Aegon III (Part 3)

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 finishing up my discussion of Aegon III. I also will be doing the necessary setup for the next two possibly three episodes of this podcast. It depends again on how much information I wind up covering in those scripts.

Before I start the discussion, I want to do a quick bit of housekeeping first. First announcement is that even though I had set up an e-mail address for this podcast, it’s not professional sounding using a Gmail address. Plenty of other podcasters use Gmail, but I realize it might not make people take this show seriously enough. The e-mail address is host@thewesterosiprimer.com. It is also listed on the podcast website. I wouldn’t mind getting questions, comments, feedback, etc. Though if you’re going to express anything negative at least be polite about it.

As another reminder, I won’t be releasing the next episode until January 8th. Before I close out this episode I have a final message to make, so please continue listening to the very end. Now I’ll get to the usual disclaimer and then the discussion!

As always 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!

Before I continue where I left off in the previous episode I just want to also make a note of something. Once we talk about the post-regency period, things get a little less detailed on what Aegon did as a king. Unfortunately Fire & Blood ends with him becoming 16. So some of the details in the second half of this episode and the following episodes won’t be as detailed as I’ve been so far. There will be material I’m covering, but not as much. There’s a lot of details we book readers lack the information on, but there are some notable things worth discussing!

Where I ended the last episode is the Secret Siege. It’s pretty clear that there are plenty of people against the Rogares. You can’t exactly blame them. They’re outsiders grasping at a lot of power. They’re not too different from Westerosi nobility if we can be honest here. If you notice the conspiracy has way too many connections to Unwin Peake. Yet notice Unwin Peake wasn’t in the last episode at all.

I have to let you guys know that unfortunately we don’t know what really happens to this man because George hasn’t written Fire & Blood Volume 2. I’d like to believe he gets some comeuppance for his scheming. Because anyone with more than a couple of brain cells realize that pretty much everyone involved is connected to Peake. Unfortunately he doesn’t get any consequences at least during Aegon’s regency because he wasn’t actually there when all of this was happening. But I have little doubt he and his allies still at court were behind it all. I suspect he wanted to get rid of Daenaera and Larra to open up another opportunity for his daughter to marry into the royal family. This is honestly a copy/paste of Otto Hightower’s schemes.

In the grand scheme of things, House Peake really isn’t that important of a house. Members of House Peake act more as cameos in other events in Westerosi history. So Unwin Peake’s time as Hand of the King is the highest they ever get to. Now to close out the whole aftermath of the Secret Siege. I will also be quickly going over the fates of conspirators I didn’t talk about in the previous episode.

Initially Aegon wanted to restore Rowan as Hand, but it was pretty clear he was too psychologically damaged to continue. Rowan would be sent back to his home in Goldengrove. He would unfortunately die on the way, which is a pretty sad way for his life to end. Another great council was called to reform the group of regents and select a new Hand of the King. It wasn’t Aegon’s 16th birthday just yet, so he was still considered a minor. There were three new regents selected. The Small Council was chosen again.

Lord Torrhen Manderly became Hand of the King. As I mentioned in the previous episode, Isembard Arryn would become Master of Coin. Gedmund Peake was chosen as Master of Ships, which is just a bizarre choice. Just to make an interesting note, Torrhen Manderly was one of the Manderly brothers who I briefly talked about in the Dance of the Dragons Part 2 episode. Also when Aegon was a widower after Jaehaera’s death, Torrhen Manderly wrote a letter proposing that Aegon should marry a Manderly. If you listeners recall there was a failed attempt at a marriage between their two houses. This is of course a reference to Viserra Targaryen. If you didn’t listen to Part 2 of my episodes about Jaehaerys I, you should check it out.

As Hand of the King, one of the first things Manderly does is organize a trial for the conspirators and the poisoning of Queen Daenaera and Gaemon Palehair. I had already mentioned in the previous episode a few people died during the Secret Siege and in the immediate aftermath. So I’ll just briefly discuss some of the fates of the remaining conspirators.

As I had mentioned in the previous episode, George Graceford was the Lord Confessor and quickly admitted who else was involved. He ultimately took the Black instead of being executed for treason. Ser Gareth Long and Ser Victor Risely also were found guilty. Risely chose Trial by combat instead of going to the Wall. His accuser was actually Gareth Long who won the duel. Long would also go to the Wall.

As I had mentioned in the previous episode, there were three ladies who were among Daenaera’s ladies in waiting. There was also another lady who acted as the woman in charge of the queen’s household. Incidentally she was also Unwin Peake’s aunt. Officially Lady Clarice Osgrey wasn’t punished as there was no evidence she had any involvement. Still there is suspicion of her years later.

I’ll briefly talk about the other three girls. Cassandra Baratheon was the oldest of Borros Baratheon’s children. Until her mother gave birth to a son right after Borros’s death, Cassandra was the heir to Storm’s End. She’s a pretty ambitious and audacious young woman. She had been betrothed to Aegon II and was also one of the many girls at the Maiden’s Ball. Cassandra would later admit that had she been having an affair with Ser Mervyn Flowers. Cassandra was arranged to marry a lower ranking nobleman. She was only spared a harsher punishment because she’s a Baratheon and not a lower ranking lady.

The other two ladies Lucinda Penrose and Priscilla Hogg were both previous candidates at the Maiden’s Ball. They each were later chosen to join Daenaera as one of her ladies. They both admitted they were disgruntled about not marrying Aegon or Viserys. They had to agree to join the Faith as septas or else they’d get their noses cut off. A pretty literal interpretation of cutting your nose to spite your face.

Of course the conspirators weren’t the only people who had to be held accountable for crimes. Larra Rogare’s brothers were also in a lot of trouble for what their family had done. Larra and Viserys attended the trials. She wasn’t accused along with her brothers. To be fair, she doesn’t have much say in her family’s business and during this time she was actually pregnant.

Lotho Rogare would be tried for theft and fraud in relation to the bank and found guilty. He was offered the choice of the Wall or getting his right hand chopped off. He was actually left-handed so he chose to lose the hand. He would later end up at Oldtown and started the Bank of Oldtown with Hightower assistance.

Roggiero Rogare would be given 7 lashes even though he wasn’t actually found guilty of anything other than for being a Lyseni. The brothel he opened would be sold including the furnishings. He’d use the money to start a floating brothel on a ship that traveled up and down the Narrow Sea.

Manderly would spend the next few months enacting different policies to improve the situation. In particular, he had to deal with the economic crisis that happened because of the Rogare Bank collapse. Lord Torrhen Manderly appointed Ser Lucas Lothston as the new master-at-arms to replace the disgraced, Gareth Long. I had briefly mentioned Lord Lucas Lothston in the previous episode and this is basically where he appears in this story. He turned out to be a skilled swordsman and a patient teacher for Viserys. He also earned Aegon’s respect as well. You’ll be hearing about this knight again in a later episode.

Aegon and Torrhen Manderly never really got along. Aegon was very mistrustful of people he didn’t personally choose. Which again isn’t that hard to imagine why that would be the case. Manderly thought of Aegon as “that sullen boy.”

The mutual dislike would come to a head when Aegon finally became 16 years old. The Regents, Hand, and Small Council were planning a royal progress similar to the ones that Aegon’s ancestors had done. If you’ve listened to the earlier episodes of this season, you’d know what I mean. Aegon arrived at the Small Council chambers and immediately cancelled the Royal Progress. He also made it clear that as he was now 16 years old, he no longer needed regents and they were all dismissed. Fire & Blood states that the young king made an enemy of Manderly for this humiliating way of dismissing him. However we don’t know what that actually means, if anything, since we don’t have a volume 2 at this time.

So now I’m going to give you the highlights of what happens during Aegon’s adult years. They won’t be as detailed since we don’t have as much information available like in Fire & Blood. Some of this does come from The World of Ice and Fire and other sources.

Just to briefly go back to Viserys and Larra. As I mentioned in AC 136 while the trials were happening, Larra was pregnant a second time. She would give birth to another son who is named Aemon. One interesting thing to note is that an egg was placed in Aemon’s cradle. Little Aegon would actually pick up the egg to hit his baby brother with and Larra had to separate the boys. I personally think this was a foreshadowing of their relationship as adults. But that’s for a future episode.

In AC 138, Larra would give birth to her final child, a girl named Naerys. Why her final child? It’s because in AC 139, Larra would leave King’s Landing essentially abandoning her husband and her children. Larra would apparently die in AC 145. We’re assuming it’s an illness, but who really knows. So again if you’re keeping up with the timeline, in AC 139 Viserys is only 17 years old. He’s a single father with three children under the age of 5 and he’s still a teenager. I’m repeating myself, but this is one of the weirder writing decisions you’ve done, George.

It's hard for me to judge the decisions made here by Larra. She travels to Westeros for the sake of her much younger husband. She lives in a foreign court where she’s not truly part of it. She’s unable to adapt to the local customs and she’s treated as a suspicious foreigner. The collapse of her family’s fortunes and then the conspiracy against her family put a toll on her I would imagine. I also suspect she tried to stay longer but it was all getting too much for her. Clearly she can’t leave with her children or Viserys considering they are Targaryens. They are part of the royal family. There’s a case to be made that her not being in the picture created problems as I’ll get to in the next couple of episodes.

It was said Viserys would be serious and grim after his wife leaves. It makes me wonder whether she really loved him or not. I mean it’s hard to imagine really loving a younger spouse when you’re an adult and he’s a literal child when you got married and started having kids together. It’s never going to stop being weird to me.

As for Aegon and Daenaera, it wouldn’t be until Daenaera also turned 16 years old that they would finally consummate their marriage. Aegon remained a serious, troubled adult like he was as a child. Not surprising because again therapy doesn’t exist in Westeros. The couple would have 5 children together: Daeron born in AC 143, Baelor born in AC 144, Daena born in AC 145, Rhaena born in AC 147, and Elaena born in AC 150.

Aegon’s reign as an adult was fairly peaceful. However his lack of social IQ made it difficult for anyone outside his family to like him or think well of him. The fact the dragons were never able to return again to the numbers they once had resulted in him being known Aegon the Dragonbane. At some point Viserys would become Hand of the King for his brother and seemed to be a pretty good one at that.

Additionally I’ll briefly mention what happens to Baela and Rhaena during Aegon’s reign. After the death of Corwyn Corbray, Rhaena Targaryen would eventually remarry. She married Garmund Hightower, who was the younger son of Lyonel Hightower. Both Lyonel and Garmund were the sons of Ormund Hightower. He’s the nephew of Otto Hightower and also the head of his army during the first battle of Tumbleton. Rhaena and Garmund would have 6 daughters together. That’s about all we know unless we get a Fire & Blood Volume 2.

Baela and Alyn Velaryon of course had a daughter named Laena. They would also have another child, but it’s not clear what the gender or name of the second child is. It’s also not clear when she or her sister would pass away. Though interestingly there’s fan theories that at some point between AC 136, which is the end of Aegon’s regency, and AC 176, Baela would pass away. Why? Well in AC 176, Alyn apparently had interest in marrying another woman. Obviously he couldn’t do that if his wife was still alive. What else happens to her we don’t really know because no volume 2!

As for Daenaera, we unfortunately don’t know much else about her after she has five children with Aegon. It’s again something we’d need volume 2 to find out more about unfortunately. Aegon would only live until AC 157. He apparently contracts consumption, which is an old name for tuberculosis. Like I had said before, Aegon’s reign was notable and eventful mostly during his regency and not quite as much during his adult years. At least without George explaining further with a Volume 2. Naturally once Aegon dies, the next in line was his 14 year old son, Daeron.

And that is the final part of Aegon III’s life and reign. There are some exciting new characters I’ll be discussing in the month of January! I hope you guys are eager to hear about what happens with this next generation of House Targaryen! I can assure you all the kids I quickly mentioned in this episode will be really interesting characters who make a lot of impact in Westerosi history. We’re inching ever closer to Robert’s rebellion which is pretty much the end of this season. But we have a few more generations to go!

So before I close out this episode, the final announcements of 2024! So in the next few days I’m going to be adding surveys to the website. I’m probably going to create a survey page on the site that will have links to different surveys I’ll be running. This will help me improve this show, especially in future seasons.

Also I’m hoping that some of you listening to this show are interested in forming a community. Believe it or not, I’m actually averaging 40 listeners currently. How did I figure that out? It’s based on how many downloads or streams I’m getting in the first 24 hours a new episode gets released. So I’m actually pretty curious what would be the best way to form a community with you listeners.

I’ve admittedly been pretty lacking on the blog and social media. Even my newsletter has put to the way side. I admit I haven’t posted a newsletter since I started this season of the show. To be fair, my work life has been pretty busy lately. Also I’ve been spread thin after work in the past couple of months. I think this holiday break I’m taking will hopefully fix things.

That’s why I’m genuinely curious what would you guys prefer as a way to interact with me and maybe other listeners. Discord? The newsletter? I have a Substack newsletter for this show. It’s part newsletter, part blog, and has some other interesting features that makes it a mini forum as well. I would really like to know. Also like I said at the beginning of this episode, I created an e-mail address for this podcast. So feel free to reach out. All links are available on the website.

I want to also give a shout out to all of you listeners! When I combine the downloads I got from my previous host Acast and RedCircle combined, this show has been listened to over 1,700 times! I’m really grateful for all of you listeners. Most of you guys are from the US just like I am, which doesn’t surprise me since Americans make up the largest percentage of podcast listeners overall. I also want to give a shout out to the non-Americans who listen to this show! Just to let you guys know in the last 30 days, the top 10 countries my listeners come from are: United States, India, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Netherlands, Canada, Japan, and Brazil.

As always 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 I’ll talk about Daeron I and the rest of his peers. So I will wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in 2025!