Hello, good Queen. My question is the following (I hope it hasn't been asked before): Is Tywin swindling the Spicers by making them Lords of Castamere? Regardless of its rich mines, Castamere is, basically, a flooded ruin.
I hesitate to use the word “swindle”, because that word might imply that Tywin specifically held out Castamere to the Spicers as more valuable than it was worth or otherwise misled the Spicers about its current state. (As opposed to, say, Tywin almost certainly misleading Sybell Spicer about “a bride from Casterly Rock”.) Indeed, by Tywin’s own admission, the Westerlings “are well aware of Castamere”, and I would presume that extends to the Spicers as well. After all, what happened at Castamere was the very opposite of a secret: not only was it publicly know about and recorded enough to be included in an official maesterly history book, but “The Rains of Castamere” has been liberally used and cited as a piece of Tywin’s terror propaganda, reminding its listeners of the fate of the Reynes (and, by extension, their castle). So I don’t think the Spicers would have been unaware of the current state of Castamere at least as a (former) seat.
All of that is not to say, of course, that Castamere is particularly valuable as a castle (or as a mine itself), given the obvious and substantial (and relatively recent) flooding. At the same time, it’s difficult to say the total value of the Castamere lordship in the current novels. There are at least some gold mines in the area, because the Greatjon was said to have seized mines near Castamere during Robb’s campaign in the west. Whether or not there are any Reyne bannermen left, or other industries in the general vicinity of Castamere which would historically have given their revenues to Castamere, are both likewise unclear; these might also be sources of income for the newly ennobled Spicers of Castamere. At the very least, in any event, the Spicers would have to invest in building a whole new keep, since “[t]he halls and keeps above them [were] put to the torch by Tywin Lannister” - a likely hefty expense for the new Lord Rolph.
Yet even if I don’t want to use the word “swindle” here, I can certainly acknowledge that Tywin was not exactly acting selflessly either. Indeed, this grant to the Spicers fits perfectly in Tywin’s model. As with his wedding present to Joffrey, Tywin had with Castamere given a gift that had cost him nothing to obtain; just as Tywin had given Joffrey the most elaborate present by reforging the Stark sword which had been effectively sitting in his lap, so he had did not have to dispossess any of his bannermen in order to further ennoble the Spicers. Likewise, as with his grant of Harrenhal to Littlefinger, Tywin had given a petty lord a great ruin in recognition of that petty lord’s service to House Lannister.
Of course, there’s another important factor to consider here, and that’s what this gift means to the Spicers on a symbolic level. Putting aside the practical considerations of the castle’s status, Rolph Spicer has been made “Lord of Castamere”. That’s a huge deal in terms of status for Rolph, and by extension the Spicers. To go from second generation petty nobility, the grandchildren of a merchant and his Essosi bride, to the lordly masters of a very ancient Westerlands castle (with a royal history of its own) sworn (presumably) directly to Casterly Rock is an enormous socio-political leap for the Spicers. So there’s a way in which the Spicers might not care (or might care less, at least) that they were given a ruined castle for a seat. Compare, say, Davos’ mild acceptance, in considering Stannis’ other bannermen, that “[m]y grandsons will joust with theirs, though, and one day their blood may wed with mine”, so that “[i]n time my little black ship will fly as high as Velaryon's seahorse or Celtigar's red crab”; Rolph might similarly bet that it would be difficult for the blue-blood aristocrats of the Westlands to ignore the Lord of Castamere, their nominal feudal equal, even if it takes a few generations (as opposed to how they could scorn the upjumped Spicers and their petty lordship).
