Did Princess Rhaenys Change Alliances? Is She Part of the Blacks Now?

Episode 9 of House of the Dragon focused almost entirely on the Greens, but there were also scenes that included Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, who Alicent tried to win over to her side because of her place as the de facto leader of House Velaryon in the absence of Corlys. Of course, Alicent tried to appeal to Rhaenys’s motherly side and nature as a woman to try to win her over. So, did Rhaenys change alliances in House of the Dragon?
Rhaenys never changed her alliance in House of the Dragon, as she still remains allied with Rhaenyra and the Blacks. That’s because, while she was never too fond of Rhaenyra, she said that she would not easily disregard the oath that her house swore to the true heir to the Iron Throne many years ago.
Princess Rhaenys, in this episode, was able to showcase just how true of a badass mother and grandmother she is as she never folded to the will of the Greens. Of course, she also had one of the best moments in the series as the episode closed, as we now know where her alliance rests. In that regard, let’s look at Princess Rhaenys and her allegiance to either the Blacks or the Greens.
Who Was Princess Rhaenys Allied With?
We all saw that the beginning of episode 9 of House of the Dragon focused on the plotting of the Greens to put Prince Aegon on the Iron Throne instead of allowing Princess Rhaenyra, who was always the rightful heir of King Viserys. Of course, the Greens schemed well enough that they made sure that every lord or landed knight that was in King’s Landing would swear their allegiance to Aegon once he ascended to the Iron Throne.
Of course, episode 9 also allowed us to see how the Greens actually imprisoned Princess Rhaenys Targaryen in her own room during the entire mess. We know for a fact that she is now the de facto leader of House Velaryon, considering that her husband is still wounded and that Lucerys is yet to take his place as the heir of Driftmark. As such, she was an important chess piece that the Greens needed to secure. And there was no other person that they wanted to talk to Rhaenys than Queen Alicent herself.
It was important for the Velaryons to be taken into the fold by the Greens because of the fact that this is one of the most powerful houses in the entire Seven Kingdoms, as House Velaryon is second only to House Targaryen in terms of its might. That’s because the Velaryons have the largest fleet in Westeros and have a good share of the dragons that exist in the world. That was why Alicent needed to win Rhaenys’s allegiance.
During Alicent’s visit to Rhaenys’s quarters, the queen appealed to the princess’s emotions by telling her that she should have been chosen to rule the Seven Kingdoms instead of Viserys because she had the right bloodline and temperament of a ruler. On top of that, Alicent also tried to win her over to her side by telling her that her alliance with Rhaenyra throughout all these years never bore her anything good.
In that regard, it was clear that Rhaenys was always allied with Rhaenyra’s faction, and it was not always because she actually wanted to be allied with her. Rhaenyra and Rhaenys didn’t always see eye to eye, especially because they had different ways of viewing the world. Of course, there’s also the fact that there were rumors regarding how Laenor was cuckolded by Rhaenyra’s lover, Ser Harwin Strong. On top of that, it was also rumored that Rhaenyra and Daemon had Laenor “killed” so that they could marry.
But the fact is that Rhaenys was allied with Rhaenyra due to the ties of their families and how Corlys Velaryon wanted to see someone from his family sitting on the Iron Throne. Rhaenyra was once married to Laenor, and Daemon was once married to Laena. As such, the grandchildren of Corlys and Rhaenys are with Rhaenyra and Daemon. This was an alliance brought about by circumstance instead of friendship.
Then again, because of the fact that Rhaenyra’s children are now betrothed with Rhaenys’s granddaughters, the alliance between the two factions only grew stronger. And this is why Alicent is threatened by the fact that Rhaenys is allied with Rhaenyra’s Black faction, as this would allow the rightful heir to have an army of Velaryons that they could use against King’s Landing and the Greens.
Did Princess Rhaenys Change Her Allegiance?
Of course, Alicent really wanted the princess to join her faction by appealing to the fact that Rhaenys had never seen anything good out of her alliance with Rhaenyra. Rhaenys lost both of her children while they were married to Rhaenyra and Daemon. On top of that, her son’s children were not even of her blood. And Alicent also wanted Rhaenys to understand that, as strong and powerful women, it was best for them to make sure that they were allied with one another in the upcoming war that was sure to happen.
However, Rhaenys told Alicent that the word of her house was not a fickle one. House Velaryon had already allied itself with the Blacks and had already recognized Rhaenyra as the rightful heir to the Iron Throne. There is also the fact that Rhaenys believed that Alicent was only making herself more pathetic by lobbying her son for the Iron Throne. Her exact words were:
“You are wiser than I believed you to be, Alicent Hightower. And yet to you toil still in service to men. Your father, your husband, your son. You desire not to be free but to make a window in the wall of your prison. Have you never imagined yourself on the Iron Throne?”
In that regard, it was clear that Rhaenys did not want to side with Alicent’s faction because she didn’t want to toil in service to lesser men, just like what Alicent had been doing in her entire life. With Rhaenyra, however, she was going to be allied with the strong and powerful woman that she should have been had she been chosen for the Iron Throne nearly 30 years ago.
As such, Rhaenys made her intentions clear in the final moment of the episode when she and her dragon popped out from under the ground in the Dragonpit during King Aegon II’s coronation. Although she had every opportunity to kill Aegon, Alicent, and all of the Greens right then and there, she decided not to do so. Instead, she made her escape on Meleys and is obviously going to be one of the people that would tell Rhaenyra what the Greens had done.