Aegon III (Part 2)

Greetings fellow acolytes. Welcome to another episode of The Westerosi Primer. My name is Liz. If you’re new to this podcast, welcome! I hope you enjoy this journey of all things Westeros. And in this episode, I’ll be continuing my discussion of Aegon III. As I was writing this script and doing the research on Aegon III, it became clear that there’s way too many things that happened to cover in one episode. Originally I thought this would be a two part discussion, but I had to turn this into a 3 part one. Yes, there really is that much happening to this king. I swear the next episode is the final part of Aegon’s story.

Before I start the discussion, there are a couple of things to note. First there will be some potential spoilers for people who have not read any of the books connected to A Song of Ice and Fire. There may also be potential spoilers for House of the Dragon and other future shows adapted by Max. So if you’re okay with this, then please continue listening.

Second, the information in this episode comes from the written works of George R. R. Martin and the contributors of A Wiki of Ice and Fire on Westeros.org. Check out the full show notes and other links located on this show’s website: thewesterosiprimer.com With that said, let’s begin!

So I ended the previous episode in AC 134. This saw the return of the previously assumed dead Viserys. We also saw the grasping Unwin Peake resigning and brooding back in the Reach. As I also stated in the previous episode, it’s rather surprising that Peake’s appointments were kept at the Red Keep. Maybe the regents and Thaddeus Rowan weren’t clever enough to see the potential danger. Or maybe they couldn’t justify making changes when there’s no obvious incompetence or problems happening. Either way we’re about to see some consequences to it.

It's only fair that the best way to continue with this story is explain a bit more about who exactly Thaddeus Rowan was. House Rowan is a house in the Reach. In fact Lord Thaddeus was one of the Reacher lords who sided with Rhaenyra and was therefore in the Black faction. If you’re confused by this, I mentioned in the episodes about the Dance that the Reach was actually split and didn’t fully support the Hightowers. I also briefly mentioned him in the previous episode because he was originally supposed to marry 16-year-old Baela Targaryen during Tyland Lannister’s Handship. She ran off to escape marriage with a man who is literally older than her father. Instead she married Alyn Velaryon.

To soothe his bruised ego, Thaddeus was betrothed to 14-year-old Floris Baratheon. She is actually one of Lord Borros Baratheon’s four daughters. She would die 2 years later from childbirth. In AC 133, Lord Rowan was summoned by Aegon to the Red Keep to be his chosen Hand. However if you remember from the last episode, this appointment was canceled by Unwin Peake and the few regents left there. So to ease the tensions, Lord Rowan was given the position of Master of Laws and also became one of the king’s regents.

Once Unwin Peake resigned, Lord Rowan was finally Hand as Aegon originally wanted. Personality-wise he’s pretty opposite of Unwin Peake. He was well-respected, not overly ambitious, dutiful, and not very harsh. He was also not feared and didn’t have a tough personality, which is also a problem for a Hand as I’ll explain a little bit later in the episode.

So let’s get into the year AC 134. This particular year I have to discuss two important people that get involved with the story: Viserys and Larra.

Viserys, as I have mentioned in the previous episodes, was only two years younger than Aegon. They were always together during their early years. Part of the trauma Aegon dealt with was his guilt for leaving his brother behind. Their reunion didn’t completely heal Aegon’s trauma, but it definitely provided some relief. Aegon and Viserys would become inseparable almost like the separation didn’t happen. This also had the side effect of Aegon paying less attention to Daenaera and Gaemon.

To be fair, Daenaera is 7 years younger than Aegon. He’s 14 years old now and she’s 7 years old. There’s not much they’d have in common at this point. Gaemon is 6 years younger. He was effectively an alternative to the missing Viserys, but the actual brother has returned. Still I imagine there were some challenges with the change in dynamics at court.

Larra didn’t just come alone with her much younger husband. She had her own entourage with her. Her three brothers and some of her servants from Lys would join her while in King’s Landing. But I’m sure you listeners are curious about Larra and her family. In the previous episode I briefly explained how Viserys ended up with the Rogare family. However here’s a really brief history of this family. The next year or so in Westeros was heavily involved with House Rogare.

House Rogare was a pretty famous banking family in Lys. The best real world example would be the Medicis. The Medicis would in fact use their money in later generations to marry into Italian nobility. In fact King Louis XIII’s mother was Catherine d’Medici, which means King Louis XIV, XV, and XVI of France were descendants of the Medicis too. The Rogares could trace their lineage back to before the Doom of Valyria. If you listeners have listened to episode 1.11 of this podcast, you already heard some basics about Lys. House Rogare had started the Rogare Bank. During this time period, it was actually a big bank that rivaled the Iron Bank.

If you listeners recall from Game of Thrones, the Iron Bank was the biggest bank in the world at that point. Lords and kings had their money held in the Iron Bank. You didn’t cross that bank because they will collect their due one way or another. It’s pretty interesting how about 150 years before Robert Baratheon became king, this is the situation the Iron Bank is in.

Larra’s father, Lysandro, was the head of the Rogare family and the Rogare Bank. Lysandro’s younger brother Drazenko was actually the one in Dorne who told Alyn Velaryon where Viserys was. He would end up marrying Aliandra Martell, who was the ruling Princess of Dorne. Lysandro was referred to as Lysandro the Magnificent. This is a big reason why book readers think the Rogares are modelled off of the Medicis. In fact one of the most famous members of the Medici family was Lorenzo, who was also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent. Notice the names sound similar.

Larra’s oldest brother stayed behind in Lys since he would be the heir to the banking business. So younger three brothers accompanied her: Moredo, Lotho, and Roggerio. Lotho had the responsibility of establishing a branch of the Rogare bank in King’s Landing. Roggerio wound up starting a brothel known as the Mermaid. Moredo became the captain of Larra’s personal bodyguards rather than using Westerosi knights or the Kingsguard.

In some respects, Larra makes me think of Marie Antoinette in that at first she was liked for the fact she was the wife of Prince Viserys. Also the capital had increased prosperity because of her family’s bank. However pretty quickly things change in regards to the Rogares. For one thing, Moredo and Larra only spoke Valyrian and needed translators while their other brothers did know the Common tongue. Larra’s personal household were only Lysene and no Westerosi maids. She also maintained her religion and refused to practice the Faith. This made the people of Westeros suspicious of her and her entourage as being foreigners unwilling to integrate with their culture. This will become an issue later as I’ll discuss in this episode.

So to get more into the events of AC 134, there was a major problem that happened in this year. We met Jeyne Arryn in House of the Dragon season 2. Jeyne caught an illness while in Gulltown and dies. She was unmarried and had no children of her own. She declared a distant cousin, Ser Joffrey Arryn, as her heir. He had actually served her loyally and therefore gained her trust. The Iron Throne and many lords in the Vale supported her choice including Ser Corwyn Corbray. Corwyn is one of Aegon’s regents during this period. He’s also Rhaena Targaryen’s husband.

There were also Vale lords who felt that Ser Arnold Arryn had a stronger claim. To be fair, he was Jeyne’s first cousin and was the closest male relative to her and her father. However there were two big problems with him. First, he actually instigated two rebellions to challenge Jeyne’s right to the Eyrie. Both times failed and he wound up imprisoned in a sky cell for years. Secondly his time in the cells caused mental decline by the time Jeyne dies. so realistically Arnold’s son Eldric would be the one actually taking the position of Lord Arryn.

There was a third claimant named Isembard Arryn. He was actually from Gulltown and known as being part of the Gulltown Arryns. This is a cadet branch that separated from the Eyrie branch generations earlier. They primarily make their money as tradesmen and successful merchants. This is a really unlikely branch to ever inherit the Eyrie, but he made an effort to claim the castle. He actually had access to a lot of money, which means who could easily buy an army to push for a claim even if most nobles wouldn’t consider him a serious candidate.

In a situation like this, it only makes sense that the Crown should act as a neutral party to resolve the issue. Unfortunately Thaddeus Rowan isn’t a super competent, charismatic Hand. Nor is he a scary one like Tywin Lannister would be known as many years later. So all sides ignore the call for them to go to King’s Landing. Corwyn Corbray actually goes to the Vale as both a Valeman and one of Aegon’s regents. He declares that the Crown recognizes Jeyne’s wish and Joffery should be Lord Arryn. Isembard Arryn and Ser Eldric refuse to accept this, so Corwyn has Isembard arrested and Eldric executed.

Ser Arnold Arryn had been released to his son’s custody. With his son dead, he fled to House Royce for sanctuary. He had spent his youth as a squire at Runestone. Corbray and others arrived at Runestone. Gunthor Royce became the Lord of Runestone after Rhea Royce’s death. He rode out to speak with Corwyn Corbray. It’s said there was a heated exchange and swords were drawn. However someone on Royce’s side used a crossbow to shoot at Corbray. He was fatally hit in the chest and dies. Killing one of the king’s regents is an act of war against the Crown.

This civil war in the Vale takes place from AC 134 to 135. Unlike the Dance there aren’t a ton of battles described in Fire & Blood though there are two important events that were discussed. The Crown had taken the position that Joffrey Arryn is Lord Arryn, so other forces outside the Vale joined Valemen supporting Joffrey. Lord Benjicot Blackwood led some of the Crown’s forces by land. Alyn Velaryon and Moredo Rogare went by sea to Gulltown.

The land route didn’t go very well. It was still Winter, which meant the passes up the mountains were still very difficult and treacherous to navigate. Another problem was the army had to also contend with raids by Vale mountain clans. If you didn’t listen to episode 1.03 about the Vale, you should because I explained a bit about who these people are. The clans living up high in the mountains raided heavily due to lack of resources. This also made the army lose supplies. They also spent a lot of time and energy defending themselves from constant attacks. By the time they reached the Bloody Gate where Joffrey’s forces were based, the Crown’s forces were tired, weak, and half starved due to loss of supplies.

The sea route went better as Alyn Velaryon is a veteran of many naval battles at this point. However what made the naval side not really as successful as it could be was Moredo Rogare. He was chosen to lead the land invasion. But as I mentioned earlier, he only knows how to speak Valyrian. On top of that his translator actually gets killed during the fighting which means he couldn’t give any commands and he didn’t understand any reports from subordinates.

Eventually he had to surrender leadership of his men to another in order to hurry back to Lys. Why? I’d need to go back to King’s Landing to explain this. Eventually the war in the Vale would end with everyone finally acknowledging Joffrey Arryn. Isembard Arryn would later be chosen as Master of Coin, but again I’ll get to that later. It’s not clear what happened to Ser Arnold. I’m assuming Fire and Blood part 2 might reveal that if George writes that book. So let’s go back to King’s Landing.

It’s now the year AC 135. Towards the end of AC 134, Viserys and Larra announce that they’re expecting a baby. If you’re doing the math, Viserys is 12 going on 13 years old. The baby would be born in AC 135 and he would be given the name Aegon. This seemed to be the start of another good year for the kingdom and the realm as a whole. However it was not the case.

Alyn and Baela had a baby girl named Laena who was born before Aegon. Laena was given a dragon egg placed in her crib, which was the Targaryen tradition. However the egg hatched and it was a monstrous creature. It was blind, wingless, and pale white. It attacked the baby and actually bit a chunk on her arm. Alyn quickly killed this monster.

News was sent to Aegon, whose wariness of dragons was just aggravated further. Viserys placed an egg in baby Aegon’s crib following family tradition. However Aegon ordered that his nephew’s egg and all the eggs in the Red Keep were to be sent to Dragonstone. This resulted in a terrible fight between the two brothers. Viserys refused to speak to Aegon for about a month. This utterly devasted Aegon and he turned back to Gaemon and Daenaera for companionship.

There was a private dinner Aegon was having with Daenaera. As usual, Gaemon was with them as Aegon’s companion, cupbearer, and occasional food taster. They were having a pleasant dinner and were now eating the dessert course when Daenaera and Gaemon start complaining of stomach pains. The Grandmaester is summoned immediately for help. The Grandmaester gives Daenaera a purgative to help get rid of the meal she ate. Unfortunately he didn’t help Gaemon in time so the poor boy dies. It’s a rather crazy life for the son of a sex worker.

An investigation was immediately launched into what caused the apparent poisoning. The biggest clue is the fact Aegon wasn’t affected. Aegon wasn’t a big fan of sweet stuff so he didn’t eat the dessert. However Daenaera and Gaemon did. The grandmaester would determine that very likely the Tears of Lys was used given there was no indication of any unusual flavors to the dessert they ate. It was still hard to determine how the poison was added and who did it. Kitchen staff were heavily interrogated, but no real conclusions could be determined.

Aegon had developed some affection for his young wife and would stay by her bedside while she recovered from the near fatal poisoning. Viserys set aside his anger and reconciled with his brother during a difficult time. After all, Aegon’s young wife was very ill and his friend was dead. The choice of poison would create some suspicion of who did it. But that’s not the only problem happening at the Red Keep.

While the messy inheritance dispute was raging in the Vale, we had something later referred to as the Lysene Spring happening in King’s Landing. As I mentioned earlier in this episode, initially there was a really good rebound in Westeros after Viserys returned. Much of it was due to the Rogares and their bank. Their connections also helped access the markets in Essos restoring much of the lost trade due the Dance. The power of the regents also weakened due to the Rogares.

However as I also said there were some cracks in the shiny façade of prosperity. The Rogares were also suspicious to the Westerosi because their insistence on maintaining Lysene ways. They barely make any effort to meet half way with the Westerosi. Though I should add it’s not just the Rogares causing issues. Thaddeus Rowan, as I said earlier, isn’t a strongman type of Hand. He was heavily being criticized for not only failing to deal with the Vale civil war, but he didn’t really handle the North well either.

The North was dealing with multiple crises at the same time with Cregan Stark managing by the skin of his teeth. Not so much because of him personally, but because the situation was that bad. The Winter is always rough going because of the climate in the North. They suffered badly with Winter Fever as I discussed in the previous episode. On top of that the Wildings decide this was a good time to form an army to raid south of the Wall. It was pretty bad. Picture Mance Rayder’s attack on the Wall in Season 4 of Game of Thrones. Except that a large part of his army was able to go to the Gift and raid instead of being stopped at the Wall. If you guys are interested in me doing a profile episode on Cregan and other members of House Stark, let me know!

Aside from his apparently ineffectual rule, Rowan was also heavily criticized for allowing the Rogares a lot more influence at court than he really should have. As I mentioned earlier, Moredo’s poor leadership in the Vale is a big example of this. But things get worse when the Lysene Spring crashes badly. So let’s begin with how it starts.

Lysandro Rogare was the father of Larra and her brothers as I had discussed in the previous episode. He was the head of a banking family of importance. However in AC 135, Lysandro dies. His eldest son, who stayed behind in Lys, is the heir to the Rogare banking business. Lysaro is the stereotypical spoiled brat type of heir. He grew up with money and seemed to only know how to spend that money. He was apparently a spendthrift. He spent the money to prop up an image of being successful.

Lysaro threw lavish entertainments and threw money at people to gain seats in organizations. He even spent money to buy Unsullied as guards. He had ideas of fighting a war against Tyrosh for glory and more arrogance. He spent his personal fortune and embezzled money from his family’s bank. He thought he’d be able to replace the money and it was a short term “loan.” He was quickly proven wrong.

It’s not clear how exactly it started but there were soon rumors and suspicion about the Rogare Bank’s solvency. As someone who has some career connections in banking, I can tell you that’s always a disaster waiting to happen. Major customers at the Lys branches started demanding for their money to be taken out. This just spirals with more customers demanding their money. Before you know it a full blown bank run is happening. In case you guys weren’t aware, the Great Depression in the United States included the banking system practically collapsing because of multiple bank runs.

The Rogares became poor overnight. Authorities try to arrest Lysaro, but he made a run for it. He was eventually captured and was convicted by the same people he previously bribed for positions of power. He would be scourged to death. Some of the other siblings that remained in Lys were also arrested. Some of them were even sold into slavery to recover some of the money, but not much was gotten back.

The news quickly spread in Westeros. There were many consequences in King’s Landing. Because of the bank’s collapse in Lys, the branch in King’s Landing was also in trouble. Many people including the Crown also lost their money. There were punishments to be handed out. As I had mentioned earlier, Moredo had given up his command of forces in the Vale. He was attacking in Gulltown when the bank collapse happened and he heard about it. He promptly head to Braavos to get money and buy an army to attack Tyrosh. It was suspected the Tyroshi were involved with his family’s downfall by spreading rumors of the Bank’s possible insolvency. Unfortunately Fire & Blood doesn’t explain further. Presumably this will be discussed in the proposed volume 2. What about the other siblings?

Lotho was the brother who started the King’s Landing branch of the bank. He tried to escape the city, but he was caught by the Commander of the Gold cloaks. He would be imprisoned in a tower rather than the Black cells because of his sister’s status. Meanwhile Roggiero would be arrested by Ser Marston on charges of treason.

Lord Thaddeus Rowan would himself be arrested and charged with conspiracy and treason. Ser Marston ended up becoming the new Hand of the King after Rowan’s arrest. Ser Marston would also order the arrest of Larra Rogare on charges of her being against the Crown, etc. Ser Amaury Peake, who if you listeners recall is Unwin Peake’s nephew, and a bunch of guards arrive at Maegor’s holdfast to do the arrest. Of course Viserys wasn’t going to stand by and allow his wife to be arrested and neither was Aegon.

At this point, Aegon is 15 and just one year away from being a legal adult. He’s not going to just sit there and accept people doing shenanigans in the Red Keep any further. Basically House Targaryen and their closest entourage were already in Maegor’s holdfast, which is where the royal family lives. I’m really tempted to present the whole conversation, but this already is going to be a long episode. You listeners should get Fire & Blood for yourselves to read. It’s pretty entertaining.

The king and the prince made it very clear that no one will be arresting Larra and anyone attempting to do so will be forbidden from entering. Amaury Peake doesn’t take this threat from underage boys seriously and orders his men to “gently” take custody of their king and his brother. As they try to enter, one of Larra’s hired bodyguards makes his appearance.

This particular bodyguard is pretty formidable. This bodyguard is named Sandoq the Shadow. All that’s known about him was he was a former pit fighter from Meereen and he was over 7 feet tall. Basically imagine someone the size of Gregor Clegane. Sandoq singlehandly kills Amaury and the men with him before returning inside Maegor’s holdfast with the rest of the royal household. And so begins what is later known as The Secret Siege.

This siege would basically last for 18 days. The drawbridge was up and no one could enter the Holdfast. Many people would spend those 18 days trying to convince Aegon and Viserys to lower the bridge and come back out. It was going to get suspicious if literally no one outside of the Red Keep sees the king if this continues. There was another member of the Kingsguard who happened to be on duty with the Royal family at the time the siege started. His loyalty was in question so he was tied up by the other guards in the Holdfast.

Multiple people would speak to Aegon and Viserys to persuade them to end this siege. Ser Marston’s appeal to the king is amusing in how much it utterly fails. Marston basically tells Aegon and Viserys how it was unfair of them to think that any of them were doing anything other than to protect them. Aegon just replies that they both told Amaury what would happen if they disobeyed his command, but apparently the Kingsguard can’t follow orders from their king.

Marston insists that once Aegon is a full grown man, they’d lay down their lives for him. But he’s still a kid and they had to obey the orders of the Hand. Aegon emphasizes that Rowan is his hand, but Marston counters that Rowan is under suspicion of treason. Marston unsheathes his sword and bends the knee claiming “I swear upon my sword in the sight of gods and men that none shall do you harm whilst I stand beside you.”

This is a poor way to convince a young king who already doesn’t trust Marston from the start. Aegon’s response was “you stood beside me when the dragon ate my mother. All you did was watch. I will not have you watch while they kill my brother’s wife.” So ends day 1 of the siege.

Septon Bernard, who incidentally was one of Unwin Peake’s cousins, speaks them, but that doesn’t work. The grandmaester also tried, but Aegon made it clear that unless he sends ravens to all the Lords of Westeros about what’s going on he refuses to leave. So the siege continued. Ser Gareth Long also tried to convince the king to end the siege. Aegon basically snarks at him asking the knight who he was going to beat this time when he doesn’t obey. After all, Gaemon’s already dead so he can’t use the poor kid against Aegon anymore.

There have been some people that wondered why Marston didn’t just order a storming of Maegor’s Holdfast. While there are guards there, they were severely outnumbered by the rest of the guards in the Red Keep, the Goldcloaks, and the other members of the Kingsguard. He likely figured a combination of verbal negotiation and eventual starvation due to limited food in the Holdfast will force Aegon to give up. Also people suspect Marston is a knight with some belief in honor and vows. It would go against the vows of the Kingsguard to basically take up arms against the king he swore to defend and protect.

It was on Day 12 we get something interesting happening. They bring out Lord Thaddeus Rowan, who confesses that he was involved in the plot against the king with the Rogares and for attempting to murder Daenaera. However it’s pretty clear the man had endured brutal torture for days at this point. He’s so broken that he just replies that yes he is guilty. He even confesses to poisoning King Viserys I, which just proves that Rowan’s confessions were false and meaningless.

Aegon challenges and basically questions Marston’s integrity as a Kingsguard and Hand. If he’s allegedly loyal to the King like he claims, he should arrest everyone involved in this travesty of a confession. Marston of course goes after the Lord Confessor who was in charge of interrogations. The Lord Confessor was a man named George Graceford. George Graceford was another lord who was part of the Caltrops and got the position again because of Unwin Peake.

Predictably, Graceford was afraid of torture himself and admitted the various people who were part of this conspiracy against the Rogares. This of course includes Ser Gareth Long. Gareth Long doesn’t deny that he thought the king was a weakling and not worthy of the throne.

Septon Bernard was another conspirator and later admitted he hate the Lyseni and their gods. He hoped that Larra would be arrested and then die so that Viserys could marry a proper Westerosi lady. The High Septon intervened to prevent the man from being executed. His punishment was to be gelded and paraded in the streets barefoot. He would walk out of the city to Oldtown this way. Bernard would spend the rest of his life being a scribe and living a vow of silence.

Graceford also named Lucas Leygood as a conspirator. Leygood was actually one of Unwin Peake’s appointments and remained in the city watch after Peake left. He got the position because his father was a member of the Caltrops like Peake was. Leygood supported Ser Marston in what some might consider a coup. Leygood would be found dead after a battle at one of the city gates. Some of the other captains in the Gold Cloaks were also Peake appointments and part of the conspiracy.

There are two more I’ll mention before I move on: Amaury Peake and Mervyn Flowers. These two being involved shouldn’t shock any of you listeners. You guys know the pattern. Mervyn Flowers resisted arrest and managed to stab Marston before he gets beaten to death by others backing up Marston. Marston would later die from his injury that night. Graceford allegedly named Marston Waters as a conspirator.

It's hard to say at this point whether that’s really true or not. It’s up to you listeners and of course readers of Fire and Blood to decide if they believe this. Some people argue that Marston could have been involved and just turned against the other conspirators to save his own skin. Others argue that he was being too trusting and naïve about political plots happening around him and just believed the Rogares were up to no good.

I have to confess I’ve been pretty divided on which view I think is the truth. I have been leaning more towards him being somewhat naïve about political games. It doesn’t seem like Marston has been an overly ambitious man. So I don’t think he’s the sort who would knowingly join a conspiracy the way some of the others have. I do think he was likely tricked and persuaded that the Rogares are up to no good. Marston likely believed the Rogares were grasping foreigners who think they’re better than good honest Westerosi like everyone else. I wouldn’t say I think he’s dumb per se. I just think he’s not a schemer nor is he an intentionally corrupt man. I think he was misguided.

Finally there were three ladies also charged. They were three of the ladies-in-waiting assigned to Daenaera. One of them was Cassandra Baratheon. However I won’t get too much further into this. I will discuss this more in the next episode when the various suspects in this debacle not dead at this point in the story are on trial.

Aegon and Viserys were pretty skeptical of all the adults around them despite all of these arrests. And honestly can you blame them? If you listened to the last episode and paid attention to this episode, you clearly see why. The siege finally ended on Day 18 after the Grandmaester finally agreed to send messages to the lords of the realm. The poor kids and the entourage in the Holdfast were malnourished due to the limited amount of food available for nearly 3 weeks.

But Aegon made his point clear and now the adults needed to take him seriously. Like I said before, he’s fifteen and just a year away from being a legal adult. He’s not some mopey little boy who is just going to sit there and take it.

And that is where I’m going to end this episode. If you’re interested in finding out more for yourself, feel free to go to the full show notes where I will have links. Though be aware if you do any of this research there will be spoilers to the novels, House of the Dragon, and Max’s future adaptations.

Thank you for listening and tune in to the next episode where we take a look at the fallout of the Secret Siege, the end of Aegon’s regency, and some set up for the next few episodes!