The Oakenfist's Driftmark Succession Dispute

The Oakenfist's Driftmark Succession Dispute was the contest over who would inherit Corlys Velaryon’s lordship after his sudden death in 132 AC. It tested the Sea Snake’s choice of Alyn Velaryon against claims from his nephews and the sons of Ser Vaemond Velaryon, and turned a question of inheritance into a test of loyalty: the council’s judgment secured Alyn’s title, but not every claimant accepted it peacefully.

Corlys Velaryon’s Death and Chosen Heir

Corlys collapsed while climbing the serpentine steps in the Red Keep at King’s Landing, on the sixth day of the third moon of 132 AC. Grand Maester Munkun arrived too late to help him. Seventy-nine years old, Corlys had served four kings and a queen, extended House Velaryon’s wealth and power, and built fleets and towns. His death was therefore both a family succession crisis and a loss felt across the realm. The account presents his passing as a sudden blow to a kingdom already unsettled by the Dance.

Corlys’s chosen heir was Alyn of Hull, his baseborn son, who was now known as Alyn Velaryon. The choice did not settle the matter by itself. Alyn’s parentage and status became weapons in the challenge to his claim, while the family’s earlier disputes over Driftmark supplied rival claimants with precedent. The dispute thus concerned not only who would inherit the seat, but whether Corlys’s decision would prevail over competing claims based on kinship and legitimacy.

Corlys lay in state beneath the Iron Throne for seven days. His remains were then carried to Driftmark aboard the Mermaid’s Kiss, captained by Marilda of Hull and her son Alyn. For burial, the battered hull of the ancient Sea Snake was refloated and towed into deep water east of Dragonstone; Corlys was laid to rest aboard the ship that had given him his name. The reported appearance of the Cannibal overhead as the hull sank is treated by the chronicler as a likely later embellishment, not a dependable part of the account. The funeral’s maritime setting nevertheless gives the succession its defining image: the old lord’s ship was committed to the sea as his chosen heir faced a struggle to secure the inheritance he left behind.

The Rival Claims

The challenge came from two groups of relatives. Ser Vaemond Velaryon, Corlys’s nephew and the son of the elder of Corlys’s brothers, had previously claimed Driftmark for himself during King Viserys’s reign. That challenge had cost Vaemond his life, but his sons, Daemion and Daeron, remained. Five other nephews, born to another of Corlys’s brothers, also had claims. During the Dance, three of those five had died fighting for Aegon II against Rhaenyra; the two survivors came forward alongside Vaemond’s sons.

The surviving nephews had already been punished for challenging the legitimacy of Viserys’s daughter’s children: Viserys ordered their tongues removed, although he spared their lives. Their inability to speak did not prevent them from pursuing Driftmark, and the family’s earlier disputes now shaped the new crisis. Their case attacked Alyn as a baseborn son of Hull, while their own claims rested on descent from Corlys’s brothers. The contrast sharpened the question confronting the regents: whether to uphold the Sea Snake’s personal choice or to yield to relatives who asserted a stronger hereditary right.

Council Judgment and the Attempt on Alyn

Daemion and Daeron brought their claim before the council in King’s Landing. When the Hand and the regents ruled against them, they accepted the decision and reconciled with Alyn. Their settlement was practical as well as conciliatory: Alyn granted them lands on Driftmark on the condition that they contribute ships to his fleet. The former claimants were incorporated into the lordship’s military resources rather than left as open rivals.

The surviving silent cousins chose a different course. Mushroom’s account says that, unable to appeal with words, they turned to swords. Their attempt to murder their young lord failed because the guards at Castle Driftmark remained loyal to Corlys’s memory and to the heir he had chosen. Ser Malentine was killed during the attempt; his brother, Ser Rhogar, was captured. Condemned to death, Rhogar avoided execution by taking the black and joining the Night’s Watch. The attack exposed the limit of the council’s settlement: its ruling could establish Alyn’s title, but the Sea Snake’s death had left resentments that formal judgment alone could not quiet.

Alyn’s Installation and the Regency

Alyn was formally installed as Lord of the Tides and Master of Driftmark. He then went to King’s Landing to seek Corlys’s place among the regents, a bold claim from a boy of sixteen. The Hand thanked him and sent him back to Driftmark. Corlys’s seat on the council had already been offered to Unwin Peake, Lord of Starpike, Dunstonbury, and Whitegrove, an older and more seasoned man. Alyn therefore secured the inheritance of Driftmark without inheriting his predecessor’s political position at court.

The succession dispute ended with Alyn recognized as lord, some relatives reconciled through land and service, and the violent resistance of the others broken by the failed attack and its consequences. Its resolution depended on several kinds of authority working together: Corlys’s designation of an heir, the council’s ruling, the loyalty of the guards at Castle Driftmark, and Alyn’s willingness to bind former opponents to his fleet. Yet his exclusion from the regency made clear that possession of a great house’s title did not automatically confer the experience or trust required for power at the royal court.