• History

Thrones Are No Game: A Brief History of Chairs and Power

3 minute read

Ever heard of the “seat of power”? Or used the phrase “the throne” to refer to a whole monarchy? What about calling someone a “chairperson”?

As it turns out, there’s a very good reason those idioms exist. As Game of Thrones returns to HBO on Sunday, there’s no better time to be reminded that the real history of thrones is a fascinating one—as should be obvious from the examples seen here. It might sound silly to say that people have gone to war over chairs or that others have decided that it is better to always stand than to sit in the wrong chair, but the people who did so had serious reasons. Chairs were literal embodiments of societal status.

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The use of seats to signify power is “something that does seem to go from culture to culture,” notes Kevin Stayton, Deputy Director for Collections and History at the Brooklyn Museum, which holds several examples of important chairs in its collection. Though thrones, chairs and stools might be differently decorated or shaped in different regions, the idea was the same. Generally, the higher and fancier the seat, the more power the sitter. “Chairs were fraught with political and social meaning,” Stayton says.

But Stayton thinks the real takeaway is that “our modern notion of what it means to sit down is so different from what it would have been historically.” Until modern times, chairs were generally hard to come by, far more expensive and more difficult to make than stools or benches. It would be the rare room that contained more than one. So, naturally, the most important person—the chairman—sat in it.

Read more: 7 Times Game of Thrones Drew on History in Season 5

Stayton traces the moment of change to around the 18th century. It’s no coincidence that the United States came to be then, too: the same Enlightenment ideals that inspired the Founding Fathers also applied to the world of chairs. Imagine a small-town mayor in nascent Massachusetts who is the “chairman” in the rooms in which he sits; in order to combat the democratic notion that they are all the same, fancy European aristocrats made their chairs comfortable. Soon enough, the mayor has the same idea. “At first comfort arises for those people who used to have just status,” Stayton says. “As is so often the case, these status symbols begin to filter down to different layers of society.”

Before long—well, after at least a century—everyone could have a chair, and everyone’s chair could be comfortable.

That idea would have been foreign in the pre-modern world. Chairs were mini thrones, meant to make you sit up straight and look important. And what better chair to do that than the Iron Throne?

An ornately carved throne and matching footstools from the Summer Palace, Peking, Bejing, 1870.
An ornately carved throne and matching footstools from the Summer Palace, Peking, Bejing, 1870.Henry Guttmann—Getty Images
Throne room in the Maha Chakrakri Palace, Siam, 1893.
Throne room in the Maha Chakrakri Palace, Siam, 1893.Chicago History Museum—Getty Images
The throne room of the Tuileries Palace. Paris, before 1870.
The throne room of the Tuileries Palace. Paris, before 1870.Roger Viollet—Getty Images
Throne of the China emperor in the Ban city, in Beijing, China, circa 1900.
Throne of the Chinese emperor in Beijing, circa 1900.Harlingue/Roger Viollet—Getty Images
Throne room at Buckingham palace in London, 1935.
Throne room at Buckingham palace in London, 1935.Universal History Archive/UIG—Getty Images
Throne chair of the Tsarina Elisabeth, Russian Empire, 1912.
Throne chair of the Tsarina Elisabeth, Russian Empire, 1912.Karl Bulla/ullstein bild—Getty Images
The throne of the King of Romania. circa 1913.
The throne of the King of Romania. circa 1913.C. Chusseau-Flaviens/Alinari—Getty Images
Throne room of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria in the Castle Schoenbrunn, 1930.
Throne room of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria in the Castle Schoenbrunn, 1930.Underwood And Underwood—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images
Two thrones on display in the throne room of the Lolani palace, Hawaii.
Two thrones on display in the throne room of the Lolani palace, Hawaii.Eliot Elisofon—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Marahaja's throne room in the main palace made of beautiful decorations. India, 1951.James Burke—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
The Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey. England, 1953.
The Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey. England, 1953.Popperfoto—Getty Images
The Nadir Throne in Tehran, circa 1967.
The Nadir Throne in Tehran, circa 1967.Popperfoto—Getty Images

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Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com