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The Peake Uprising makes no sense so far


Canon Claude

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I get that we don’t know much about it, but what little info we have makes the event feel really weird to me.

House Peake seem to be a marcher lord house. They had three castles after driving out the Manderlys. They’re ancient and numerous and used to be influential, but never very wealthy. Then the Targaryens marginalized them by eliminating the Gardeners. Then we had Unwin Peake making an enemy of Aegon III, we had Gormon Peake participating in two Blackfyre rebellions. For one or both of those things, the Peakes lost two of their three castles. 
 

And even after all that, the Peakes still decided to rebel? How? They’re down to just one castle, and presumably they’ve never been weaker in terms of manpower. What made them think rebelling would work? 
 

I have to assume they must have had a significant faction of other houses with them, though, because the king himself and his family are actively working to bring down this rebellion. You’d think that of all regions, the Reach would have enough troops to suppress House Peake at Starpike. Which means House Peake must have had help from some significant houses, but then why is it only called “The Peake Uprising?” And how strong is Starpike that the king himself has to bring an alliance of troops to take it?

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Folks don't have to be smart, lords included. It might be that the rebel Peake lord was more or less as stupid as Morion Martell.

We do have another stupid rebellion during Maekar's reign with Mad Danelle's insurrection which resulted in the destruction of House Lothston. We can safely assume that she, too, had no chance 'to win her independence' or conquer Westeros all on her own. Yet she still rebelled for some reason.

We also don't have to assume such rebellions were actually against the Iron Throne - it might be that Lord Peake and Mad Danelle had more/mainly problems with their liege lords (Tyrells & Tullys) than the Iron Throne. Events still could have enfolded in a manner where the king decided he himself would intervene to crush to end such a rebellion.

A martial king like Maekar is very likely to personally intervene even in minor rebellions in his Realm, taking it personally when his lords presume they can go to war without his leave.

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It's not a bad question, although I'm not sure I make the same assumptions you do.

House Peake seemingly had a long history of seeking power, both under the Gardener kings, and later the Targaryens. They are remarkably connected to the history of Westeros in the story, from being the reason the Manderlys are in the North to having the tale about Roger Reyne (whose father Robert died at Starpike, and presumably wasn't the same man as Robb Reyne, but that's unclear to me) executing Peake prisoners before being stopped by Egg (Roger Reyne who would later be drowned in the Raines of Castamere, meanwhile Robb Reyne fought on the side of the Blackfyres).

But back tot he Peake Uprising itself.

I would suggest that there seems to be more to the story here than just some rebellion. There doesn't appear to be a larger war, or some great alliance, as you point out.

Rather it seems like a huge force decided to siege Starpike, and given the multiple high profile deaths, they may have even stormed the castle.

I would suggest that the issue was something personal and likely related to the Blackfyre/Targaryen line of succession, or details/information regarding the rebellion.

Starpike, and House Peake, seem to have gotten their names from, Mervyn Peake and his Gormenghast series. Steerpike notably being the villain of the series.

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In my opinion, King Maekar was killed by the Faceless Men, same as his older brother - Baelor Breakspear. So it's likely that the Peake Uprising was caused by the FM, same as the Great Spring Sickness, and the Grey Plague at Pentos, during which died Illyrio's wife Serra.

The FM wanted to kill Serra, so they sent to Pentos a Braavosi-ship, with infected rats on it. Serra was their intended target, and the other 2000 people, that died in that epidemy, were collateral damage. Same with the Great Spring Sickness - the FM's targets were Daeron II, Valarr, Matarys, and Valarr's unborn children, and the other thousands, that also died in that epidemy, were collateral damage.

So the FM orchestrated the Peake's Uprising, to kill Maekar, and that's what they successfully did.

Also, it seems to me that the FM were very active in the following years after the Peake Uprising, at the Westerlands. For example, they killed Gerion Lannister - Tywin's paternal grandfather:

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In 244 AC, Gerold the Golden died of a bad bladder, unable to pass water. At the age of four-and-twenty, Tytos Lannister, his eldest surviving son, became Lord of Casterly Rock, Shield of Lannisport, and Warden of the West. - TWOIAF, House Lannister under the Dragons.

Widow’s blood, this one is called, for the color. A cruel potion. It shuts down a man’s bladder and bowels, until he drowns in his own poisons. - ASOS, Tyrion IX.

And they kept King Aegon V occupied, which prevented him for years from trying to hatch dragons:

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The years that followed were as dismal as any in the long history of the westerlands. Conditions in the west grew so bad that the Iron Throne felt compelled to take a hand. Thrice King Aegon V sent forth his knights to restore order to the westerlands, but each time the conflicts flared up once again as soon as the king’s men had taken their leave. When His Grace perished in the tragedy at Summerhall in 259 AC, matters in the west deteriorated even further, for the new king, Jaehaerys II Targaryen, lacked his sire’s strength of will and was besides soon embroiled in the War of the Ninepenny Kings.

That's because the situation at Westerlands, same as previously the situation at Starpike, was manipulated by the Faceless Men. And they also killed Jaehaerys II ->

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In 262 AC, King Jaehaerys II sickened and died abed after a short illness, complaining of a sudden shortness of breath. He was but thirty-seven years of age at his passing, and had sat the Iron Throne for scarce three years. - TWOIAF, Jaehaerys II.

“Pycelle,” Tyrion called out, risking his father’s wrath, “could any of these poisons choke off a man’s breath?

“No. For that, you must turn to a rarer poison. When I was a boy at the Citadel, my teachers named it simply the strangler.” - ASOS, Tyrion IX.

with Strangler poison.

So the Peake Uprising doesn't make sense because it was one of those things that the Faceless Men did to change the course of history, and to manipulate it into following the path described in the book of prophecies, that the Faceless Men are using as their guide-book.

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I suspect given the history of Peake support for the Blackfyres they got caught in a conspiracy for a new blackfyre rebellion. However it failed to either gain traction or support and it got found out before the Peakes could gather any allies and the Blackfyres and their allies elected to sit it out so it doesn't get included among the Blackfyre rebellions. Maekar probably brought a coalition of forces from different houses as a show of strength telling the Blackfyres how many powerful houses supported (it may not have been great numbers from each house but we can't say). Caught out the Peakes resulted to rising alone hoping to do well enough to incite a broader rebellion or at least force the Iron Throne to reasonable terms. They did well enough to kill Maekar (perhaps an accident or a minor wound gone bad were why) but not enough to actually achieve any of their aims.

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In my head canon Peake Uprising is somehow connected to end of House Lothston. Either last members of that house were allied with Peakes or their end(ing?) caused enough problems to King Maekar that Peakes thought that it would have been good time to do whatever they did during their uprising.

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On 12/8/2021 at 9:48 AM, Thandros said:

I suspect given the history of Peake support for the Blackfyres they got caught in a conspiracy for a new blackfyre rebellion. However it failed to either gain traction or support and it got found out before the Peakes could gather any allies and the Blackfyres and their allies elected to sit it out so it doesn't get included among the Blackfyre rebellions. Maekar probably brought a coalition of forces from different houses as a show of strength telling the Blackfyres how many powerful houses supported (it may not have been great numbers from each house but we can't say). Caught out the Peakes resulted to rising alone hoping to do well enough to incite a broader rebellion or at least force the Iron Throne to reasonable terms. They did well enough to kill Maekar (perhaps an accident or a minor wound gone bad were why) but not enough to actually achieve any of their aims.

Totally agree with that, it makes more sense to me.

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