Coryanne Wylde

Coryanne Wylde, a noblewoman of House Wylde and the alleged author of A Caution for Young Girls, occupies the uncertain boundary between personal history and sensational fiction. A maester’s records confirm the central facts of her early scandal, but the book attributed to her alters or embellishes its account, and the circumstances of her journey to Dragonstone remain disputed. Her story is therefore not only one of a young woman moved between households and distant places, but also a case in which the evidence for a life is entangled with the stories later told about it.

Identity and the disputed book

A Caution for Young Girls circulated under several titles, including Sins of the Flesh, The High and the Low, A Wanton’s Tale, and The Wickedness of Men. Its supposed author presents herself as a noble-born maid whose youthful transgression began a long life of hardship and sexual exploitation, ending, according to the book’s framing, with her return to Oldtown and a religious vocation. The text claims to be a warning to other young women, but its authorship and reliability are both uncertain.

Some scholars have argued that the book was composed by several hands: its style varies between episodes, and copyists, particularly mummers, were said to alter texts freely. In this case, later versions accumulated additional episodes and made existing ones more sensational, leaving even the title unsettled among maesters. Coryanne’s identity as the author is thus an attribution, not an established fact; the record confirms parts of her youth without validating the full autobiographical narrative.

Early life and the record at Rain House

The maester who served at Rain House records that Coryanne, the younger daughter of Lord Morgan Wylde, was seduced at thirteen by a stable lad and gave birth to a bastard son. His account differs sharply from the book’s version of the encounter: the narrative depicts a handsome boy of her own age, while the maester describes an older, pox-scarred man. The contrast is central to the problem of reconstructing Coryanne’s story: even the event best supported by independent testimony comes to us in incompatible forms.

The stable lad was gelded and sent to the Wall after the affair became known. Coryanne was confined while she gave birth, and the child, born in 48 AC, was soon sent to Storm’s End to be fostered by a castle steward and his barren wife. Her family kept the matter closely guarded. When a raven summoned Coryanne to King’s Landing, her mother instructed her not to speak of the child or her past, since she would be presented at court as a maiden. The secret was therefore part of the circumstances under which she left Rain House, rather than a matter of public knowledge.

The summons and its competing explanations

On the journey south, Coryanne travelled with her father and a brother. At an inn beside the Blackwater Rush ferry, a great lord was said to have met her privately. The versions disagree over his identity: the older, shorter Sins of the Flesh and The High and the Low name Ser Borys Baratheon, while A Wanton’s Tale and The Wickedness of Men name Lord Rogar Baratheon. The story further alleges that the man dismissed Coryanne’s male relatives, examined her, and disclosed that she was to go to Dragonstone as a companion to Queen Alysanne while secretly attempting to draw Jaehaerys Targaryen away from his marriage. The promised inducements included wealth for Coryanne and her family; these details remain allegations within an unverified account.

No independent source confirms that the meeting took place or establishes what was said. Archmaester Crey considered it a slander aimed at Lord Rogar and attributed it to Ser Borys, who later quarrelled with his brother. Maester Ryben treated the episode as a bawdy invention shaped to excite its audience. A less incriminating possibility is that a Baratheon instructed Coryanne in the duties expected of a court informant, as other women sent to Alysanne’s household were reportedly instructed.

The choice of Coryanne nevertheless invites scrutiny. Lord Rogar was Lord Morgan’s liege, and Coryanne’s son had been placed in Rogar’s household, so Rogar could plausibly have known of her history. Yet no source supplies a convincing explanation for selecting her as one of Alysanne’s companions when many other noble girls of suitable age were available, including girls whose reputations were unblemished. The book offers a clear answer—that Coryanne was intended for Jaehaerys, not Alysanne—but the evidence does not prove it.

Dragonstone and departure

Coryanne did join the women sent to Dragonstone for Alysanne’s household. The party sailed from King’s Landing aboard the trading galley Wise Woman on the seventh day of the second moon of 50 AC. Queen Alyssa had sent word ahead, and the little queen received the new companions at the harbor with gifts and welcoming smiles. This documented arrival establishes Coryanne’s place in the household, though it does not establish the hidden purpose alleged by the book.

On the fifteenth day of the sixth moon of 50 AC, Coryanne left Dragonstone by night with Ser Howard Bullock, the younger son of the castle garrison’s commander. Howard was married and left his wife behind, taking most of her jewelry. A fishing boat carried the pair to Driftmark, where they boarded a ship for Pentos. They later travelled to the Disputed Lands, and Howard joined the Free Company. Three years later he died in Myr after falling from his horse following a night of drinking. Coryanne, alone and penniless, continued into the uncertain series of experiences recounted in the book.

Consequences and narrative significance

Coryanne’s departure made one thing clear at court: whatever plans Lord Rogar and Queen Alyssa may have had, they had not broken the bond between Jaehaerys and Alysanne. The episode is framed through the failure of competing efforts to influence the royal marriage, but the evidence leaves Rogar’s role in Coryanne’s summons unresolved. Her flight with Howard is firmer than the alleged conspiracy surrounding her arrival, and it marks the point at which the historical account gives way to the book’s increasingly difficult-to-verify adventures.

Coryanne’s significance lies in this uneven record. Her son’s birth, her place among Alysanne’s companions, and her night departure with Howard are supported by accounts beyond the book attributed to her; the inn meeting and its proposed seduction scheme are not. The contrast prevents her from being reduced either to the sensational heroine of a cautionary tale or to a fully recoverable historical figure. Instead, her story shows how a documented private scandal could be reshaped into a chain of lurid episodes—and how the surviving evidence can confirm a life’s turning points without settling who wrote its most famous account.