Gold Cloaks

The Gold Cloaks, King’s Landing’s City Watch, were more than a force policing the capital: their numbers, command, and loyalty made them a consequential instrument in struggles for royal power. Their changing leadership connects Daemon Targaryen’s rise under Viserys I to the competing claims surrounding Aegon II and the later conspiracy against Aegon III.

Command and Political Weight

During Viserys I’s reign, Daemon commanded two thousand men as head of the City Watch. After Otto Hightower persuaded the king to remove Daemon first as master of coin and then as master of laws, command of the Watch left him more powerful than before. Otto feared that Daemon might claim the Iron Throne, while Viserys repeatedly tried to reconcile the prince and the Hand. The Watch’s size and its place in Daemon’s political position made its command a matter of royal consequence, not merely city administration.

The Succession Crisis

When Viserys lay dying, Queen Alicent’s party summoned the City Watch’s commander and its seven captains, each responsible for one of the city gates, to the Red Keep. Five captains were judged sympathetic to Prince Aegon’s cause. The remaining two captains and their commander were considered untrustworthy and put in chains. Ser Luthor Largent, one of the five deemed loyal, was appointed the new commander; Otto placed his own son, Ser Gwayne Hightower, as Largent’s second, instructing him to watch for signs of disloyalty. The appointments show how the faction seeking to crown Aegon sought to secure the Watch through both a change of command and close oversight.

Control of the Capital

In the later struggle around Aegon III, Ser Lucas Leygood and the Gold Cloaks held a firm grip on King’s Landing beyond the Red Keep, while Ser Marston Waters and his Kingsguard controlled the rest of the castle. Leygood’s force also arrested Lotho Rogare as he attempted to leave the city, seizing his letters, ledgers, and the remaining precious metals in his vaults. The episode displays the Watch acting not only as an armed presence but as an enforcement arm in the detention of a politically connected banker.

Conspiracy and Collapse

The Watch’s position became more precarious when Leygood and six of the seven gate captains were named among the conspirators against the king. The effort to seize Leygood at the Gate of the Gods led to a short, violent clash in which nine men died, including Leygood. Three accused captains escaped before they could be taken, along with a dozen of their men. These losses mark the disintegration of the command structure previously used to secure the city: the commander was dead, several captains had fled, and the Watch’s role in protecting the capital had become entangled with the very conspiracy the crown was trying to suppress.