Vaemond Velaryon

Vaemond Velaryon was a Velaryon claimant to Driftmark whose challenge to the proposed succession turned a family inheritance dispute into a violent public confrontation. He asserted that the title should pass to him rather than to Lucerys Velaryon, and made the legitimacy of Rhaenyra Targaryen’s sons the central issue; his execution did not end the dispute, but brought further punishment upon his family.

Identity and Claim

During a sudden fever that left Corlys Velaryon bedridden, the question arose who would inherit his titles as Lord of the Tides and Master of Driftmark if he died. Corlys’s two trueborn children were dead, so the inheritance would legally pass to his eldest grandson, Jacaerys Velaryon. Rhaenyra urged Corlys to name her second son, Lucerys, instead, since Jacaerys was expected to inherit the Iron Throne after her.

Vaemond, the eldest of Corlys’s half-dozen nephews, protested that the inheritance rightfully belonged to him. His argument rested not only on his own claim but on the accusation that Rhaenyra’s sons were bastards fathered by Harwin Strong. The dispute thus joined the question of Driftmark’s succession to a direct challenge to the legitimacy of Rhaenyra’s line.

Execution and Its Immediate Cause

Rhaenyra answered Vaemond’s accusation by sending Daemon Targaryen to seize him. Vaemond was beheaded, and Rhaenyra fed his carcass to her dragon, Syrax. The response removed the claimant, but it did not settle the question in the eyes of his relatives.

Vaemond’s younger cousins fled to King’s Landing with his wife and sons to appeal for justice and present their own claims to the king and queen. Viserys heard them in silence and ordered that every petitioner have his tongue removed. As they were being dragged away, he said, “You were warned,” and declared that he would hear no more of their accusations. The appeal therefore ended not with a ruling on the inheritance, but with the king’s use of force to suppress the challenge.

Role in the Succession Conflict

Vaemond’s brief appearance exposes the stakes concealed inside the Driftmark inheritance question: naming Lucerys heir also meant rejecting Vaemond’s claim and leaving the accusation about Rhaenyra’s sons unanswered. His protest made that accusation explicit; Rhaenyra’s execution of him and Viserys’s punishment of his relatives showed how little room remained for it to be pursued openly at court. The evidence records the violence and the silencing, but does not describe a final legal settlement of Vaemond’s claim.