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not to attempt a return. In order to effectively get rid of the Lannisters they all must go, everyone from Jaime to Joffrey to Tywin. Their property must be confiscated, along with any other assets. The real difficulty in this course is how to promote Renly without having Stannis raise his sword. The danger of Stannis is that he has not forgotten the old enemies of his family that Robert had forgiven in exchange for oaths of fealty. Would the people care? Probably not; as Jorah comments, “It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace.”26 The people desire justice and peace, which they so rarely get. If a war could be prevented with one stroke, is it not the more virtuous decision to make that stroke despite the apparent injustice of the decision? It would be unjust to promote Renly to the throne, and it would be cruel to have the Lannisters killed or imprisoned. But either would have prevented the state from falling into civil war, while also preserving Stark’s life. Ultimately, Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell died not for honor, but because of honor. His unwillingness to do what was necessary to preserve the Seven Kingdoms not only cost him his life, but plunged the entire nation into civil war.27 NOTES 1. George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), p. 634. 2. Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, trans. W. K. Marriott (New York: Everyman’s Library, 1992). 3. Martin, A Game of Thrones, p. 146. 4. For more on this idea, see Greg Littmann, “Maester Hobbes Goes to King’s Landing,” in this volume. 5. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan; Project Gutenberg e-book, p. 88, released May 1, 2002 (ePub edition), retrieved from www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3207 (I have preserved the antiquated spelling from the original). 6. Hobbes, Leviathan, p. 89. 7. Ibid., p.114. 8. Ibid., pp. 93, 99.
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