Night's Watch proposed for the princes

The Night's Watch proposed for the princes was a proposed destination for Rhaenyra Targaryen's half-brothers in a wartime settlement, not an action the account records as having been carried out. Corlys Velaryon presented service at the Wall as an alternative to execution: the princes would take the black, live as members of the Night's Watch, and be bound by its sacred vows. The plan made the order part of a political argument about how to end the conflict while limiting the danger posed by defeated rivals.

The Proposal in the Peace Plan

When the southron host was advancing on King's Landing, Corlys urged Rhaenyra to seek terms with the opposing lords. His broader proposal offered pardons to Lords Baratheon, Hightower, and Lannister if they bent the knee, swore fealty, and gave hostages. He also proposed entrusting Dowager Queen Alicent and Queen Helaena to the Faith, and making Helaena's daughter Jaehaera his ward, with a later marriage to Prince Aegon the Younger intended to reunite the divided branches of House Targaryen.

The princes presented a sharper problem. Rhaenyra challenged Corlys over whether his policy of pardon extended to her half-brothers, whom she accused of taking her throne and killing her sons. Corlys answered that they should be spared and sent to the Wall. In his plan, the Night's Watch was not simply a refuge from punishment: its vows would remove the princes from the political contest and bind them to a life apart from the royal struggle.

Vows, Punishment, and Political Trust

Corlys's answer depended on the force of vows. He treated the Night's Watch's sacred obligations as a possible guarantee that the princes would no longer threaten Rhaenyra's rule. Rhaenyra rejected that logic: she argued that vows had not prevented her half-brothers from taking the throne. Her objection made the proposed settlement a question of trust as well as mercy—whether the formal obligation of the black could restrain men she considered oathbreakers.

Daemon Targaryen likewise opposed the proposed leniency. He argued that pardoning rebels and traitors would invite further rebellion, and called instead for the leaders to be killed and their houses' power broken. Against that demand, Corlys's plan set a more limited response: spare the princes, but remove them from the realm's contest for power through service at the Wall. The contrast revealed how far the queen's council was divided over the means of securing peace.

Status and Significance

The account records the Wall as a proposed disposition for the two princes within Corlys's negotiations, not as their eventual fate. The episode therefore establishes no outcome for the plan; its significance lies in the alternatives it placed before Rhaenyra. The Night's Watch's vows could be invoked as a means of containing a defeated rival, but only if the people asked to accept that settlement believed those vows would hold. Rhaenyra's response showed that, for her, the betrayal itself had made such assurances insufficient.