Boremund Baratheon

Boremund Baratheon was Lord of Storm’s End, the son and heir of Rogar Baratheon and Alyssa Targaryen, and a consequential supporter of Rhaenys Targaryen’s branch of the royal family. His life joined family obligation to the larger succession disputes of the realm: he was raised amid the loss of his mother, expected to protect the Stormlands after his father’s death, and later stood with those who argued that the Iron Throne should pass through a woman or to her descendants.

Identity and Family

Boremund was the elder child of Rogar and Alyssa, whose marriage connected House Baratheon to the royal family. Their daughter Jocelyn Baratheon was born so frail that those attending the birth doubted she would live. Rogar had hoped for another son, but named his surviving daughter Jocelyn; she and Boremund shared the experience of losing their mother at birth. The account later describes Boremund as Jocelyn’s brother and as the half-brother of Jaehaerys Targaryen and Alysanne Targaryen, linking him by his mother to the ruling Targaryens.

Rogar’s death made Boremund his heir while he was still young. When Rogar came to the royal couple seeking help for his children, he said that Boremund was only nine. He planned for his brother Garon to govern at Storm’s End in the boy’s place, while asking Jaehaerys Targaryen and Alysanne Targaryen to look after his son as well as Jocelyn and her cousins. His concern was not merely for a child’s upbringing: he feared what might happen to Boremund and the Stormlands if he died before his son could withstand the threat posed by his own brother, Borys Baratheon.

Inheritance and the Stormlands

Rogar’s fears were sharpened by Borys’s return to Westeros. After years away, including time in Myr and Volantis, Borys had appeared in the Red Mountains and was rumored to have joined the Vulture King, raiding his own people. Rogar considered Garon loyal and capable, but not a match for Borys; Boremund, at nine, could not yet protect his inheritance. The episode frames the young lord’s position as vulnerable to both family rivalry and violence in the marches.

Rogar chose to confront the danger himself. Though gravely ill, he went into the mountains with Jaehaerys Targaryen to find Borys and the Vulture King. The campaign lasted less than half a year and ended with Rogar killing the Vulture King in single combat. Rogar did not die on that expedition as he had hoped: he returned to Storm’s End and died there six months later, with Boremund present as his son and heir. The succession therefore passed to a boy whose father had spent his final campaign trying to secure the Stormlands for him.

Lord of Storm’s End

By the time he was eight-and-twenty, Boremund was established as Lord of Storm’s End. He was described as a powerful, imposing man, with a booming laugh, a large black beard, and thick black hair. His physical resemblance to Rogar was noted, and his connection to the royal family remained politically important. When Queen Alysanne sought a husband for her daughter Daella Targaryen, Boremund was one of three candidates put forward. His standing as a great lord and his family connection to Alysanne and Jaehaerys counted in his favor; Daella also knew and loved his sister Jocelyn from her years at court. The account presents him as a serious dynastic option, though it does not establish the outcome of that choice in this episode.

His responsibilities also included the defense of the Stormlands. When Prince Morion Martell sent a fleet across the Sea of Dorne, Boremund had been informed of the planned invasion and waited at Cape Wrath to meet the Dornish if they came ashore. They never did. Jaehaerys Targaryen and his sons attacked the fleet with dragons before it could land, and not a single living Dornishman set foot in the Stormlands. Boremund’s preparation thus belongs to a campaign whose decisive action took place at sea, leaving him ready to defend his coast but without the expected land battle.

Succession and Political Allegiance

Boremund’s clearest political commitments concerned the succession to the Iron Throne. When Jaehaerys Targaryen passed over Rhaenys Targaryen in favor of Baelon Targaryen, Rhaenys objected that the decision deprived her son of his birthright. Her husband, Corlys Velaryon, withdrew from the small council, and Boremund, Rhaenys’s brother, was also angered by the choice. The dispute exposed the conflict between the claims of descent through the royal line and the preference for a male heir.

The issue returned at the Great Council of 101 AC, where Corlys Velaryon and Rhaenys supported their son Laenor Velaryon as heir. Boremund joined their effort, arriving with the wealth and influence of House Velaryon behind the claim. He was among the lords supporting Laenor, alongside lords from the North and other regions, including Lord Stark, Lord Manderly, Lord Dustin, Lord Blackwood, Lord Bar Emmon, and Lord Celtigar. The assembled lords nevertheless chose Viserys Targaryen by an overwhelming margin. Storm’s End and Driftmark accepted the decision grudgingly, and the council was thereafter understood as establishing a precedent against women and their male descendants inheriting the Iron Throne.

Boremund’s significance lies in this repeated alignment with Rhaenys and Laenor when the established succession preference worked against their claims. His position as a great lord gave that dissent a political presence beyond the immediate royal family, even though it could not overcome the council’s verdict. At the same time, his childhood and lordship show the more immediate demands of inheritance: a young heir’s security depended on family protection, the loyalty of guardians, and the ability of Storm’s End to withstand threats from within and beyond the Stormlands.