Chapter 09: Ceremony and Tourney

Having the many Lords of the Realm gathered at King's Landing for the swearing ceremony and the royal ball created some accommodating issues, but it was concluded to host only the Lords Paramount and their immediate family at the Red Keep, as for the rest of the Nobles, they were spread across their mansions, if they had ones, or in previously prepared mansions.

It was one of Mother's ideas during one of the earlier Small Council meetings, to rent some inns and mansions in the name of the Royal House to accommodate the various Nobles and their immediate families in said mansions while providing the inns to their retainers and any extended families at an appropriate price to recuperate some of the funds spent on the Nobles, it was an ingenious idea indeed, as at this rate the royal treasury will see some increase instead of the usual decrease that come with such events, with the tourney paying for itself and generating further profit and with this idea along with all the increase in trade flow, the economy of the city is seeing an increase not seen since before the Blackfyre Rebellion according to the records, and may even extend to the level of before the Dance.

And so we took advantage of this economic boon to further strengthen the City Watch as I mentioned before, and to further increase the numbers of the Royal Guards after Ser Gerold was convinced of their usefulness, from the previous ten under each Kingsguard and fifty under the direct order of the King and the Heir, it was increased to fifteen under each Kingsguard and twenty under the Lord Commander, and hundred under the King and the Heir, fifty each, and now beside the twenty under Lord Commander Ser Gerold, the fifteen under Ser Cristian and the fifty under the King the other are still yet to be inducted, as no other Kingsguard was selected yet, and as for the one assigned to me, I decided to put them under further training for preparation to the coming war that I was going to lead the Crown forces in, as it was agreed that Father won't be leaving King's Landing till the end of the conflict and dealing with the consequences, as for Mother, it was decided to permanently assign her two Kingsguards and their accompaning Royal Guards when they are inducted until further expansion of the royal family.

1st Day of the 5th Moon, 259 AC

Today was the day, the swearing ceremony would start after lunch and would go well into the evening, and will end with a feast.

I woke up early like every day, had my breakfast with my family and the Baratheons, and headed to the training ground to have a quick practice because as they say "practice makes perfect" Afterward, I took a bath and changed into something official to have the big lunch with all the Lords Paramount before the ceremony, the lunch was a brief affair, and after it, the Lords started to trek into the Big Hall, and God was it crowded, what with all the Lords of the Realm and their Heirs present to swear their Oaths.

This was the biggest gathering in the history of the Seven Kingdoms and not even the Great Council of 101 had this many attendants because in that event not many Lords brought their Heirs and wives as well as their extended families, but with this being a collection of multiple events, My Royal Father swearing ceremony as King, and mine as the Heir to the Throne, as well as choosing my bride, and the Tourney to celebrate the Ascension of Father and the choosing of new Kingsguards, not to mention the talk and preparation of the incoming invasion of the Stepstones, all of those events culmination into one made the Lords of the Realm bring their heirs and families to seek the many opportunities and connections that come with such gatherings, and so my Royal Father told the Lords to bring the heirs along to the swearing ceremony so that they affirm their loyalty to the Crown, in this tumultuous times.

The Ceremony was long and trying, and the arrangement for who would swear first was a sensitive affair, so to avoid scratching the Lords' fragile egos we decided to arrange it by the proximity to the Crown domain, so it started with me taking the knees and swearing my fealty to my Father, followed by Father affirming my position as his Heir, and then with the Lords of the Crownlands swearing to both my Father and me.

The first to go after the Crownlords were Lord Ormund Baratheon Lord Paramount of the Stormlands and his Heir Steffon Baratheon, followed by the Stormlords.

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Second in order was Lord Axel Tully Lord Paramount of the Riverlands and his Heir Hoster Tully, followed by the Riverlords.

Third was Lord Jon Arryn Lord Paramount of the Vale and Mountains, followed by the Vale Lords, (being young and recently married Lord Arryn didn't have an heir).

Fourth was Lord Tytos Lannister and his son and Heir Lord Tywin Lannister, followed by the Westerlords.

Fifth was Lord Paramount of the Reach Lord Luthor Tyrell and his Heir Lord Mace Tyrell, followed by the Reacher Lords.

Sixth was Lord Quellon Greyjoy Lord Paramount of the Iron Isles and his son and Heir Lord Balon Greyjoy, followed by the Iron Lords.

Seventh was Princess Miriam Martell and her young son and Heir Prince Doran Martell, followed by the Dornish Lords.

Last but not least was Lord Edwyll Stark and his son and Heir Lord Rickard Stark, followed by the North Lords.

The feast after the swearing ceremony was full of laughter and noise from the drunken Lords who had to endure the boring and long ceremony, and when the dancing ground was emptied I had already danced with many of the Lords' wives, as this was not the Royal Ball to celebrate my father ascension and choosing my bride only the wives of the Lords were present along their husbands.

The Next day was the first day of the tourney and the start of the Melee, and it was a glorious yet gory event with the Northmen emerging victorious, as the melee was conducted in groups with each Kingdom forming its group, the Dornish were the first to disqualify followed swiftly by the Ironborn and wasn't their participation a surprise to everyone! as they never participated in a tourney before, which proved to the rest of the realm the genuine desire of Lord Quellon Greyjoy to abandon the Old Way, and it was an idea 'suggested' to him by me when we discussed his plans to fight his people outdated ways, the Ironborn fought hard, but they were ganged up on by the Reachers and the Westerman so they were dispatched quickly, with the added benefit of the death of some 'poor' Lords and captains who were vehemently in their support to the Old Ways, something that wasn't hard to arrange with them going into the fight heavy in their cups.

The Reachers and Westerman disqualified each other, and the Stormlanders were dispatched by the Crownlanders after they were tired from disqualifying the Dornish, the Northmen, Valemen, and Riverlanders fought in a three-way battle, where the Riverlanders were the first to succumb, and then the Crownlanders joined the fight that ended with few Northmen remaining thus claiming the victory in the name of their Kingdom.

The Archery contest was the next day alongside the first round of the Jousting, The Archery contest was won by Lucas Blackwood the younger brother of Lord Roger Blackwood, and the runner-in was a cousin to Lord Glover, named Jordan Glover, both the winner and the runner-in were invited to that night feast to celebrate their victory, where I asked them to join my personal Royal Guards after I checked their loyalty and personality using my ever helpful "Mind Probes", both agreed to my invitation and consider it a great honor.

I was going to give them the responsibility to start training an elite force of longbow users like the legendary Raven's Teeth of Lord Brynden Rivers my great-great-great-uncle, so I untrusted both of them five archers each and gave them the mission of training them in the intricate art of wielding Longbow, and I will see who among them will be the better teacher after a period of one moon.

The third day of the tourney saw the continuation of the joust as well as the axe-throwing contest, and surprisingly the winner was the elderly Lord Hoarfrost Umber who despite his advanced age still had good aim and strong grip, the runner-in was one Cotter Pyke, apparently the oldest baseborn child of Lord Quellon Greyjoy, from my interaction with him I found his desire to be away from his people and that was thinking of maybe joining the Night's Watch, something which I found wasteful, so I asked him if he is interested in joining the Royal Navy during the coming war on the Stepstones and the possibility of gaining a captaincy if he showed competence and accomplishment, to which he told me he needs to think about it and seek counsel with his father.

On the fourth day of the tourney, the joust was entering its final stages with fewer Knights left competing, and because of the lack of the numbers of the Kingsguard both Ser Gerold and Ser Cristian did not participate, and the same went for Ser Eric Dayne and Ser Robert Darkwood who were tending to their duties.

There were a lot of knights participating in this joust to get the chance of getting recognized and inducted into the Kingsguard, but the selection of the Kingsguard wasn't going to rely on the jousting alone, the melee, politics, and my mind probes were going to play a big role in it, so I was paying extra attention to every knight who showed promise, and I was thinking of finally having a Northern Knight in the Kingsguard for the first time to sow some unity amongst the Kingdoms, so I took notice of both Ser Bernard Cassel bannermen to House Stark and Ser Merlon Manderly cousin to Lord Wyman Manderly the young Lord of White Harbor.

Prince Lewyn Martell the brother of the princess of Dorne showed great potential from his Kingdom alongside Ser Arthur Fowler.

Ser Tybolt Crakehall the younger brother of Lord Sumner Crakehall, and Ser Tyland Lefford a brother to Lord Stafford Lefford were the candidates from the Westerlands.

This leaves one Knight from the Vale or the Stormlands, as I saw no good knight from the Riverlands except a young Brynden Tully who may be a good future candidate when he is Knighted and gains more experience, so I am still undecided between Ser Barristan Selmy who while talented is the heir to his House and Ser Alenn Crorbray the wielder of Lady Forlorn and brother to Lord Lucas Crobray.

All of those candidates will be met one by one by me to get a measure of their loyalty to the crown and their mettle a disposition, but all will wait until the end of the tourney.