Donnel Hightower

Between 43 and 48 AC, Donnel took Lord Martyn Hightower's place at the head of Oldtown, though nothing tells us what blood tie, if any, connected them.

When the septon Luna arrived at the city with his followers, Donnel shut the gates but didn't draw a sword, not even when the High Septon begged him to; he claimed he had no wish to spill devout blood, though it was whispered he feared facing the lords who were sheltering Luna. That hesitation earned him the name the maesters gave him: the Delayer. Only once most of Luna's five thousand followers had died or fled, leaving barely four hundred, did he ride out to attack what remained of them.

In 49 AC, Lord Donnel travelled to King's Landing for the Golden Wedding, escorting the High Septon with a hundred knights and, alongside them, seventy-seven of the Most Devout.

In 50 AC, Orryn Baratheon went to Oldtown meaning to take the novice Rhaella Targaryen away with him. The High Septon had already heard her confession and forgiven her, but Donnel had him arrested anyway and sent ravens with the whole affair to the Red Keep and to Dragonstone.

When his maester raised the question of how Lord Rogar Baratheon might react, Donnel answered: 'Let him come and try to free him. His wife took his Hand and cut off his balls, and soon the king will take his head.'

In 54 AC, on the High Septon's death, Jaehaerys I and Alysanne flew south to Oldtown, over the Small Council's doubts about the pair travelling without an escort; the king trusted in the protection the Hightowers would give them. Lord Manfryd Redwyne warned that he didn't trust Donnel, calling him scheming and sullen, a man loyal to himself, his house, and his city before any king.

The royal couple stayed at the Hightower, where Jaehaerys and Donnel argued over who would be the next High Septon: Donnel wanted the seat for a kinsman of his own — he had a brother, two nephews, and six cousins who were septons, and three more relatives among the Most Devout — and the king raised no objection, so long as whoever took it upheld the Doctrine of Exceptionalism.

The septon Alfyn, already an old man, was the one chosen; when he died, the seat passed to one of Donnel's brothers.

In 55 AC, Queen Rhaena Targaryen came to Oldtown looking for her daughter, Princess Aerea; Donnel received her and told her the princess wasn't in the city.

The following year, Elissa Farman, carrying three stolen dragon eggs, arrived in Oldtown looking for sailors. King Jaehaerys ordered her arrest, but by the time Donnel acted, Elissa had already sailed; whether the raven reached Oldtown late or Donnel himself dragged his feet is not known. He sent a dozen of his fastest ships after her and after her grandsons, Eustace and Norman, who had joined her with ships of their own, but none of them caught her.

Lord Donnel died in 59 AC, of an illness they called the shivers.