Alyn Velaryon and Unwin Peake's Power Struggle

Alyn Velaryon and Unwin Peake’s power struggle was a contest over who could direct the realm’s fleet, claim credit for its victories, and command the king’s confidence. Peake held office as Hand and regent, but Alyn had the ships, wealth, and public admiration that made it dangerous to treat him as a subordinate. Their conflict sharpened when Alyn disobeyed Peake’s cautious plan in the Stepstones, then became a celebrated hero whom Peake could neither safely punish nor easily control.

Rival claims to command

Peake’s Stepstones campaign aimed to end Racallio Ryndoon’s piratical rule on Bloodstone and secure a royal presence there, so that the narrow sea could not again be closed. The crown’s fleet alone was inadequate: it comprised eight new warships and about twenty older cogs and galleys. Peake therefore ordered Alyn to bring the Velaryon fleets under the command of Peake’s uncle, Gedmund Peake. Alyn had long wanted to lead a campaign at sea, but bristled at being told what to do with the ships that were now his. He declared, “They are my fleets now, and Baela’s monkey is more suited to command them than Nuncle Gedmund.”

Alyn nevertheless brought sixty war galleys, thirty longships, and more than a hundred cogs and great cogs to join the royal fleet. As the ships passed through the Gullet, Gedmund sent Ned Bean to Alyn’s flagship, Queen Rhaenys, with a letter authorizing Alyn to command the Velaryon squadrons. Alyn rejected the arrangement and sent Bean back with a cutting reply. The episode exposed the gap between Peake’s formal authority and Alyn’s control of the forces on which the expedition depended.

Disobedience in the Stepstones

Off Tarth, Gedmund learned that Braavos, Tyrosh, and Racallio had joined forces to control the Stepstones and restrict passage to ships licensed by Braavos or Tyrosh. He chose to wait at Tarth for instructions from King’s Landing. Alyn argued that the delay would sacrifice any chance of surprising Racallio, but Gedmund would not change course. The commanders parted angrily, and the next morning Gedmund discovered that Alyn had sailed away with the Velaryon fleet.

Alyn had not returned to Driftmark, as Gedmund assumed. He had taken his ships south and attacked the Stepstones while the royal fleet remained at Tarth. The strike caught the Braavosi unprepared: their grand admiral and many captains were feasting on Bloodstone with Racallio and Tyroshi envoys. Alyn’s forces captured, burned, or sank half the Braavosi ships at anchor and attacked others as they tried to get underway. Alyn himself brought Queen Rhaenys against the great Braavosi dromond Grand Defiance, striking it broadside and sinking it.

The victory was substantial but did not accomplish Peake’s stated objective. Alyn lost three ships, including one captained by his cousin Daeron, while sinking more than thirty enemy vessels and capturing six galleys, eleven cogs, eighty-nine hostages, and large stores of provisions, arms, and coin. He also took an elephant intended for the Sealord’s menagerie. He returned to King’s Landing acclaimed as Oakenfist, but had not captured Bloodstone or the other islands. Racallio remained in power, and the attack risked war with Braavos, the richest and most powerful of the Nine Free Cities.

Public triumph and Peake’s counterstroke

The contrast between popular celebration and political confrontation defined Alyn’s return. Tens of thousands welcomed him as he rode through the River Gate on the Sealord’s elephant, and Aegon III appeared to greet him. But in the throne room the king had vanished, and Peake sat on the Iron Throne to berate Alyn for provoking a war. Alyn answered, “And an elephant.” The joke drew nervous laughter from Peake’s men, while Peake—who disliked being laughed at—remained furious.

Peake could not readily turn that anger into punishment. Alyn was young and bastard-born, but he had married the king’s half-sister Baela, commanded the resources of House Velaryon, and become the smallfolk’s hero. Peake was not prepared to risk harming someone with such strength and popularity. Instead, seven days after Alyn’s return, the court publicly honored him: Marston Waters dubbed him a knight, Peake gave him an admiral’s golden chain and a silver replica of Queen Rhaenys, and the king invited him to serve as master of ships.

The honors also concealed a means of control. Aegon announced that Alyn should sail around Westeros to protect the west from the Ironborn and recover Fair Isle from Dalton Greyjoy. The assignment was perilous: the route passed enemies in the Stepstones, the barren coast of Dorne, and finally the Red Kraken and his longships. A victory could restore Fair Isle and protect the westerlands; defeat could break Velaryon power. The narrative presents the appointment as Peake’s calculated answer to a rival he could not safely attack at court: Alyn’s own fleet would be placed at risk far from the capital.

Suspicion, leverage, and the Lys expedition

Alyn left King’s Landing after giving his elephant to Aegon III. At Hull he gathered ships and provisions, said farewell to Baela, and learned that she was with child. Their exchange about the child’s future—Alyn hoped for a son named Corlys who might sit the Iron Throne, while Baela imagined a daughter named Laena who might ride a dragon—gave Peake another reason to suspect the Velaryons’ influence over the succession.

Peake’s suspicions intensified in 134 AC. He believed Baela and her sister Rhaena were working against him, perhaps at Alyn’s instigation, and feared that the king’s marriage to Daenaera and Baela’s pregnancy would shape the line of succession. When Baela gave birth to a daughter, Laena, Velaryon ships returned to King’s Landing ahead of Alyn with a cryptic message: he had sailed for Lys to secure “a treasure beyond price.” Peake feared Alyn was about to provoke another war, and resented the prospect that he might return with fresh acclaim or wealth. The smallfolk already celebrated Alyn for humbling the Sealord and the Red Kraken, while Peake himself was resented; some at court hoped Alyn would replace him as Hand.

Peake tried to prevent Aegon from greeting Alyn at the docks, insisting that the admiral should come to the Red Keep and abase himself before the Iron Throne. The other regents overruled him. Aegon and Queen Daenaera went to the harbor with Baela, the infant Laena, Rhaena, and other members of the court. Before the assembled crowd, Alyn met his daughter for the first time, then knelt before the king and queen. Daenaera honored him with a golden chain set with sapphires. Alyn’s return thus became a public demonstration of the bonds Peake feared: Alyn was not merely a successful commander but the king’s brother by marriage, welcomed by the royal family and acclaimed by the city.

The returned prince and Peake’s resignation

The treasure Alyn brought from Lys was Prince Viserys, Aegon’s long-lost brother, accompanied by Larra of Lys. Viserys’s return eased the king’s loneliness and settled the question of his heir, while Alyn became more beloved for bringing him home. Peake welcomed the prince publicly but objected that Alyn had agreed to ransom terms without authority. Munkun acknowledged that law and tradition supported Peake’s complaint, but the king, the smallfolk, and the other regents would not repudiate Alyn’s pact. They confirmed Viserys’s marriage, authorized the ransom in ten annual payments, and arranged for a much larger sum to be transferred from Braavos to Lys.

For Peake, this was another humiliation, following the king’s choice of Daenaera over Peake’s daughter Myrielle. He threatened to resign as Hand, perhaps expecting the other regents to yield. They accepted his resignation and appointed Thaddeus Rowan instead. Alyn’s rise had not come through holding Peake’s office: it came from independent command, victory, dynastic ties, and the loyalty of the crowd. Peake could use his position to send Alyn on a dangerous mission, but he could not prevent the admiral’s achievements from increasing his influence—or compel the court to treat that influence as a threat rather than an asset.