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The Insane Cost of Tywin Lannister’s Army

The Fandome

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The armies of Westeros are massive — but how much would they actually cost in the real world?

In this video, we break down the likely cost of the Lannister Army using real medieval history, historical campaign records, soldier wages, logistics, equipment, food, horses, and modern inflation estimates.

From knights and men-at-arms to supply trains and siege warfare, we calculate just how expensive Tywin Lannister’s war machine would really be — and whether even House Lannister could truly afford it.

Written by Tobby

Sources:
Sumption, Jonathan. The Hundred Years War I: Trial by Battle. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990.
Sumption, Jonathan. The Hundred Years War II: Trial by Fire. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.
Baker, Gary Paul. “The English Way of War, 1360-1399.” PhD diss., University of Hull, 2011.
Taliaferro, Stephen S. “The Archer’s Tale: An Examination of English Archers During the Hundred Years War and their Impact on Warfare and Society.” Master’s thesis., U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 2015.
Richardson, Roland Thomas. “The medieval inventories of the Tower armouries 1320-1410.” PhD diss., University of York, 2012.

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Contents:
00:00 Intro & Historical Background
02:18 Wages for the Army
04:48 The Cost of Equipment
07:01 Final Calculations

20 Comments

@warlordofbritannia 4 months ago (edited) Pinned

Despite my fears, this only took three or so hours to research and write. And yes, it was my birthday.
What? You think researching late medieval logistics is a weird way to spend a birthday? Joke’s on you, I’m into that shii!

@professorsassafras 4 months ago

And don't forget Robb Stark destroyed one of those armies so he had to make another one

@007jackbourne7 4 months ago

the guy does have a wakanda sized gold meteor underneath his house seat

@007jackbourne7 4 months ago

I do have to say, that tywin himself wasnt having to pay every single knight and every single soldier brought under his command, while he would be paying his contingents of men, the various lords that are also under his banner would be footing some of that bill as well.

But the numbers do match up for just how astronomical pulling 40 thousand men out of your rear would be for a medieval society.

@mixkid3362 4 months ago

Its pretty clear at least in thw books that the Lannisters are a spent force. Remember they had one army which was split in two, one half going with Jaime to Riverrun. That army was destroyed after the Whispering Wood and Camps battles. They then were in the process of slapping together a whole new army which was jumped and destroyed by Robb at Oxcross which left the Westerlands borderline defenseless.

They've only got the one force which went with Tywin to King's Landing. No wonder he needed the Red Wedding

@elitemook4234 4 months ago

'Tobby takes the script out of the bin or else he gets the hose again.' - Thorn probably

@CaledonianSon 4 months ago

Ah logistics. The bugaboo of every army to ever exist. A fascinating topic that also honestly doesnt get enough light to show how it impacts everything an army does, fictional or real

@pieterboshoff7582 4 months ago

its even worse when u consider that the Lannister gold mines are said to be out of gold and they started calling people to repay loans at the start of the story, the crown is also deep in debt millions in debt

@evanjohnson1299 4 months ago

A good chunk of the armies are from the vassels who are responsible for maintaining their own forces to be called upon the leige lord does offer support especially during wartime but the majority of the costs are on the vessels supported by the incomes of the land they oversee, so most of tywins direct costs are his own household forces and I believe the levies are given their equipment when taken in and the only extra equipment costs is replenishment, so tywin only has to keep his major vassels in line and they pay their soldiers, he can pacify the vassels by offering marriage pacts, trade concessions, debt forgiveness, more land, desirable court positions, and yes direct payments, but that is considered being no better than a sellsword and no self respecting noble wants that comparison

@Melanesian-dude 4 months ago

As Bron once said, "you lanisters shit gold"

@msmith1890 4 months ago

Last time I was this early the lannisters were Kings of the Rock.

@keelanmurphy9941 4 months ago (edited)

I'm sorry to argue with a man on his birthday, but I strongly disagree with using the 14th Century as a benchmark here. The scarcity of labour was at an all time high in Europe after the Black Death, and soldiers could demand far higher wages than at any prior point in history. That's a big part of why medieval army sizes are so tiny on average compared to the Ancient Period.

Rome, at its height, fielded as many as 650,000 troops. The Seven Kingdoms are territorially considerably larger than the Roman Empire (three and a half times larger, in fact). As for equipping troops, again, the cost of labour was so high in the 1350s that I think the estimates are overinflated here; moreover, with an army as large as Tywin's, economies of scale would come into play and reduce the cost per unit.

In the 1500s, as the population recovered, the cost dropped dramatically: at the battle of Pavia, for instance, both sides fielded over 25000 mostly-professional troops, with 3000 heavy cavalry on the French side and 2500 on the Imperial. Population density and relative cost of labour both pre and post plague absolutely could support armies of this size; I enjoyed the video but I strongly feel that you couldn't have picked a worse time period to compare it to.

@kiwwat4139 4 months ago (edited)

Alex here. Note on the "Pimp Stick". It's got a hammerhead and a pick on it. And a spike on the end. It would, in fact, quite hurt to be hit by.
Congratulations on 50k again!

@DrZaius3141 4 months ago

I think the more useful translation would have been from real-world medieval money into pounds of silver (or gold) required for wages and equipment. That would lead us to a necessary daily output for the gold mines of Casterly Rock to keep up the demands of the army.

@AllofTopher 4 months ago

"Wars swallow gold like a pit in the earth" – Tywin

@ShaggyRogers1 4 months ago (edited)

"The equivalent of X pounds today."

Even easier, mate. You simply forgot that the "pound sterling" used to literally just mean a pound(of that era's measurement) of sterling-level of purity of silver.

@AndrewStevenson-s4v4w 4 months ago (edited)

It's mad that the Lanisters alone can raise an army bigger than the kingdom of England on a similar technological level.

@11bluekitkats 4 months ago

Great video! I know it’s technically not under the costs of the army but if you add in the price of all the food they needed to support the army as well as all the tents they would use to sleep in while on the move these numbers would definitely be a lot bigger. Amazing video this is just my 2 cents as a logistician in the marine corps.

@professorsassafras 4 months ago

I think at the end of the day the reason why Rob never killed Jamie was he was really hoping to use Jamie as a bargaining chip the problem was Cersei was in charge

@justinian-the-great 4 months ago

Well, in George's defence, although the composition of the army of Tywin is similar to that of medieval England, Westeros is a way bigger and way more populous place than medieval England and thus way richer. While the kings of England in the post Black death era of 1350's had about 2.5 million subjects to tax, Westeros had by most calculations somewhere between 25 to 50 million people living in it! I'm taking the whole Westeros here as an example, because Tywin through Joffrey basically ruled a vast majority of it. Taking into the account that somewhere between 70 to 90 percent of the budget of medieval states was coming through taxation of subjects, I can see how Tywin could raise so big of an army and maintain it for a long period of time. The problem of warfare in ASOIAF is that, although George presents Westeros as comparable to England in culture and history, the armies of 7 kingdoms were in size and uniformity more similar to those of far greater and far more centralized countries of the era, like France, Byzantines or Islamic caliphates. So are armies realistic in terms of size and money consumption? Yes. Are they realistic to exist in such fractured realm like Westeros is? Eeehh......maybe.