Jaehaerys II & Aerys II

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 talking about the final two kings of this dynasty, Jaehaerys II and Aerys II.

Before I start the discussion of these two kings, there are a couple of quick announcements. I just want to welcome all the new listeners to this podcast. I hope you enjoy listening to this episode and this inspires you to check out the past episodes. I know I’ve done over 30 episodes so far. However I don’t think it’ll be too difficult for you go through all of them. Especially since I will soon be going on a hiatus. You’ll have plenty of time to listen to episodes you missed until Season 3 comes out.

I have admittedly done a pretty bad job posting on the newsletter and on the social media accounts I set up for this podcast. However I’m going to make more effort during the hiatus. So if you haven’t signed up to the newsletter or followed on any of the social media platforms I suggest you do. I’ll be updating on those accounts the official release date of Season 3 of this podcast once we find out when A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms finally airs on Max. The newsletter sign up form is available on the podcast website. If you’re on X the account is @westerosiprimer, on Instagram it is @thewesterosiprimer, and if you’re on Bluesky it is @thewesterosiprimer.com. Every episode of the podcast has a page on the website. One neat update is that on the website, you can now leave comments on the episode pages. You can leave comments on there if you don’t want to reach out on social media.

Second announcement is that so far there’s been no new responses to my Targaryen kings poll. As I’ve said in past episodes, there’s no end date to this poll. It’s an open-ended and ongoing poll so you listeners can answer at any time you want. I think that after this episode maybe more of you will participate just because you’ll have access to all of the info to maybe form a real opinion. Once this season is over, I’m only going to update you guys the results of the poll in future episodes if there’s more responses from you listeners. But with all that said, let’s get to the discussion!

As usual 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!

As you can tell from this episode title, I’m talking about Jaehaerys II and Aerys II. Similar to how I’ve been doing these episodes, I’m going to go back in time a bit to the beginning of Jaehaerys’s life. Considering Aerys is his son, I’m going to talk about Aerys simultaneously because their timelines naturally overlap with each other. I’ll be going over events that happened last episode from the perspective of these two characters.

Jaehaerys II was born in AC 225, which was during the reign of his grandfather Maekar. Jaehaerys would be 8 years old when his father Aegon became king. Unlike some of his other relatives, Jaehaerys was born with a very weak constitution. He was often pretty sickly, but friendly and intelligent. Since we don’t have a volume two of Fire & Blood there’s just so much we know about Jaehaerys.

As I had discussed last episode, Aegon and his wife tried to arrange marriages for their children. Partially it was because Aegon felt that Targaryen incest created a lot of problems in his family. And as I discussed last episode, House Targaryen could make the argument they wanted to maintain control of dragons to just their family and not allow others access. However it’s been nearly a hundred years since there has been a dragon much less dragon riding. There’s no real excuse for it anymore.

On top of that, Aegon wanted to form political alliances because he really needed them. He was having a lot of difficulty enacting policies that would help the people of Westeros. However these policies would also weaken the powers of nobles, which nobles naturally hated the idea of. His kids didn’t really have a head for politics because nearly all of them decided to do what they wanted.

Duncan married a commoner and had to give up his claim to the throne for it. Jaehaerys and his sister Shaera loved each other and eloped much like his namesake Jaehaerys I did with his sister. Jaehaerys was supposed to marry Celia Tully, the daughter of Lord Tully of Riverrun. Shaera was supposed to marry Luthor Tyrell. As an interesting twist, I had mentioned last episode Daeron was supposed to marry Olenna Redwyne. However he broke the engagement Aegon arranged. Later Olenna Redwyne would use her wiles to marry Luthor Tyrell. Or at least that’s the story she told her granddaughter Margaery decades later.

Jaehaerys and Shaera would have two children: Aerys and Rhaella. Aerys was born in AC 244. George didn’t clearly state when Rhaella was born. Fans estimate she was born between AC 245 and 247 mainly based on the Tragedy at Summerhall, which I’ll explain a bit later in this episode.

What were Aerys and Rhaella like as children? We unfortunately don’t know a ton about Rhaella, which is something of a recurring theme. We learn a lot about some female characters in the saga, but compared to male characters we don’t learn much. Even minor male characters we learn more about them than many female characters. The little we do know is Rhaella seemed to be kind and dutiful. Unfortunately the only thing people in the saga and the audience know her as is a tragic, domestic violence victim.

Aerys is like a lot of princes in his family. He was handsome and charming as a young man. He did also have a quick, heated temper. He wasn’t particularly smart either. He was also vain and easy to flatter. Aerys reminds me a lot of his ancestor Aegon the Unworthy if I’m being honest. The only difference between him and Aegon IV is that Aerys didn’t end up as a morbidly obese man with too many illegitimate children running around.

One interesting detail is that as a young prince in the Red Keep he had two boys he was basically best friends with at the time. Aerys was close to Steffon Baratheon, who if you listened to the last episode, was his cousin. Steffon’s mother was Rhaelle Targaryen, Jaehaerys’s younger sister. The other boy was a page serving in the Red Keep named Tywin Lannister, who was also the heir to Lord Tytos Lannister.

And now let’s get back to the timeline. I had mentioned in the last couple of episodes the happenings in the Westerlands with Casterly Rock. If you listeners are actually interested in my expanding on this feel free to leave a comment on the website for this particular episode. You also have the option of e-mailing host@thewesterosiprimer.com as well.

Tytos Lannister is a pretty terrible lord. In some respects he had a lot in common with King Viserys I. He was a kind jovial man. He was also pretty weak, easy to fool, and disrespected on a regular basis. We only see Kevan Lannister in the show, but Tywin was actually one of five siblings. If you listen to episode 1.06 which is the Westerlands episode, I introduce Tywin’s siblings. Tywin had one sister named Genna, who was oddly betrothed to Emmon Frey, who was actually one of Walder Frey’s older sons. There’s no real benefit for House Lannister to agree to this marriage. That’s just how weak Tytos was that anyone could just convince him to do whatever they wanted. This honestly explains Tywin a lot. Not long after this betrothal was when Tywin gets sent to the Red Keep.

After Duncan Targaryen married Jenny of Oldstones, the couple was allowed to join the royal court even though he was no longer the Prince of Dragonstone. Joining them was a reputed woods witch who befriended Jenny. This mysterious woods witch would make a prophecy claiming that “the prince who was promised” would be born from Aerys and Rhaella’s line. This would be the reason why Jaehaerys wanted his two children to marry each other. Aegon wasn’t overly happy about this idea, but ultimately agreed to let Jaehaerys arrange the marriage.

When you think about it, it’s a pretty crazy idea that Jaehaerys would just decide this just based off what some random alleged woods witch claimed. I would honestly be curious to see if Jaehaerys is just this trusting or if this woman did a bunch of things that convinced him she’s really predicting the future.

It’s a pretty miserable marriage for Aerys and Rhaella. Because unlike their parents, Aerys and Rhaella would have preferred marrying other people if they could have their choice. There were tales that stated that as a young princess, a knight from the Stormlands named Bonifer Hasty had a brief romance with her. But of course he was a low ranking knight and she’s a Targaryen princess betrothed to her own brother. Bonifer Hasty is actually a character who appears in the novels, but he’s a fairly minor one. Most of the characters don’t even remember or seem to be aware of this brief romance.

In AC 259, we have two important events to talk about. First off, Rhaella is pregnant with her first child. If you do the math, she’s pregnant at age 12 to 14 years old give or take. I’m once again reminded of Aemma Arryn. If you are new to this podcast, I talked about her in episodes 2.05 and 2.06 of this podcast. Aemma Arryn was only 11 years old when she married her cousin Viserys I. She was 15 when she gave birth to Rhaenyra.

As I also discussed in the last episode, the other notable event of AC 259 is the tragedy at Summerhall. Many members of House Targaryen were at the castle when a terrible fire broke out. It’s not completely clear what caused the fire or why it happened. Many speculate it’s connected to King Aegon’s desire to bring back dragons, which was something I discussed last episode. Many members died in the fire and George doesn’t really specify who was at Summerhall. There’s only a few facts we do know.

We know Aegon, Duncan, and Jenny of Oldstones definitely died. We also know Jaehaerys, Aerys, and Rhaella clearly survived given the first two eventually were kings. Rhaella would be pregnant multiple times after AC 259. In fact Rhaella went into labor likely because of stress from the fire. She would give birth to her first child a prince who would be named Rhaegar. So Rhaegar was born at Summerhall and this is an important detail.

Once Jaehaerys was crowned king, he named his uncle Ormund Baratheon as Hand. The most important event in Jaehaerys’s reign was the War of the Ninepenny Kings in AC 260. As I had mentioned last episode, there were a band of nine bandits, merchants, and cutthroats in Essos trying to carve out their own kingdoms in the Disputed lands. One of the nine was Meleys Blackfyre, who was the last male descendant of Daemon I Blackfyre.

Meleys Blackfyre was also called Meleys the Monstrous. Descriptions of him are pretty reminiscent of Maegor the Cruel. He was a large imposing man with a fierce temper that matched his physical strength. He also had a vestigial head or something because allegedly he was supposed to have a twin, but killed it in the womb and absorbed it. It’s weird, but kind of based on reality. There is a phenomenon called parasytic twins which is a form of a cojoined twin situation. It’s just weird.

Taking advantage of the alliance he formed with the other members, Meleys and his allies decided to go after Westeros and crown him the king. Naturally their first stop was the Stepstones once again. You might be wondering, why is this new war called The War of the Ninepenny kings? Apparently when hearing about this alliance in Essos, Prince Duncan made a joke about how “crowns were being sold nine a penny.” He really didn’t think much of these wannabe kings.

Considering how poorly defended the Stepstones were, it wasn’t hard to see why they attacked there first. They also quickly occupied the islands. Jaehaerys didn’t want to sit down and let this progress. He wanted to lead the armed forces being gathered up despite the fact he’s the last person in this family qualified to fight in a war. Ormund Baratheon explained he should lead the men while the king stays to rule in the capital.

Along with Ormund Baratheon, we have a number of notable people participating. Lord Quellon Greyjoy led an armada of ships to fight for the Iron Throne. This is actually Theon Greyjoy’s grandfather. The Westerlands were led by Ser Jason Lannister, the younger brother of Lord Tytos. Also joining in were the now knighted Tywin and his brother Kevan Lannister. Brynden Tully and Prince Aerys also were fighting.

Since we don’t have more to Fire & Blood, we don’t have details of all the battles that happened. However suffice it to say Meleys lost. Ormund was killed by Meleys pretty early in the war. So would Ser Jason Lannister. Eventually the war ended when a young knight named Barristan Selmy fought his way through members of The Golden Company and killed Meleys.

There was a lot of notable things that happened in the aftermath. Tywin’s resentment of his father grew after this. You can’t really blame him. His brave uncle Jason dies. Tywin and Kevan made a name for themselves fighting the enemy. Meanwhile his weak father is feasting and parading around a mistress who was actually baby Gerion’s wetnurse. If you don’t recall, Gerion Lannister is Tywin’s youngest brother.

Hoster Tully fought along with his brother Brynden. At some point they became acquainted with a minor Vale lord only known as Lord Baelish. The man did some favor for Hoster and his show of appreciation came in the form of fostering a young Petyr Baelish at Riverrun. Jon Arryn would become acquainted with Rickard Stark and the new Lord Steffon Baratheon. This would result in an agreement where Jon Arryn would later foster Rickard’s and Steffon’s sons Ned and Robert. Later because of his valiant service during the war, Barristan would be given the white cloak.

Jaehaerys II is a king where people will have differing opinions on whether he was a good king or not. He was at least well liked by nobles unlike his father. But you listeners know my thoughts on that if you listened to the last episode. Unfortunately his reign lasted only three years and he dies in AC 262 because as I explained earlier in the episode, this king was pretty sickly. He would die from illness and then Aerys became king.

[Mid-roll spot]

So before I dive into Aerys’s reign and descent into madness, I need to briefly talk about Rhaegar. Of course we kept hearing a lot about Rhaegar if you read the novels or watched Game of Thrones. We even briefly saw him in Season 7 and 8 of the tv show. Unfortunately, we’re only left with what people say about this prince. We can’t form our own solid opinions because we never properly get scenes or much conversation with him in it.

Rhaegar was generally described as a capable knight, who preferred reading, music, and the academic. With the exception of Robert Baratheon, I don’t think there’s been anyone else who said anything negative about Rhaegar. This honestly says something literally the only character we know of who actively bad-mouthed Rhaegar was Robert, who had obvious reasons for hating the prince.

While I don’t think Rhaegar was perfect in anyway, I think he’s generally a good guy even though he definitely made questionable decisions. It’s a lot like how Jaehaerys I was a good king even if he honestly wasn’t a good father and made poor decisions. You guys would know this if you listened to episodes 2.04 and 2.05. I would be curious to learn more about this prince if George actually included more content in The Winds of Winter about him. The other notable thing is that Rhaegar only got interested in being a knight later allegedly after he read some books that inspired him.

Rhaegar was unfortunately the only young Targaryen of note left in the family once his father becomes king. Aerys started off pretty promising as a king. He filled many roles in his court with younger men as he wanted new blood helping to run Westeros. One of his appointments was his old friend Tywin Lannister as his Hand. Aerys was not just picking him because they were friends. It was also because he liked how ruthless Tywin was when dealing with the Tarbecks and Reynes.

I won’t dive too much into the Reyne-Tarbeck rebellion here because it would take a lot of time to explain it. If you listeners are interested in me discussing this in a future season, head over to the website and leave a comment for this episode. The short version is that Tytos had allowed lords to walk over him for years. He was a genuine laughing stock and lords pretty much mocked him to his face and dared him to do something about it. He was a toothless lion.

I’m assuming all of you listeners have either watched Game of Thrones or read the novels because otherwise why are you listening right now. You know what kind of man Tywin is. After the War of the Ninepenny Kings, Tywin decided if his father wasn’t going to do something about it he would.

This would come to a head when Houses Tarbeck and Reyne openly challenged the Lannisters. Tywin’s response was to have the underground keep of House Reyne flooded by diverting river water into the cavern. House Reyne would be exterminated and the event would remembered in a song named “The Rains of Castamere,” which was the castle of House Reyne.

Of course one of Aerys’ personality weaknesses come into play here. He’s got energy and enthusiasm, but he lacks the intelligence, patience, and fortitude to see them through. Aerys had interesting ideas that were very unrealistic and showed signs of someone with a really flighty mindset. One idea was building an underground canal to make Dorne green, which was a nonsensical idea. That’s not how canals work among other issues.

It's generally agreed that Tywin’s time as Hand is the big reason why Westeros was doing well at all during Aerys’s reign. As I just explained, Aerys didn’t have many practical ideas or policies he wanted to do. And he also lacked the interest and motivation to follow through with anything anyway. In fact Tywin did such a good job, some people were talking about how he was really the one ruling Westeros. This just leads to resentment on Aerys’ part which I’ll get into later this episode.

Since AC 259, Lady Joanna Lannister had been at the Red Keep with her cousin Tywin. She was selected as one of Rhaella’s ladies-in-waiting. Tywin and Joanna were also engaged to be married. There were also rumors claiming that Joanna was a paramour of Aerys. However many dismissed these rumors mainly because if it were true Tywin wouldn’t have married her. I’m inclined to agree with this view. Considering how proud a man Tywin is, I highly doubt he’d agree to marry Joanna if she was Aerys’s mistress. She would be viewed as used goods even if Tywin did love her. There were indications that Aerys was attracted to Joanna and made some inappropriate comments towards her.

Rhaella didn’t love her brother-husband. She put up with affairs since that would mean he would leave her alone. However she is still a princess and future queen. She had her dignity to maintain and wasn’t going to put up with Aerys picking one of her companions as his paramour. I mean to be fair, if your husband was going to openly have mistresses at least it shouldn’t be with a woman you’re friends with. It’s not clear if she’s worried about Aerys’s behavior or perhaps she’s protecting Joanna’s dignity, but Joanna is dismissed from service after she married Tywin in AC 263.

Joanna and Tywin actually had a really good marriage. There was a lot of indication that Tywin did love her, which explains a lot of his behavior later. She acted as a real partner for him and seemed to be a softening influence on him. Not to say he was ever soft on anything, but she did act as a trusted advisor at home. Jaime and Cersei would be born in AC 266.

While all of this was happening, Rhaella would be pregnant multiple times. Once again to draw a comparison to her ancestor Aemma Arryn, Rhaella would lose most of these children either through miscarriage or illness before they turned one year old. These difficulties plus envy of Tywin’s competency made Aerys paranoid of his reputation.

Things were deteriorating between the two friends. Aerys started intentionally doing the opposite of what Tywin recommended just to screw around with him. This just emphasized how incompetent the king really is because some of his choices weren’t really good at the jobs they were given. It especially got rough in AC 273, when Joanna died giving birth to Tyrion. By that point it became a game to get the king’s favor by insulting Tywin. Tywin put up with it for a surprisingly longer time than you’d think.

In AC 276, Viserys would be born. Tywin hosted a tourney to celebrate the birth of the prince, which is a big deal. Viserys was healthy and showed signs he would actually live past his first year. Tywin proposed a marriage between Cersei and Rhaegar. Mostly because he was angry at the idea of Tywin getting more power, Aerys refused and claimed that Tywin was a servant of the crown. A child of a servant was unfit to marry a prince. And you can guess Tywin was never going to forget this insult.

Then in AC 277 was the infamous Defiance of Duskendale. Lord Darklyn of Duskendale requested a charter for his port town. This would give his town a lot of rights and benefits that didn’t already exist. However Tywin refused this. Darklyn appealed to the king and refused to pay taxes until he got his charter. Aerys thinking he’s smarter than Tywin decides to go talk to Darklyn. Tywin advises against this and Aerys ignores his advice because clearly anything Tywin thinks is a good idea should be ignored. And then Aerys becomes a captive for 6 months.

There was a siege held and the Darklyns threatened to kill the king if anyone stormed the castle. Eventually Barristan sneaks into the castle solo and rescues the king. Aerys grew even more paranoid and traumatized by the whole ordeal. He has everyone from House Darklyn executed including the children. Lord Darklyn was executed last so he could watch the consequences of what he did. And of course that’s when Aerys became the Mad King we all know him as.

Aerys suspected there was a conspiracy between Rhaegar and Tywin to let Aerys die. And then Rhaegar could be king and he would marry Cersei as a reward for Tywin’s cooperation. In AC 278, Aerys had his only remaining friend and cousin Steffon go on a special mission. He was to go to Volantis and find a proper Valyrian girl to marry Rhaegar since there was no sister for him to marry. There were rumors Steffon was going to replace Tywin as Hand after he returned. However he couldn’t find anyone suitable and returned empty handed. That’s when the ship he was on sank outside of Storm’s End resulting in Robert becoming the new lord Baratheon.

Paranoid Aerys thinks Tywin is a wizard or something. Because in his mind Tywin orchestrated an assassination for Steffon knowing he would replace Tywin. And yet Tywin couldn’t be dismissed because it would give him an excuse to assassinate Aerys. If you think that sounds crazy, that’s literally the mindset of an insane person. It’s also at this point Varys is invited to become master of whispers.

In AC 279, Aerys decides Rhaegar would marry Elia Martell. This decision was probably based on her ancestry or at least it was a factor. If you listened to episode 2.15, you would know that Daeron II married Myriah Martell, which means Aerys and his family are descendants of house Martell. On top of that Daeron arranged for his sister Daenerys to marry his brother-in-law Prince Maron Martell. So Elia would also be a descendant of House Targaryen. Unfortunately Steffon only had his three sons Robert, Stannis, and Renly. I suspect if Steffon had a daughter, Rhaegar might have married to her.

Rhaenys would be born in AC 280, but Aerys was disappointed she “smelled Dornish” or didn’t look like a Targaryen. Jaime Lannister would be selected for the Kingsguard in AC 281 and that’s when Tywin resigned from his post in his frustration with yet another insult to his pride. Though Tywin doesn’t know it was actually Cersei’s suggestion to the king just so Jaime wouldn’t end up married to Lysa Tully like Tywin was arranging with Hoster Tully.

Later that same year was the infamous tourney at Harrenhal where Rhaegar won the joust and crowned Lyanna Stark the queen of love and beauty instead of his wife, Elia. In AC 282, Aegon would be born after Elia nearly died from labor. She would never be able to have another child. And then Rhaegar would disappear with Lyanna Stark not long after that.

I want to clarify something that a lot of fans get wrong about Robert’s Rebellion. Robert’s Rebellion wasn’t truly caused by Lyanna Stark’s disappearance. At least not directly. After all no one is fighting a civil war over a noblewoman like that. The fact is that Aerys is clearly mentally unstable. Sooner or later there was going to be a plan to overthrow him because how can you live in a kingdom with an insane person on the throne? Despite the name if you want to get technical, Jon Arryn started the rebellion.

Brandon Stark was angry at the disappearance of his sister and wanted to confront Rhaegar because he’s a hothead. Rhaegar wasn’t at the Red Keep. Aerys had Brandon arrested for daring to challenge and threaten Rhaegar. Rickard Stark was summoned to answer for his son’s audacity. And then that’s the infamous incident where Rickard was burned to death with wildfire. Meanwhile Brandon was tied with a noose around his neck and he strangled himself trying to save his father. Paranoid Aerys decided everyone in House Stark is a traitor and ordered Jon Arryn to surrender Ned and Robert, which he refused to do.

That of course triggers Robert’s rebellion and I assume you all know how that story ended. If you’re interested in me doing a deep dive of Robert’s rebellion leave a comment on the episode page on the website. The rebellion needs at least one if not two episodes to really cover the whole thing. And this episode is long as is. As you can see there’s a ton of lore I haven’t covered but for length and time I can’t do now.

And that just about covers the lives of Jaehaerys II and Aerys II. 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 share some final thoughts about House Targaryen and discuss the future of this podcast.