Marilda
Marilda was a shipowner born in La Quilla, the daughter of a shipwright, who built a merchant fleet of her own out of a single shipyard. She was the mother of Addam and Alyn, two boys whose parentage was disputed during the Dance of the Dragons, and whose lives became bound to the great lords of Westeros's seas.
She was remembered as a small, quick woman, as sharp bargaining on the docks as she was at the helm; her nickname, Mouse, ended up naming the cog she used to build her fortune.
Chapter 1
The shipwright's daughter
97–130 ACBooks only
Marilda was born in 97 AC in La Quilla, the daughter of a shipbuilder, and as a girl she spent more time at her father's shipyard than anywhere else. She had her first son, Addam, at sixteen, and Alyn at eighteen.
When her father died she inherited the shipyard. She sold it and used the proceeds to buy a merchant cog she named the Mouse. By 130 AC she owned seven ships, and her sons had all but grown up aboard them.
Chapter 2
The blood in dispute
Books only
Jacaerys Velaryon
Laenor Velaryon
Corlys VelaryonWhen Prince Jacaerys Velaryon called for the search for dragonseeds, Marilda brought her two sons. Addam managed to mount Seasmoke; Alyn failed first with Grey Ghost and then with Sheepstealer.
There were two versions of who had fathered the boys: Marilda claimed both were sons of Ser Laenor Velaryon, and Lord Corlys accepted it without argument; the jester Mushroom suggested instead that their real father was Corlys himself, from the days when he spent time at the shipyard where Marilda's father worked. With Corlys's backing and Jacaerys's, Queen Rhaenyra legitimized Addam and Alyn as Velaryons.
Chapter 3
A king astride a mouse
Books only
Rhaenyra Targaryen
Aegon II Targaryen
Alicent HightowerAddam and Alyn fought for the Blacks in the Dance of the Dragons. Addam fell in the second Battle of Ladera.
After Rhaenyra died in the fall of Dragonstone, Queen Alicent Hightower pardoned Lord Corlys, and Alyn offered to bring King Aegon II back from Dragonstone to King's Landing. Marilda herself carried the king aboard the Mouse, escorted by a dozen Velaryon galleys; according to Mushroom, Alyn wanted the city to see Aegon II arrive riding a mouse.
Chapter 4
The Mousetrap
132–136 ACBooks only
In 132 AC, after Lord Corlys Velaryon died in King's Landing, Marilda and Alyn brought his body back to Driftmark aboard the Mermaid's Kiss; his remains were then given to the sea near Dragonstone, aboard the Sea Snake.
In 134 AC Marilda became a grandmother, when her daughter-in-law Baela gave birth to a girl named Laena Velaryon. As trade flourished during the Lysene Spring she added ships to her fleet and had a mansion built that Mushroom nicknamed the Mousetrap; two years later Alyn led a merchant fleet to Dorne and the Free Cities in command of the galley Brave Marilda.