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Ser Tyland Lannister, also known as the Hooded Hand, is a supporting character in the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series and a supporting antagonist in the television adaptation House of the Dragon.
Tyland Lannister was a knight and a member of House Lannister and a renowned statesman. He was the younger twin brother of Lord Jason Lannister, the Lord of Casterly Rock, and he served on the small councils of Viserys I, Aegon II, and Aegon III. He served as Master of Ships and Lord Admiral on King Viserys I's small council, Master of Coin on Aegon II's, and finally Hand of the King and regent on Aegon III's.
He was one of the youngest members of Viserys' small council, along with Ser Larys Strong. Due to his conditions post-Dance of the Dragons, Tyland was expected by the public to be a weak Hand, but he defied expectations and held the office capably, and earned the trust and respect of King Aegon III. While still in office, he passed away of Winter Fever with Aegon by his side and comforting him. He was succeeded by the powerful, ambitious and overbearing Lord Unwin Peake, who was already one of Aegon's co-regents.
In the television series House of the Dragon, Tyland is portrayed by Jefferson Hall, who also portrays his brother Jason and portrayed Ser Hugh of the Vale in Game of Thrones.
Biograhpy[]
After the demise of King Viserys I Targaryen, Ser Tyland advocated for the coronation of Prince Aegon, arguing that numerous lords who had pledged allegiance to Princess Rhaenyra's claim back in 105 AC had passed away over the course of twenty-four years. He brought up that he, as a child at the time, had not made any oaths himself.
After Ser Criston Cole, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, murdered Lord Lyman Beesbury, the Master of Coin who opposed Aegon's coronation, Ser Tyland was named the new Master of Coin. He quickly moved to secure the royal treasury for the greens, dividing it into four parts: one entrusted to the Iron Bank of Braavos for safekeeping, the second sent to Casterly Rock, the third to Oldtown, and the remaining fourth kept by the greens for bribes, gifts, and hiring sellswords.
In 130 AC, during Rhaenyra's invasion of King's Landing, Tyland was captured and handed over to Rhaenyra's torturers in an attempt to recover the royal treasury. Despite enduring severe mutilation, including being blinded and gelded, Tyland remained loyal and didn't give any information about the royal treasury.
While Tyland was away in Myr, King Aegon II was murdered with poison, and was succeeded by Aegon the Younger, Rhaenyra's son. Tyland's sister-in-law and widow of his late brother Jason, Lady Johanna Lannister, successfully negotiated the return of Casterly Rock's portion of the crown's gold in exchange for a royal pardon for Tyland. When Tyland returned to King's Landing he was made Hand of the King for Aegon III at the start of his regency.
Tyland started to wear a silken hood over his head on formal occasions, as ladies new to court were known to faint upon seeing his severely disfigured face. However, his hooded appearance caused the smallfolk to gossip rumors about him being a malign masked sorcerer, calling him "the hooded hand."
As soon as he became Hand, Tyland abolished the taxes that had been enacted by Rhaenyra and her master of coin, Lord Bartimos Celtigar. He gave out loans for rebuilding the holdings that had been destroyed during the war, and ordered the construction of three huge fortified granaries throughout the kingdom, and had them filled with grain. He also ordered the reparation and restoration of the Dragonpit, strengthened the gates of King's Landing, and announced the funding for the construction of fifty new war galleys, although only ten were eventually commissioned.
Tyland also commanded Lord Dalton Greyjoy, the Red Kraken, to cease his raiding, but Dalton ignored them and the Ironborn continued their hostility against the mainland, constantly raiding and sacking the west of the continent. When Tyland's widowed sister-in-law, Lady Johanna Lannister, began building a new fleet on behalf of her son, Lord Loreon Lannister, the ironmen burned her shipyards at Lannisport and abducted another hundred women and girls, having previously already abducted countless of them during the war.
Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower refused to reconcile with Rhaenyra's branch of Targaryen, opposing the marriage of her granddaughter, Princess Jaehaera Targaryen, to King Aegon III, and once terrorized her granddaughter when she suggested she slit her husband's throat. Because of her hostility and growing mental instability, Ser Tyland ordered Alicent confined to Maegor's Holdfast. Alicent would remain secluded in her chambers for the last year of her life, with only the company of her septa, serving girls, and guards, often weeping amd talking to herself.
When war between the Free Cities erupted once more in the Stepstones, Tyland refused to involve Westeros in the conflict, which would unjustly earn him a reputation of being a craven. Tyland turned down the offers made by envoys from Pentos, Braavos, and Lorath to form an alliance against the Tyroshi Racallio Ryndoon, insisting to Aegon's council of lords regent that it was wiser to keep out of the wars of the Free Cities.
In early 132 AC, the former Grand Maester Orwyle, who had previously been arrested and sent to the Wall for being an accomplice of Aegon II's murder, was discovered working in a brothel in King's Landing as "Old Wyl" and arrested once more. Aegon III's small council declared him an oathbreaker, as he had deserted the Night's Watch before even reaching the Wall, and thus they sentenced him to death. However, Tyland insisted that Orwyle's execution should be put on hold because the office of King's Justice had not yet been filled at that point. Thus, Tyland had Orwyle confined to a large, airy, comfortable tower cell and provided him with ink and parchment so he could continue to write the confessions he had began since his previous arrest. Tyland showed to the court that he was in no hurry to hire a new King's Justice, and Orwyle remained comfortably imprisoned in the Red Keep for two years. Mushroom and Septon Eustace both believed that the old friendship between Tyland and Orwyle, and the recollection of all they had endured together, were the reasons why Tyland avoided Orwyle's execution, and said event would only take place after Tyland's death by the Winter Fever.
Late in 132 AC, Harrenhal became occupied with numerous broken men and predatory outlaws, under the rule of a sorcerous "witch queen". When word of it reached King's Landing, Ser Tyland tasked Ser Regis Groves of the Kingsguard to reclaim the castle, and Regis took a royal host of fifty men, who were joined by additional fifty men led by Ser Damon Darry at Castle Darry. When Regis and his forces arrived at Harrenhal, they found the gates closed and hundreds of armed men on the battlements. The alleged witch queen was revealed to be Alys Rivers, the lover of the late Prince Aemond Targaryen. Alys claimed that she and Aemond were married and presented a young boy as their trueborn son, declaring him the rightful king over Aegon III. Regis abruptly died after insulting Alys, leading to some claiming she used magic to burst his skull, while more skeptical people state he was killed by crossbowmen or slingers. Alys's rabble then rode from Harrenhal and overwhelmed Regis and Damon's men in battle. Leading the retreat, Damon and thirty-two survivors fell back to Castle Darry, where one more survivor of the fight was soon after sent by Alys. The messenger insisted he had seen a dragon at Harrenhal, much to everyone's hilarity at Darry. Moments after his story was met with laughter, the messenger choked to death, with some saying they had seen the imprints of a woman's fingers on his throat.
Back in King's Landing, Tyland was troubled by Regis's death and the possible involvement of dark arts in it, but Lord Unwin Peake dismissed Damon's claims of dragons and magic as absurdities, and the other regents agreed with Unwin's conclusion that outlaws were to blame. The council of regents concluded they would need to gather a larger force to recapture Harrenhal, but before Tyland could organize a proper full assault, the Winter Fever arrived in King's Landing, soon causing an outbreak.
On the third day of 133 AC, Grand Maester Munkun examined dockside whores and sailors struck with fever, and sent an urgent message to Tyland regarding the epidemic. Tyland acted immediately to prevent the spread of the disease within the capital, ordering the gold cloaks to close the city gates and keep anyone from entering or leaving the city. He also had the gates of the Red Keep closed, to keep the disease from the king and court. Despite the measures, Tyland's efforts proved to be ineffective, as the Winter Fever epidemic soon started spreading in King's Landing and across Westeros, lasting from 132 AC to 133 AC. The disease was known to have killed a man within two days instead of the usual four the worst epidemic Westeros had suffered since the Shivers. The disease had first appeared on the Three Sisters in late 132 AC.
By the end of the epidemic, half the population of the town Sisterton was wiped out, and other victims include numerous residents of White Harbor and Barrowton, including Lord Desmond Manderly, his son Lord Medrick Manderly, four days after the father, numerous residents in Gulltown, Maidenpool, and Duskendale, Braavos across the Narrow Sea, almost a fifth of the population of King's Landing, two of Queen Jaehaera Targaryen's maids, the Commander of the City Watch and his successor nine days later, Ser Willis Fell, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Lord Leowyn Corbray and his mistress, as well several of his servants, Lord Roland Westerling, Lady Hazel Harte, wife of Ser Daeron Velaryon. Grand Maester Munkun also caught the disease, but eventually recovered. Lord Manfryd Mooton recovered as well, although the sickness had badly damaged the elderly man's health, which never truly recovered afterwards, and he would ultimately die the following year. The Winter Fever also claimed the life of Queen Alicent Hightower in 133 AC.
Tyland's final moments, with King Aegon III and Septon Eustace.
Tyland spent his final year of tenure as Hand fighting the Winter Fever, suffering only from exhaustion. Unfortunately, when the worst of the outbreak had past and there were almost no new cases, Tyland himself fell ill of the disease. He died after only two days, in the presence of Septon Eustace and King Aegon III, who held his hand in comfort as Tyland took his last breath. Whatever happened to Tyland and his council's plans to retake Harrenhal and to Alys Rivers and her child remains a mystery.
Legacy[]
As for Tyland's relatives of House Lannister and the ruling of Lady Johanna, the war between the Westerlands and the Iron Islands would continue after Tyland's death, with Lord Unwin Peake sending the Velaryon fleet to deal with the threat of Lord Dalton Greyjoy and the Ironborn. Dalton died later in 133 AC at Faircastle, which he had usurped and ruled for the last years, and he was murdered by one his own salt wives, who then committed suicide, likely also to avoid a cruel punishment from the Iron Islands.
The conflict against the Ironborn only ended at 134 AC, after the Ironborn were driven out from Fair Isle and their conquered seats and settlements, which were liberated. The population of Fair Isle killed hundreds of Ironborn in retaliation. The ironmen, however, managed to repel the westermen's retaliatory attempts to invade their islands (although not without deaths, including deaths of Greyjoys), finally ending the longest lasting conflict of the Dance of the Dragons. House Greyjoy suffered no legal punishment from the Iron Throne for its actions, perhaps due to Johanna Lannister's armies having already taken sufficient revenge against the Ironborn, as they destroyed hundreds of villages and killed many Ironborn, both nobles and smallfolk, including many women and children.
While history is overall neutral towards him, Tyland is not remembered fondly, partly due to his disfigured physical appearance after being tortured, and partly due to his actions during the Dance of the Dragons. Some former blacks hated him for having urged Aegon II to put Aegon the Younger to death, and some former greens hated him for serving Aegon III faithfully in the aftermath of the war. He left behind no wife or children, and only few mourned him after he died. His veiled face had caused the creation of tales that his visage was monstrous and evil, and some called him craven for keeping the Seven Kingdoms out of the Daughters' War (which started as a civil war between the Free Cities), and for not effectively curbing the raids of Lord Dalton Greyjoy in the west. Tyland had been overall perceived by the majority of the public as a weak and ineffectual Hand, yet somehow sinister, scheming, and monstrous.
Archmaester Gyldayn painted Tyland in a more positive light and gave him more credit, describing him as a tireless and effective man, noting that his cunning in relocating the crown's gold had sown the seeds of Rhaenyra's downfall and her eventual death, yet he continued to serve as a faithful and able servant to her son as Hand of the King. While Tyland was replaced by Lord Unwin Peake of Starpike, Aegon III resented Lord Peake's brusque and forceful personality, and preferred Tyland's kindness and deference towards him.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The Winter Fever that claimed the lives of many, including Tyland and Alicent, conveniently started soon after Alys' warnings against the Iron Throne and while Aegon III's council was preparing to launch an assault against Harrenhal. During the Winter Fever, both Aegon and Jaehera Targaryen spent much time around and close to the sickness' victims, most of whom died, even touching them, yet those two never got sick (leading to their descendants Viserys and Daenerys to think that Targaryens are absolutely immune to all kinds of plagues, when they are just a lot more resistant due to magic).
- The survivors of Winter Fever believed that the disease had been brought to their shores by whaling ships from the Port of Ibben in the cold and snowy northern Essos, and slaughtered every Ibbenese they could find.
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