The King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men

The King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men is the supreme royal title of the Iron Throne, encompassing the three peoples who successively settled and conquered Westeros: the First Men, the Andals, and the Rhoynar. In A Dance with Dragons, the title is repeatedly invoked by rival monarchs, each asserting their claim amid the chaos of the War of the Five Kings. Its formal use in proclamations, court ceremonies, and letters reveals both the persistence of dynastic legitimacy as a political ideal and the widening gap between that ideal and the fractured reality of the realm.

Origin and Composition of the Title

The title reflects the layered conquests of Westeros. The First Men were the original human inhabitants who crossed the Arm of Dorne thousands of years before the Andals. The Andals invaded from the east, bringing iron weapons and the Faith of the Seven, and established the kingdoms that would later be united under the Targaryens. The Rhoynar, led by Princess Nymeria, fled the Valyrian expansion and settled in Dorne, eventually merging with the local ruling house. By including all three groups, the title asserts that the Iron Throne rules over the entire continent, from the Wall to the Summer Sea, and over every major ethnic and cultural tradition within it.

Usage by Claimants in A Dance with Dragons

Three characters formally employ the title in the novel. Tommen Baratheon, the boy king in King's Landing, is proclaimed with the full style by his herald and in official documents, as when Jon Snow reads a letter signed by Stannis that includes the title . Stannis Baratheon, the rebel king at the Wall, uses the same style in his correspondence, signing himself as "King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men" . Daenerys Targaryen, the exiled queen across the Narrow Sea, is announced with the identical formula when she holds court in Meereen . The repetition of the same title by three mutually hostile rulers underscores the contested nature of sovereignty: each claims the whole realm, but none controls more than a fraction of it.

Ceremonial and Political Function

The title is most often recited in formal contexts that assert authority. Missandei announces Daenerys with the full list of titles before each court session , establishing her claim to Westeros even as she rules in Slaver's Bay. At the wedding of Alys Karstark and Sigorn, the ceremony is conducted under the authority of the Night's Watch, but the queen's men present invoke Stannis's titles, including the royal style . The title also appears in the appendix, where Tommen Baratheon is listed with the full style . In each case, the title functions as a verbal assertion of legitimacy, a reminder that the speaker or the person being announced claims dominion over the entire realm, regardless of the actual extent of their power.

The Title as a Marker of Fragmentation

The very frequency of the title's use in A Dance with Dragons highlights the disintegration of the unified monarchy it describes. Tommen sits the Iron Throne but is a child controlled by regents and threatened by rivals. Stannis commands a dwindling army in the frozen north. Daenerys is thousands of miles away, ruling a foreign city. Each claimant's use of the same grand style exposes the gap between the claim and the reality: the realm is not united under any single king, and the title has become a rhetorical weapon rather than a description of fact. The novel thus uses the title to dramatize the central theme of the series—the tension between the idea of a unified Westeros and the brutal, fragmented struggle for power that defines its present.