The Vale: Peaks of Power and Targaryen Ties
Please note this was originally posted on Substack.
Hi! In case you’re new to the podcast over all, here’s an overview of the title episode which was of course about The Vale of Arryn! If you’re interested in listening to the full episode with show notes and transcript you can check it out here:
https://thewesterosiprimer.com/episode/the-vale
The Andals
Like many kingdoms in Westeros, the first humans to settle the Vale were the First Men. Eventually they were invaded by the Andals. Unlike the North, the Vale was eventually overtaken by the Andals.
Some houses maintain and are proud of their First Men heritage, like the Royces. They maintained their places as nobles after losing their status as kings. However some First Men refuse to bend the knee and fled further up the mountains. Their descendants are now referred to as either hill tribes or mountain clans. They’re very wild, violent and very similar to the Wildlings (or Freefolk) beyond The Wall.
Because of the Andal invasion, many people in the Vale are followers of the New gods. This of course put them into conflict with the North. I talked about this in the episode about The North and also this episode.
Aegon’s Conquest
We know of course later that Aegon and his sisters began their conquest. Due to their position up in the mountains, the Arryns were prepared for siege and resistance to this invasion. However, the dowager queen seems to have forgotten that dragons fly.
Visenya Targaryen arrives on Vhagar and sits with the Arryn boy king in her lap. He is interested in a dragon ride. His mother agrees to bend the knee.
Blood Ties
It’s pretty interesting to realize that technically some of the Targaryen characters we know in the saga have Arryn ancestry. Princess Daella Targaryen, the daughter of King Jaehaerys I and Queen Alysanne, was married to Rodrik Arryn. Their only child, Aemma Arryn, married her cousin Viserys I. And as we know Viserys and Aemma’s only surviving child is Rhaenyra. All five of Rhaenyra’s sons have Arryn blood in their veins as well as Targaryen.
Robert’s Rebellion
We know from Game of Thrones that many generations after the Dance of the Dragons, the last Targaryen king, Aerys II, demanded that Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark’s heads be sent to King’s Landing. At that time, they were wards of Jon Arryn, the lord of the Vale, etc.
Jon refuses to give up his wards and was really the one who incited the rebellion. Eventually the rebels won and Robert became king.
War of the Five Kings
Jon Arryn was more or less the one truly ruling Westeros since Robert wasn’t much of an administrator. Which is why things quickly devolved not long after Jon dies. The last straw was Robert’s death and all hell broke loose yet again.
Technically in the novels we don’t know what the ultimate fate of the Vale is. Arguably even in the TV show we don’t fully know because Robin/Robert Arryn is the lord. We don’t know the consequences of the Vale’s involvement against the White Walkers. It’s also not clear if anyone from the Vale participated in Daenerys’s attack on King’s Landing. However I can say in the novels there’s a potential rebellion happening at the end of book five. This might need to be a future episode of the podcast?