House Hightower Hiding in Plain Sight

     In A Song of Ice and Fire, House Hightower sits as one of the most powerful houses of Westeros yet they fly under the radar at the same time. We'll explore their history and current involvement in Westeros and hopefully come to some sort of destination on what they're up to.

    House Hightower is an ancient family believed to be descendants of the First Men who settled in from Westeros. Their hometown is Oldtown which is known as the richest city of Westeros due to it being a port town for Westeros. Records from First Men runes and the Citadel indicate that Oldtown is the oldest men settlement in Westeros. From the same records, it appears that the first inhabitants lived among the Children of the Forest. Based on being a wealthy port of Westeros, it was subject to invasions to all sorts of sketchy folks from pirates to rival territories. House Hightower were relatively untouched as they lived within an ancient fortress made of oily black stone on Battle Isle which eventually became the base for their stronghold Hightower. After one particular invasion, Otho II of House Hightower ended up building stone walls to protect all of Oldtown. 

    Speaking of the Citadel, House Hightower started by most accounts by Prince Peremore Hightower who was all about putting together an encyclopedia of knowledge from all the wise men, magicians, teachers and whoever else he could get. Peremore ends up dying but his brother decides to honor his quest and gives some land to get the Citadel building going. 

    House Hightower did the political thing and joined the Kingdom of the Reach by marrying into the House Gardner. While no longer being independent, they lost a relatively small kingdom to join a network and become a powerful force among the Reach. Part of the deal Oldtown came under the protection of House Gardner which freed up House Hightower to expand its trading business and become a power sea fleet. So the age of First Men saw a great surge by House Hightower in the power structure of Westeros.

    Along comes the Andal invasion. The Andals pretty much followed the path of the First Men and migrated to Westeros from Essos with aspirations of taking over. Mostly they appeared to be running from the Valyrians who were taking over Essos. The Andals  came to Westeros with their big religion-  Faith of the Seven. Instead of fighting the Andals, House Hightower  said it's cool we just want to Netflix and Chill with you. Lord Doran Hightower ended up marrying an Andal princess and adopting the Faith of the Seven, basically putting him in a good spot in the power structure. Dude basically threw away his wife of 20 years to save House Hightower. We see a pattern here- 2 major forces knocking on the door and House Hightower "relinquishes" title/control  and survives the day in a much better spot.

    Aegon Targaryen is the next to say Westeros looks like an awesome spot to flex his powers. Third time’s a charm? Not really House Hightower is very accommodating to new ownership and bends the knee to Aegon. They actually didn't join their liege lord Highgarden per the advice of the High Septon and avoided the Field of Fire massacre. In retrospect it was a very good move, however based on a feudal system and it's usually considered betrayal. Not sure that the High Septon had to fast and all that as I would say an unstoppable dragon is good enough reason. Even the country folks up north knew better and they didn't have to go on a hunger strike for a week to figure it out. Manred Hightower threw open the doors and let Aegon walk in like the boss he was. Declared him rightful ruler and even anointed him in the Faith of the Seven oils. Sure Aegon was all loving it like a pampered date getting the expensive restaurant and gifts. To keep up the facade and not still not wanting to be held fully accountable for anything, Lord Hightower lets House Tyrell takeover the Reach. Once a solid plan as anything happens whoever is ruling Westeros is going to yell at or punish someone else first. It's a good price to pay I would say.

Fast forward many Targaryen reigns later to the rule of Jaehaerys I. Ser Otto Hightower became Hand of the King under Jaehaerys I after the death of Prince Baelon and that's where things started getting wild for the Targaryens. There were several deaths of Jaehaerys's children- Daella, Alyssa, Viserra, Aemon, Baelon, and Gael.  His one daughter Saera was a wild child who became a nymphomaniac- so much so she ran off to Essos and became a successful service woman there. Then you have a broken Queen Alysanne died on Dragonstone- pretty much in bad shape mentally from the loss of her children. This in turn as would be expected left Jaehaerys in a bad mental spot and left the question of heir to the throne open. 

Ser Otto Hightower saw this as his opening- fairly early on I believe. Jaehaerys became bedridden from family health- no doubt aided by the depression/grief from losing his children and wife. Otto Hightower's daughter, Alicent Hightower, became the nurse/person who took care of Jaehaerys. Some reason I don't believe it's laid out Alicent became Jaehaerys BFF. Old man with family gone and in bad health is a pretty easy scheme you see in the real world. One very interesting detail about that relationship is "King Jaehaerys sometimes mistook her for his daughter, Saera Targaryen. Going back to Queen Alysanne, one of her final endeavors before she passed was trying to get Jaehaerys to have Saera brought back to the family / Westeros. While that never happened, I have to imagine a request from the love of his life weighed on Jaehaerys heavily. Just speculation on that. 

Jaehaerys dies and his grandson Viserys I is named king. Ser Otto Hightower stayed on as Hand of the King during all this and without a doubt pushed that outcome. Viserys in turn kept Hightower as Hand of the King.  Viserys had a wife Aemma Arryn and daughter Rhaenyra when he became king.  Viserys also had an ambitious brother Prince Daemon Targaryen. That brother did not get along with Ser Otto Hightower at all and had mad beef with each. Daemon thought he should be the heir to Viserys and that being the case he should be given Dragonstone to rule. Ser Otto Hightower not liking Daemon or that idea kept pushing him to make Princess Rhaenyra his heir (at this time she was his only child). Viserys was confident his wife was going to give him a son so he was like nah don't think so. Fast forward to the birth of Baelon- which ended up killing Aemma during it. Baelon died a day afterwards leaving no male heir for Viserys.

So Daemon deciding to be an idiot was drunk in a brothel talking mad sh*t about how Baelon was "heir for a day". Of course King's Landing is filled with clucking hens/loose lips and word of this got to Viserys. As you can imagine he was not too happy hearing his brother happy that his wife and kid had just died. Viserys threw a big party and declared Rhaenyra as heir and Princess of Dragonstone. During this party, you have hundreds of lords and knights swearing their oaths to defend her rights of succession. Daemon bolts King's Landing knowing he screwed up and is mad.

Ser Otto Hightower wins with his idea of pitching Rhaenyra as heir to get rid of Daemon who he didn't like. Now Viserys is single and guess who catches his eye? Alicent Hightower.  Everyone got along fine even Rhaenyra calling Alicent mom and all that. Fast forward to the births of Aegon and then Aemond. Alicent Hightower gave Viserys two male heirs. Being they were his grandkids, Ser Otto Hightower pushed that one of them should be named heir. Viserys was like nah bruh this was already settled back when Rhaenyra was made heir. Ser Otto Hightower was such a pain about it, Viserys got rid of him and named a new Hand of the King. And the rift from all this caused beef between Rhaenyra and Alicent leading to the creation of two parties who supported their cause- The Greens and The Blacks. 

Viserys decided it was time for Rhaenyra to get herself a man. Queen Alicent thinking she was clever was all marry your step-brother Aegon so he could be king one day. Viserys was all hell no we're not into that incest pedophilia stuff here...and the fact they didn't like each other anyway. Political decision wise  Viserys was all you're marrying Laenor Velaryon to Rhaenyra. This would soothe things between the Iron Throne and Driftmark. Rhaenyra  then tried to out Laenor saying he probably would rather choose Aegon. Viserys was all it didn't matter and forced Rhaenyra's hand to marry him. Later on that year Rhaenyra gave birth to her first son, Jacaerys Velaryon. Funny enough Jacaerys didn't resemble his dad so the clucking hens were all "you are not the father" about it. They might have been right as all her subsequent kids didn't look Velaryon at all either.

As any good Jerry Springer episode, along comes some more sloppiness in the return of Daemon Targaryen into the picture. He made up with Viserys for like the 100th time and even set up for his kids to marry Rhaenyra's kids and get the Targaryen incest practices back to form. So Daemon was actually just chilling out when his wife dies. Alicent's boy Aemond starts some trifling stuff with Rhaenyra's kid at the funeral. To squash that Viserys sent the alleged baby daddy Harwin Strong to Harrenhall where he and his dad- Lyonel Strong - also the Hand of the King died in a fire. At this point Ser Otto Hightower is put back as The Hand of the King. Then shortly after Rhaenyra's husband dies leaving her single. Who does she marry? Her uncle Daemon Targaryen without Viserys blessing to bring incest back to the forefront. No worries it was cemented when they welcomed their first kid before the year ended. (Insert "Jerry! Jerry!" chant here)

Politically Rhaenyra was looking for more real estate and pushed how her kid should be the ruler of Driftmark- same house she married into to squash the beef with the Iron Throne. As can be expected, House Velaryon was all hell no your kids are Harwin Strong's bastards not Velaryons. Being a daddy's girl, Viserys decided this would not stand and had those folks lose their tongues. Some weird karma hit Viserys and he ended up cutting himself on the throne. Got sick and ended up losing two fingers which in itself led to more beef between Alicent and Rhaenyra.

Grand Maester Mellos, who served the king at King's Landing, couldn't do this job and failed at trying to heal Viserys fingers which complicated into a fever from an infection. Folks were thinking Viserys might die so Rhaenyra sent Dragonstone's Maester Gerardys to help. He amputates Viserys fingers which ends up helping and Viserys recovers. Grand Maester Mellos soon after dies so Rhaenyra thinks Maester Geradys should be there to take care of her dad. Alicent was all no f'n way you're getting your dude in my house. Her pick for the position is Maester Alfador, who served House Hightower- wonder who put that idea in her head. Neither thought mattered as the Citadel had the power to decide who got the job so Archmaester Orwyle became the new Grand Maester.

Couple years later Viserys dies and it's time for his heir Rhaenyra to take the throne. Not on Ser Otto Hightower's watch! Instead of Rhaenyra, Hightower pushed the crowning of Aegon II in defiance of the last will of Viserys I. This act in itself was the powder keg that started the civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. The civil war lasted 2 years with Rhaenyra and company winning and Ser Otto Hightower losing his head.  Queen Alicent died alone, confined in Maegor's Holdfast for the last year of her life. Interestingly enough House Hightower was on the list of folks to be punished by the new Hand of the King Lord Cregan Stark, but got spared due to House Velaryon sending out ravens asking for peace. So Hightower got a pass. 

House Hightower continued their ties to House Targaryen by marriage of Garmund Hightower to Lady Rhaena Targaryen (one of Daemon's daughters). Otherwise they stayed relatively quiet- outside of Jon Hightower serving as Hand of the King during the final years of King Aegon IV Targaryen's reign. Interesting that we had one Hightower there at the beginning of the Dance of the Dragons that we had another one for the Blackfyre Rebellions. On his deathbed, Aegon IV known as the Unworthy, legitimized all of his bastard children. This once again led to a whole heir dispute but the Hightowers were nowhere near there when Daeron took over the crown. For their part, House Hightower did not pick any sides in the Blackfyre Rebellion.

The only other notable Hightower was Ser Gerold Hightower who served the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard under the Mad King Aerys II. He died at the Tower of Joy protecting Rhaegar's beloved Lyanna Stark. After the Targaryen's lost Robert's Rebellion, the Hightowers did what they did best and bent the knee leading to no significant punishments afterwards.

So where are they in current day Westeros? House Hightower is still the major contributor to both the Citadel and the Faith of the Seven. Which means they control the highest education and head religion in Westeros which has infiltrated every single house in Westeros.  They are as rich as House Lannister in terms of money which is current day a big source of power. They can also claim the biggest army (or at least buy the most troops) in Westeros.  They're basically this huge power that is left alone as they avoid the spotlight for the most part.  If you wanted a character comparison I would say House Hightower follows the Varys model of doing politics. Very behind the scenes with plants installed everywhere - via the Citadel and Faith of the Seven. They have played a part in nearly all historic events in Westeros and still have a lot of unplayed cards up their sleeves.

So what's their end game? With Ser Otto Hightower they saw what happens when they overreached and have learned their lessons well but managing to keep their networks open via the Citadel and Faith of the Seven. I think House Hightower are very comfortable in where they're at and maintaining their status quo by whatever means necessary. Depending on how the story unfolds I believe we will see House Hightower be one of, if not the first, houses to bend the knee to Daenerys Targaryen. I think they'll see her resemblance to Aegon's Conquest- especially with three dragons on her team.  In terms of Faegon and a potential Blackfyre Rebellion type fallout, they more than likely will pull a similar reaction to the original rebellions and not pick a side to keep their options open.  The darkhorse to that will be Euron's invasion of Oldtown. If Faegon goes to help/defend them, House Hightower might swear fealty to him and fall victim to a new Dance of the Dragons.