanks to women.
Legislations Protecting Women
Fire & Blood addresses a number of laws mainly on war, succession and taxes. Such topics are naturally part of the plot as the book retraces Targaryen history which is plagued by succession wars. Interestingly, two laws do not touch upon war-related issues but focus on the protection of women.
During King Aegon I’s rule, his sister-wife Queen Rhaenys had to adjudicate the case of a man who had beaten his wife to death with a rod because she had cheated on him. After consulting maesters (the kingdom’s academics) and septons (the kingdom’s priests) she considered that “an adulterous wife [gives] offense to the Seven, who [has] created women to be faithful and obedient to their husbands, and therefore must be chastised. As god has but seven faces, however, the punishment should consist of only six blows (for the seventh blow would be for the Stranger, and the Stranger is the face of death). Thus the six first blows the man had struck had been lawful … but the remaining ninety-four had been an offense against gods and men […] [The husband] was given ninety-four blows by the dead woman’s brothers”. From an Earthly-secular-21st-century perspective the “rule of six” is unacceptable. Domestic violence should not be tolerated, even if one or six blows, and women are not created to be obedient. From a 10-20 AC (after the Conquest) perspective, however, this is progress as a man cannot beat his wife – too much – and if he does, he will be held to account.
While Queen Rhaenys enacted a new “feminist” law, her granddaughter (hope I am getting the lineage right), Queen Alysanne, abolished a rapist one. In Westeros, powerful lords were allowed to “bestow [their] seed upon some maid on her wedding night” (read rape). When the lord is done, the wife could go back to her husband who, in the case brought up to Alysanne, rejected her, beat her until she left to a brothel. Appalled by this tradition, Alysanne managed to convince her husband-brother, King Jaehaerys I to abolish the “lord’s right to the first night” and label it a crime of rape. Guests witnessing the first sexual relation between husband and wife was still pretty much on the table however – to make sure the marriage was truly consummated.
Women Protecting Women
Participation of underrepresented groups (such as women) is important because without them there would not be change. It is also the case in Westeros. The two discussed laws originated from a woman, a privileged woman. Queen Rhaenys created the rule of six and Queen Alysanne abolished the lord’s right to the first night.
Although there is no mention of the King on the issue of the rule of six – Rhaenys did it all by herself, Alysanne had to ask King Jaehaerys I to abolish the lord’s right to the first night. Fire & Blood is a long book (613 pages on an e-reader) but covers a period of 157 years so G. R. R. Martin does not go into too much details on each event. However, Alysanne needed three pages and a half to convince the King and his small council (only men) to criminalise the tradition. She even needed to appeal to the survivor’s husband’s honour and make a comparison to her own wedding night with the King – totally excluding the survivor’s actual suffering from the equation – to persuade Jaehaerys who defended the practice because it was “an ancient one”. Even being a queen, the sister to the King and the most powerful woman of the realm (with a dragon) is not enough to change sexist and rapist laws. One still needs perseverance and a man’s – the King – ear. Women participation is a first step but unfortunately not enough until men are ready to listen.
Queen Alysanne’s law, as it became known among the smallfolk, would not have been enacted if it was not for a lower-class woman speaking up. Indeed, when visiting the North, and as usual, Alysanne held her women’s court. The Queen had started holding such sessions in King’s Landing but also in the other regions of her Kingdom when travelling so that she could listen to women’s problems. In the North, she was almost denied her women’s court as the Lord Commander told her there were only men at the Night’s Watch – and therefore no women in need. Upon Alysanne’s insistence, she managed to hold her court in Mole’s Town among “whores, strumpets and harlots”. It is in those circumstances that a 14-year-old blacksmith daughter told her about the lord’s right to the first night. The lord’s right to the first night seemed well-known and widespread among the lower classes but Alysanne imagined it was a thing of the past. Talking about sexual violence can be difficult for survivors, especially when assaulted by individuals with power. For them to feel comfortable speaking up, they need to be in the right, trusting environment, which was the case here since the 14-year-old testified at a women court where she felt safe, among her peers and with a Queen who was listening to her and going to act upon it.
Conclusion
This blog post is not intended to say that Fire & Blood and its televised sister House of the Dragon are feminist masterpieces. Afterall, female characters still live in a sexist world where women are only allowed to be Queen if they are the mother or wife of a King – that is what the series is all about. Women have to share their polygamist husband with other wives, still undergo virginity test, cannot train to be master at the citadel and the rule of six is still pretty unacceptably tolerant of domestic violence. In addition, although the writers had said they would crack down on sexual violence compared to the Game of Thrones series, the first episode of House of the Dragon portrays a forced c-section which constitutes shocking sexual violence (see Amanda Whiting’s article on the forced birth scene). In any case, however, it is interesting to see that the same lessons are learnt in the Seven Kingdoms: for actual change in favour of women’s rights, women of all background need to be able to participate in the political discussion and they need to be listened to.
The views expressed in this post are the author’s alone and do not represent any institutional position.