Jaehaerys Targaryen's uprising

Note: The title of this article is conjecture and may be subject to change.

Jaehaerys Targaryen's uprising
Date	48 AC
Location	Seven Kingdoms
Result	King Maegor I Targaryen found dead on the Iron Throne Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen crowned as King Jaehaerys I
Belligerents House Targaryen/Jaehaerys Targaryen  House Velaryon Stormlands, led by House Baratheon Reach, led by House Tyrell  House Hightower  House Redwyne Westerlands, led by House Lannister Vale of Arryn, led by House Arryn  House Royce  Kingsguard (2 switched sides) Iron Throne/House Targaryen/King Maegor I Targaryen  Kingsguard  House Darklyn  House Massey House Towers  House Staunton  House Bar Emmon  House Buckwell  House Rosby  House Stokeworth  House Hayford  House Harte  House Byrch  House Rollingford  House Bywater  House Mallery Notable commanders Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen Queen Rhaena Targaryen Lord Rogar Baratheon Lord Daemon Velaryon King Maegor I Targaryen Lord Darklyn Lord Albin Massey Lord Jordan Towers Lord Staunton Strength Royal fleet 3 dragons Vermithor Silverwing Dreamfyre <4,000 men, including ~400 knights 1 dragon: Balerion Losses None King Maegor I Targaryen Lord Hayford Ser Owen Bush of the Kingsguard

In 48 AC, Jaehaerys Targaryen was declared the rightful king of the Seven Kingdoms, defying his usurping uncle, King Maegor I Targaryen, who held the Iron Throne. Half of Westeros soon followed in supporting the young prince.

Prelude

In 42 AC, Jaehaerys's father, King Aenys I Targaryen, died on Dragonstone. Dowager Queen Visenya brought her son and Aenys's half-brother, Prince Maegor, back from his exile in Essos, and he declared himself king, supplanting Aenys's eldest son and heir, Prince Aegon. In 43 AC, Aegon attempted a rebellion against his usurping uncle, but he and his dragon Quicksilver were slain by Maegor and his dragon Balerion in a battle just south of the Gods Eye.

By 44 AC, Prince Jaehaerys, his sister Alysanne, and their mother, Dowager Queen Alyssa Velaryon, resided on Dragonstone as the hostages of Dowager Queen Visenya. In the chaos following Visenya's death of natural causes that year, Jaehaerys and his mother and sister fled the island, along with Jaehaerys's dragon Vermithor and Alysanne's dragon Silverwing, and taking Visenya's ancestral Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister. In retaliation, King Maegor had Jaehaerys's older brother Viserys, a hostage in King's Landing, tortured to death. As a result, Prince Jaehaerys became the eldest living son of the late King Aenys, though he remained in hiding.

King Maegor had great difficulty getting a heir of his own body. Two of his wives, Queen Ceryse Hightower and Queen Tyanna, appeared to be barren, and in 44 AC he had Queen Alys Harroway tortured to death after she had given birth to a stillborn monstrosity. In 47 AC, Maegor forced three widows of proven fertility to marry him in one ceremony. One of these Black Brides was Jaehaerys's eldest sister and Aegon's widow, Rhaena Targaryen. Still without a child of his own, Maegor officially disinherited Jaehaerys, and proclaimed Rhaena and Aegon's daughter Aerea as his heir.

In the meanwhile, the Faith of the Seven had been conflicting with House Targaryen over their practices of incest and polygamy. The Faith Militant uprising had begun during King Aenys's reign, but as the Faith continued to resist Maegor's rule, he raised a set of laws that forbade holy men from carrying arms, and he punished lords who spoke out against the suppression of the Faith. King Maegor took brutal steps to put down the rebelling Faith Militant orders and the houses supporting them, including offering bounties for their heads. Not even the death of the High Septon and his replacement by a more passive one stopped the determination of the Faith Militant. Thousands died during Maegor's campaigns against the Faith, which was also ruinously expensive. The master of coin continuously raised taxes and imposed new ones, and when these measures failed, Maegor demanded a tribute of gold from the high lords. Day by day, the Seven Kingdoms turned against its king, as both smallfolk and lords began to despise him for his tyranny and his many cruelties.

The Uprising

In 48 AC, on the shores of Shipbreaker Bay, Lord Rogar Baratheon declared Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen the true and lawful King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men. In turn, Jaehaerys named Rogar Protector of the Realm and Hand of the King. Jaehaerys's mother, the Dowager Queen Alyssa Velaryon, and his sister, Princess Alysanne, stood beside him as he unsheathed Dark Sister and vowed to end Maegor's rule, denouncing his uncle as a usurper. A hundred banner lords and knights from the stormlands cheered the proclamation.

When word reached the Red Keep that Jaehaerys was gathering forces at Storm's End, Queen Rhaena Targaryen stole the ancestral Valyrian steel sword Blackfyre from Maegor as he slept. She also took her daughter and Maegor's heir, Princess Aerea, and escaped on her dragon Dreamfyre to join her brother's cause.

When Maegor woke and heard the news, his response was sluggish and confused. He went to command Grand Maester Benifer to send ravens to all his leal lords and bannermen to gather at King's Landing, only to find that the maester had fled to Pentos. Finding Princess Aerea gone, he sent a rider to Oldtown to demand the head of her twin sister Rhaella, but Lord Donnel Hightower instead imprisoned the messenger. Two of Maegor's Kingsguard vanished one night to join Jaehaerys, and Maegor lost a third Kingsguard when Ser Owen Bush was found dead outside a brothel, his member stuffed into his mouth.

Daemon Velaryon, Maegor's own lord admiral, was one of the first lords to declare for Jaehaerys. Because of this, Maegor lost the entire royal fleet. Houses Tyrell, Hightower, Redwyne, Lannister, Arryn, Royce, and many others soon followed.

Maegor had supporters of his own, but they were insignificant compared to Jaehaerys's: the Houses Darklyn, Massey, Towers, Staunton, Bar Emmon, Buckwell, Rosby, Stokeworth, Hayford, Harte, Byrch, Rollingford, Bywater, and Mallery answered his call. Together, they commanded fewer than four thousand men, and only one in ten of those were knights. Despite this, Maegor refused to surrender. When Lord Hayford suggested that Maegor abdicate and take the black, Maegor had him beheaded and continued his war council with Lord Hayford's head mounted on a lance behind the Iron Throne. After the council, Maegor remained alone in the throne room to brood.

The uprising never had a chance to escalate into a true war, as Maegor was found the next morning by Queen Elinor Costayne, dead upon the Iron Throne with his wrists cut and one of the swords pointing through his neck. His death remains a mystery; some say he was killed by Queen Elinor, others that he had been killed by a knight of his own Kingsguard, yet others say he was killed by a builder who escaped the massacre the king had ordered three years prior and desired revenge, and many believe that Maegor had been killed by the throne itself for his unworthiness. Others believe that Maegor killed himself by opening his wrists on the blades of the Iron Throne.

With Maegor dead, Prince Jaehaerys ascended the throne as King Jaehaerys, First of His Name. As Jaehaerys was only fourteen years of age, his mother, Dowager Queen Alyssa Velaryon, would serve as Queen Regent during the first two years of his reign. Lord Rogar, Protector of the Realm and Hand of the King, would also provide guidance.

Aftermath

King Jaehaerys is crowned by the High Septon, as depicted by Douglas Wheatley in Fire & Blood.

Jaehaerys arrived in King's Landing upon his dragon Vermithor, ahead of Lord Rogar Baratheon's army. Most of Maegor's supporters had fled, and Jaehaerys imprisoned the few who still remained. After he was joined by his mother and Hand, King Jaehaerys decided to pardon the lords and knights who had served Maegor, restoring their lands and titles to them, although he required a son or daughter as a hostage from each, or the payment of a sum of gold to the crown. As the realm learned about Jaehaerys's willingness for granting pardons, the remainder of Maegor's adherents dismissed their armies and journeyed to King's Landing to swear fealty to the new king. An exception was made for some: the gaolers and confessors who had assisted in the torture and death of Prince Viserys were all executed.

Of Maegor's Kingsguard, Ser Maladon Moore was executed for his alleged involvement in the murder of Maegor's queen Ceryse Hightower, and his definite participation in the murder of Queen Tyanna. The remaining five Kingsguard were given a choice between execution or taking the black, including Ser Olyver Bracken and Ser Raymund Mallery, who had abandoned Maegor for Jaehaerys, but whose service was refused by the young king since he did not want oathbreakers serving him. All chose to take the black, except for Ser Harrold Langward, who demanded a trial by combat and was slain by the Crown's champion, Ser Gyles Morrigen. Afterwards, Ser Gyles was made Lord Commander of Jaehaerys's Kingsguard.

In Oldtown, Jaehaerys was blessed and crowned by the High Septon with his late father's crown in the Starry Sept. Jaehaerys removed the bounties that King Maegor had placed on the heads of the Warrior's Sons and Poor Fellows during the Faith Militant uprising, and pardoned all those who would put down their weapons. The Faith agreed to set aside their traditional right of judging their own and to accept justice from the throne, while Jaehaerys swore that the crown would always protect and defend the Faith. Additionally, Jaehaerys offered a white cloak to Ser Joffrey Doggett, a former Warrior's Son, which the knight accepted. As such, Jaehaerys reconciled the Iron Throne and the Faith.

Quotes

No man in the Seven Kingdoms could doubt that the king was accursed now.

—writings of Gyldayn

Maegor has only one dragon. Our prince has two.

—Rogar Baratheon, to the stormlords

Maegor the Cruel was murdered in that chair. By that chair, to hear some tell it.

—Stannis Baratheon, to Davos Seaworth

It was a reign that ended in the only way it could after the six years of terror that Maegor had visited upon the realm. But his nephew's reign would do much to mend the deep wounds he had made in the Seven Kingdoms.

—writings of Yandel

There will be no trials, no torture, and no executions. The realm must see that I am not my uncle. I shall not begin my reign by bathing in blood. Some came to my banners early, some late. Let the rest come now.

—Jaehaerys I Targaryen