Robert himself loved hunting. He relished the thrill of charging into dense woods with a band of men to surround wild boars and stags, but had no taste for the Targaryen royal family's long-standing pomp or its old practice of taking on supplies along the way.
Within a few years of taking the throne, he had completely overhauled royal hunts. Whenever he went hunting, he brought his own provisions or ate only what he caught.
Apart from a few attendants, only the Gold Cloaks accompanied him. They never bought supplies in these villages, nor did they require the villagers to clear and tidy the hunting trails beforehand.
His other passion, holding tourneys, was quite the opposite of his casual, carefree approach to hunting. In fact, he made them even grander than those held by the Targaryen kings before him.
A month before each tourney began, he would order preparations to get underway. From the competitors' food and lodging to the champion's prize money, he personally reviewed and settled every detail, insisting that everything suit his wishes.
Knights and freeriders who came from across the Seven Kingdoms could enter the city simply by registering, and the royal family covered their food and lodging throughout their stay.
During the tourney itself, Robert would sit on the throne at the very top of the viewing stands and watch from beginning to end, refusing to miss a single match. The eventual champion received a staggering reward in gold dragons, with the prizes growing richer each time.
Without the steady income brought by the Targaryen royal family's regular hunts, the villages that depended on royal business soon fell into decline.
Many of the able-bodied young people packed their belongings and left to work in the workshops of King's Landing or earn a living on the