Franklyn Farman

Franklyn Farman is the heir to Faircastle who inherits Fair Isle after his father’s sudden death. He resents Queen Rhaena Targaryen’s influence in his family’s home and regards his sister Elissa’s independence as a failure of duty. When he tries to expel Rhaena while keeping Elissa behind for a marriage of his choosing, the people gathered at the docks turn his command into a public humiliation.

Position and grievances

Franklyn is the eldest son and heir of Lord Marq Farman. His hostility toward Rhaena is shaped by both family loss and wounded standing. He had fought for Prince Aegon the Uncrowned at the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye, where he was wounded; his grandsire and eldest uncle died there, and Franklyn was left to bring their bodies home to Fair Isle. He believed that Rhaena showed too little remorse for the grief brought to House Farman and too little gratitude to him personally.

He also objected to Rhaena’s friendship with Elissa. In his view, his sister’s wilful independence called for correction: the queen should have urged her to meet her obligations to the family through a suitable marriage and children. His resentment extended beyond his sister’s choices. Rhaena and her companions, known as the Four-Headed Beast, had become the centre of life at Faircastle, while Franklyn and his father were increasingly overlooked. Visitors from the Westerlands and farther afield came to seek an audience with Rhaena, not with the lord’s heir or the ruler of a small island. The account notes that Franklyn’s grievance on this point had some basis, even as it shows how personal resentment shaped his response.

Inheritance and expulsion

While Lord Marq lived, Franklyn’s complaints had little practical effect. Marq was described as amiable and good-natured, loving his children, including his wayward daughter and weakling son, and welcoming Rhaena because she loved them too. His sudden death at his own table, at the age of six-and-forty, changed the balance of power. Less than a fortnight after Rhaena and Androw Farman had marked their first wedding anniversary, Marq choked on a fish bone; Franklyn became lord.

The new lord acted immediately. The day after his father’s funeral, he summoned Rhaena to the great hall rather than going to her, and ordered her off the island. He would not welcome her, her dragon, or her friends, and he included his younger brother Androw among those who must go. Elissa, however, was to remain and marry a man selected by Franklyn. His command made plain the difference between his aims and Rhaena’s: he wanted to assert control over his household, while she would not stay where she was unwanted or surrender her friend to his authority.

Elissa and the dockside confrontation

Rhaena left Fair Isle that night on Dreamfyre, telling her husband and companions to follow by ship. Androw considered facing Franklyn in single combat, but Rhaena dissuaded him, warning that he would be outmatched and that another widowhood would bring her further suspicion and hostility. She expected Lord Lyman Lannister of Casterly Rock to shelter her again. The next morning Androw, Samantha Stokeworth, Alayne Royce, and more than forty of Rhaena’s friends, servants, and followers prepared to leave. Elissa joined them aboard the Maiden’s Fancy.

Franklyn waited at the docks with only about half a dozen men. He allowed the others to depart but insisted that Elissa stay on Fair Isle to marry. He had misjudged the affection the smallfolk bore his sister, particularly among the sailors, shipwrights, fisherfolk, porters, and other people of the docks who had known her since childhood. When Elissa confronted him and demanded that he move aside, the gathering crowd grew increasingly angry. Franklyn tried to seize her; the onlookers surged forward and overwhelmed his men before they could draw their swords. Three men were shoved into the water, while Franklyn was thrown into a ship’s hold filled with freshly caught cod. Elissa and the rest of the party boarded the Maiden’s Fancy unharmed and sailed for Lannisport.

A contested authority

Franklyn’s brief exercise of lordly authority exposes its limits. His inheritance gave him command of Fair Isle, but it did not secure the loyalty of the people who lived and worked at its docks. His attempt to control Elissa’s departure instead brought the crowd into the dispute, and his small escort could not enforce his demand. The outcome is a sharp reversal: the man who had ordered the queen away and claimed the right to decide his sister’s marriage was himself left in the hold of a fishing vessel as Elissa sailed beyond his reach.

His conflict with Elissa continued in the practical conditions of her life on Fair Isle. Franklyn denied her any share of the island’s income. When she asked Rhaena for gold to build a large, swift ship at the shipyards of Driftmark for a voyage across the Sunset Sea, Rhaena refused, saying she could not bear for Elissa to leave; Elissa heard only the refusal. This episode shows that Franklyn’s control over the family’s resources helped constrain his sister’s choices even after the dockside confrontation had allowed her to depart with Rhaena’s party. In the later dispute over the stolen dragon eggs, Jaehaerys speaks of Elissa as a thief, while Rhaena insists that Silverwing, their sister, had no part in the matter. Franklyn’s place in the narrative is thus bound to a family conflict that reaches beyond his own attempt to keep Elissa at home: authority, loyalty, and the consequences of her departure remain contested.