Gawen

Gawen was the third Grand Maester of the Seven Kingdoms, an adviser whose records illuminate the court of Aenys I and whose final stand brought him into direct conflict with Maegor I. His career joined the new institution of royal counsel to a violent contest over who had the right to rule: when Maegor claimed the Iron Throne, Gawen invoked the laws of inheritance and was executed for opposing him.

Identity and Office

The office of Grand Maester was created at Aegon I’s request in 5 AC, when he asked the Conclave to send one of its archmaesters to advise him on the governance of the realm. Gawen was the third man to hold it. He succeeded Lyonce, who had served until 12 AC, when a fall in the mud left him with a broken hip and he died soon afterward. The Conclave then elevated Gawen.

The position placed its holder among the king’s advisers, but it did not mean that the royal council was already fully formed. Under Aegon I, the king consulted Grand Maesters and household maesters, sought his masters of coin on finance, and relied especially on the King’s Hand and his sisters. The small council would not reach its full development until the reign of Jaehaerys I. Gawen’s office therefore belonged to an early, still developing structure of royal counsel.

Counsel and Record of Aenys I

Gawen’s writings preserve a portrait of Aenys I struggling to understand the rebellions that threatened his rule. The king wondered why people he believed loved him had turned against him, and whether he had wronged them. He considered sending messengers to hear the rebels’ grievances, while also worrying about the security of King’s Landing. His orders shifted with those fears: he first directed his Hand, Alyn Stokeworth, to sail with an army to the Vale, then countermanded the order because Stokeworth’s departure might leave the capital exposed. He instead sent the Hand after Harren the Red and resolved to call a great council about the other uprisings.

Gawen also described the deep differences between Aenys and Maegor. Aenys sought affection, preferred soft words, and was readily swayed by the last counselor to advise him; Maegor was rigid, impatient with counsel, and inclined to answer difficulty with force. The contrast in Gawen’s account is not merely one of temperament: it anticipates the brothers’ opposed approaches to power, and the danger to the realm when counsel and force pulled in different directions.

Opposition to Maegor’s Claim

After Aenys died, Maegor came to Dragonstone and claimed the crown. Gawen alone among those present objected. He argued that the laws of inheritance affirmed by Aegon I required the Iron Throne to pass to Aenys’s son, Aegon. Maegor rejected the claim that law could determine who ruled and asserted that strength would decide possession of the throne.

Maegor ordered Gawen’s immediate execution and carried it out himself with Blackfyre. The episode made the Grand Maester’s counsel a direct challenge to the new king’s authority: Gawen appealed to an established rule of succession, while Maegor answered with the power to seize and defend the crown. His death closed his service not with a negotiated transfer of authority, but with the ruler he opposed personally enforcing his claim.