Greens

The Greens were a court faction aligned with Queen Alicent Hightower and the rights of her sons, most consequentially Aegon II, against Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. They were not presented as a formal institution with a defined membership, but as a network of supporters whose political identity took shape at court and whose power became decisive when Viserys died. Their struggle drew on competing claims to succession, private relationships, established precedent, and control of royal authority.

Formation and Court Alignment

The division developed while Viserys continued to recognize Rhaenyra as his heir, even after Alicent had borne him two sons. Rhaenyra sat at the foot of the Iron Throne when her father held court and was increasingly brought to meetings of the small council. Many lords and knights sought her favor, and half the lords of Westeros had sworn to defend her rights. The persistence of her designation gave the princess’s supporters a political center even as the queen’s family grew.

Alicent’s father, Otto Hightower, was among the strongest advocates for her sons’ claims. He feared that Daemon Targaryen might eventually take the throne and had earlier argued that Rhaenyra should succeed Viserys instead. But the established male-preference succession precedent put a brother ahead of a daughter if the king had no trueborn son. Once Alicent’s sons were born, the question of succession therefore placed her household and Rhaenyra’s party in direct opposition. In 109 AC, Viserys removed Otto as Hand after being pressed too far on the issue and appointed Lyonel Strong in his place. Otto’s dismissal did not dissolve the queen’s party: powerful lords at court continued to support Alicent and her sons.

The Green Name and Its Rival

At the great tourney held in King’s Landing in 111 AC, on the fifth anniversary of Viserys’s marriage to Alicent, the queen wore green while Rhaenyra appeared in Targaryen red and black. Observers took note of the contrast. From then on, the queen’s supporters were called the Greens and Rhaenyra’s supporters the Blacks. A choice of clothing thus supplied names for a political division already present in the court, making rival allegiances publicly legible.

The tourney also displayed the factions’ competing connections. Criston Cole, wearing Rhaenyra’s favor, defeated the queen’s champions, including her brother Gwayne Hightower. Daemon, returning to court after declaring himself King of the Narrow Sea, offered his crown to Viserys and was welcomed back. Rhaenyra was delighted by her uncle’s return, while Daemon was notably cool toward Alicent’s sons, whose births had pushed him farther down the succession. These events did not end the dispute: Viserys continued trying to preserve peace between his wife and daughter, and the feasts and tourneys went on while the political division remained unresolved.

Succession and the Death of Viserys

The Greens’ claim existed within the shadow of the Great Council of 101 AC. There, the assembled lords had selected Viserys over Laenor Velaryon by a lopsided margin, later said to have been more than twenty to one. Many regarded that decision as establishing that the Iron Throne could not pass to a woman or through a woman to her male descendants. The precedent did not erase Rhaenyra’s earlier designation by her father, but it gave the Greens a powerful argument: Aegon was male, and the customary preference for a male claimant supported his accession.

When Viserys died in 129 AC, the faction’s preparations moved from court politics to control of the succession. Septon Eustace later argued that the Greens had anticipated the king’s death and instructed guards and servants what to do when it came. That account attributes deliberate planning to the faction, though it is presented as Eustace’s interpretation. Alicent was informed privately; she went to the king’s chamber with Criston Cole, ordered it sealed, and had the servant who found the body taken into custody. Cole summoned the small council to the queen’s apartments in Maegor’s Holdfast.

The meeting, later called the green council, brought together Alicent, Otto, Cole, Grand Maester Orwyle, Lyman Beesbury, Tyland Lannister, Larys Strong, and Jasper Wylde. Orwyle began by outlining the customary steps after a king’s death, including informing Rhaenyra and preparing for her coronation. Otto insisted that these matters wait until the succession was settled. The council’s actions then departed from the ordinary public announcement of the king’s death: no bells rang, and ravens were sent to lords considered sympathetic to Aegon rather than to Dragonstone. The Greens’ transition to power was therefore organized around keeping the news controlled while assembling support for their claimant.

Power, Resources, and Legitimacy

The Greens secured practical advantages as well as arguments about succession. Tyland Lannister replaced the late Lyman Beesbury as master of coin and took control of the royal treasury. Its gold was divided into four portions: one entrusted to the Iron Bank of Braavos, one sent under guard to Casterly Rock, one to Oldtown, and the remainder reserved for bribes, gifts, and the hiring of sellswords if necessary. Otto also sought the allegiance of Dalton Greyjoy by offering him the admiralty and a place on the council. These decisions connected the faction’s court authority to money, potential military resources, and powerful houses beyond King’s Landing.

The Greens held Oldtown, King’s Landing, and Lannisport, the realm’s largest and richest cities. Aegon sat the Iron Throne in the Red Keep, wore the Conqueror’s crown, wielded the Conqueror’s sword, and had been anointed by a septon before tens of thousands. Grand Maester Orwyle served in his councils, and the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard had placed the crown on his head. In the eyes of many, these visible signs of rule, together with Aegon’s sex and the precedent favoring male claimants, made him the rightful king and Rhaenyra the usurper.

The opposition nevertheless had significant strengths. Rhaenyra had the oaths previously sworn to her, the wealth of House Velaryon, Corlys Velaryon’s naval power, Daemon’s military experience, and her dragons. The black council planned to close the Gullet and block shipping into and out of Blackwater Bay, while seeking further allegiance among the great houses. The Greens’ advantages were therefore formidable but not uncontested: control of the capital, treasury, and royal symbols did not settle the conflict, but converted their claim into a government able to act—and helped make the succession dispute a war.