Rhaena Targaryen's marriage to Corwyn Corbray

Rhaena Targaryen’s marriage to Ser Corwyn Corbray was arranged amid a royal succession crisis: after her twin sister Baela’s defiant marriage made the regents doubt her suitability as heir, they turned to Rhaena, whose own preference helped determine the match. The wedding followed within a fortnight, as the council moved quickly in case Baela was already carrying a child.

Background and Succession

Baela’s midnight flight across Blackwater Bay and marriage to Alyn Velaryon convinced the regents that she could not be King Aegon III’s heir. They instead considered Rhaena, but, in the words of Lord Mooton, only on the condition that she be wed. Unlike the earlier discussions over Baela, the Hand, Ser Tyland Lannister, insisted that Rhaena herself be included in the deliberations.

Rhaena’s Preference and Corwyn’s Suit

Rhaena agreed that she would marry whomever the king and council chose, while expressing practical hopes for a husband who was not too old or too heavy to give her children, and who was kind, gentle, and noble. Asked whether any of the suitors appealed to her, she said she was especially fond of Ser Corwyn Corbray, whom she had first met in the Vale while serving as a ward of Lady Jeyne Arryn. Her stated preference thus gave the council a personal choice to weigh within a marriage whose political purpose had already been made clear.

The Match and Its Timing

Corwyn was thirty-two, a second son, and already a father to two daughters from an earlier marriage. He was not a young, untested suitor: he was a renowned knight, and his late father had given him Lady Forlorn, the Valyrian steel sword of House Corbray. His brother, Leowyn Corbray, was Protector of the Realm, further strengthening the match’s political standing. The regents agreed to the marriage, and the betrothal was followed by a hurried wedding a fortnight later.

Political Purpose and Significance

Ser Tyland would have preferred a longer betrothal, but the regents considered speed prudent in case Baela was already pregnant. The marriage therefore served the immediate succession calculations surrounding the king’s heir, while also joining Rhaena to an ancient and honored house with a close connection to the Protector of the Realm. The account establishes the decision and its circumstances, but gives no further detail about the couple’s life together or the marriage’s later consequences.