Jaehaerys I (Part 2)

Greeting 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 finish my discussion of Jaehaerys I.

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!

If you didn’t listen to the previous episode, you’ll need to stop here and check it out. That’s because if you noticed the title of this episode, this is part of a 2 part discussion about King Jaehaerys I aka Jaehaerys the Conciliator. You might not understand some of the things that I talk about in this episode, because they were either explained or I’m referencing to things from the previous episode. Regarding Characters I already introduced in the previous episode, I’m not going to repeat info about them again here. I’ll only explain a bit more about characters that don’t come into the story until the time period I cover here.

So I basically left off around the year AC 62. There are a bunch of things that happen until Jaehaerys dies. Among those things are the birth of many children. In fact Jaehaerys and Alysanne have 13 children. Unfortunately not all of them become adults and nearly all of them die before their father does. But I’ll get to that later. I mentioned a few who were born in the previous episode. After Alyssa were the following children: Maegelle (AC 62), Vaegon (AC 63), Daella (AC 64), Saera (AC 67), Viserra (AC 71, Gaemon (AC 73), Valerion (AC 77), and Gael (AC 80). Notably the two sons, Gaemon and Valerion died in their infancy.

This is just my personal opinion, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if monarchs like King Edward I and George III of England inspired the multiple children. I also lean more towards Edward I because he was of course a Medieval king, which is the inspiration for much of the saga. Another factor is he is part of the Plantagenet dynasty, which from the name should tell you where the Targaryen’s got their name from. Also I think the relationship of Jaehaerys and Alysanne is pretty similar to that of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. And again Henry II is a Plantagenet. In fact he’s the first king of the Plantagenets, which is technically named after his father. But I won’t go too much further into this since this is not a medieval history podcast.

In AC 62, we see the construction of the famous King’s Road. As we all know that is the main central road that connects the North to King’s Landing through the Neck and the Riverlands, etc. Of course it takes many years to complete the construction, but the work started here. Also in this year, Aemon was officially declared the Prince of Dragonstone and heir to the Iron Throne. At the feast, Aemon was sitting next to his aunt, Jocelyn Baratheon. If you recall in the previous episode, I mentioned that Jocelyn Baratheon’s mother was Alyssa Velaryon, who is also Jaehaerys and Alysanne’s mother.

Initially Jaehaerys was going to betroth Aemon and Daenerys, but she died during the Shivers epidemic. There was another thought of betrothing Aemon to his sister Alyssa, but there was already indications that Baelon and Alyssa were interested in each other. Eventually Aemon and Jocelyn were betrothed in AC 68 and actually got married in AC 70. It was in AC 72 that Aemon and Baelon would claim dragons. Aemon would end up with Caraxes and Baelon was Vhagar’s rider.

AC 73 was a pretty interesting year. Like I said in the previous episode, Rhaena Targaryen had been living in Harrenhal after her daughter’s death. Rhaena herself would die this year. Princess Maegelle was chosen to become a septa and would head off to Oldtown. She didn’t play a huge role in court politics except for her roles in the “two quarrels,” which I’ll get to later in the episode. She would later die from grayscale in the year AC 96. She had been nursing children suffering from the disease and caught it herself.

Also infamously, this was the year we get a somewhat infamous knight in the Kingsguard being punished. I say somewhat because he does get a few mentions in the novels as an example of what not to be as a knight. Ser Lucamore Strong was actually the knight who first aided the dying Princess Aerea off Balerion. It would be revealed in AC 73 that he had secretly married three women and had 16 children between them. As we all know, the Kingsguard are forbidden from marrying and having children after joining the order. So he was an oathbreaker and a bigamist, which is also unacceptable in the rules of the Faith.

The Faith would declare that all three marriages were not legal and therefore all the children were bastards. Even though the women didn’t know about each other, they all knew he was a Kingsguard and therefore couldn’t have married him. He would be punished by being gelded and then sent off to the Wall. The three women and their children became wards of different lords who were considered most loyal to the king and they’d have to use bastard names instead of the family name Strong.

In AC 74, Aemon and Jocelyn welcome their one and only child: Rhaenys. Yes the same Rhaenys we know in House of the Dragon.

In AC 75, Baelon married his sister, Alyssa. After the wedding, she would claim a dragon of her own, Meleys. They would have their two sons, Viserys in AC 77 and Daemon in AC 81.

In AC 78, Vaegon chose to join the Citadel and later would become an archmaester. Vaegon had a prickly personality. In some ways he does make me think of Stannis Baratheon. Vaegon lacked interest in martial skills and really didn’t want to marry anyone. This did pose a problem for Jaehaerys because he had intended to betroth Vaegon to his sister Daella.

This created a problem as now Daella had no husband. Daella is a small statured and very timid girl. She was very anxious and possibly had other issues. She could have become a septa, but she apparently had some issues learning all the prayers. It’s not clear to me if she has some learning issues or not. It’s also bizarre to me why Jaehaerys is so obsessed with having all his kids matched and married off. Especially with Daella being only 13-14 years at this point. By AC 80, Jaehaerys was fed up with Daella being unable to tolerate various suitors presented to her. Eventually she ended up marrying Lord Rodrik Arryn, who was the Master of Laws at this time.

In AC 81 Aemon would be made Master of Laws on Jaehaerys’s Small Council.

In AC 82, Daella was pregnant and begged for her mother to join her as she was frightened of the whole situation. The labor was very difficult and she gave birth to a daughter named Aemma. In case you’re wondering, this is Rhaenyra’s mother. Daella soon dies of childbed fever at age 18. Alysanne made it clear to Rodrik Arryn that Daella would not be buried in the Vale, but cremated and laid to rest on Dragonstone as a Targaryen. Alysanne blamed everyone including herself for her daughter’s death. She especially put blame on her husband for pressuring their daughter to marry so young when she clearly wasn’t ready for marriage. This was the first major crack in their marriage. It does make me wonder if possibly Aemma ended up inheriting her fertility issues from her mother. Or possibly because of another reason which I’ll get to later.

In AC 83, Jaehaerys, Aemon and Baelon flew on their dragons to the Stormlands. At that time, a Dornish fleet led by Prince Morion Martell was trying to invade the Stormlands. The three Targaryens destroyed all the ships and killed many including Prince Morion.

In AC 84, Alyssa would have a difficult pregnancy and gave birth to her final child, Aegon. Unfortunately Alyssa would die about 6 months later and then Aegon died before his first birthday. Baelon was devastated by the death of his sister-wife. He would never remarry.

The other big thing that happened this year is the scandal involving Saera Targaryen. I actually made a mention of Saera back in Episode 1.18, which was my reaction/commentary on The Red Sowing episode. I did the super short version of Saera’s story, but I’m going to do an expanded version of the story right now.

Saera Targaryen was described as being very willful, spoiled, and pretty bratty from what it sounded like. I can’t help but wonder if she’s one of those middle children who was desperate for attention. Actually both her and her younger sister, Viserra, seem to suffer from this. I’ll also talk about Viserra bit more later. And by the end of this story, you’ll see why I think she’s got “middle child” syndrome.

Saera actually regularly bullied her older sister, Daella. She’d do pretty cruel things like leave animals in her sister’s bedroom. You’d think it’s cute leaving a cat in your sister’s room. After all, a lot of people love cats and they are perfectly nice pets to have. You know if you pick the ones with the right personality. Unfortunately, the super timid Daella was scratched by a kitten and was frightened of cats afterwards. Saera knew this and did it anyway because she’s just that kind of a sister.

Once Saera experienced puberty, she really showed interest in men. She’d constantly talk about how she’ll get married to every nobleman she’d see at the Red Keep every week. You’d chalk this off as a boy crazy teenage girl just crushing on people. Not the most unusual thing some might say.

One thing Saera had in common with her aunt Rhaena is that she loved having her own entourage. She had a group of followers who she basically hung around with a lot. There were two girls: Perianne Moore and Alys Turnberry. Also in this group were three young men: Jonah Mooton, Roy Connington, and Braxton Beesbury. Under any other circumstance, there would be eyebrows raised a bit about why she was allowed to have young men hanging out with her like this. Alysanne certainly questioned the prudence of this. Jaehaerys handwaved this because the three lads were from respectable noble families and were potential suitors. It would only make sense for her to spend time with them so they can decide who she’d marry. Alysanne was really not impressed with Ser Braxton Beesbury because he already at least a couple of bastard children back in the Reach.

But as you would imagine parents don’t always know what their teenage kids get up to. That’s a fact in our world and not all that different in George’s Westeros. Saera being the queen bee of their little group, she instigates a lot of sexual exploration among the group. Of course this gets found out eventually. How? Basically the guys messed things up for them, but it was only a matter of time before the truth would get out as I’ll explain in a bit.

The three guys go out drinking and wound up at a brothel. To make a long story short, they make a mention of Saera and it results in the king and queen questioning the whole group about what’s going on. The guys refused to talk so they get put in the Black Cells for a night. Alys and Perianne are threatened with a night in the cells and they talked. They admitted that Saera basically instigated their experimentation. Beesbury being the one most sexually experienced was the one “training” everyone else on what to do. In fact Alys admits she’s pregnant and because they all had sex with each other, she has no idea who is the father. The obvious question of “where were the servants and septas watching and chaperoning you?” The obvious answer is that Saera is a princess and they’re all nobles. The servants simply were told to leave and they obeyed. Servants that knew anything about what was going on received threats from Beesbury.

Saera gets questioned. As you imagine she goes from ignorance and denial to the “yeah I did it, so?” kind of attitude. When asked she nonchalantly admits she’s lost her virginity to the three guys but she made them each think they were her first time. She even snarks about how maybe she could just marry all three guys just like Maegor did. If you listened to the previous couple of episodes, you’d get why Jaehaerys got pissed off with her response.

Saera is locked in her room to think about what she did. Meanwhile the royal parents and a small group of advisors discussed what is to be done about Saera who “is no longer my daughter” to Jaehaerys. Alysanne, as you can imagine, was really reluctant to lose another child considering how many she’s lost by this point. Jaehaerys seemed willing to forgive his child, if only she didn’t try to claim a dragon in the Dragonpit. Yes, she actually snuck out of her room and tried to claim a dragon. That failed since she was caught by the Dragonkeepers. Saera had to stay locked in a tower cell while her friends were dealt with.

Ser Braxton claims trial by combat thinking he could fight his way out of serious punishment. The 49-year-old king agrees to fight him. The knight thinks he can beat the king, but he assumes that just because the king is older, he’s easy to beat. The knight guessed wrong and Jaehaerys uses strategy to defeat the arrogant knight. Both girls needed to marry, but especially pregnant Alys.

At this point, it was expected that Roy and Jonah would agree to marry the girls and do right by them. Roy refuses to marry Alys because he believed the baby is actually Braxton’s and he refused to make another man’s child the heir to Griffon’s Roost. Considering his refusal to marry either of them, he was offered the choice of going to the Wall or exile for at least 10 years. He chose exile. Of course the universe (or rather George) plays a joke on Roy for his choices.

First off, Alys winds up giving birth to a red-haired daughter. Considering Roy was a redhead, it’s pretty obvious who the father was. It’s also not the only time George uses this as an example of genetics in the saga. The other twist is that just a few months before Roy could have returned to Westeros, he gets stabbed to death by a sex worker in Essos.

Alys would be married off to another lord. Jonah Mooton and Perianne Moore did agree to marry each other and it was said that they did have a pretty happy marriage. What happened with Saera?

Saera was sent off to Oldtown to spend time in penance under her sister Maegelle’s supervision. It’s hard to say whether the king really intended for her to become a septa or if this was meant to be a scare tactic to make her repent. Saera only put up with the conditions for a few months and in AC 85, she manages to escape the motherhouse she was at. She’d make her way to Lys where she found herself doing sex work. Since she was still wearing her septa-in-training clothes that became her gimmick at the brothels. She’d be a naughty nun waiting to be corrupt. That kind of thing.

This information got back to King’s Landing where Jaehaerys basically decided to wipe his hands clean of her. Alysanne was forbidden from going off to Essos to find her. She tried sending letters to Saera, but she never got a response. Saera would later become a madame of her own brothel. As I mentioned in episode 1.18 with my discussion of “The Red Sowing,” the show seems to imply that she is Hugh’s mother. This isn’t stated in Fire & Blood, which I’ll get into in a later episode.

So just to reiterate, it’s not clear at this time whether Ryan Condal was told this or it’s a made up thing in the show. Just note that in the next couple of episodes, which is related to House of the Dragon, I’ll probably keep saying that. It’s not always clear whether the writing team was told this for the show or they made it up.

So I’ve already spent a lot of time talking about Saera, but as I mentioned earlier Viserra. While she didn’t get into quite the level of trouble her older sister did, she did cause much grief as I’ll explain now. Viserra was considered the most beautiful of the princesses and she knew it. Undoubtedly because everyone told her so, she was aware of it. Viserra actually had ambitions to become queen.

In AC 86, Queen Alysanne arranged a betrothal between her daughter and Lord Theomore Manderly. Theomore Manderly by this point had outlived 4 wives and a few children already. We don’t know how old he was but you could probably take a guess how old he is compared to a princess who is only 14 years old. As you would imagine, a beautiful teenage girl wouldn’t want to marry a man who was old enough to be her father. Much like Lysa Tully 200 years in the future.

A year later, Viserra resorted to trying to seduce her older brother Baelon. If you recall earlier in the episode, he is a widower with the death of their sister, Alyssa. Not long afterwards, arrangements were made to send Viserra to White Harbor. Undoubtedly, they wanted to make sure that Viserra couldn’t get into any more trouble like what they dealt with Saera.

Not too differently from what we saw in House of the Dragon between Daemon and Rhaenyra, Viserra snuck out of the Red Keep with friends to have one last bit of fun before she was shipped off. They had gone drinking through the night. As they did a little race back to the Red Keep, Viserra’s horse crashed into another horse in their group. She was thrown from her saddle and accidentally hit her head against a wall breaking her neck.

The grief of losing another daughter made Alysanne once again ask for Saera to brought back to King’s Landing. Jaehaerys refused this and was clear he considered Saera dead to him. This led to the “First Quarrel” where Alysanne left for Dragonstone and refused to return for about two years. At the time, they were supposed to make another royal progress through the Westerlands and then the Reach. By that point, it was pretty clear Alysanne wasn’t around and ambitious lords had the idea of encouraging their daughters to seduce the king, who was in his early 50’s at this point. Jaehaerys made it very clear despite the estrangement, he was still married and already had a queen with no interest in other women.

During the tour, Aemon, Baelon, and even Rhaenys would join him at certain stops. Back in AC 87, Rhaenys was able to claim Meleys. While accompanying her grandfather on part of his tour of the Reach, Rhaenys informed him her wish to marry Corlys Velaryon. He would give her his blessing and approval and the wedding happened in AC 90.

Like I mentioned earlier in the episode, Maegelle was the one to eventually convince her parents to reconcile. As she pointed out, it would really be poor showing for them to still be estranged when Rhaenys’ wedding happens. So Alysanne returns to fix the marriage.

In AC 92, Aemon would head off to fight Myrish exiles who were occupying an area of Tarth. At this time Rhaenys is pregnant with her first child, Laena. He was fighting the Myrish with Corlys Velaryon, his son-in-law, with his ships. Unfortunately Aemon would die. Baelon would avenge his brother with his dragon and using Dark Sister. With Aemon’s death, Baelon would become the Prince of Dragonstone ahead of his niece, Rhaenys. This would lead to what is known as the Second Quarrel, where Alysanne wound up leaving her husband for Dragonstone.

Again as I mentioned in the previous episode, this still comes across as a bit hypocritical because her husband’s reign only happened because they bypassed their older sister Rhaena. Yet here she is complaining about Rhaenys being passed over as the heir. This “quarrel” would last until AC 94 with once again Maegelle acting as the arbitrator though they still didn’t agree on the inheritance.

Of course the queen wasn’t the only one who didn’t approve of this decision. Corlys Velaryon was Master of ships and he resigned in protest. Boremund Baratheon, Rhaenys’s maternal uncle, and Jaehaerys’ half-brother was also displeased by this decision.

As a side note, we don’t know exactly when Jocelyn Baratheon dies. We only know that she died at some point before the Dance since she’s not mentioned in Viserys’s reign.

AC 99 is another year of tragedy for this family. Gael Targaryen was the youngest child as I mentioned all the way back in the beginning of the episode. As you would imagine, she was close to her mother. This is especially true because she was born when her mother was in her 40’s. Incidentally I do personally relate to this since I too was born when my parents were in their 40’s. Gael was also a form of comfort to Alysanne because three of her other daughters died. Gael was the only one left in the Red Keep since Saera was banished in Essos and Maegelle was a septa in Oldtown.

Quite unfortunately like her sisters, Gael would die this year. The official story states she died of a fever. However the truth was that she was seduced by a traveling singer and got pregnant. The baby was stillborn and she drowned herself in the Blackwater. This was the emotional last straw for Alysanne. With most of her children dead, Alysanne couldn’t stand being in King’s Landing any further. She would fly off to Dragonstone where she had her happiest memories never to return.

AC 100 was another important year for House Targaryen. Baelon would be named Hand of the King. Unfortunately this was also the year that Alysanne would die. She is said to have died of a wasting disease. I personally think she was just broken down with grief and just struggled to keep going. Jaehaerys also started his decline after this point. He loved Alysanne and would never fully get over her death.

In AC 101, Baelon would go on a hunt and complain of a “stitch in his side.” He would die a few days later of a burst belly. The symptoms point towards this being appendicitis. This would then lead to the big inheritance crisis that would only be resolved by the Great Council of 101 at Harrenhal. This was of course depicted in the very first scene of House of the Dragon episode 1.01.

There’s indication that Vaegon was actually the one who suggested the Great Council. Vaegon, who I haven’t discussed in quite a while, was at this point an archmaester at the Citadel. As a side note, archmaesters are different from maesters. The best way to explain the difference is that if maesters are like teachers in high school or even elementary/primary school, archmaesters are university professors. Archmaesters stay at the Citadel doing a lot of research and sometimes teaching acolytes. They tend to be specialists in certain areas of study. This is also the last mention of Vaegon (at least based on Fire & Blood, Volume 1). It’s not clear when Vaegon dies.

As I mentioned in the discussion episode 1.18, three men arrived claiming to be Saera’s bastard children. But as I also said in that episode, they really had no chance of being chosen. After all, it’s their word that they are her sons. And they are bastards, which means they have no chance of inheriting anyway.

As we know from House of the Dragon ultimately Viserys was chosen. Out of consideration of how long this episode has gotten, I’ll actually discuss the Great Council in more detail next episode. This is because a few details were excluded from the TV show. Some of them do have an impact on the Dance later so I’ll be talking about it in the beginning of the next episode.

King Jaehaerys would be in his sick bed in his final years. The king actually chose Otto Hightower to serve as Hand. Alicent Hightower was reading to him as he died in AC 103. Really interesting echo of Alicent’s time with Viserys later on. It’s also interesting that towards the end, Jaehaerys actually mistook Alicent for one of his daughters, including the disgraced Saera.

King Jaehaerys I is a figure that casts a long shadow in Westerosi history. As you can tell from this episode and the previous episode many things he did during his reign made a real impact. He’s still referred to as Jaehaerys the Conciliator. Even though he is a fictional character, he’s a reflection of many historical figures. Historians and people like us give these figures of the past a certain reputation based on the things they achieved. We never truly know about the other aspects of their lives. It’s fascinating that once you learn more about them as people, they really become more human. They’re not these villain or hero archetypes.

And that just about covers the life of Jaehaerys I. 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 two very different brothers.