In This World Of Men

by ariel2me

Summary:

“Your Prince Daemon used his first wife most cruelly, it is true … but notwithstanding your mother’s poor taste in consorts, she remains our rightful queen, and mine own blood besides, an Arryn on her mother’s side. In this world of men, we women must band together.” (Fire & Blood)

Before Rhaenyra Targaryen married her uncle, her cousin Jeyne Arryn, the Lady of the Eyrie, tried to warn her that Daemon Targaryen would make a poor (and potentially dangerous) consort.

Notes:

According to Fire & Blood, Runestone passed to Rhea Royce’s nephew after her death in 115 AC, despite Daemon Targaryen’s attempt to claim it for himself. Nineteen years later, in 134 AC, the Lord of Runestone was Gunthor Royce the Bronze Giant, who’s described as “an old man, as stubborn as he was fearless.”

In this fic, I’m assuming that Rhea Royce’s nephew and Gunthor Royce were two different people, and that the lordship of Runestone passed to Gunthor (presumably a more distant kin to Rhea than her nephew) after Rhea’s nephew also died childless.

I’m also assuming that Rhea Royce was the daughter of Yorbert Royce, Jeyne Arryn’s regent and the Lord Protector of the Vale during her minority. There’s a discrepancy in Fire & Blood about Rhea’s status when Daemon married her (heir to Runestone, or already the Lady of Runestone?), but I choose to believe the first one:

In 97, the Good Queen saw Baelon’s second son, Daemon, take to wife Lady Rhea of House Royce, heir to the ancient castle of Runestone in the Vale. (Fire & Blood)

Though he had wed the Lady of Runestone in 97 AC, during the Old King’s reign, the marriage had not been a success. (Fire & Blood)

It was Yoren Royce, nephew to Prince Daemon’s first wife Rhea Royce, who first informed Jeyne Arryn about the rumor of impending matrimony between Prince Daemon and Princess Rhaenyra. Yoren had been born Yoren Waynwood, the only offspring of Lady Rhea’s younger sister Lady Rinda, and he later took the name Royce in order to claim his inheritance as the Lord of Runestone, following the condition set out in his maternal aunt’s will.

Daemon Targaryen had cited Yoren’s descent through the female line to contest the younger man’s claim, and to boost his own claim to Runestone, as the widower of the Lady of Runestone. 

“If Runestone, and indeed the Eyrie, could be inherited by a woman, then I see no reason why the inheritance could not pass through the female line,” Lady Jeyne had countered, when Prince Daemon pressed his claim and lodged a formal appeal to the Eyrie to rule in his favor. The prince had been surprised at the lady’s recalcitrant answer; only one-and-twenty at the time, and appearing gentle, soft-spoken and womanly besides, he had presumed that Jeyne Arryn would be more amenable to persuasion (or more easily manipulated) than his bronze bitch of a wife, who had adamantly refused to name him as her heir in her last will and testament. 

“If your marriage to Lady Rhea had been blessed with a child,” continued Lady Jeyne, “then that child would have inherited Runestone through the female line. In the absence of a child born of her body, and because Lady Rhea’s younger sister Lady Rinda had predeceased her, her sister’s son Ser Yoren was her closest living blood kin at the time of her death. Moreover, she had explicitly named him in her will as the heir to all her titles, lands, castles and incomes. Your supposed claim is moot, Prince Daemon.”

Five years and another wife later, Daemon Targaryen was plotting to wed his own niece, a woman who had been named as the heir to the Iron Throne, a woman who was Jeyne Arryn’s own cousin.  

“It is said that they have grown close since the death of Prince Daemon’s second wife, and closer still after the death of Princess Rhaenyra’s husband. They are ‘comforting one another during their time of grief,’ it is said, but we all know well enough what it really means,” scoffed Lord Yoren. “They had a history together, those two, before the princess wed poor Laenor Velaryon. It was said back then that Prince Daemon was the one who took her –”

Lady Jeyne swiftly interrupted, “Perhaps this news of impending matrimony with her uncle is merely another malicious rumor that is being spread and bandied about to tarnish Princess Rhaenyra’s reputation. There are many in the realm who are still displeased by her continuing status as her father’s acknowledged heir to the Iron Throne. Prince Daemon himself counted among those dissenters, once.”

But of course, reflected Jeyne, that was before the king wed for the second time, before he was blessed with three sons and another daughter by his second wife Queen Alicent. Knowing that the crown was receding further and further away from his grasp, perhaps Prince Daemon decided that his only chance for proximity to the throne was through matrimony.

Yoren Royce was worried about retaliation. “The prince was most wroth when I was proclaimed as the Lord of Runestone after my aunt’s death. He thought that it was his right as her widower to claim all her titles, her castles, her lands and her incomes. He believed that I had usurped his rightful position. And you, my lady, you boldly denied him his appeal and firmly confirmed my place as my aunt’s rightful heir. If he ever becomes consort to the queen – practically a king, most likely – what would he do to the both of us, in retaliation?”

The Lady of the Eyrie had done more than just rejecting Prince Daemon’s appeal. Concerned that he would resort to devious means and unscrupulous deeds to remove Yoren Royce and other potential claimants to Runestone, which would certainly wreak mayhem and disturb the peace in the Vale, she had told the prince that his presence in the Vale was no longer welcome. Should he insist on remaining in the Vale, Lady Jeyne warned, she would not hesitate to write to the king to enlist his aid and assistance.

Prince Daemon had sneered and said, scornfully, “I have no wish to remain in this land where the sheep are more appealing than the women, and more fuckable besides.” But Jeyne had not missed the furious working of his jaw, or the dangerous glint in his eyes. The prince was most wroth at being thwarted, and he would be slow to forgive or forget, she believed.       

Jeyne recoiled and shuddered at the thought of that cruel, grasping man as the queen’s consort, sitting by the queen’s side as she ruled the entire realm. She recoiled and shuddered too at the thought of that cruel, grasping husband who had treated Rhea Royce so abominably being her cousin’s new husband.  

Rhea Royce was the elder daughter of Yorbert Royce, Jeyne Arryn’s first regent and Lord Protector of the Vale during the early years of her minority. Rhea was married to Prince Daemon the same year Jeyne herself became the Lady of the Eyrie. Jeyne was three at the time, and Rhea was eight-and-ten. While Lord Royce was ruling the Vale in Jeyne’s name, his daughter Rhea was ruling Runestone in his name.

Ruling Runestone, and enduring humiliation after humiliation courtesy of her princely husband. The match had been thought splendid for both the bride and the groom, but a splendid match seldom had anything to do with liking, let alone loving. “The Bronze Bitch,” was not the worst of the names Prince Daemon had coined for his first wife. “The Stallion That Could Not Mount,” Lady Rhea had finally retaliated in kind, after her patience was long exhausted.

The cause of Lady Rhea’s ultimately fatal fall from her horse remained a mystery. She was a strong and formidable rider; this fact was not in dispute. Jeyne had gone riding and hawking with her many times, admiring her pace and poise both. True, Prince Daemon was leagues away from the Vale at the time of the fall, but a trap devised to trip a galloping horse could always be set by hired hands, and the prince, also known as Lord Flea Bottom, had plenty of malevolent hands he could hire.     

Though, without conclusive evidence, there was not much the Lady of the Eyrie could do about the matter, no matter how deep her suspicion.

She could, however, warn her cousin about the character – or specifically, the lack of character – of the man Princess Rhaenyra was rumored to be planning to wed.

Another consideration was also weighing heavily in Jeyne’s mind: the concern that her cousin’s poor choice in consort would reflect on all female rulers, herself included. North of Dorne, female rulers were still the exception rather than the rule, and with so few of them in existence, the misdeed or misjudgment of one of them was all too often used by opportunists to smear and tarnish all of them. It was most unfair and unjust, certainly, for rarely would the misdeed or misjudgment of one male ruler be counted against the whole lot of them.

But despite that injustice, despite that unfairness, there it was nonetheless, an inescapable fact of life for female rulers at this particular moment in time that must be faced and dealt with, unflinchingly.   

A consort who would seek to dominate and undermine rather than being of support and assistance, who would not hesitate to use devious and unscrupulous means to achieve his personal aim that was separate from his lady wife’s aim, who might even resort to removing his lady wife after his aim had been achieved, would certainly be a poor and dangerous choice for any female ruler (or future female ruler) to make.

After the honorifics and the salutations, Jeyne began the letter to her cousin Princess Rhaenyra with, “In this world of men, we women must band together, and sometimes banding together means passing on a word of caution to each other, when it is sorely needed.” 

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 3 of Inspired by Fire & Blood