House Blackfyre

House Blackfyre is an extinct cadet branch of House Targaryen, founded by Daemon I Blackfyre, a bastard son of King Aegon IV Targaryen, following his legitimization. Their sigil was a black three-headed dragon on a red field, a reversal of the Targaryen heraldry.
== History ==
=== Background ===
House Blackfyre was created by Daemon Waters, the legitimized bastard son of King Aegon IV Targaryen, also known as Aegon the Unworthy, and his cousin Daena. It took its name from the Valyrian steel sword Blackfyre, which Aegon gave to Daemon upon knighting him. As is customary for bastards, Daemon reversed the colors of the Targaryen heraldry for his new house.
Allying with his fellow Great Bastard, Aegor "Bittersteel" Rivers, Daemon eventually rebelled against his trueborn half-brother, King Daeron II Targaryen, claiming that Daeron was a bastard fathered by their uncle, Aemon the Dragonknight. At the Battle of Redgrass Field, Daemon and two of his sons, Aegon and Aemon, were killed by another of Aegon's bastards, Brynden Rivers.
Bittersteel fled across the Narrow Sea along with the surviving Blackfyres, and they would continue revolting against the Targaryens. Two more of Daemon's sons, Daemon II and Haegon, would launch their own rebellions, as did Haegon's son Daemon III. The male line of House Blackfyre was ended when Barristan Selmy slew Maelys Blackfyre in single combat during the War of the Ninepenny Kings.
=== Game of Thrones: Season 1 ===
House Blackfyre is among the noble houses listed in the The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms."Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things"
== Members ==
*{Daemon I Blackfyre}, legitimized bastard son of King Aegon IV.
**{Aegon Blackfyre}, his eldest son and heir. Aemon's twin.
**{Aemon Blackfyre}, his second son. Aegon's twin.
**{Daemon II Blackfyre}, his third son.
**{Haegon Blackfyre}, his fourth son.
***{Daemon III Blackfyre}, his elder son.
****{Unknown son(s)}
*{Maelys Blackfyre}, dubbed 'Maelys the Monstrous', the last of the male line of the Blackfyre.
==Family tree==
==In the books==
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, House Blackfyre is mentioned, though it is extinct by the time the series takes place, and features more prominently in the Dunk & Egg novellas. House Blackfyre is infamous for their repeated and unsuccessful attempts to overthrow the Targaryen dynasty in a series of conflicts collectively known as the "Blackfyre Rebellions". There were five Blackfyre Rebellions, with the largest and greatest being the first rebellion led by Daemon I Blackfyre. The rebellions took place across a span of over sixty years, ending in the fifth and final rebellion when the last male member of House Blackfyre was killed in battle by the young Ser Barristan Selmy.
A full family tree of House Blackfyre has not been revealed, probably because it would spoil information from as-yet unpublished Dunk & Egg novellas.
The World of Ice & Fire did provide a little new information. Daemon Blackfyre was actually married to Rohanne of Tyrosh, a marriage arranged by Aegon IV and the Archon of Tyrosh. Daemon's great love was his half-sister, Aegon IV's trueborn daughter Daenerys. Her brother King Daeron II, however, made her enter into a marriage-alliance to bring Dorne under the authority of the Iron Throne for the first time. Many think that this sparked great resentment in Daemon against his half-brother, for breaking up his great love. Others point out that Daenerys didn't actually seem to return Daemon's affections, and that he was already married to Rohanne of Tyrosh before his father died, so he could not lawfully marry Daenerys at all (leading some to go even further and suspect that Daemon assumed that he could revive the Targaryen practice of polygamous marriages). The TV series didn't know about Rohanne of Tyrosh in Season 1 because the World book had not been released yet (so a prop book listed Daemon's wife as one "Serena Blackfyre", leaving the situation dubious in the TV continuity).
Daemon Blackfyre had seven sons and multiple daughters. His two eldest sons, Aegon and Aemon, died alongside him at the Battle of Redgrass Field. Leadership of "House Blackfyre" as a political faction afterwards largely came under Daemon's half-brother and great champion, Aegor "Bittersteel" Rivers, who fled east across the Narrow Sea with Daemon's remaining children.
Daemon's third son, Daemon II, was an ineffective dreamer, more skilled at music and court culture than politics or warfare (he was also secretly a homosexual). For all these reasons Bittersteel did not support him with his remaining forces. The "Second Blackfyre Rebellion" that Daemon II attempted to start was really more of a failed plot and ultimately a fiasco, ending with his capture. Bittersteel later crowned Daemon's fourth son Haegon as king in exile.
Haegon led the Third Blackfyre Rebellion, during which he was killed. Bittersteel fought by his side and was captured, but later escaped, and on returning to the Free Cities he crowned Haegon's eldest son Daemon III as the new king in exile.
On the death of King Maekar years later, a Great Council was convened to sort out of the complicated succession between his four sons and their heirs. In the midst of this, Daemon's fifth son Aenys Blackfyre presented himself as a candidate, hoping to legitimately gain the Iron Throne. Aenys was promised safe passage to King's Landing to at least present his candidacy before the council, but instead he was immediately arrested by Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers (half-brother and great rival of both Daemon I and Bittersteel), who promptly executed him. Brynden knew he would be exiled to the Night's Watch for killing Aenys under a flag of peace like this, but it was a price he was willing to pay to remove one more potential Blackfyre Pretender.
Haegon's son Daemon III Blackfyre remained king in exile through these events, and later launched the Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion (again aided by Bittersteel) against Maekar's son, King Aegon V Targaryen. Daemon III was personally slain in battle by Ser Duncan the Tall of the Kingsguard.
The names of Daemon I's last two sons are unknown. He had more than one daughter, but only one is named: Calla Blackfyre, who married Bittersteel.
Little information has been provided about the later generations of Blackfyres. Ultimately, the fifth and last Blackfyre rebellion, known as the War of the Ninepenny Kings, was led by Maelys Blackfyre, called "Maelys the Monstrous" because of his monstrously large size, and because he had a small second head sprouting out of his neck (a vestigial conjoined twin that he had absorbed in the womb). The exact relationship between Maelys and previous generations of Blackfyres is unclear (though by chronology he was probably a grandson of Daemon I, though through which son is unclear). It is said that Maelys killed his "cousin" - yet another "Daemon Blackfyre" - to assume leadership of the Blackfyres, though it isn't stated exactly how they were related.
Daemon apparently had the habit of giving his sons important-sounding names taken from previous Targaryen monarchs, to stress what he saw as his line's true claim to the Iron Throne: Aegon (for Aegon I and Daemon's own father Aegon IV), Aemon (which sounded similar and was the name of Daemon's famous uncle, Aemon the Dragonknight, held to be the best knight of all time), even homonyms like "Haegon" because he had already named a son "Aegon". Daemon did name his third son after himself, and apparently in subsequent generations it was common for the Blackfyres to name their sons after Daemon I - both to stress their claim to the throne through him, and also to harken back to the glory days of the first rebellion, when Daemon I came the closest the Blackfyres ever did to taking the throne. During the Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion, this made for an obvious contrast: Daemon I's grandson "Daemon III" launched an invasion of Westeros in another attempt to carry on Daemon I's legacy...but by that point Daemon I's memory had faded, and other than empty names, little was left to the Blackfyre cause.
House Blackfyre is mentioned occasionally by a few characters in the books, including Catelyn Stark and Stannis Baratheon. 
Despite the death of Maelys, some readers have theorized that there are still some surviving Blackfyres, as Illyrio Mopatis tells Tyrion in A Dance With Dragons that Maelys's death marked the end of the male line of House Blackfyre. Later in the novel, Aegon Targaryen, the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Elia Martell who was smuggled away from King's Landing before it fell to Tywin Lannister, invades Westeros with the Golden Company. Some readers (and characters) believe that this boy is an imposter, and one theory suggested by readers is that "Aegon" is a Blackfyre descendant, since, as Tyrion points out, the Golden Company fought against the Targaryens for years and would never support one. Some versions of the theory go further, suggesting that Illyrio's deceased wife Serra was a Blackfyre, and that Aegon is their son.
==References==
===Notes===
==External links==
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Category:Cadet branches
Category:Extinct houses
 
House Blackfyre
Category:Houses from the Crownlands
Category:Houses of Valyrian origin
Category:Royal houses
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