Presiding over a wealthy and thriving realm, with an army of dragons at their command,
House Targaryen reached the end of their golden age, beginning a slow decline towards their
eventual fall.
Yet while Viserys I was not as wise, cunning or skilled at arms as Jaehaerys I, he was
an amiable and good natured ruler well loved by the people, who relied on his advisors
to govern while he concerned himself chiefly with keeping the hard won peace left to him
by his grand-father.
Unfortunately, he ultimately failed in this task and left the realm torn in two, on the
brink of worst civil war in their history.
However conflict stemmed not from his policies or administration, but from the issue of succession
which arose after he married his cousin Aemma Arryn who produced 2 sons which both died
in their infancy and girl named Rhaenyra who survived and grew into a beautiful, fearsome
and proud Targaryen princess.
After the death of his wife in child birth, Viserys feared his lack of a son might lead
the people to rally behind his wild and volatile brother Daemon as heir.
Believing he was unfit for the throne, Viserys decided to name his only living child, Rhaenyra
as heir to the Seven Kingdoms in 105 AC, with a great many Lords and Knights swearing their
allegiance.
Yet the notion of naming a daughter was controversial and set the stage for future conflict, as
the council of 101 AC, which chose Viserys over his aunt and cousins, stated that a woman
cannot inherit the crown if an eligible male is available, in this case the king’s younger
brother “The Rogue Prince”, Daemon Targaryen.
However because of Daemon’s brash nature, he had little support among the nobility and
so the true conflict came from the events of the 106 AC, when Viserys took a second
wife, marrying Alicent Hightower, who in their years together gave him 3 sons and a daughter,
naming them Aegon, Helaena, Aemond and Daeron.
The eldest child Aegon then married Helaena and produced Jaehaera, Jaehaerys and Maelor.
With a number of male sons and grandsons now available some started to push for a new heir
to be named, but Viserys refused, continuing to train his beloved daughter Rhaenyra to
rule, marrying her to Laenor Velaryon, with whom she had 3 children of her own, in Jacaerys,
Lucerys, and Joffrey.
Though the king was clear on the succession, his wife Queen Alicent refused to accept it,
and constantly pushed for her Aegon to be the heir.
Helping her case, was the controversy surrounding Rhaenyra’s children, as they all had brown
hair and looked nothing like their supposed father Laenor, who was rumoured to be gay,
instead believed to the bastard children of the Champion Ser Lucas Strong.
With the tales about Rhaenyra spreading many flocked to Queen Alicent and her Green Faction,
but they were fiercly opposed by Rhaenyra and her Black faction, who had allies of their
own, supported by one of the richest and most powerful families in House Velaryon as well
as the Rogue Prince Daemon Targaryen, a veteran fighter who reigned shortly as King of the
Stepstones while living in exile from the Westeros.
A dragonrider and experienced commander with many loyal soldiers at his call, Daemon Targaryen
married his neice Princess Rhaenyra after the death of both their spouses, resulting
in the birth of Aegon, Viserys and Visenya.
The King hated seeing his family divided and often tried to reconcile them, but the division
only grew worse with even the children getting involved, when Aemond Targaryen took the dragon
Vhagar without permission leading to a confrontation with Rhaenyra’s sons where Lucerys slashed
out his eye with a knife.
Even the dragons were divided, snapping and hissing at each other after sensing the animosity
of their riders.
In the year 129 AC, Viserys I died in his sleep, having in many ways been an excellent
king, as he left the realm wealthy and prosperous.
Yet no matter how many time he reiterated that Rhaenyra was his heir, his inability
to prevent factionalism meant the issue of succession was never resolved.
And so immediately following his death, the Greens of Queen Alicent Hightower made the
first move, as they lived in King’s Landing, while Rhaenyra lived on Dragonstone.
For seven days, the Greens kept the death of the viserys secret so they could remove
and replace their enemies at court, until finally the Kingsguard Ser Criston Cole crowned
Aegon II as king of the Seven Kingdoms, justifying their actions by claiming that the council
of 101 AC stated a woman could not inherit over a man, regardless of what the deceased
ruler wanted.
Over on Dragonstone, Rhaenyra was pregnant with her 6th child when she heard that her
father was dead, and younger brother usurped the throne.
Sent into a terrible fury, she went into early labor and lost the child, only further enraging
her against Aegon, Alicent and their supporters.
Gathering her allies she was crowed the true Queen of the seven kingdoms, and the two factions
went to war.
Yet this was no simple military conflict, as both sides possessed a great many dragons
which would devastate the land and people of the continent.
Over the course of 2 years, Westeros descended into a chaotic frenzy of death and violence,
with such notable events like the Pact of Ice and Fire which created an alliance between
the Blacks and House Stark, the Dance of Shipbreakers Bay where the first battle between dragonriders
resulted in the death Jacaerys and Arrax, the retribution of Blood and Cheese, two low
born killers who murdered young Jaehaerys in front of his mother Helaena, the Rise of
the Dragonseeds, where anyone with traces of Valyrian blood could attempt to tame a
dragon and join the Black Faction, the Raids of the Red Kraken who terrorized the Western
Coast, the Storming of the Dragonpit and riot of Kings Landing which left many dragons and
people dead, and the deaths of both Rhaenyra and Aegon II, leaving King’s Landing temporarily
without a Targaryen ruler, leading to the rise of 3 petty kings who were soon deposed.
After the assassination of Aegon II at the hands of his own advisors who wanted to prevent
Cregan Stark from massacring everyone in retaliation for the death of his Queen, Rhaenyra’s eldest
living son Aegon III was crowned king of Westeros.
Furious that the Northmen were denied battle, Cregan Stark took charge of King’s Landing
in what was called the Hour of the Wolf, executing those responsible for the assassination and
stabilizing the city, before he returned home to Winterfell with a new wife and the friendship
of the Iron Throne.
Yet Aegon III was only 11 at the time of his coronation and so a council of regents ruled
in his name, but these men and women were largely ambitious nobles primarily concerned
with plotting against each other for power.
The King himself was a good natured but quiet and sullen, deeply traumatized by the Dance
of the Dragons, where he lost so many members of his family including his mother who was
burned alive by dragonfire while he watched.
As a result Aegon had almost no influence in the administration of the realm, rarely
saying or doing anything beyond what he was told.
In the few instances where the boy did try to speak up or offer suggestions, his power
hungry regents ignored and dismissed him, even taking Gaemon Palehair, Aegons only friend,
and whipping him whenever the King misbehaved.
To help heal the realm after the civil war, Aegon III was married to his cousin Jaehaera
Targaryen, last living child of Aegon II, but she was simple girl who displayed little
emotion and killed herself two years after their marriage, though some suspect she was
murdered by the Hand of the King Lord Unwin Peake, as part of a plot to wed the king to
his daughter Myrielle.
Given his level of influence in the capital, Unwin Peake ensured Aegon spent a lot of time
with his daughter, even while the other Lords of the realm sent the young women of their
houses to win his favour in the Maiden’s Day ball.
The King however had no interest in any of it, and was so detached from what was happening
around him he most likely would have chosen Myrielle simply because she was always near
him and it was what the Hand wanted.
Yet at the last moment the King was rescued from the situation through the interference
of the only people in the entire world he trusted, and that was his half sisters Baella
and Rhaena, the daughters of Daemon Targaryen and his first wife Laena Velaryon.
The two young dragonriders brought with them a sweet and beautiful 6 year old girl named
Daenaera of House Velaryon, presenting her to Aegon who readily agreed to the match,
thereby foiling the plot of the House Peake.
In 134 AC, Lord Alyn Velaryon returned from a trip overseas with a present for Aegon,
bringing forth the kings younger brother Viserys, who everyone thought was killed in the Dance
of the Dragons, but had actually been taken to Lys.
Aegon was thrilled to have his brother back and also accepted several members of House
Rogare into the court, as Viserys was now married to Larra Rogare, the daughter of a
wealthy banking family.
Despite some things getting better for the young ruler, many more challenges awaited
him, as his friend Gaemon Palehair soon died of poisoning in an attempted assassination
of the king.
Matters then grew worse when word reached the capital that House Rogare had fallen from
grace in Lys, leading their enemies in Westeros to start arresting them, even going after
the wife of Prince Viserys.
Outraged to learn that his Councilors and regents were plotting against his own family,
King Aegon’s days of passivity and indifference were gone, and he retreated into Maegor’s
Holdfast alongside his wife, brother, sister in law and a Lyseni champion known as Sandoq
the Shadow.
For 18 days they were held in a secret siege, refusing to give up Larra Rogare, and making
it clear that any man who tried to storm the tower would die.
When an attempt to use violence was made, Sandoq the Shadow massacred Ser Amaury peake
and a dozen guardsmen.
As time went on some started to see that the King would not be moved, and further investigation
revealed that the Rogares were being falsely accused of treason by a group of conspirators
that included the Lord Confessor George Graceford and the kingsguard Mervyn Flowers.
With the siege ended, new regents were named for the final year of the King’s Minority,
and once again Aegon seemed to retreat into the background.
However when at last his nameday arrived in the year 136 AC, Aegon immediately took action,
no longer willing to tolerate all those who disregarded and marginalized his wishes.
And so the reign of Aegon the Broken King began, when he stormed into a meeting of the
Small council alongside his brother, and dismissed all his regents and the Hand of the King,
cancelling any and all plans underway.