Rich Morris' Comics - YAFGC and The ComixBlog

A very interesting question. Not that the good of the kingdom cannot coincide with romance... in a fantasy setting, marrying a powerful individual can be as beneficial to the state as marrying a royal from a neighboring state.

And as we learned with Eric and Clover, 'good of the state' is a slightly===flexible term.

Well Eric's advisor was a bit short sighted. One could even argue that the proper spouse is an asset in that they keep the monarch well advised and happy. But if Fatina turns out to be a powerful sorceress for example, and one devoted to Ch'Thier as well, she could be more precious than an alliance with a neighboring state -since that could be achieved by the other siblings' marriage.
Furthermore, think of the endless evil viziers oriental states suffer from and how a sorcerous queen would make them obsolete and you have your value for money right there .