Ronnel Arryn

Ronnel Arryn was the boy king of the Vale whose surrender brought the region under Targaryen rule without a battle at the Eyrie. His brief reign is marked by a striking reversal: after flying in wonder around the Giant’s Lance on dragonback, he was reduced from king to lord, and later died when his brother seized power.

Boy King of the Vale

When the realm’s rulers debated how to respond to Aegon’s conquest, Ronnel’s mother, Sharra Arryn, acted as regent. She offered the Vale’s support against Harren Hoare in return for all the lands east of the Green Fork of the Trident. The offer placed Ronnel’s kingdom among the powers negotiating over the new conqueror’s advance, though the evidence does not record Ronnel personally directing those negotiations.

Visenya at the Eyrie

Sharra had strengthened Gulltown’s defenses, gathered a host at the Bloody Gate, and tripled the garrisons at the waycastles guarding the approach to the Eyrie. Those preparations could not prevent Visenya Targaryen from flying over them and landing in the Eyrie’s inner courtyard. When Sharra came out to confront her, she found Visenya with Ronnel seated on her knee, gazing at the dragon in wonder. The encounter proceeded through courtesies rather than threats or fighting.

Sharra surrendered three crowns: her regent’s coronet, Ronnel’s small crown, and the Falcon Crown of Mountain and Vale, together with the garrison’s swords. It was said afterward that Ronnel flew three times around the summit of the Giant’s Lance before landing as a little lord. The episode makes his change of status unusually visible: the same flight that captured his fascination accompanied the end of his kingship.

Rebellion and Death

Ronnel’s later fate came during the rebellion against King Aenys. His brother Jonos Arryn had taken the Eyrie and claimed the title King of Mountain and Vale. When loyalists demanded that Jonos release Ronnel, Jonos sent his brother through the Moon Door, killing him. Ronnel’s death ended the possibility of restoring him to the lordship and became one of the rebellion’s defining losses.

Legacy in the Narrative

Ronnel appears at two sharply contrasted moments: first as a child whose wonder interrupts a potential confrontation, then as a captive whose brother’s rebellion ends in his death. His remembered flight around the Giant’s Lance links these moments across the change in his status. The account presents the Vale’s submission as bloodless at the point of conquest, but Ronnel’s later death shows that accommodation did not secure his survival amid the kingdom’s subsequent internal conflict.