Dance of the Dragons

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The Dance of the Dragons, was a civil war between two of the children of Viserys I over the succession to the Iron Throne

Background

King Viserys had three children by his first queen, a daughter of House Arryn: two sons who died in infancy and a daughter, Rhaenyra. Lacking a son to succeed him, Viserys began to train Princess Rhaenyra to be his heiress-apparent. Young Rhaenyra was included in discussions of the affairs of state, and was allowed to participate in meetings of the small council. Many of the nobles took note, and Rhaenyra soon acquired a clique of adherents and supporters.

However, after Viserys's queen died, the king remarried, this time to a Hightower. The new Hightower queen quickly produced three sons and a daughter, the eldest son named Aegon. Nonetheless, Rhaenyra's place in the succession seemed undisturbed; Viserys even formalized the succession in his will.

War

Upon the death of Viserys, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Criston Cole, later called "the Kingmaker", defied the king's will, and crowned Prince Aegon as Aegon II. Ser Criston's motivations for doing so are unclear, but it was reputed that he and Rhaenyra were lovers before he took the white cloak, and their affair ended badly, adding a personal dimension to the conflict. In any event, many of the lords of the realm were aware of Viserys's wish to have Rhaenyra succeed him as Westeros's first queen regnant, and threw their support behind the princess. Doubtless, many of them were also the same clique who has spent years currying favor with the presumptive future queen. Conversely, Aegon had the support of many other lords, and a great armed conflict engulfed Westeros. The result was a devastating civil war which lasted for over a year, with the Targaryen family, the realm, and the Kingsguard divided against themselves. Many lesser branches of House Targaryen were exterminated in the war and most of the Targaryen dragons as well.

End

In circumstances not yet fully revealed, Rhaenyra came to be put to death as a traitor at the hands of her brother Aegon II, who had her eaten by his dragon as her son Aegon watched. Later still, Aegon died, and was succeeded by his nephew, Rhaenyra's son, who would reign as Aegon III.

Since the Dance, House Targaryen has practiced a highly modified version of agnatic primogeniture, placing female claimants in the line of succession behind all possible male ones, even collateral relations. (See also Daena Targaryen, Daeron II)

References and Sources

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Wars in A Song of Ice and Fire#The Dance of Dragons.
The list of authors can be seen in the page history of Wars in A Song of Ice and Fire#The Dance of Dragons.
As with A Wiki of Ice and Fire, the content of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.