Lyonel Hightower

Lyonel Hightower became Lord of Oldtown at fifteen, when his father, Ormund, died at Tumbleton during the Dance of the Dragons. His most consequential early decision was to accept the terms offered by Corlys Velaryon, returning Crown gold and keeping Oldtown from reopening the war. The chronicles disagree about what changed Lyonel’s mind: Mushroom attributes it to his love for his father’s widow, Samantha, while Munkun describes political pressure from the Tyrells. Both accounts place the young lord at the point where private attachment and the duties of a powerful house met.

Inheritance and Oldtown’s Stakes

Ormund had taken a second wife only a short time before the Dance began. His first wife had died in childbed, and Lyonel and his brothers—Martyn and Garmund—were children of that earlier marriage. When Ormund died at Tumbleton, Lyonel inherited his lands and title while still on the cusp of manhood. Martyn was then a squire to Lord Redwyne on the Arbor; Garmund was fostering at Highgarden, where he served as a companion to Lord Tyrell and cupbearer to his mother.

The inheritance carried more than a name and estate. Oldtown remained one of the wealthiest powers to have supported Aegon II. Its population could supply new armies, its ships and those of its close kin could form a substantial fleet, and a quarter of the Crown’s gold was held in vaults beneath the Hightower. That reserve could finance fresh alliances or hire sellswords. If Lyonel chose to resume the conflict, Oldtown had the resources to make peace precarious; what mattered was whether its new lord would choose to use them.

The Peace Decision and Conflicting Accounts

When Corlys Velaryon presented his terms, Lyonel initially resisted with striking force. The account says he tore the parchment from his maester’s hand and swore that his answer would be written in Corlys’s blood. Mushroom then gives a personal explanation for the reversal: Samantha, Ormund’s young widow, had long been the object of Lyonel’s affection. She had previously turned aside his advances, but after Ormund’s death she promised to marry Lyonel if he made peace, explaining that she could not bear to lose another husband.

In Mushroom’s telling, Lyonel chose Samantha and accepted every term Corlys offered, including the return of the Crown’s gold. His cousin Ser Myles Hightower was furious, having stolen a substantial part of that gold. The political consequence of Lyonel’s choice was immediate: the wealth that might have supported renewed fighting was to be restored, and Oldtown did not raise the new armies or fleet that its resources could have enabled.

Munkun’s account offers a different cause. Although the Hightowers were rich and powerful, they were bannermen sworn to the Tyrells of Highgarden, who had stayed out of the Dance. Once the conflict was over, the Tyrells forbade Lyonel to raise a host or make war without their permission. Garmund’s position at Highgarden made the order more than an abstract warning: Munkun says his life would be forfeit if Lyonel disobeyed, since a ward could also serve as a hostage. In this version, Lyonel’s submission followed a constraint imposed through feudal ties and his younger brother’s vulnerability. The accounts differ over motive, but both show that Oldtown’s power was bounded by relationships beyond its walls.

Samantha and the Hightower Household

Mushroom presents Samantha as more than the object of a young lord’s affection. She was the daughter of Lord Donald Tarly of Horn Hill and Lady Jeyne Rowan of Goldengrove, families that had fought for the queen during the Dance. Fierce and strong-willed, she intended to retain her place as Lady of Oldtown and mistress of the Hightower. The history says Lyonel was two years younger than her and had been infatuated with her since she arrived to marry Ormund.

Lyonel’s announced intention to marry his father’s widow caused a great scandal. The reigning High Septon forbade the match on grounds of incest, but the prohibition did not end their relationship. Lyonel and Samantha refused to marry for a time; she remained by his side as his paramour for thirteen years, and they had six children together. When a new High Septon came to power at the Starry Sept and reversed his predecessor’s ruling, Lyonel finally took Samantha as his wife. Their long-delayed marriage made public the personal bond that Mushroom had already placed at the center of Lyonel’s peace decision.

A Lord Among Regents and Rivals

Lyonel’s standing remained significant after the war, but he was not named to the council of regency formed to rule for the young Aegon III. Cregan Stark was reportedly offered a place and refused; Lyonel was among the notable figures omitted. Septon Eustace says that only Unwin Peake was truly angered by exclusion, so the sources do not portray Lyonel as making a public challenge to the settlement. Later in 131 AC, Lyonel and Samantha rode south to Oldtown with their Hightowers as other lords left King’s Landing.

They returned to court for Aegon III’s coronation and royal wedding. Lyonel arrived with Samantha despite the High Septon’s refusal to travel in their company, a sign of how widely known their forbidden relationship had become. The episode placed their personal scandal amid the formal gathering of the realm’s leading houses, while also showing that Lyonel continued to appear as Oldtown’s representative at royal occasions.

Friendship with Alyn Velaryon

In 133 AC, Lyonel welcomed Alyn Velaryon and his fleet into Oldtown. The city’s great beacon guided the ships through Whispering Sound, and Lyonel came out to receive them. Alyn’s courteous treatment of Samantha quickly warmed Lyonel to him, and the two young men formed a close friendship. Their personal connection helped ease the lingering enmities between the former opposing camps.

Lyonel offered twenty warships for Alyn’s fleet, while Lord Redwyne promised another thirty. The Hightower ships, commanded by Ser Leo Costayne, joined Alyn when he eventually sailed, after waiting in Oldtown for Lord Redwyne’s promised galleys. During that stay, Alyn explored the city and visited the Citadel, where he studied old charts and Valyrian writings on ship design and naval tactics; at the Starry Sept, the High Septon blessed his expedition. The friendship thus had practical consequences as well as political meaning: Oldtown contributed ships to the fleet, and Lyonel’s welcome connected the Hightowers to a campaign led by a former adversary’s kin. Whether Lyonel’s earlier choice for peace arose from love or political necessity, his later actions likewise show influence working through personal ties, family obligations, and the resources of Oldtown.