*This is much shorter than I normally do, but I had the sudden urge to write about this. Fret not, I am almost done with the next chapter, moreso doing some editing and final plot decisions. I thought this could serve as an interesting filler chapter.
Again, worry not, I will be posting the next chapter within the week...I hope.
Excerpts from: The Kingdoms of Westeros and their Customs
- Maester Pyme; traveling maester in service to the Citadel (Published eighteen years before Aegon's Conquest)
"It is nigh on impossible to understand a particular kingdom, without also understanding their laws and customs. It is the goal of this work to explain in short detail, the specifics and history of the different Kingdoms laws and accepted rules."
- Excerpt from: Introduction
"Much like any southern kingdom, the North also possesses a great number of laws, and a rich accompanying history on them. Contrary to the rudimentary and primal hysteria that the North is naught but a land of barbarians, 'tis untrue…
…laws have been passed in the North since the Starks were naught but the Kings of Winter. Once they became Kings in the North, they relied heavily on standing tradition and existing laws. This worked well for some time, what I guess to be about a century, no more than two. However, it soon became apparent to the Kings in the North, was the massive kingdom could not simply rely on dozens of differing codices. The laws in the lands of the Umbers were not the same as in the Rills, or even the demesne of the Starks themselves. This problem was first addressed by Willam V Stark. It was by his order that a commission, or as the records of Winterfell indicate, a 'moot' was called. According to Torrhen, Prince of Winter, a 'moot' is how one pronounces the Old Tongue word for meeting, or court. Keep in mind that although it is pronounced 'moot' it is spelled quite differently. I digress, Willam V called for a moot. Although the original order has been lost, other documents of this time survive and through my years spent in the company of His Grace, Beron XX Stark, I have been able to form a rough outline…
…after this initial call was put out by Willam V, a number of lords are recorded as arriving in Winterfell, they include; Jarrod Manderly, Hothar Glover, Hothar Umber, Donnel Karstark and his brother and heir Edwyn Karstark, Rydon Mormont, and Osric Bolton. Fortunately, the records of their work survive. It seems that Willam V ordered the assembled lords to conduct a thorough and in-depth project of first documenting all of the known laws in the North. In a turn of sadder events, Willam V would die of Winterchill only four years later. Under his great-grandson and successor, Rickon XXIV, the work was continued, with an added addendum…
…in the eyes of Rickon XXIV, also known as Rickon the Judicious, it was high time the North held only a single, known, set of laws. He ordered the lords, still in Winterfell to remain and continue this extra work. In a turn of events, he was convinced to allow the exhausted lords to return to their own demesne, some of which had not been back for the four years they were gone, their keeps in the control of stewards and castellans. Rickon addressed this by simply summoning a different group of lords to finish their work. This move was a stroke of political brilliance. He made sure to summon the major lords who were not originally summoned, this way, in the future, no lord could claim they had not been consulted…
…for the next three years, the lords worked over all the former notes and scrolls. Throwing out laws that had become obsolete, while narrowing down those laws that were shared in different areas. Any odd or backward laws were left to the decision of the King, the majority to the lords prerogative. What this resulted in is perhaps one of the greatest gifts left to the historians of Westeros. The oldest, recorded set of unified laws in Westeros, and one of the oldest in all of the known world…
…the Codex of Ice and Iron, also known as Rickon's Laws and the Stark's Code, changed the face of justice in the North forever. Though lords still reserved the right to handle the matters of justice such as trials and executions, for the first time, the laws for the kingdom were the same everywhere. A criminal in White Harbor, was still a criminal on Bear Island. The venture took close to a decade to finally be published. After four years of research for the first stage, another three for the second, and another two years for Rickon to proofread it, it was finally published. I will not go into the specific stipulations as such a project would require a much larger book, but the laws addressed justice from all sources include but are not limited to; from political, economic, and judicial laws…
…it wouldn't be for another three hundred years before the next kingdom followed suit, the Kingdom of the Reach completing their own codex. In all seriousness, Rickon XXIV was not known as a great king during his reign, nor as a terrible one. It seemed to most contemporaries that he was just another king, keeping the realm stable. Yet, much like many important things, true adoration does not come until long after the fact. Though perhaps not an amazing king in his lifetime, the Kingdom of the North, I can safely say, was most assuredly saved by the Codex of Ice and Iron…
…now, thousands of years later, the document still lives, with old, obsolete laws being discarded, and new ones added. It is quite literally, a living document. Though the power of laws is rested solely in the hands of the King in the North, the physical safety of the Codex, as well as updating it, is the responsibility of the Chancellor of the North."
- Excerpt from Chapter Five: The Kingdom of the North
*This was based on reading about the 'Codex Theodosianus'. Though I am a STEM major, I am a history minor and I am currently taking a class on historiography, which is where I originally got the idea for the 'Writings and History' chapters.
