In your essay on Dorne, you suggest that Vorian Dayne came after Davos Dayne. Which is a big surprise 1- Vorian would be far more plausible as the king who was eventually defeated and sent to the Wall, with Davos succeeding him as leader of the Dayne household. 2-If Vorian was sent to the Wall for leading a failed rebellion after the consolidation of the Martell as rulers of Dorne, it seems to me very unlikely that he would be sent with the status of king

Here’s my logic:

We know that during Nymeria’s first marriage, the Daynes were allies of Mors Martell during his nine-year campaign against the Yronwoods. Sending Vorian Dayne to the Wall in this early phase wouldn’t make much sense.
After Mors Martell’s death, which came before Nymeria’s eventual victory against the Yronwoods, Nymeria married twice, first to the Ullers and second to Ser Davos Dayne, who was the Sword of the Morning but not Lord of Starfall.
Davos Dayne’s son with Nymeria was passed over as Nymeria’s heir – which would break the First Men and Andal rules of succession that the Daynes would have followed – in favor of her oldest daughter with Mors Martell, following the new Rhoynar customs. In dynastic politics terms, this is a huge blow to House Dayne, rendering the marriage alliance useless.
Vorian Dayne, who was Lord of Starfall but not Sword of the Morning, was sent to the Wall at some point by Nymeria – why would the two come to conflict when their Houses had been allies in the war against the Yronwoods? Well, Nymeria’s decision to name her oldest daughter over her oldest son would be a clear casus belli.

My belief is that King Vorian Dayne was the older brother of Ser Davos, in one of those periods in which Dawn had been given to a non-ruler of Starfall (as was the case with Ser Arthur Dayne), that he allied with Nymeria against the Yronwoods, confirmed that alliance by marrying his highly symbolic younger brother to Nymeria, rebelled when his nephew was disinherited, was defeated, and was sent to the Wall as a King in part to smooth over ongoing tensions within the court at Starfall, as I can’t imagine it would have been easy for Ser Davos or his son during the rebellion.

The problem with your scenario is that, if Davos had succeeded Vorian, he would have been Lord Davos Dayne rather than Ser Davos Dayne when he married Nymeria.

I was always under the impression that the Dayne’s were just below the Yronwoods in the Dornish hierarchy. Are they not the Dornish equivalent of House Swann and even though the Torrentine is not navigable by boat to the extent that the Slayne is, do they not still sit on the overland trade route connecting Dorne to Oldtown? Also, factoring in the Dornishmen’s high value export commodities places them pretty high in the food chain. Thoughts? – Thank You, RSAFan

The Daynes are fairly prominent – they’re a principal house, they have that marriage link to Nymeria, etc. But the Jordaynes, Santagars, Allyrions, Tolands, Yronwoods, Wyls, and Fowlers are also principal houses and many of them have more useful economic advantages: the Tor and Ghost Hill sit on the Sea of Dorne which gives them a closer shot to the Narrow Sea trade, Godsgrace and Vaith sit on rivers that give them some of the rare arable land in Dorne and access to the Narrow Sea, the Fowlers sit on top of the caravan route through the Prince’s Pass, etc.

And as for the Daynes, it’s unlikely that there is much overland trade between Starfall and Oldtown, because that trade wouldn’t get much further than Starfall due to having to go over the Red Mountains to get to the rest of Dorne, as opposed to the easier route through the Prince’s Pass. Likewise, the high value export commodities probably aren’t produced in the arid Red Mountains – it’s far more likely that production takes place more in eastern Dorne.

Has it ever been explained how House Dayne became so prominent and were so especially loyal to the Targaryens? Not to second guess E&L’s decisions in the companion book, but always thought make more sense for Egg’s wife to from House Dayne to explain that. Egg seems like to the type to marry for love from a lower status house like the Daynes. My headcannon was perhaps Bloodraven’s full sister became Lady Dayne so he could have had a hand manipulating the match. Totally out to lunch on that?

Well, the Daynes’ prominence comes primarily from the fact that A. they’re one of the oldest Houses in Westeros, which gives them a lot of prestige, B. they’re also former royals, which gives them additional prestige, and C. they have a famous warrior tradition of the Sword of the Morning, which again gives them quite a bit of prestige in a warrior culture.Thus, despite not being one of the richest or most powerful of the Lesser Houses of Dorne, they have a ton of social/cultural capital.

In terms of their loyalty, I wouldn’t call the Daynes particularly notable as Targaryen loyalists beyond Ser Arthur Dayne himself – we don’t hear about any Daynes fighting at the Battle of the Trident, for example, nor do we see any Daynes of Starfall numbered among Oberyn’s partisans or Arianne’s conspiracy, and they arranged a betrothal to one of Robert Baratheon’s bannermen.

Does anyone besides Ned, Howland Reed, and maybe Benjen know about R+L=J? Specifically, has Howland Reed told Meera and Jojen? Do you think Rhaegar told anyone that Lyanna was pregnant other than the three Kingsguard who died at the Tower of Joy? If not, when (if ever) did Rhaegar plan on publicly revealing he had fathered a son with Lyanna?

That’s a good question. Here’s the thing, there’s people who know parts of the story – Howland Reed told his kids about the Knight of the Laughing Tree, so they may well have guessed that Lyanna ran away with Rhaegar, but I don’t think he told them about the Tower of Joy (it’s possible Jojen saw it in a vision) although they may have put two and two together

Likewise, I’ve always been under the impression that the older folks at House Dayne know, since Ned stayed there with baby Jon until Jon was able to travel and their servant Wylla was Jon’s wetnurse and likely Lyanna’s midwife – after all, Arthur Dayne was the closest to home of any of the knights at the Tower of Joy, and he’s definitely going to send to home for a servant to help with the birthing of a royal child since that’s completely outside his wheelhouse. Also, this always made sense to me as both the simplest and most tragic answer to how Ned knew where to find Lyanna: Ashara Dayne told her lover where to find his sister, and that’s a big part of the reason she took her life.

As for Rhaegar, he may may have told some of his closest confidants like Richard Lonmouth, but I doubt it. And I have no idea how he was planning that particular revelation.