"Let us raise our cups." Gendry raised his cup and looked at the lords, knights, and squires below. These men were House Baratheon's base of support, and the pillars of the new Crownlands he had planned.
"The Stormlands still have great potential for development." Gendry looked at the lords of Sharp Point and the Stormlands. The Stormlands' lords were rather scattered, clustered around the Dornish Marches, the Rainwood, or the Kingswood.
Some of the Stormlands' soil was very fertile, but the climate was damp and rainy, with frequent storms. The interior was mountainous, the coast rocky, and there were two great forests inland. All these factors limited the Stormlands' population and development.
The Crownlands had money but could not fight; parts of the Stormlands were barren, but they had plenty of warriors. Only together did the two form a complete whole.
Gendry did not need to make a deliberate effort to win the knights' hearts. He too possessed the charisma of a brave, fearless, ever-victorious leader, the valiant and heroic "Storm Dragon King."
Only the Griffin has suffered, Gendry thought as he watched the laughing lords. After King Robert's war, most of the Stormlands' lords had gained some tangible benefit. Only the Griffin had declined.
Earl Jon's relative, Red Roland Clinton-one of Brienne's prospective suitors-was merely a landed knight, naturally no match for an earl in standing. Even his assigned place was farther back, nothing like the family's former position among the middling-to-greater lords.
But Gendry would not change the situation either. He simply had not freed up his hands to crush the fat man in Pentos. Jon had indeed gone too far back then, nearly killing Robert in the town. That was a deep blood feud.
After Robert seized the Mad King Aerys II's throne, he awarded the castle