How exactly is House Peake still a thing?

[Floki of the Ironborn]

It really seems like House Peake constantly ends up on the wrong side of history during the Targaryen era. First you have Unwin Peake and all the chaos that he caused in the name of social climbing and ambition. Then you have their support of House Blackfyre during two different rebellions. Then there's a Peake Uprising of sorts during the reign of Maekar Targaryen, during which the king, and several prominent nobles of Westeros are killed. 

And yet House Peake has continued to survive to the timeline of the books. 

My question is how?!

You're telling me that Targaryen king after Targaryen king allowed this troublesome house to survive, let alone with enough strength to rebel time after time? Houses are wiped out at the stroke of a pen during the War of the Five Kings, all because they sided against the winning side *once*. House Caron, House Massey, House Florent, House Stark, House Tully all lose their lands and titles for fighting against the Iron Throne. Meanwhile House Peake is alive and well!

[Adam Yozza]

Luck mainly. Unwin Peake will undoubtedly meet his end during the reign of Aegon III; probably supporting either Alys Rivers or one of the fake Daeron's; but he has no direct heir. So a castle will be taken and the line continues through a distant branch that sides with the crown.

Fast forward to the Blackfyre rebellion and the Peakes are shown leniency thanks to Daeron and Baelor. But they lose a second castle.

At Whitewalls Gormon Peake proves himself a traitor and is executed for it. But at the time Bloodraven can't get away with destorying the house entirely because with the hostility against him and Aerys all it would take is one tyranical act to turn everyone against the crown. So with no proof of invovlement by anyone except Gormon, Bloodraven can't do anything against the other Peakes.

If Maekar had survived the Peake rebellion you can be sure that their lands would be taken from them at the least, and the family probably wiped out for good measure. But Maekar dies and Aegon V becomes King. With his ascension probably not exactly being popular among the lords, Aegon likely decided for a more lenient approach and probably only took hostages and divided Peake lands again.

By the time of the series I suspect Peake to be closer to Osgrey in the Sworn Sword than the Peakes that caused so much trouble for the Targs

[James Steller]

2 hours ago, Adam Yozza said:

Luck mainly. Unwin Peake will undoubtedly meet his end during the reign of Aegon III; probably supporting either Alys Rivers or one of the fake Daeron's; but he has no direct heir. So a castle will be taken and the line continues through a distant branch that sides with the crown.

Fast forward to the Blackfyre rebellion and the Peakes are shown leniency thanks to Daeron and Baelor. But they lose a second castle.

At Whitewalls Gormon Peake proves himself a traitor and is executed for it. But at the time Bloodraven can't get away with destorying the house entirely because with the hostility against him and Aerys all it would take is one tyranical act to turn everyone against the crown. So with no proof of invovlement by anyone except Gormon, Bloodraven can't do anything against the other Peakes.

If Maekar had survived the Peake rebellion you can be sure that their lands would be taken from them at the least, and the family probably wiped out for good measure. But Maekar dies and Aegon V becomes King. With his ascension probably not exactly being popular among the lords, Aegon likely decided for a more lenient approach and probably only took hostages and divided Peake lands again.

By the time of the series I suspect Peake to be closer to Osgrey in the Sworn Sword than the Peakes that caused so much trouble for the Targs

I agree. Bloodraven was definitely too unpopular to get rid of an entire noble house, particularly one as ancient as House Peake. Though that said, think Floki has a point about so many houses being uprooted and destroyed during the War of the Five Kings as opposed to most of the other wars we’ve heard of thus far.

[Lord Varys]

3 hours ago, Floki of the Ironborn said:

It really seems like House Peake constantly ends up on the wrong side of history during the Targaryen era. First you have Unwin Peake and all the chaos that he caused in the name of social climbing and ambition. Then you have their support of House Blackfyre during two different rebellions. Then there's a Peake Uprising of sorts during the reign of Maekar Targaryen, during which the king, and several prominent nobles of Westeros are killed. 

I think we can draw the story as to how the Peakes barely survived their uprising from the uncut version of the Westerlands history. We know that the Red Lion got into Starpike when the castle was taken before Egg could get there - and he butchered seven unarmed Peake captives to avenge his late father who also died during the battle.

My guess is that the Lord Titus Peake - married to a Lady Margot Lannister, distant cousin to Tywin - we find in some of the Lannister appendices (the only Peake we got in Westeros during the series at this point) was a small babe in 233 AC. Aegon V would have made that child - the new lord of Starpike - a ward of Lord Gerold Lannister who eventually married the boy to a Lannister.

Even if that detailed part of the story is nonsense, chances are very high that the Red Lion butchering unarmed, captive Peakes left and right is the reason why Aegon V decided not to attaint the house because he thought that kind of cruelty was punishment enough.

3 hours ago, Adam Yozza said:

Luck mainly. Unwin Peake will undoubtedly meet his end during the reign of Aegon III; probably supporting either Alys Rivers or one of the fake Daeron's; but he has no direct heir. So a castle will be taken and the line continues through a distant branch that sides with the crown.

Yeah. I doubt he'll be smart or patient enough to back Alys Rivers and Aemond's son - who actually is the rightful heir to the Iron Throne and true king considering that he is the scion of the eldest male line - and considering he was one of the Caltrops with Prince Daeron I'm sure he will be one of the guys producing a more convincing Daeron the Daring (some of the others will likely be utter jokes). And I expect Myrielle Peake to go down with them, becoming 'the queen' of the impostor pretender.

And, yeah, Unwin will be destroyed, and some of his closer relatives still alive and standing with him, too, but the lordship will go to some Peake loyal to Aegon III, possibly a son or grandson of Gedmund Great-Axe.

And, yeah again, I also expect Aegon III to be the king who takes the first castle from the Peakes. Egg implies/seems to believe his grandfather took both their castles after the Blackfyre Rebellion, but he is still a young boy and could be mistaken about that detail. He wasn't there when his grandfather did that, after all.

3 hours ago, Adam Yozza said:

Fast forward to the Blackfyre rebellion and the Peakes are shown leniency thanks to Daeron and Baelor. But they lose a second castle.

Here we have to keep in mind that Lord Gormon was not necessarily the most stalwart of Daemon Blackfyre's followers. He certainly was a prominent lord following the Black Dragon's banner, but he was neither Bittersteel nor Fireball, or any of the other great heroes we hear followed the first Daemon. In that sense it is hardly surprising that Daeron II showed some leniency there.

3 hours ago, Adam Yozza said:

At Whitewalls Gormon Peake proves himself a traitor and is executed for it. But at the time Bloodraven can't get away with destorying the house entirely because with the hostility against him and Aerys all it would take is one tyranical act to turn everyone against the crown. So with no proof of invovlement by anyone except Gormon, Bloodraven can't do anything against the other Peakes.

It is also possible that Gormon was in a similar position as Unwin after the Regency - i.e. without a male heir of his own body. No sons of Gormy's are mentioned in TMK, meaning that Starpike may have gone to some Peake cousin yet again.

3 hours ago, Adam Yozza said:

By the time of the series I suspect Peake to be closer to Osgrey in the Sworn Sword than the Peakes that caused so much trouble for the Targs

Lord Titus' marriage to Lady Margot Lannister makes this exceedingly unlikely. I expect Lord Titus to be one of the most prominent Reach lords to declare for Prince Aegon in TWoW - and his ties to Casterly Rock may also have certain ripple effects in the West.

4 hours ago, Floki of the Ironborn said:

Houses are wiped out at the stroke of a pen during the War of the Five Kings, all because they sided against the winning side *once*. House Caron, House Massey, House Florent, House Stark, House Tully all lose their lands and titles for fighting against the Iron Throne. Meanwhile House Peake is alive and well!

Houses Caron and Florent are attainted, the former in part because there is no clear heir left. But being taken lands and castle(s) isn't the same as dying out completely. Alekyne Florent may have lost/lose Brightwater, but that doesn't mean he cannot retire to a keep more modest - like the Osgreys did in their history.

The Slynts lost Harrenhal but not their status as a lordly house, Edmure would likely eventually get some minor castle (or at least his child by Roslin would), etc.

And the Masseys have yet to be declared to have been attainted. Ser Justin Massey is no lord, he is just a knight in Stannis' service. Might be that he was the heir to Stonedance, but even that's unclear - he could just be some (landed) knight from a cadet branch of House Massey. And at Stannis' court the decrees of the false kings are not accepted, anyway, meaning that Massey technically would still be seen as the lawful owner of whatever lands and titles he once had - or has a right to succeed to.

A Lord Massey of Stonedance could easily enough show up in TWoW, having kept his forces out of the War of the Five Kings for the most part, with only cousin/nephew/son Justin being stupid enough to tie himself to Stannis or some of the other pretenders.