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| “ | Davos would have given much to know what he was thinking, but one such as Velaryon would never confide in him. The Lord of the Tides was of the blood of ancient Valyria, and his House had thrice provided brides for Targaryen princes; Davos Seaworth stank of fish and onions. | „ |
| ~ Thoughts of Davos Seaworth |
Lord Monford Velaryon is a minor character in the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series. He is the Lord of the Tides, the Master of Driftmark, and the head of House Velaryon. His heir is his son Monterys, who is around 5 during the beginning of the story. He has a bastard half-brother, Aurane Waters, the Bastard of Driftmark.
For centuries, Monford's family ruled the island of Driftmark, the largest island of Blackwater Bay in the Crownlands, as direct vassals of House Targaryen, from their castle of Driftmark, and they are extremely wealthy. After Robert's Rebellion, Monford became a bannerman to Lord Stannis Baratheon. He supports his liege and his overlords, House Baratheon of Dragonstone, during the War of the Five Kings. It is unknown how old Monford was when the Targaryens were overthrown, making it unclear whether he was already his house's lord or not. After the the assault on Dragonstone, Stannis submitted all the lords of Blackwater Bay under his command in King Robert I Baratheon's name.
Appearance[]
Monford is handsome with long, fair hair and typical Valyrian features. As a highborn lord, he sometimes wears sea-green silk with a white gold seahorse brooch. His exact age is unknown.
A Song of Ice and Fire[]
A Clash of Kings[]
Lord Monford Velaryon serves as one of Lord Stannis Baratheon's sworn bannermen. After the death of King Robert I Baratheon, the War of the Five Kings started from the Riverlands, leading to a brutal conflict between the Houses Lannister, Stark and Tully. Being a vassal of Dragonstone, Monford answers Stannis's summons when he crowns himself as Stannis I, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Robert's true heir, calling his banners to prepare for war. Along with all the others lords of Blackwater Bay and their respective fleets and armies, Monford joins the gathered military strength of House Baratheon of Dragonstone, adding his own fleet and host. Aside for Monford and his allies' fleets, Stannis's greatest force is his own naval fleet, which is almost the entire royal fleet of the Iron Throne, as the royal captains chose to support Stannis, their former Master of Ships, over the boy King Joffrey I Baratheon.
After Lord Renly Baratheon wed Margaery Tyrell at Highgarden and crowned himself as King Renly I and laid his own claim to the Iron Throne, Stannis finds himself lacking sufficient military support for inland battles, as most of the noble houses of the Stormlands and the Reach swore allegiance to Renly, while the rest maintain neutrality. Despite this, Lord Monford urges King Stannis to launch an assault on the capital of King's Landing at once, as they have the superior naval power to do so. Monford's contribution to Stannis's royal fleet includes the large ships Pride of Driftmark, Bold Laughter, Harridan, and Seahorse. His bastard half-brother, Aurane Waters, is a scion of House Velaryon, and also joined him to fight for Stannis.
After Ser Davos Seaworth returns from his failed envoy mission from the Stormlands, Stannis vents his frustration and expects Monford will threaten to take his levies home unless they attack King's Landing at once, implying that he already did so at least once. Monford attends a feast at the castle of Dragonstone, along with all of Stannis's lords, knights, and captains. He shows no sympathy for Maester Cressen when Queen Selyse Florent briefly humiliates him by forcing him to wear Patchface's crown. Monford witnesses Cressen's death by the poison known as the strangler.
After the sept of Dragonstone is vandalized by the Queen's men, Monford is present when the red priestess Melisandre burns the sept's old statues of the Seven. Ser Davos Seaworth notices that Monford's stare is fixed on Stannis instead of the conflagration. Davos wonders what Monford might be thinking, but thinks to himself that the proud and highborn Lord Velaryon would never confide his thoughts in a man as lowborn as Davos, and upjumped smuggler. In fact, Davos expects Monford and the other lords to "bring him down", should Stannis fail to take the Iron Throne.
Monford attends a meeting between lords presided by King Stannis himself, during which he has Maester Pylos read out loud a sample version of a letter, in which Stannis makes public the accusations of Joffrey Baratheon, his brother Prince Tommen, and his sister Princess Myrcella being false Baratheons and "abominations" born from incest fathered by Ser Jaime Lannister with his twin sister Queen Cersei. While Lord Ardrian Celtigar calls the contents of the letter admirable, Monford states that only steel will decide the matter, irritating Stannis who comments he is well aware of that.
Monford still wants Stannis to sail from Dragonstone to King's Landing to personally challenge King Joffrey I, but Stannis instead chooses to sail to Shipbreaker Bay to wage war against his brother, King Renly, after being warned by Melisandre claiming to have had a vision of Stannis's defeat and possible death in King's Landing, as a result of Stannis following Monford's advice. While Renly and his mighty host are in the Reach, slowly marching to the capital while playing tourneys, Stannis's fleet and army lay siege to Storm's End and let a messenger ride to the Reach to find Renly's camp and tell the news, resulting with Renly marching to the Stormlands with half of his army, mostly cavalry.
Monford and presumably his half-brother Aurane participate in the Siege of Storm's End. After King Renly's sudden and mysterious death, the majority of the stormlords and several Reach lords join Stannis and swear allegiance to him, with House Florent being the first. Despite Renly's fall, Storm's End's castellan, Ser Cortnay Penrose, keeps refusing to open the castle's gates and bend the knee to King Stannis, causing the siege to continue.
As the siege keeps going on for many days, Stannis thinks that Monford wants to assault the castle instead of starving it in a typical castle siege by attrition. After a failed parley to negotiate Storm's End's surrender, Ser Cortnay suddenly dies in the night, allegedly by suicide, resulting with the castle's garrison finally opening its gates to Stannis. Monford and his allies stay at Storm's End for a while, where Stannis allows Melisandre and the Queen's men to burn the castle's godswood and arranges the war plans to finally attack King's Landing. Both Monford and Aurane are part of Stannis's naval assault as part of the royal fleet, under the command of Ser Imry Florent, one of Queen Selyse's younger brothers.
Due to the weather, the fleet takes longer than anticipated to reach King's Landing, while Stannis and Ser Guyard Morrigen, who lead the marching armies for the inland siege, reach the city much earlier and make camp in the Kingswood. During the slow sea voyage, the fleet captures six fishing skiffs near Merling Rock. As one of the fleet's captains, Monford participates in a war meeting with Ser Imry, who reminds them the strength of King's Landing's garrison and the meager enemy fleet, which he calls "Joffrey's toys". Monford and the other captains are warned by Imry about the possibility of wildfire being used as well, but assures them that there will be a small amount of it anyway, as the Alchemists' Guild is no longer as powerful as it used to be.
Monford participates in the Battle of the Blackwater, where the fleet launches an attack against Joffrey's fleet, just as Stannis's divided armies launch multiple assaults on King's Landing's gates in the inland battle. As the overconfident Ser Imry refused to send scouts to inspect the enemy's new suspicious watchtowers at the mouth of the river Blackwater Rush, and check for any defenses, Stannis's fleet ends up getting trapped by the massive chain of Tyrion Lannister, the acting Hand of the King. It closes the river's mouth, preventing the whole fleet to escape back to the sea on Blackwater Bay, where Salladhor Saan and his fleet have been left as the rearguard.
Monford and his half-brother Aurane fight against Joffrey's captains, sailors and soldiers in a battle on the Blackwater Rush. Monford's warship, the Pride of Driftmark, crashes through two river runners of Joffrey's fleet, but Monford's crew manages to take down both of them. House Velaryon's war galley Bold Laughter is destroyed by a boulder thrown from three enormous trebuchets in King's Landing, the "three whores", which tears through the ship's hull.
However, during the naval battle it turns out that some of Joffrey's ships have been loaded with numerous caches of wildfire, even at the coast of the lives of most of Joffrey's own men. As the combatants fight each other, both Baratheon fleets of Stannis and Joffrey end up engulfed with wildfire, destroying most of the ships. Lord Velaryon's Pride of Driftmark tries to flee from wildfire, but green flame races up its oars and set the whole ship afire. When House Bar Emmon's warship Swordfish explodes from wildfire, the Velaryon war galley Harridan is engulfed and destroyed by the same flaming substance. Most of House Velaryon's naval strength is destroyed by Tyrion's wildfire attack.
While some of Stannis's ships manage to stay out of range and manage to go for a landing, or men without heavy armors manage to swim to safety, Monford does not survive and loses his life in the river battle, while the fight continues.
When leading a sortie outside the city's gates to engage Stannis's knights attempting to breach in, Tyrion Lannister finds himself surrounded with Ser Balon Swann and Ser Mandon Moore by a circle of Velaryon spearmen, while many wrecked ships formed a bridge for Stannis's knights to use to cross the burning river.
When the relief force led by Ser Garlan Tyrell and Lords Tywin Lannister, Mace Tyrell, and Randyll Tarly arrives at the city and takes Stannis's army from the rear, Aurane Waters is among those who are unable to escape to Blackwater Bay with Salladhor Saan's fleet and are made prisoners during the battle.
After being held captive for a while, Monford's half-brother Aurane surrenders to King Joffrey and bend the knee, along with most of Stannis's captured lords and combatants.
Legacy[]
King Stannis Baratheon's Hand, Lord Alester Florent, reports that Lord Monford Velaryon burned with Pride of Driftmark on the Blackwater Rush. Monford is succeeded by his son, Lord Monterys Velaryon, a six-year-old boy.
Despite Stannis's defeat, the Velaryons continue to support him and refuse to bend the knee to Joffrey. The only Lord of Blackwater Bay who switched allegiance to House Baratheon of King's Landing is Lord Ardrian Celtigar, as he was captured in the capital and could not flee. The military forces of House Velaryon remain with Stannis at Dragonstone, although it is unknown if they are led by a Velaryon family member or another commander. Lord Monterys remains at his seat of Driftmark, and due to his age he is not considered a strong bannerman by Stannis.
While over half of Stannis's remaining forces are from House Florent, House Velaryon's host is part of Stannis's sea voyage to the Wall. After reaching Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, Stannis's mounted army and Cotter Pyke's reinforcements from Eastwatch ride north of the Wall, reaching Castle Black and the edge of the Haunted Forest, where they participate in the final day of the Battle Beneath the Wall, where Stannis's small army of 1,500 men and Cotter's Night's Watch's rangers manage to defeat Mance Rayder's mighty Free Folk host, including giants with their mammoths (between 30,000, 40,000 or 100,000 wildlings, including non-combatants and children, hundreds of giants, and over 100 mammoths). During the battle, the steward black brother Jon Snow spots the seahorse arms of House Velaryon. Stannis's forces capture 1,000 wildlings.
Monford's half-brother Aurane Waters, the Bastard of Driftmark, is officially an enemy of House Velaryon, as Aurane now supports King Tommen, while the Velaryons still support King Stannis. wins the favor of Queen Regent Cersei Lannister, who finds that Aurane reminds her of her beloved Prince Rhaegar Targaryen due to his Valyrian appearance. After the death of the Hand of the King, Tywin Lannister, Cersei names Aurane as the new Master of Ships, replacing Lord Paxter Redwyne. She ignores the objections of Ser Jaime Lannister and Grand Maester Pycelle, who complain about Aurane's youth and the fact that he served Stannis, with Pycelle adding that the command of the next royal fleet should go to older and seasoned men, the captains who managed to survive the wildfire attack in the Battle of the Blackwater. After receiving a budget, Aurane begins overseeing the construction of new dromonds for Cersei.
House Velaryon's force in Stannis's southron host at Castle Black participates in the King's campaign in the North, marching with him to the Northern Mountain Clans to ally with its ruling houses. After receiving new northern additions, Stannis's army makes a hidden march from the mountains to the Wolfswood, going to the west and attacking the Ironborn invading Deepwood Motte, defeating them and capturing Princess Asha Greyjoy. Gaining more northern popularity, Stannis's army stays at Deepwood for weeks, where they are joined by the Houses Glover, Mormont, half of Umber under Mors Umber, and many others. After learning about Lord Ramsay Bolton's marriage to "Arya Stark", Stannis decides to march to Winterfell to lay siege to the castle. Along the road, more northern houses and smallfolk join the host.
After Queen Cersei is imprisoned by the Faith, Aurane Waters betrays the Iron Throne, flees to sea and disappears, stealing all of Cersei's new dromonds and taking his new crews with him. Ser Harys Swyft fears Aurane is joining back with Stannis in the North, while Grand Maester Pycelle believes he is planning to set himself up as a pirate lord in the Stepstones.
House Velaryon is part of Stannis's army marching to Winterfell, mostly mounted (1,400 southtrons from the Stormlands, the Reach, and the Crownlands and 3,600 Northerners). While camped at an abandoned crofter's village near a frozen lake, enduring a snow blizzard, they are holding the captives Asha Greyjoy, Theon Greyjoy, Arnolf Karstark, Arthor Karstark, three male Karstark family members, the Dreadfort's Maester Tybald, and 456 Karstark soldiers. The vanguard's commander Mors Umber also managed to rescue Arya Stark (actually Jeyne Poole disguised as Arya), who fled from Winterfell with Theon's help. The host is currently waiting for the arrival of Winterfell's mounted van (2,000 Freys and 300 Manderlys) led by Ser Hosteen Frey in a battle known as the Battle in the Ice. Winterfell is being held by 4,400 northmen, largely by House Bolton.
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