The Attack on Alysanne at Jonquil's Pool was an attempted assassination during Jaehaerys Targaryen and Alysanne Targaryen’s royal progress. The attack failed, but it exposed danger within a place of religious refuge and led Alysanne to secure a protector who could accompany her where men could not.

Background and Motive

The royal visit to Maidenpool in the Riverlands had been proceeding without incident. Alysanne wished to bathe in Jonquil’s Pool, a spring famed for its association with the legendary meeting of Florian the Fool and Jonquil and believed to have healing properties. The pool stood inside a stone bathhouse entrusted to an order of holy sisters, and men were forbidden to enter.

Many of the Faithful had come to support Jaehaerys and Alysanne, but three sisters at the pool remained hostile. They regarded the queen’s pregnancy as sacrilegious and resolved to prevent her from bathing there. Their attack turned a protected, sacred setting into a place of political violence.

The Attack and Its Failure

As Alysanne prepared to enter the water, the three sisters attacked her with concealed daggers. Her ladies and attendants intervened before the attackers could reach her. Septa Edyth, Prudence Celtigar, and Rosamund Ball were wounded; Rosamund died three days later. None of the attackers’ blows reached the queen.

The cries from inside brought the queen’s protectors to the bathhouse. Ser Joffrey Doggett and Ser Gyles Morrigen had been guarding its entrance, unaware that the danger was already within. The Kingsguard quickly subdued the attackers, killing two and keeping the third alive for questioning.

Investigation and Punishment

Under questioning, the surviving attacker disclosed that six other sisters in the order had helped plan the assault but had not been willing to wield a blade themselves. Lord Mooton hanged those found guilty. He might have punished innocent members of the order as well, but Alysanne intervened to prevent that broader reprisal.

Jaehaerys was furious. The royal party abandoned its planned journey across the Bay of Crabs to Wickenden, Gulltown, and the Vale, returning instead to the safety of Maegor’s Holdfast. Alysanne remained there until her child was born.

Alysanne’s Protector

The attack left Alysanne shaken and led her to recognize a gap in the protection available to her. The Kingsguard were loyal and brave, but their presence could not extend into places barred to men. She therefore asked for a protector of her own, and Jaehaerys agreed.

That night, a raven carried a command to Duskendale for Lord Darklyn to send his bastard half-sister, Jonquil Darke, to court. Darke had won the smallfolk’s admiration during the War for the White Cloaks as the mystery knight called the Serpent in Scarlet. Still wearing scarlet when she arrived in King’s Landing a few days later, she accepted the appointment as Alysanne’s sworn shield. Her close guardianship would later earn her the name the Scarlet Shadow.