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[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Shireen’s education

@lappyc22​ asked:

Hi. I wanted to ask about these lines from the game of thrones wiki: “Most girls in noble families of the Seven Kingdoms are given an education that primarily focuses on being groomed to be a wife and mother to a major lord... Stannis, however, ordered Shireen’s instructors to focus on matters relating to good governance: geography, history, religion, and classical literature have been, and she is an avid reader. In many ways, Shireen is receiving a more thorough education than Catelyn Tully or Cersei Lannister did.” It is in “In the Books” section of the wiki page for Shireen Baratheon. Where is this alluded to in the books, can you tell me? Thanks.

I’m not sure where that wiki got all those details, because those details are not anywhere the books that I know of, and it doesn’t cite sources. Frankly, it looks like fanfic to me, sorry to say. It’s also not true. Noble girls in Westeros are generally educated with the idea of becoming a wife and mother, learning courtesies and embroidery and music and such from their septas, but they learn much more than mathematics as general studies; girls learn geography, history, heraldry, poetry, literature, languages, and many other subjects from the maester, alongside their brothers. We can see this breadth of education with Sansa, with Arya, with Catelyn, and with Cersei, among others. And you can read some excellent posts on the subject here and here, and under the education tag at @asoiafuniversity.

However, I can tell you what the books do say about Shireen’s education. Her first teacher was Maester Cressen, who always made time for her. (Partially because he felt guilty for failing to cure her greyscale without leaving her scarred.) If you check the prologue chapter of A Clash of Kings, you can see Cressen teaching Shireen various subjects of castle architecture, astronomy, meteorology (weather science), ravenry, and such -- although not in a formal way, just by answering her questions. It is probable she did have formal lessons with Maester Cressen, but they aren’t shown on page.

After Cressen died, Pylos became the maester at Dragonstone, and took over Shireen’s education. She learned alongside her cousin Edric Storm (once he was brought to Dragonstone from Storm’s End) and Stannis’s squire Devan Seaworth. There’s a lovely scene in A Storm of Swords where Davos comes to the maester’s tower for his own lessons:

He found the maester seated at his long wooden table covered with books and scrolls, across from the three children. Princess Shireen sat between the two boys. Even now Davos could take great pleasure in the sight of his own blood keeping company with a princess and a king’s bastard. [...] “I hope I have not disturbed your lesson.” “We had just finished, my lord,” Maester Pylos said. “We were reading about King Daeron the First.” Princess Shireen was a sad, sweet, gentle child, far from pretty. Stannis had given her his square jaw and Selyse her Florent ears, and the gods in their cruel wisdom had seen fit to compound her homeliness by afflicting her with greyscale in the cradle. The disease had left one cheek and half her neck grey and cracked and hard, though it had spared both her life and her sight. “He went to war and conquered Dorne. The Young Dragon, they called him.” “He worshiped false gods,” said Devan, “but he was a great king otherwise, and very brave in battle.” “He was,” agreed Edric Storm, “but my father was braver. The Young Dragon never won three battles in a day.” The princess looked at him wide-eyed. “Did Uncle Robert win three battles in a day?” The bastard nodded. “It was when he’d first come home to call his banners. Lords Grandison, Cafferen, and Fell planned to join their strength at Summerhall and march on Storm’s End, but he learned their plans from an informer and rode at once with all his knights and squires. As the plotters came up on Summerhall one by one, he defeated each of them in turn before they could join up with the others. He slew Lord Fell in single combat and captured his son Silveraxe.” Devan looked to Pylos. “Is that how it happened?” “I said so, didn’t I?” Edric Storm said before the maester could reply. “He smashed all three of them, and fought so bravely that Lord Grandison and Lord Cafferen became his men afterward, and Silveraxe too. No one ever beat my father.” “Edric, you ought not boast,” Maester Pylos said. “King Robert suffered defeats like any other man. Lord Tyrell bested him at Ashford, and he lost many a tourney tilt as well.” “He won more than he lost, though. And he killed Prince Rhaegar on the Trident.” “That he did,” the maester agreed. “But now I must give my attention to Lord Davos, who has waited so patiently. We will read more of King Daeron’s Conquest of Dorne on the morrow.”

--ASOS, Davos V

Here you can see Maester Pylos teaching Shireen history via one of the more famous books of Westeros literature. The Conquest of Dorne was slightly fictionalized by King Daeron I (and Stannis doesn’t care for it), but it’s still excellent for teaching children, especially boys who like the bloody battes related within. Edric (age 12) also tells Shireen a story from Robert’s Rebellion, with Pylos gently providing corrections. So, Shireen is learning history, geography (Dorne and the Reach), and classical literature (pretty much), albeit not exactly in a formal way for some of it. Still, one can assume Pylos is a good teacher (he’s very good with Davos), and educates his charges with all the standard lessons that nobleborn children generally receive from their maesters.

But after that scene... that’s literally it for any descriptions of Shireen’s education. (When Edric has a math lesson later, Shireen’s at the nightfire with her parents.) Maester Pylos was left behind on Dragonstone when Stannis’s army sailed for the Wall, and there’s no word that Shireen has any teacher while she’s in the North, not even a septa. (Well, I imagine septas wouldn’t like to hang around where they’re being told they worship “false gods”, but still.)

So, Shireen doesn’t have “instructors”, and there is absolutely no text saying that Stannis “sought to ensure that she be properly educated to rule in her own right someday”. Stannis does acknowledge Shireen as his heir, and has said that if he dies he wants his men to fight to put her on the throne, but there is no text whatsoever that says he’s having her educated in “good governance.” Also note that if Shireen is being taught anything about religion, that’s being provided by Melisandre and Selyse (who are informing her that the Faith and the Old Gods are all heresies and false gods), not by any other instructors. There is also no mention anywhere that Shireen is an “avid” reader, only that she reads “as natural as breathing” along with Edric, in comparison to the illiterate Davos and the not-as-well-educated Devan. She’s not the bookworm she was in the show, alas.

So I’m afraid I don’t know where the GOT wiki got that information, if it’s not in the books. (It’s not in the app nor in any GRRM interview that I’m aware of; if it’s in one of the RPG sourcebooks that I don’t have, please be aware that those are only semi-canon.) But it looks like that info was added by the wiki’s mod The Dragon Demands, who’s on tumblr as @knightsinquisitor​ IIRC, so you could ask him, maybe? Hope that helps!