Evaluating Monarchy's Place in Today's Governance: Insights from Game of Thrones

Ninye Mugambe
St. Andrew’s School, Turi

Word count: 3408

Abstract

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In history, man’s governance has often been in the form of a monarchy. Where a head of state ruled
until abdication or death. This monarch had the highest authority in the state, and all final decisions
would pass through them. In history, however, it was often questioned whether it was the right form
of governance for people, as it was seen that most monarchs would be greedy, cruel, or
unconcerned with the wellbeing of their people. These monarchies saw famine, war, coups d’états
and plague, while those in higher power never seemed to suffer. A Song of Ice and Fire took the
question of whether an absolute monarchy, in which the ruler had supreme power, could ever serve
the realm well, leading viewers and readers to think about whether an absolute monarchy could be
the desired form of leadership in our times. It looked at King Robert Baratheon, who was too
occupied with his grief and personal desires to even sympathise for his population. It explored
Daenerys Targaryen whose family was forcefully removed from the highly coveted ‘Iron Throne’ and
dispelled into exile, and her journey to becoming the best ruler she could be and reclaiming the
throne that was rightfully hers. Through the nuances offered by George R.R. Martin about human
nature, destiny, willpower and empathy, a conclusion is eventually reached that while it may be
possible to have a benevolent leader rule an absolute monarchy in today’s society, the chances of
this are very slim. It is also likely that their values will be lost over the generations of their family.
Therefore, absolute monarchy cannot be the governance form of any nation in modern times.

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Contents
Abstract.................................................................................................................................................2
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................4
Important context.................................................................................................................................4
The rule of Robert Baratheon................................................................................................................5
Why Robert was unfit to rule................................................................................................................5
Consequences of Robert’s rule..............................................................................................................6
The War of the Five Kings......................................................................................................................6
Daenerys Targaryen’s beginnings..........................................................................................................7
The Downfall and Recovery of Daenerys...............................................................................................7
The Implications of Daenerys Targaryen’s character.............................................................................8
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography...........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
A Song of Ice and Fire is a novel series written by George R. R. Martin mainly about different groups
of people struggling for power and security in the fictional world of Westeros, one of three countries
that make up the setting. Adapted into a television series called ‘Game of Thrones’, the story is
centred around individuals, families, cultures and races that all either influence or are influenced by
an absolute monarchy. An absolute monarch is a single person who rules with undivided
sovereignty. Set in the mid to late Middle Ages in our timeline, Game of Thrones offers traditional
insights on monarchical leadership through the features it displays that can be applied to a modern
lens. The hereditary inheritance of power through lineages, the expected complete and utter
subservience of the population towards the leader they followed and of course power is completely
centralised to the royal family. Through the portrayal of carefully constructed and thought out
characters, Martin offers insights into realistic monarchical leadership. He highlights the successes
and shortcomings of the form of governance through measures such as economic welfare, growth
and development, quality of life and overall stability. The nuances provided by Martin, however, lead
viewers and readers alike to question whether it’s possible that monarchical leadership can be an
ideal form of governance in today’s society. My thesis is the only situation in which monarchical
leadership can offer a decent environment and quality of life for the population under it is if the
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leader is completely dedicated to the task and is able to educate their offspring that will take their
place.

Important context
Game of Thrones begins with one clear king of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Robert
Baratheon, of the Stormlands. King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men is the first title
born by the monarch of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. The King has a group of advisers called the
small council who aid him on matters of policy and their areas of expertise. The Seven Kingdoms of
Westeros include Dorne, the North, the Reach, the Riverlands, the Stormlands, the Vale and the
Westerlands. Currently, there are also two constituent regions. These are the Iron Islands and the
Crownlands. Aegon Targaryen, given the title ‘Aegon the Conqueror’ consolidated the seven
kingdoms under the rule of House Targaryen and the Iron Throne. The Iron Throne is the seat of the
Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. Due to the size of his new kingdom, Aegon raised Great Houses in each
region who swore fealty to him. The lords were granted a degree of autonomy and given authority
over their ‘bannermen’ and ‘smallfolk’. Bannermen are vassals who owe military service to their
lords under the feudalism of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. Smallfolk are the common people of
the known world. Robert became king after going into open rebellion against the last king of the
Targaryen dynasty, Aerys II. Aerys was known as the Mad King after his descent into insanity in his
later years. After his son Rhaegar abducted Lyanna Stark (of the Great House Stark of the North), her
father and eldest brother went to the capital city to demand that she was returned. They were
executed, and Aerys then demanded for the heads of Eddard Stark, Lyanna’s older brother, and
Robert Baratheon, her betrothed. Robert waged war with the king, ultimately killing Rhaegar in
battle and claiming the Iron Throne.

The rule of Robert Baratheon

Martin uses Robert to depict an absolute monarch whose emotions and pleasures come before his
duty to his subjects. During the rebellion, Robert inspired his troops by his bravery and ferocity in
battle, and this led to many to be in support of his ascent to the Iron Throne. However, war and
battle proved to be Robert’s only strengths as when he became king he indulged massively into his
desires of feasting, drinking and promiscuity. He finds matters concerning the economy, agriculture,
or justice tedious and barely attends small council sessions (Martin, A Game of Thrones, 1996), but
leaves the task of ruling to them. Robert detests saving money and budgeting but loves to organize
tournaments and feasts, and has sunk the realm in poverty. Despite the fact that Aerys had left
treasure vaults overflowing with gold, Robert's spending has left the crown in debt of over six million
golden dragons (Martin, A Game of Thrones, 1996), the currency used in A Song of Ice and Fire.
Robert’s poor ruling can be narrowed down to a single factor.

Why Robert was unfit to rule

Robert lost all motivation to rule once he found out about Lyanna’s death. Robert was in love with
Lyanna, and had wanted to join his house to House Stark ever since he had been a child and served
as the ward to Jon Arryn, Lord of the Vale, with Eddard Stark. Their close friendship is what led
Robert to meet Lyanna in the first place. This highlights a large flaw of the absolute monarchy. When
power lies in the hands of someone who is not concerned with empathy and only with their own
selfish desires, it leaves the rest of the population’s condition uncertain which is unacceptable.
Lyanna’s death left Robert depressed, and in order to try and beat this depression, he tried to
engage in all the things that gave him pleasure and happiness. He did this at the expense of the

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Seven Kingdoms, as he couldn’t both rule and engage in his pleasures. This is revealed in a
conversation in the television show he had with his current wife Cersei Lannister of the Westerlands,
the daughter of the former Hand of the King. Robert said, “You want to know the horrible truth? I
can't even remember what she looked like. I only know she was the one thing I ever wanted...
someone took her away from me, and seven kingdoms couldn't fill the hole she left behind.” (Kirk,
Game of Thrones, The Wolf and the Lion, 2011). This example given by Martin shows viewers and
readers alike that a monarch should not hinge all reason to rule on a single factor that can be
extinguished as quickly as it was realised. This is because due to human nature, the monarch will fail
to empathise with the population due to likely feeling a loss of purpose in life leading to self-pity and
indulgence in selfish desires. Applying this to modern day governance, if a monarch ruled a powerful
nation in a similar way to Robert due to a loss of purpose, the world would suffer dire consequences
due to the power vested in the absolute monarch and the maintenance of global trade and alliances
that depended on them. In Robert’s case, his loss of purpose and indulgence in his primal desires led
to a world of problems in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.

Consequences of Robert’s rule

Due to Robert’s promiscuity, he was unfaithful to Cersei, fathering numerous children outside of
marriage. On the night of their wedding, a drunken Robert whispered, “Lyanna” into Cersei’s ear
while they were having sex (Martin, A Game of Thrones, 1996) which was an indication to Cersei that
he was still in love with her. Over time, Cersei began to hate Robert (Martin, A Clash of Kings, 1998)
and her cold attitude created a distance between them (Martin, A Game of Thrones, 1996). Cersei
had an illicit, incestuous relationship with her brother Jaime, and since Robert stopped visiting
Cersei’s bed over time, Jaime ended up being the biological father of all three of the children Cersei
had given birth to (Martin, A Game of Thrones, 1996). This was unknown to the whole realm
including Robert, and it represents another problem of monarchical leadership. Due to the
hereditary inheritance of power, whoever the Queen gives birth to is next in line to the throne, even
if they are not the rightful heir. This was harder to prove in the past as there were no DNA tests, but
regardless, if the queen of an absolute monarchy gave birth to children today, and the king thought
they were his, it would not matter what the rest of the population thought. They would inherit the
throne. This would create tension in the country as the population would begin to form distrust
against the monarchy as they were not following the rules they set for themselves. This may even
lead to political instability, as riots may ensue leading to civil wars as the population would not want
to follow an illegitimate monarch.

The War of the Five Kings

In Game of Thrones, Eddard Stark, Robert’s Hand, found out the truth about the legitimacy of the
children. Following Robert’s death, orchestrated by Cersei, Joffrey Baratheon executed Eddard for
treason against the crown. This single event led to a war for the rightful king, because now, Joffrey’s
legitimacy was called into question. Robb Stark, the eldest son of Eddard proclaimed himself ‘the
King in the North’, aiming to secede the North from the Realm and get ‘justice’ for his father by
killing Joffrey. The Iron Islands, led by Balon Greyjoy, also wanted to secede from the Realm, with
Balon proclaiming himself ‘the King of the Iron Islands’. Robert’s two younger brothers, Stannis and
Renly Baratheon respectively declared themselves the rightful Lords of the Seven Kingdoms due to
Joffrey’s illegitimacy, with House Tyrell, the wealthy Great House of the Reach allying with Renly’s
cause. The realm had been thrown into complete disarray with the smallfolk calling the conflict ‘The
War of the Five Kings’. Martin uses this storytelling device to show one of the most potent flaws of
monarchical leadership. It’s fragility and volatility. Due to the great power of centralised sovereignty,
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it is no surprise that the throne of an absolute monarch will be highly coveted, leading people to
engage in coup d’états against members of their own family or families that they are supposedly on
good terms with for any reason they can find. From illegitimacy of offspring to declaring the
monarchs unfit to rule due to poor economic reforms, policies or laws. This means that if the royal
family does not have the military might to destroy any threats to their power, the country will often
be in a state of political instability. In Game of Thrones, House Targaryen sat the Iron Throne for
nearly 300 years due to the dragons in their possession frightening any opposition from engaging in
conflict with them. As time passed and the dragons grew smaller from being domesticated, House
Targaryen had enough military might to keep the throne for another century before Aerys lost it to
Robert. In order to make sure of no rebellions against his throne from House Targaryen, Robert had
Rhaegar’s children killed. However, Rhaegar’s pregnant mother (Aerys’ wife), Queen Rhaella and her
other son Viserys were sent to the family ancestral seat of Dragonstone to escape Robert’s army. 9
months later, Rhaella gave birth to a girl during a great storm before dying due to complications with
childbirth. Before Rhaella died, she named her daughter Daenerys.

Daenerys Targaryen’s beginnings

The storm during which Daenerys had been born destroyed the remaining Targaryen fleet of ships,
so they were stuck on Dragonstone. Stannis planned to assault it, and the garrison at Dragonstone
planned to sell Daenerys to Robert. However, before this could happen, the children were smuggled
into exile by a few loyal retainers and sailed to the country of Essos, the second continent of the
world of ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’. They wandered the country for years visiting nearly all of the Free
Cities until they were taken in by a wealthy individual named Illyrio Mopatis in Pentos. Illyrio
arranged a marriage between Daenerys and Dothraki Khal Drogo in return for the promise of an
army for Viserys to reclaim the Iron Throne with. The Dothraki people are a culture of nomadic
warriors in Essos who travel in hordes known as Khalasars. A ‘Khal’ is the king of a Khalasar. Illyrio
gifted Daenerys three petrified dragon eggs for her wedding. For a time, Daenerys was miserable.
While she was accompanied by her brother and an exiled knight of Westeros Ser Jorah Mormont,
she felt lonely. Her body ached from spending days on horseback and from her nights with Drogo.
One night when she felts like she did not have the strength to carry on, she dreamt of a black dragon
breathing fire on her. The flames made her feel fierce and new, and from that night onwards life
among the Dothraki begun to come naturally to her. Her new-found confidence and strength
marked the beginning of a loving relationship with Drogo. As the Khalasar travelled to Vaes Dothrak
(the city of the Dothraki), Daenerys revealed that she is pregnant. At Vaes Dothrak, Daenerys was
presented to the dosh khaleen (the widows of previous Khals), and took part in a ceremony for her
unborn child. A drunk Viserys arrived late at the feast and having grown increasingly impatient for
Drogo to give him his army and his crown, he threatens both Daenerys and her unborn child.
Daenerys translated for Drogo, who then killed Viserys (Martin, A Game of Thrones, 1996). As the
last remaining Targaryen, Daenerys believed her family’s throne should be conquered for her unborn
son. After learning that Robert promised a lordship to whoever kills Viserys, Daenerys and her child
(Martin, A Game of Thrones, 1996), Drogo vowed to conquer the Seven Kingdoms.

The Downfall and Recovery of Daenerys

In order to obtain ships to sail to Westeros, Drogo planned to take captives to sell at the cities of
Slaver’s Bay, a cultural and geographical region of central Essos that became a wealthy hub of the
global slave trade. Drogo’s Khalasar encountered the Khalasar of another Khal, Ogo, attacking a
town. Ogo and Drogo fought and Drogo won. As is their culture, the Dothraki then pillaged the town
and raped the women, but this disgusted and disturbed Daenerys and she ordered every rape she
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saw to be stopped. She then claimed the women as her own slaves in order to protect them. Drogo,
pleased by her boldness, allowed Daenerys to keep them (Martin, Chapter 61 Daenerys VII, 1996).
Daenerys insisted that Drogo’s wounds were seen to and a midwife from the town offered her
service. After Drogo removed the woman’s poultice and replaced it with a mud plaster, his wound
festered. He grew ill and eventually fell off his horse. According to the Dothraki, a Khal who cannot
ride cannot rule. Daenerys asked the woman to use blood magic to heal Drogo. When she started
treatment, battle erupted in the camp over the use of blood magic as it is forbidden. Daenerys
suddenly went into labour and was carried into the tent where Drogo was being treated. She woke
up days later to find out her son was stillborn and Drogo was in a catatonic state. Daenerys was
furious at the woman, claiming that she had tricked her even though Daenerys saved her life. The
woman said that she had seen her temple burned, her people killed and was raped three times
before Daenerys had ‘saved’ her. She then signalled to Drogo and said that was what life was worth
when all else was gone (Martin, Chapter 68 Danaerys IX, 1996). Daenerys euthanized Drogo and
commanded what was left of the Khalasar to build her a funeral pyre for him and to tie the woman
to it as well. She then declared herself their queen in a speech said with desperate conviction. “You
will be my Khalasar,” she told them. “I see the faces of slaves. I free you. Take off your collars. Go if
you wish, no one shall harm you. If you stay, it will be as brothers and sisters, husbands and wives. I
see the children, women, the wrinkled faces of the aged. I was a child yesterday. Today I am a
woman. Tomorrow I will be old. To each of you I say, give me your hands and your hearts, and there
will always be a place for you.” (Martin, Chapter 73 Daenerys X, 1996). She then laid her dragon eggs
in the pyre, set it on fire and walked in. The following morning, she was found unharmed cradling
three newly-hatched dragons. The Khalasar knelt and pledged their loyalty to her.

The Implications of Daenerys Targaryen’s character

Martin uses Daenerys’ character arc to convey crucial moral flaws of absolute monarchy. The cruel
lengths monarchs are willing to go to remain in power and crush any threats to their reign. The harsh
treatment of individuals affiliated with branded enemies of the crown. The inhumane acts people
may go through or make family members or friends go through, in order to regain power that they
had lost. Counting all flaws of the absolute monarchy shown by George R.R. Martin through the
stories of Robert and Daenerys alone, one may assume that it cannot be used as a form of modern
governance due to it bringing out the worst parts of human nature including selfishness, greed,
hatred and envy. If leaders today were to have these traits brought out to the forefront of their
personalities, the world would probably be thrown into war and instability. However, through
Daenerys specifically, Martin highlights possible saving graces of the absolute monarchy model.
Instead of falling into a deep depression from going through difficult times, Daenerys develops a
fiercely strong will and learns to be kind, compassionate and empathetic. She does not want her
population to have to experience instability, as she knows what it is like to have to move from place
to place due to safety always being at risk. She knows what it is like to be seen as an object and a
means to an end, as her brother gave her up to a random man in order to gain an army. She knows
what it feels like to lose people you love, and to feel powerless during it. That is why she is able to
inspire people to follow and believe in her leadership qualities. While she is still young and naïve,
through Daenerys, Martin shows us that it is possible to have a monarch that is benevolent and has
good intentions for not just themselves, but for the population they rule over. Through one powerful
example, a nation can be changed drastically, especially in the case of an absolute monarch. If the
monarch is able to instil good social and political values in a nation and in their children, then it will
be very possible for the nation to thrive for generations on end.

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Conclusion
In conclusion, despite the moving example of Daenerys Targaryen, I don’t think it is possible that an
absolute monarchy can be an ideal form of governance in modern society. If someone who had
Daenerys’ archetype existed, they would probably be able to handle the weight of being a monarch.
The temptations of misusing power, the constant threats to their rule and most importantly, being
able to learn from mistakes and becoming a wiser, more empathetic leader as a result of those
mistakes. However, this would be an extremely rare person to come across in the world we live in.
Usually if someone is kind, compassionate and empathetic, they will be able to manage their greed
and absurd amount of power, but they may not have the determination needed to execute tough
decisions. These could range from having to increase income inequality in the country by subsidising
businesses in order to increase spending, or going to war with a country as a result of another
country breaking a treaty. Since those are the most important qualities an ideal absolute monarch
must have, there’s little point going through other scenarios, as since there are gaps in this one,
there will definitely be gaps in the rule of monarchical leaders that have fierce wills but no empathy,
kindness or compassion. Another reason is that if an ideal leader ever came through, and they tried
to spread their ideals and policies down to generations, there will come a time when the last
monarch will rule based on their own ideals, which may be selfish. Therefore, the successful ideals of
the past will have been forgotten, and the nation will go through a downturn due to a poor reign of
the monarch who forsook his predecessors’ ideals.

Bibliography
A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin, 1996

A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin, 1998

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Daenerys_Targaryen

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Dothraki

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Robert_I_Baratheon

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Seven_Kingdoms

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Slaver%27s_Bay

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Small_council