Jaehaerys I Targaryen

King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, commonly known as the Old King, was the fourth king of the Targaryen dynasty. The longest-reigning king in the history of the Seven Kingdoms, he is known for building the Kingsroad and reconciling with the Faith after the Faith Militant uprising. He was a dragonrider who rode the bronze dragon Vermithor.
==Biography==
===Background===
Jaehaerys I was the fourth king of the Targaryen dynasty, and reigned two centuries before the War of the Five Kings. He was a son of King Aenys Targaryen and grandson of King Aegon I Targaryen. Aenys died at the beginning of the Faith Militant uprising, after which the throne was usurped by his half-brother Maegor the Cruel, ahead of Aenys's own children. Eventually, House Baratheon declared Jaehaerys the true heir and challenged Maegor's rule with the dragons Vermithor and Silverwing by his side. Shortly after, queen consort Rhaena (Maegor's wife and Jaehaerys's older sister) joined Jaehaerys's cause with her dragon Dreamfyre. Houses Lannister, Tyrell, Arryn, and Velaryon soon followed. Maegor was found dead on the Iron Throne a short time later.
Following Maegor's death, Jaehaerys ascended to the throne and dispatched his Hand of the King, Septon Barth, who made peace with the Faith of the Seven, putting an end to the conflict. In exchange for the Iron Throne swearing to always defend and protect the Faith, the Faith Militant would disarm and disband and the Faith would give up its condemnation of the incestuous practices of House Targaryen.
Jaehaerys was wed to his own sister, Queen Alysanne Targaryen, with whom he had thirteen children. Following the deaths of two consecutive heirs, his sons Aemon and Baelon, the line of succession was called into doubt. In the 101st year after Aegon's Conquest, Jaehaerys convened a Great Council in the ruins of Harrenhal to prevent a civil war between the various claimants.
===House of the Dragon: Season 1===
As the Great Council comes to a close, Jaehaerys sits at the head of the Hall of a Hundred Hearths, surrounded by the two remaining claimants Viserys and Rhaenys and their families, to receive the final result of the vote. He smiles weakly to himself as he unrolls the letter proclaiming Viserys the new Prince of Dragonstone. Two years later, he dies and is succeeded by Viserys.
Jaehaerys is depicted in one of four statues in the throne room of the Red Keep, with a book in his hands.
===Game of Thrones: Season 3===
Trying to make his way back south of the Wall, Samwell Tarly explains to Gilly that there is a secret passage at the Nightfort, the first castle on the Wall, and that the castle was abandoned during the reign of King Jaehaerys the First.
==Family==
===Ancestors===
===Descendants===
==In the books==
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Jaehaerys I is fondly remembered as one of the best kings the Targaryen dynasty ever produced, and his long reign became synonymous with peace and prosperity. He was the longest-ruling king in history, sitting on the Iron Throne for fifty-five years, and due to his advanced age by the end of his reign is often called "the Old King". He is also known as "Jaehaerys the Conciliator" because he brought an end to the eleven year uprising by the Faith of the Seven which had been fought by his uncle Maegor the Cruel. Jaehaerys offered the Faith generous terms of amnesty, so long as they acknowledged Targaryen rule and disbanded the military orders of the religion, known as the Faith Militant. Jaehaerys I was also the first king to establish a unified system of laws across the entire realm (even Aegon the Conqueror had not tampered with the local laws of each kingdom, fearing this would unnecessarily antagonize his new subjects).
Jaehaerys I was a dragon-rider: his mount was Vermithor, one of the second-generation progeny of the original three Targaryen dragons, and in later years the largest living dragon after the first-generation Balerion and Vhagar.
===Early life===
Jaehaerys I was the son of Aegon I's older son, Aenys I, a weakling who did not easily hold onto the throne. The Targaryens' incestuous marriage practices caused friction with the Faith of the Seven, but Aenys had no sisters so he married Alyssa of House Velaryon - a Valyrian family who had followed their Targaryen liege-lords by settling on the islands in Blackwater Bay. Eventually, Aenys made the foolish decision to announce that his eldest son Prince Aegon would marry his own daughter Rhaena - continuing the Targaryens' incestuous practices. The leadership of the Faith was already furious at the Targaryens due to Maegor's polygamous marriage, and Aenys's foolish deed poured oil on the flames, sparking off the Faith Militant uprising.
Aenys fled to Dragonstone, where he became catatonic and died (some suspect he was poisoned), after which Maegor seized the throne ahead of Aenys's children. Few contested Maegor at first, because unlike Aenys, he effectively hammered the Faith Militant. After Aenys's death, Jaehaerys, his mother Alyssa, and his sister Alysanne were held as hostages on Dragonstone to prevent Prince Aegon, Aenys's eldest son and rightful heir, from trying to take the throne. Jaehaerys's older brother Viserys was also held captive but in King's Landing as the king's squire. Prince Aegon launched his own revolt against Maegor in 43 AC, riding his own father's dragon Quicksilver, but was killed by Maegor riding Balerion at the great Battle Beneath the God's Eye. After the death of Dowager Queen Visenya on Dragonstone in 44 AC, Alyssa, Jaehaerys and Alysanne escaped from Dragonstone. Viserys was killed as retaliation for their escape. With Aegon and Viserys dead, this left Jaehaerys as Aenys's last male heir.
As Maegor's reign of terror progressed, even his closest allies abandoned him. Supported by his mother and Robar Baratheon, the Lord of Storm's End, Jaehaerys put forth his own claim to the throne. Hundreds of lords rallied to young Jaehaerys. Maegor had so few supporters left in the end that there was no final battle - completely abandoned, as rebel armies loyal to Jaehaerys approached, he died on the Iron Throne itself - most likely, realizing all hope was lost, he opened his own wrists on the blades of the throne rather than face capture. Jaehaerys became the new king though he was still a minor. His mother became regent until he came of age two years after Maegor's death, and was supported by Robar Baratheon (grandson of Orys), who had been appointed Hand of the King and Protector of the Realm.
===Reign===
Following Targaryen custom, Jaehaerys married his own sister Alysanne. She was actively involved in court affairs and became one of Jaehaerys's chief counselors, if not practical co-ruler. Alysanne also rode her own dragon, named Silverwing. She is also fondly remembered in the Seven Kingdoms, as "Good Queen Alysanne". Jaehaerys's best friend was Septon Barth, a lowborn man in charge of the library at the Red Keep whom he named as Hand of the King; Barth was also one of the best Hands in history, and he played a role in all of Jaehaerys's great works for four decades.
Jaehaerys inherited a troubled kingdom at a young age and faced significant troubles. After a troubled regency exercised by his mother and her new husband Rogar Baratheon, Jaehaerys started his rule two years after his accession by removing the advisors of the regency and choosing his own men to cement his authority. Lord Rogar and his mother were sent to Storm's End, their relationship with the King troubled by events that had occurred during the regency. He also dismissed the unpopular Master of Coin, Edwell Celtigar, and abrogated the excessive taxes he had imposed on smallfolk and merchants in the cities. However, Maegor's rule had left the Seven Kingdoms near bankruptcy and Lord Celtigar's taxes had little effect in bridging the deficit, and a great effect in increasing resentment towards the Iron Throne. Instead of installing another lord in the position, Jaehaerys turned to a wealthy Pentoshi merchant named Rego Draz. He was responsible for finding a new source of income for the Iron Throne and set not tolls and taxes on merchants and smallfolk, but instead taxed the luxury silks, tapestries and other items coveted by the nobility, bringing in much needed incomes to the Crown's finances. In addition, he took out loans from several foreign lenders, including the Iron Bank of Braavos. In later years, a settlement negotiated by Septon Barth with the Sealord, over a situation that could have led to war between the Free City and the Iron Throne, led to the Iron Bank cancelling the outstanding debt owed by the Seven Kingdoms. This effectively halved their debts and restored the Crown's finances enough for the King to turn to the projects he most cherished: a thorough rebuilding of King's Landing into a more organized city than the urban mess it had grown as, the construction of roads to link the Seven Kingdoms closer together, and a codified set of laws that would eventually supplant the local customs of once-independent kingdoms. Rego Draz (who became known as the 'Lord of Air' for his ability to restore the Crown's treasury seemingly out of thin air) and Barth were two of a circle of advisors who would remain with Jaehaerys for many years; the others included Grand Maester Benifer and his successor Grand Maester Elysar, and Good Queen Alysanne. Later, the circle would grow to include the King's two eldest sons, his 'heir and a spare': Prince Aemon and Prince Baelon.
A major concern of King Jaehaerys's early reign was to heal the troubled relationship between the Targaryens and the Faith. Although the 'High lickspittle' installed by Maegor had accepted Jaehaerys's reign, anointing him personally, and continued to reign for several years, his succession was of vital importance to the young King, especially after his own marriage to his sister Alysanne. In addition to extending his protection to the Faith in return for maintaining the ban on the military orders, Jaehaerys needed a High Septon who would accept the Targaryens' Valyrian practices. A prominent candidate to occupy the Starry Sept was Septon Mattheus, a member of the Most Devout and a staunch opponent of the Targaryens and the King specifically. Adding to Jaehaerys's concerns was the desire of the powerful Hightowers of Oldtown who wanted to see one of their House seated in the Starry Sept. With Septon Barth's help, the King struck a deal with the Hightowers that the next High Septon would be a Hightower in exchange for a few concessions: the first would be to support the Iron Throne's candidate and the second would be to back the Doctrine of Exceptionalism that had been circulated among the Most Devout. This doctrine enshrined the Targaryens' practices as lawful as they were closer to gods than men, their bond with dragons standing as proof of this divinity. Eventually, the new High Septon was chosen and was an exceptionalist, putting an end to the conflict between the Faith and the Iron Throne.
The Nightfort was not simply abandoned during Jaehaerys I's reign, but actually visited by him and Queen Alysanne. The royal couple had made a formal visit to Winterfell in a great flight consisting of six dragons. During the visit to Winterfell Alysanne grew bored, and on a whim flew north to the Wall on her dragon Silverwing (when Samwell Tarly passed through the Nightfort over two hundred years later, his mind boggled that a live dragon once stood in its courtyard). She was followed later by Jaehaerys himself. The Night's Watch had been in a serious decline for several decades, however, because ever since Aegon's Conquest the Iron Throne had put an end to the constant petty wars which had been going on between the Seven Kingdoms for centuries. While this greatly benefited the prosperity of the new unified realm, it meant that the constant trickle of recruits from the losing sides of those petty wars dried up. Alysanne was deeply impressed with the bravery of the men of the Night's Watch, and convinced her husband to double the size of the lands of the Gift. The boost of support that the New Gift gave the Watch helped stall its decline for several generations (though it was in full decline again two hundred years later when Jon and Sam joined it). At the same time, the royal couple recognized that the Watch could no longer adequately man the Nightfort, and convinced them to abandon it. A new, smaller castle was built east of the Nightfort, named Deep Lake, to replace its guard over that section of the Wall (while the Watch's headquarters were transferred to the more centrally located Castle Black). Deep Lake castle was paid for by Alysanne herself, and constructed by men that Jaehaerys I sent north. Thus the Night's Watch also remembers Jaehaerys and Alysanne with great esteem, as increasingly later monarchs came to practically ignore the Night's Watch.
Jaehaerys I ruled wisely and well until the end of his long reign. Jaehaerys lived so long that he was succeeded by his grandson Viserys I - the only time in history that a king was succeeded by his grandson. Alysanne predeceased Jaehaerys by about three years, and her loss broke the old king for the few remaining years of his life. Passing his seventieth year, he was mostly confined to bed, and half-delirious from grief and age - he regularly mistook Alicent Hightower (the young daughter of his Hand Ser Otto Hightower) as one of his daughters. Jaehaerys died of old age while Alicent was reading a book to him.
===Children===
Jaehaerys and Alysanne had thirteen children together. In order of birth, their names were Aegon, Alyssa, Aemon, Baelon, Daella, Aeryn, Vaegon, Maegelle, Valerion, Viserra, Gaemon, Saera, and Gael - but of these thirteen only nine would live to adulthood: Aegon, Aeryn, Valerion, and Gaemon all died young. Apparently, only four of them had children in turn (and two of them, Baelon and Alyssa, were married to each other). According to Fire & Blood, however, the second child was called Daenerys (the first Targaryen who was named Daenerys, preceding the daughter of Aegon IV and Daenerys Stormborn), and there was no Aeryn.
Aemon married outside of the family, to Jocelyn Baratheon, and had a daughter whom he named Rhaenys, after his father's grandmother. Aemon died in 92 AC fighting against Myrish pirates who had seized the eastern side of Tarth. Jaehaerys ultimately chose Baelon over Rhaenys as his heir - despite the fact that an older daughter normally succeeded ahead of a younger uncle according to the normal inheritance laws in Westeros. The exact circumstances that led to such a decision are unclear but it briefly caused a major rift between Jaehaerys and Alysanne.
Baelon himself had two surviving children with his sister Alyssa, sons Viserys and Daemon. Baelon was also named Hand of the King, but later died of a burst belly in 101 AC, two years before Jaehaerys I died, leading to a Great Council to determine who the heir should be. Rhaenys again put forward her claim, along with those of her children Laenor and Laena Velaryon, but she was again rejected in favor of Jaehaerys's grandson Viserys I Targaryen. Daella married Lord Rodrik Arryn and died giving birth to a daughter, Aemma Arryn, who was the first wife of Viserys I and the mother of Rhaenyra Targaryen.
Vaegon was given to the Citadel at a young age and later became an archmaester, holding a ring, rod, and mask of yellow gold suggesting that he mastered economics. Maegelle joined the Faith and became a septa. Well-known for her compassion, she nursed children afflicted with greyscale, but she eventually became afflicted herself and died. Viserra was a high-spirited girl who as betrothed to Lord Manderly of White Harbor, but she died in a mishap when she fell off her horse while racing drunkenly through the streets of King's Landing. Saera was given to the Faith, but she had other wishes and left across the Narrow Sea and did not return from the East, greatly saddening Jaehaerys I in his old age. She later became the owner of a famous pleasure house in Volantis. Gael was a simple-minded but sweet girl who was Queen Alysanne's favorite. It was said that she died of a summer fever but the truth was that she drowned herself in the Blackwater. The reason was that she had been seduced and abandoned by a traveling singer who left her pregnant. In her grief, Alysanne would die a year later - leaving the elderly Jaehaerys an empty shell of himself for the last three years of his life.
The practical result of all this is that despite Alysanne giving birth to thirteen children by Jaehaerys, they only had three grandchildren who survived to adulthood and had children of their own: Rhaenys, Viserys I, and Daemon.
==Appearances==
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==References==
===Notes===
==External links==
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Category:Crownlanders
Category:Dragonriders
Category:Individuals appearing in House of the Dragon
Category:Individuals from Histories & Lore
Category:Individuals mentioned in Game of Thrones
Category:Kings of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men
Jaehaerys I Targaryen
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