The Master of Laws

The Master of Laws is one of the five great offices of the King's small council, charged with the administration of justice throughout the Seven Kingdoms. The post carries responsibility for overseeing the realm's courts, advising the crown on legal matters, and maintaining the king's justice. In theory, the Master of Laws is the second most powerful member of the small council after the Hand of the King, but in practice the office's influence depends entirely on the political standing of its occupant and the will of the monarch.

The Office Under Queen Regent Cersei

During the regency of Queen Cersei Lannister, the Master of Laws was Lord Orton Merryweather, a pliable Reach lord whose appointment owed everything to his wife Taena's friendship with the queen and nothing to legal acumen. Merryweather's tenure exemplified the hollowing-out of royal governance under Cersei: he was a figurehead who raised no objections to the queen's increasingly erratic decrees. When Cersei was arrested by the Faith of the Seven on charges of treason, fornication, and murder, Merryweather abandoned his post and fled to his castle at Longtable, leaving the office vacant and the realm's legal apparatus in chaos.

The Office Under Lord Regent Kevan

After Cersei's fall, Lord Regent Ser Kevan Lannister reconstituted the small council but did not immediately fill the vacant Master of Laws position. Instead, the duties were absorbed by other council members, reflecting the diminished priority of legal administration during a period of open rebellion and war. The office's emptiness also served a political purpose: Kevan was already outnumbered on the council by Tyrell loyalists, and every appointment risked tipping the balance further. The position remained unfilled at the time of Kevan's assassination, a symbol of a realm where law had given way to brute force and factional struggle.

The Office's Narrative Significance

The Master of Laws is never seen performing any actual legal work in the narrative. The position exists primarily as a marker of political allegiance and a measure of how thoroughly the Lannister regime had abandoned competent governance. Its successive occupants—first a sycophant, then no one at all—mirror the Iron Throne's broader decay. The office's emptiness during the critical period of Cersei's trial and the looming threat of Aegon Targaryen's invasion underscores that in the Seven Kingdoms, law has become whatever the strongest faction says it is.