Lyonel Tyrell Lord of Highgarden

Lyonel was still a babe when the Dance of the Dragons broke out, so it was his mother who ruled the Reach in his stead. At the start of the war, following the lead of their mightiest bannermen, the Hightowers of Oldtown, the Tyrell regency declared for King Aegon II Targaryen.

Shortly after, with no clear explanation, the Tyrells reaffirmed their support for Aegon under pressure from their own bannermen, and from then on stayed out of the rest of the fighting. Ulf the White accused them of treachery for never taking the field themselves, though what he was really after was Highgarden itself.

After Rhaenyra Targaryen's death, when the green council called on its allies for troops, the regent replied that she doubted her bannermen's loyalty and that, being only a woman, it was not her place to lead a host to war. Later, once Aegon II had been betrayed and killed by his own men, the Tyrells forbade Lyonel Hightower from raising an army to keep fighting; Hightower's brother Garmund, who served as the regent's cupbearer, effectively remained behind as a guarantee of Oldtown's loyalty.

Now head of House Tyrell, Lord Lyonel placed his forces at King Daeron I's service when the king set out to conquer Dorne. After taking the throne in 157 AC, Daeron marched south and defeated the Dornishmen, becoming the first Targaryen to rule over a united Seven Kingdoms.

Lyonel loyally led the army that entered Dorne through the Prince's Pass, and after the initial victory the king named him governor of the newly subdued region.

The post did not last. The Dornish proved far harder to rule than they seemed: one night at Spottswood, he pulled the bell-cord by his bed that was meant to summon a woman to his chamber, and instead brought down a hundred scorpions from the canopy above the bed. Dornish letters kept at Sunspear point to Lord Qorgyle as the one who set the trap. His death touched off fresh uprisings that undid the conquest within a fortnight.