Lyman Beesbury

Lyman Beesbury was Lord of Honeyholt and head of his house. He served as Master of Coin to King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, and kept the office when the throne passed to Viserys I.

Between 103 and 104 AC the king's own brother, Prince Daemon Targaryen, held his post for reasons the chronicles do not record. After that year Lyman returned to the Small Council, where he remained in charge of the Crown's accounts.

When King Viserys died, Lyman was eighty years old and had sat on the Small Council for decades. At the meeting that was to decide the succession, he was the only man present who spoke up for Princess Rhaenyra, the heir Viserys himself had named.

Facing the rest of the council, he said: "And friends, honorable men who will not forget the oaths sworn before her and her father. I am old, but not so old that I will sit idle while men of your stripe conspire to steal her crown."

Once it was clear the council would not change its mind, Lyman reaffirmed his support for Rhaenyra and rose from the table to leave.

Three different accounts survive of his death. Grand Maester Orwyle holds that Ser Otto Hightower ordered him seized the moment he stood up, and that the old man died of a chill in the black cells before any trial could be held.

Septon Eustace tells a different story: that Ser Criston Cole forced him back into his seat and cut his throat with a dagger in front of the whole council. Mushroom, for his part, claims Cole threw him from a window, though at the time the jester was in Dragonstone and could not have witnessed it.

Whichever account is true, his blood was the first spilled in the Dance of the Dragons. Ser Tyland Lannister succeeded him as Master of Coin, and his grandson and heir, Ser Alan Beesbury, demanded he be freed from the dungeons, not yet knowing he was already dead.