The Peace Treaty between Braavos and the Iron Throne quieted a looming conflict after Alyn Velaryon’s attack on the Braavosi fleet, but its costly terms weakened the Crown even as they secured diplomatic concessions. Lord Manfryd Mooton’s embassy returned with peace, an indemnity, and Braavosi promises concerning Tyrosh, Racallio Ryndoon, and the Stepstones.

Background and Mission

With war against Braavos a threat, the royal fleet had been recalled from Tarth to the Gullet to guard the entrance to Blackwater Bay. Other ports and cities along the narrow sea remained exposed. Lord Peake therefore sent fellow regent Lord Manfryd Mooton to negotiate with the Sealord and return his elephant, accompanied by six other noble lords and a retinue that included threescore knights, guardsmen, servants, scribes, and septons, six singers, and Mushroom. The mission combined diplomacy with a conspicuous gesture of restitution while the Crown remained alert to possible retaliation.

Negotiations and Terms

The embassy’s reception made clear the scale of Braavos’s maritime resources. Mooton’s party saw the Titan and visited the Arsenal, where they witnessed a warship completed in a single day. The Sealord declared that Braavos had already replaced every ship Alyn Velaryon had stolen or sunk. Having demonstrated that its fleet could be swiftly replenished, the Sealord proved willing to negotiate; meanwhile, Lords Follard and Cressey distributed lavish bribes among the city’s keyholders, magisters, priests, and merchant princes.

The agreement required the Iron Throne to pay a very large indemnity. In return, Braavos forgave Lord Velaryon’s attack as an unwarranted transgression, agreed to dissolve its alliance with Tyrosh and sever its ties with Racallio Ryndoon, and ceded the Stepstones to the Iron Throne. That last concession was largely formal: the islands were then held by Ryndoon and the Pentoshi, not Braavos, so the Sealord had effectively ceded territory he did not control.

Cost and Consequences

Lord Mooton returned to King’s Landing with peace, but the indemnity gravely strained the royal treasury. Lord Peake soon had to borrow from the Iron Bank of Braavos simply to meet the Crown’s debts. To make those payments, he reinstated certain taxes Lord Celtigar had imposed and Ser Tyland Lannister had abolished. The restored taxes angered lords and merchants and weakened Peake’s support among the smallfolk. The treaty thus removed the immediate danger of war while passing its price into the Crown’s finances and political standing.