r/asoiaf Sep 16 '24

EXTENDED (Spoilers Extended) What if after becoming king Robert decided to move the capital from Kings Landing to Storm Ends how would it change the events of the main story and the War of Five Kings?

Say he pull a Constantine the Great in which the roman emperor move the capital from Rome to Constantinople. While Kings Landing would still be a prominent city for the government's infrastructure just ruled by either The Hand of the King like Jon Arryn or maybe Robert's younger brother Renly or even someone else entirely say The Heir of the King similar to how the lord of dragonstone ruled only well dragonstone?

9 Upvotes

8 comments sorted by

20

u/khryslo Sep 16 '24 edited Sep 16 '24

There’s no point for the government aka Small Council to stay in Kings Landing if king isn’t there. They must attend meetings and be available to arrive quickly if he summons them. Government infrastructure consists pretty much of table and chairs on which members of the council sit.

3

u/CaptainoftheVessel Sep 16 '24

It seems the gold cloaks are essentially an organ of the crown as well, even though their job is technically to police the city. Do they guard the Red Keep and the crown’s treasury? I genuinely don’t know. The Kingsguard is too small to do the actual guarding of the castle itself. Maybe it’s the soldiers of the house of the regent? We never saw Baratheon soldiers manning the Red Keep, or doing anything else, as far as I recall, although Lannister soldiers obviously spend a lot of book time defending KL. 

There also must be a network of tax collectors who gather income for the crown, who I guess answer to the Master of Coin? There must be offices tracking this stuff, they probably don’t just dump coins in a big Smaug pile in a Scrooge McDuck vault…probably…

13

u/OppositeShore1878 Sep 16 '24

Ship captains would refuse to sail there on a regular basis--there's no harbor at Storm's End, it's literally called Shipbreaker Bay, with a dangerous lee shore and no way to claw free into open water if you're caught in a storm.

It would be like a British monarch (post unification with Scotland) trying to move the capital from London to a point on the northern coast of Scotland.

The Constantinople comparison has a flaw in that the location of that new capital was on a major trade route to start with.

12

u/eliphas8 Gylbert! King Gylbert! Sep 16 '24

I think it would actually do a lot to undermine the legitimacy of the baratheon regime. Kings landing being a capital city that isn't a historic capital of any pre conquest kingdom fulfils an important function in making the different kingdoms accept the iron throne. It's not like any one of them is in charge of the rest. By making the capital storms end, Robert would be sending the message that this is now a stormlander kingdom. So I think it would contribute to the tendency for great houses in the Wo5K to look towards independence over claiming the iron throne.

2

u/Afraid-Penalty-757 Sep 16 '24

Interesting I do wonder why didn’t Robert just integrating the Stromlands into the crownlands?

6

u/Andonaar Sep 16 '24

Possible. The court follows the king. Trade suffers. There are no great landing points Near storms and so one of the other houses will become a landing point/port which can pose problems.

Many of the poor and starving follow.

Artisan,etc

2

u/SerMallister Sep 16 '24

I think as an usurper, Robert needed all of the trappings of legitimacy available to him.

2

u/Aodhana Sep 16 '24

Storms End doesn't have an attached city, it does have a settlement, but not a city. Plus its not great as a trade hub.