On Bastards vs. Trueborns (once more)
(I hope that it’s not me beating a dead horse, because I’ve seen the flame wars around the topic of Catelyn) But I’ve only recently found out about a real-life example on what happened when fathers favored bastards — I think it shows that Catelyn’s paranoia concerning Jon wasn’t as ridiculous in medieval society’s eyes as we readers (who have the advantage of reading Jon’s and Ned’s minds) know it to be.
In the 12th century, there lived Prince Yaroslav Osmomysl of Galich. He favored his concubine and his bastard son Oleg so much that he banished his actual wife and his son and heir Vladimir from the principality (when the kid was only about fifteen!). And before he died, he wanted Oleg to inherit. Vladimir, naturally, disagreed, a long civil strife with treasons and poisonings and rebellions ensued, and no one actually won for more than a few years. And as for posterity, both brothers sank into obscurity soon afterwards, until Vladimir was pulled out of it about 700 years later — by getting featured in the opera Prince Igor, as one of the most disgusting villains of opera in general, and with all the blame for the family strife pinned entirely on him.
Thankfully, Catelyn doesn’t know anything of the above (I don’t know if even GRRM knows — though it does seem to be what he would be interested in: an interfamilial war for the throne with no winners that ends in the dynasty dying out in the male line, hm, now where have we seen that before…). But it shows that yes, favoring a bastard could be a dangerous sign and could very much mean future trouble for the legitimate son. The Blackfyre Rebellions at least never succeeded — but some RL analogues did, if briefly.