Rhaena Targaryen and Androw Farman's marriage

Rhaena Targaryen and Androw Farman’s marriage was a private union between a twice-widowed queen and a much younger second son, celebrated on Fair Isle in 49 AC without the Crown’s knowledge. Rhaena later explained her choice in simple terms: Androw had been kind to her. Yet the match also unfolded amid questions of rank, royal permission, and the queen’s close attachment to Androw’s sister, Elissa Farman. Its early secrecy and later flight from Fair Isle show a marriage that offered Rhaena personal companionship without removing her from the political pressures surrounding her household.

A Secret Wedding on Fair Isle

The wedding took place when the new year was only a fortnight old, in a small ceremony beneath the open sky. Rhaena was twenty-six and had already been widowed twice; Androw, at seventeen, was entering his first marriage. His father, Marq Farman, Lord of Fair Isle, presided, and the family’s own septon conducted the ceremony. Among the great lords, only Lyman Lannister and his wife, Jocasta Lannister, attended. Rhaena’s former companions Samantha Stokeworth and Alayne Royce hurried to Fair Isle to stand with her, while Androw’s sister, Elissa Farman, was also present. The rest of the company consisted of bannermen and household knights sworn to House Farman or House Lannister. The court learned of the marriage only when a raven from Casterly Rock brought the news days after the wedding celebrations. That delay mattered: Rhaena had married without seeking the Crown’s leave, and the marriage connected a woman who had twice been queen and remained mother to the king’s heir with a lord’s younger, non-inheriting son. Queen Alyssa was reported to be deeply offended that she had been excluded. Rogar Baratheon, then the young king’s Hand, was furious that Rhaena had married without permission. The account suggests that permission might not have been granted: Androw was widely considered an unsuitable match for a royal widow of Rhaena’s standing, while Rogar had male relatives of appropriate age and lineage who might have been considered instead. The response at court was not uniform. King Jaehaerys and his sister Alysanne welcomed the news, sent gifts and congratulations to Fair Isle, and ordered the Red Keep’s bells rung in celebration. Their response contrasted with Alyssa’s hurt and Rogar’s anger, placing the marriage between private choice and the Crown’s expectations for royal marriage. Unlike the carefully arranged matches used to bind noble houses across the realm, this union had been contracted beyond the court’s knowledge and without its prior approval.

Androw’s Character and Rhaena’s Choice

Androw was described as handsome, with pale blue eyes and long flaxen hair, but his qualities were otherwise far removed from the martial ideal associated with his family. He was gentle and soft-spoken, had failed as a squire, and had not become a knight. His father had considered sending him to Oldtown to train as a maester, but the family’s maester judged that he lacked the necessary learning; Androw could scarcely read or write. These details help explain why observers questioned the match, but they do not establish that Rhaena chose him for political advantage. When asked later why she had married him, she identified his kindness. That kindness was also associated with Lord Marq, who had offered Rhaena refuge on Fair Isle after the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye, when Maegor sought her capture and the Poor Fellows denounced her and her daughters. One proposed explanation was that Rhaena’s marriage repaid the father for his protection of her. The account presents that as a possibility, not a settled motive. A different interpretation, advanced by Lord Farman’s maester, was that Rhaena’s deepest affection on Fair Isle was directed not toward Androw but toward Elissa. Rhaena and Elissa became close companions, and Androw’s place in their circle was limited. The evidence therefore leaves the emotional character of the marriage open: Rhaena’s stated reason was Androw’s kindness, while the chronicler records uncertainty about whether gratitude, love, or another attachment best explains her choice.

A Marriage within Rhaena’s Household

After the wedding, Androw lived within a household organized around Rhaena’s companions. Elissa, Samantha, and Alayne formed an intimate group with the queen, called the Four-Headed Beast by Ser Franklyn Farman. Androw was admitted to their company at times, but not often enough to be treated as another member of the group. Rhaena frequently flew with the three women on Dreamfyre and never took Androw with her. The account allows that he may have declined such invitations because he was not adventurous, so his absence cannot be confidently read as rejection by either spouse. This arrangement gives the marriage a distinctive shape: Androw was Rhaena’s husband, but her closest daily companionship appears to have rested elsewhere. That does not erase the stated kindness between them, or prove that the marriage was loveless. It does, however, distinguish the public status of the husband from his place in the queen’s private circle. Their age and rank also ran against expectation: Rhaena was a twice-widowed royal mother, while Androw was a youth nine years her junior and a younger son of a minor lord. The match placed him beside the queen without making him her political equal or the center of her established friendships.

Departure and Refuge at Casterly Rock

The marriage was tested when Rhaena’s position on Fair Isle became untenable. After his father’s funeral, Franklyn ordered her to leave and demanded that Elissa remain on the island. Rhaena departed that night on Dreamfyre for Casterly Rock, directing Androw and her companions to follow by ship. When Androw offered to meet Franklyn in single combat, Rhaena dissuaded him, warning that he would be defeated and that another widowhood would expose her to further hostility. Her intervention was both protective of her husband and practical: she would not let a futile challenge make her position more precarious. Androw set out the following morning with Samantha, Alayne, more than forty members of Rhaena’s household, and Elissa, who refused to remain behind. At the docks, Franklyn tried to prevent his sister’s departure, but the crowd overwhelmed his small escort and the queen’s party sailed for Lannisport aboard Elissa’s ship, Maiden’s Fancy. The episode shows the spouses acting together in flight, even as Rhaena remained the decisive figure: she chose the destination, managed the danger, and brought her household with her. Lyman Lannister and Jocasta welcomed the party because they had sheltered Rhaena and Androw before, when Maegor demanded their heads. They held a lavish feast, set aside an entire stable for Dreamfyre, and gave the queen, her husband, and the Four-Headed Beast apartments deep within Casterly Rock. The refuge lasted more than a moon’s turn. Its hospitality, however, became unsettling when Rhaena realized that servants were reporting on the household, that a septa was asking Samantha about the marriage, and that Ser Tyler Hill openly scorned Androw while courting Rhaena’s favor. The account also notes Lyman’s interest in the dragon eggs Rhaena had brought from Fair Isle. Thus the marriage carried Rhaena into a new place of safety, but not into freedom from scrutiny: even as Androw accompanied her in exile, their union remained a subject of questions within the powerful household sheltering them.