Thrones, Champions and Queens of Love and Beauty

[Seams]

Some dialogue on a recent thread motivated me to take a closer look a the function of the various examples of Queens of Love and Beauty. I had tossed off the possibility that Rhaegar awarding the flowers to Lyanna had been something other than a signal of love or lust; maybe it was marking her as a sacrificial lamb of some kind. My closer look tells me that the sacrificial lamb notion is not correct. What I do see is women taking a key role in the Targaryen succession when they are singled out by a champion as a tourney's Queen of Love and Beauty. Just as GRRM uses tournaments, melees and archery contests to foreshadow which noble Houses and individual men will gain or lose control in the Game of Thrones, women are brought into the game, gaining power over the line of succession, when they are named as the Queen of a tournament.

The wiki lists the Queens of Love and Beauty who have been identified in flashbacks and/or POVs:

• Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen - named by Ser Criston Cole in a tourney staged in 104 AC.^[1]
• Queen Naerys Targaryen - named by Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, who was disguised as a mystery knight known as the Knight of Tears.^[2]
• Unknown daughter of Lord Ashford - at the opening of the tourney at Ashford Meadow in 209 AC.^[3]
• Princess Rhaella Targaryen - named by Ser Bonifer Hasty.^[4]
• Unknown daughter of Lord Walter Whent and Lady Shella Whent - reigning Queen at the opening of the tourney at Harrenhal.^[2]
• Lyanna Stark - named by Prince Rhaegar Targaryen at the tourney at Harrenhal.^[5][2][6]
• Lynesse Hightower - named by Ser Jorah Mormont at the tourney at Lannisport.^[7]

Three of the seven are Targaryen queens - appropriate choices for inclusion in a symbolic competition for the Iron Throne. I have theorized that the daughter of Lord Ashford is a generic, symbolic Targaryen, so that might make four.

At the Harrenhal tournament, as is apparently traditional, the daughter of the tournament's host starts out as the Queen of Love and Beauty. She can lose that title as the men joust and eliminate competitors who would defend that "Queen" or who would champion another queen. But I wouldn't assume that the deposing of the Whent daughter is meaningless. If the QoLaB title really is symbolic of a woman playing a role in the succession to the throne, the transition from Whent to Stark is probably a significant shift. Understanding it might also help us to better understand the relationship of Rhaegar and Lyanna.

The crowning of Lynesse Hightower might seem like an exception to the notion of the woman brought into the Game of Thrones: as far as we know, Lynesse left Westeros and she is living a cushy life as a courtesan somewhere in Essos, completely removed from the War of the Five Kings and other machinations in Westeros society and politics. Her marriage to Jorah was childless, so we don't know of any offspring who might be getting in line for the throne.

My guess is that the crowning of Lynesse is actually a throwback to the Dance of the Dragons, the Greens and the Blacks, Rhaenyra vs. Alicent Hightower. After Criston Cole crowned Rhaenyra, he switched his loyalty to Alicent and her heirs, giving a major boost to the faction that wanted to elevate Alicent's son to succeed his father, bypassing Rhaenyra. I can't confirm this at this point, but I assume we will see more of House Hightower in the last two books and we might get a better sense of their role as the plot develops.

Champions

One of the clues to help decode the roles of the various QoLaB is to examine the champions who chose them. (This is where I post my usual reminder that all of my threads examine wordplay and symbolism and that people who are not open to those approaches should refrain from commenting.) I believe I have unscrambled clues for the first two champions:

Ser Criston Cole = secret in colors

Knight of Tears = father to kings

The colors in the Dance of Dragons were the Rhaenyra loyalists (black and red) and Alicent supporters (green). Presumably the hint in Criston Cole's name refers to those colors. Alicent's son, Aegon II wins the throne but he is eventually succeeded by Rhaenyra's sons, Aegon III and Viserys II, so green is followed by black. I suspect there is more meaning in the colors, though; perhaps even providing clues to sort out the competing claims for the throne in the contemporary story. I have made an attempt to analyze some of the meanings attached to rainbow colors, but I don't have a ready explanation for the meaning of the color black. It's not in that link about the rainbow colors, but I suspect that green is often used to refer back to Garth Greenhands, the legendary figure associated with the Reach, fertility and nature.

Aemon the Dragonknight was rumored to be the father of Daeron II, and this anagram could be a hidden confirmation that Aemon, not Aegon III, was truly his biological father.

The next named champion is Ser Bonifer Hasty. Try as I might, I can't pin down an anagram that clearly explains his role or the role of Rhaella in the Targaryen succession. There are tantalyzing possibilities involving fire, bones, ebony, reborn, abyss, throne, firstborn or a number of other elements from the story. If I had to choose one anagram at this point, I might hang my hat on

Ser Bonifer Hasty = fiery breath sons.

I don't think there is any rumor that Ser Bonifer fathered any of Rhaella's children - wouldn't that be a strange twist. What strikes me about this potential anagram is that it might imply that Rhaella's children will hatch dragons. Fiery breath is also associated with Harrenhal because the castle was defeated when dragon breath melted the stone towers of the massive fortress. Jaime Lannister installs Ser Bonifer at Harrenhal before continuing his journey through the Riverlands.

In addition to his early flirtation with Rhaella, Ser Bonifer is known for his religious devotion, for overseeing Harrenhal until Petyr Baelish can take possession of it, and for the memorable nickname in Jaime's POV: Baelor Butthole. The Bael characters - ranging from the wildling who impregnated a Stark daughter in Old Nan and Ygritte's tales to King Baelor the Blessed to Petyr Baelish - seem very important in the story. I suspect Ser Bonifer will either play a bigger role in the upcoming books or he is symbolic of another character who will play a big role. His residency at Harrenhal seems important as we have two other Queens of Love and Beauty associated with that location.

Harrenhal

If I am correct in my reading of the hints in the Rhaenyr, Naerys and Rhaella QoLaB situations, how can these models provide insights into the Rhaegar / Lyanna situation?

As I have read and thought about the various QoLaB examples, I did come up with a new possibility for the Knight of the Laughing Tree. If the tournaments tend to show who will be successful in reaching the Iron Throne, and we know that Robert Baratheon eventually became king and sat on that throne, does that mean that he may have been the mystery knight at Harrenhal? Aerys was hell bent on finding that mystery knight and he sent Rhaegar to get him but Rhaegar was unsuccessful in tracking him down. This is the kind of symbolic foreshadowing stuff that GRRM seems to use to drop hints about what will happen in the future. Similar to the KofLT slipping through Rhaegar's fingers at the tourney, Robert later evades Ser Barristan who is determined to track him down at Stoney Sept. If Robert was the KotLT, Rhaegar's "failure" to take him into custody at Harrenhal might foreshadow Rhaegar's eventual defeat by Robert at the Ruby Ford.

Maybe Rhaegar crowning Lyanna is his (at the time) good-natured way of conceding to Robert. Maybe Rhaegar knew or suspected that Robert was the KotLT, that he was the rightful winner of the tourney, and that Robert would have chosen to crown Lyanna if he could have been present for the final rounds and conclusion of the tournament.

Of course, the KotLT isn't really the champion because he (she?) forfeits when he disappears before the last day of jousting. So this theory may not hold. But Rhaegar winning the tourney does not fit the pattern in other tournaments, where the victor - particularly a Targ victor - goes on to become king or, at least, gain power. I am think particularly of the Ashford Meadow tournament in The Hedge Knight story.

And I don't want to turn this into another "Who was the Knight of the Laughing Tree?" thread. My point is that analyzing the tournaments, victors and crowned Queens of Love and Beauty can help us to understand who will be successful in reaching the iron throne. Since we know that Robert reached the throne, we might also be able to work backward from his successful drive for the monarchy and place him among the possibilities for the "real" winner at Harrenhal.

Other flowers, Other crowns

While the Queens of Love and Beauty have a specific and significant status, I think they are worth examining in the context of other women singled out by tourney champions - Ser Loras giving flowers to Sansa, for instance. Brienne defeats Ser Loras in a melee and receives a cloak from Renly - how does that fit into this idea of champions as kingmakers or queenmakers? Anguy wins an archery competition at the Hand's tourney. Later, at the Inn of the Kneeling Man, Husband accuses the singer Tom of Sevenstreams of impregnating a young woman named Fern, but the singer explains the girl was interested in Anguy. Does Fern count as Anguy's QoLaB?

After the Red Wedding, Ryman Frey gives a crown that looks like Robb Stark's crown to a prostitute who identifies herself as the Queen o' Whores. Is this a parody of a melee, with the Frey guests being slaughtered, and a parody of the QoLaB to top it off? Ryman might have thought he was a champion after the Red Wedding, but he lost to Ser Jorah in the Lannisport tourney. The false tourney at The Twins was apparently not effective for Ryman. Maybe there were too many champions on the Frey team, or maybe the jousting for position within the Frey family has yet to reach its conclusion.

Just as Ser Criston Cole switches from Rhaenyra to Alicent, Ser Jorah switches from Lynesse to Daenerys. What might this tell us about potential future conflict between Dany and Lynesse or Dany and House Hightower?

[The Commentator]

No conflict at all.  Lynesse is not in love with Jorah.  The Hightowers are not idiots.  They can see with their eyes the disaster resulting from having the Baratheons and their allies in power.  They would welcome a Targaryen restoration.