Great Council of 101 AC

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The Great Council of 101, as depicted by Marc Simonetti in The World of Ice & Fire.

The Great Council of Harrenhal, or Great Council of 101 AC, was convened by old King Jaehaerys I Targaryen after the unexpected death of his son and heir Baelon Targaryen, so that the lords of the Seven Kingdoms could settle on who should succeed him on the Iron Throne.

Great Council of 101 AC

Prelude

When King Jaehaerys I Targaryen's son and heir, Prince Aemon, died in 92 AC, Jaehaerys chose Aemon's younger brother, Prince Baelon, as his heir, passing over Aemon's daughter, Princess Rhaenys. The decision caused the Second Quarrel between king and queen.[1]

Prince Baelon died in 101 AC (of a burst appendix) while serving as Hand of the King, and Jaehaerys again needed an heir. Supporters of both Prince Viserys Targaryen, the eldest son of Prince Baelon and his sister-wife, Princess Alyssa, and Laenor Velaryon, the son of Princess Rhaenys, reportedly formed armies to press their claims. Fearing a civil war, King Jaehaerys summoned from the Citadel his only surviving son, Archmaester Vaegon; whether Jaehaerys offered him the throne, or only wanted advice, is unknown. Vaegon suggested that lords, maesters, and the Faith discuss the candidates in a Great Council. Jaehaerys agreed, promising to accept whatever the council decided.[1]

Prior to the start of the Great Council, rumors spread that Lord Corlys Velaryon was readying a fleet to defend the rights of Laenor. Baelon's younger son Prince Daemon Targaryen also gathered a small army of sworn swords and men-at-arms in case fighting broke out.[2]

As the first Great Council,[3] no one knew how many would attend. The Crown wanted room for at least five hundred lords and entourages, so the great castle of Harrenhal was chosen to host. More than a thousand lords came from throughout Westeros, gathering over a half year; some arrived as the council was ending.[1] The nearby town of Harrenton was briefly the fourth-largest settlement of the realm, behind only King's Landing, Oldtown, and Lannisport.[3]

Outcome

The council met for thirteen days and discussed fourteen claims.[1] The fourteen claimants were:

Claimants Claims Results
1 Prince Viserys Targaryen Grandson of Jaehaerys I He was elected as Jaehaerys's new heir.
2 Laenor Velaryon Great-grandson of Jaehaerys I He lost the election.
3 Laena Velaryon Great-granddaughter of Jaehaerys I Her claim was passed over on account of her sex.
4 Princess Rhaenys Targaryen Granddaughter of Jaehaerys I, mother of Laenor and Laena Her claim was passed over on account of her sex.
5 Prince Daemon Targaryen Grandson of Jaehaerys I He chose to support the claim of his older brother Viserys instead of his own.
6 Archmaester Vaegon Last living son of Jaehaerys I He refused to press his claim, on account of his vows
7 Princess Saera Targaryen Last living daughter of Jaehaerys I She refused to press her claim and or even return to Westeros (though her 3 bastard sons, each fathered by a different man, did press their claims)
8 Unnamed bastard son of Princess Saera by a Triarch of Volantis Grandson of Jaehaerys I  
9 Unnamed bastard son of Princess Saera Grandson of Jaehaerys I (said to physically be the very image of his grandfather in his youth)  
10 Unnamed other bastard son of Princess Saera Grandson of Jaehaerys I  
11 Unnamed nobleman The descendant of Lord Gaemon Targaryen by way of a younger daughter Passed over due to being a minor cousin, nine generations removed from the main branch
12 Unnamed man-at-arms Claimed to be the natural son of King Maegor I Targaryen The assembled nobility did not believe him (due to Maegor's apparent sterility)
13 Unnamed hedge knight Claimed to be the natural son of Jaehaerys I His claim was exposed as a lie by Jaehaerys himself.
14 Unknown
(Possibly Rhaella Targaryen)[N 1]
Unknown  

The assembly considered and discarded the claims of lesser competitors, and as the deliberations continued they focused down on two major candidates: Prince Viserys and Laenor Velaryon.[1]

Primogeniture favored Laenor, as his mother, Princess Rhaenys, was the daughter of Prince Aemon, who had been the eldest living son of King Jaehaerys. Yet proximity favored Viserys, who, in addition, had been the last Targaryen prince to ride the dragon Balerion, before the Black Dread had died in 94 AC. On the other hand, Laenor had recently acquired a dragon of his own, Seasmoke.[1]

The age of the claimants were also brought up during the discussions. Prince Viserys was a man of twenty-four who had already fathered a daughter who could follow him on the throne after him, while Laenor was a boy of seven. Yet Laenor had one big advantage over Viserys: he was the son of Lord Corlys Velaryon, the wealthiest man of the Seven Kingdoms. Corlys's fame, reputation and wealth did much to support Laenor's claim.[1]

Known supporters of Laenor Velaryon:

Known supporters of Viserys Targaryen:

Other known attendees:

In the end, what mattered most for the many lords in the realm, was that the male line would take precedence over the female line and the supporters of Laenor were too few. While the maesters never revealed the actual numbers,[3] it was rumored that Prince Viserys had won by a twenty to one vote. Those who had voted for Laenor were mostly limited to the Velaryons and their close allies in Blackwater Bay, the Celtigars and Bar Emmons, as well as the Baratheons (as Rhaenys's mother, Laenor's grandmother, was Jocelyn Baratheon). Laenor was also supported, however, by the Starks and their major vassals House Manderly and House Dustin, as well as House Blackwood from the riverlands.[3][5][N 3]

Prince Viserys was ultimately chosen by the assembled nobility,[5] and while he was not present for the final deliberations, King Jaehaerys I named Viserys the new Prince of Dragonstone.[3] Ser Otto Hightower, the younger brother of the Lord of Oldtown, was chosen as Hand of the King, to replace the late Prince Baelon.[1]

Consequences

According to Archmaester Gyldayn, in the eyes of many, the council of 101 AC established an iron precedent on matters of succession: that the Iron Throne could not pass to a woman, or to a male descendant of a woman.[3]

King Viserys I Targaryen named his daughter, his only surviving child by his first marriage, Princess Rhaenyra, his heir after the death of his second born son, Prince Baelon. After three sons had been born in his second marriage, Viserys was asked about the succession repeatedly, but he chose to ignore the precedents of 101 AC, and Rhaenyra remained his heir. In 109 AC Viserys dismissed Ser Otto Hightower, his Hand of the King, because Otto kept asking the king about the matter.[2][1]

Following the death of Viserys, at the start of the coup for the throne by the greens, Viserys's small council examined the annals of the Great Council. They determined that the houses which had dissented during the Great Council were likely to support the claim of Rhaenyra Targaryen instead of Aegon II Targaryen. Among others, the greens accurately predicted that the Starks would side with Rhaenyra due to how they voted at the Great Council.[9]

Notes

  1. The text only gives 13 out of 14 total candidates at the Great Council, making it clear that this count even included potential candidates who refused to press their claims such as Saera or Archmaester Vaegon. Rhaella Targaryen, however, was probably still alive in the year 101 AC: given that she was born in 42 AC, she would have been around 59 to 60 years old. Rhaella was the daughter of Jaehaerys's older brother, and throughout the early years of Jaehaerys's reign there were rumblings she had a better claim to the throne than he did, which were ignored due to the chaos of overthrowing Jaehaerys's tyrannical uncle Maegor. Rhaella could explain both who the 14th candidate was, and why this candidate was dismissed out of hand, to the point of not even being mentioned: not only was Rhaella sworn to the Faith of the Seven as a Septa, she had no children of her own and was long past child-bearing age - thus she was probably restricted by her vows (like Vaegon) and was incapable of furthering the royal line. This doesn't necessarily rule out the possibility that the final candidate was someone else entirely (either another distant relative or another imposter).
  2. Lord Yorbert likely supported the claim of Prince Viserys who was married to Aemma Arryn, a daughter of the late Lord Rodrik Arryn, and a relative of Lady Jeyne.
  3. It's possible that these Northern Houses actually supported the Velaryons not as a top-down decision from the Starks, but because of close commercial ties between House Manderly of White Harbor and the Velaryon fleet, which pressured the Starks and Dustins to go along with them - but the exact reason the Starks supported Laenor hasn't been given. It's also unclear why the Blackwoods would support Laenor - perhaps only to oppose their ancient rivals House Bracken, who like most of the other lords supported Viserys.

References

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 Fire & Blood, Heirs of the Dragon - A Question of Succession.
  2. 2.0 2.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Viserys I.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Jaehaerys I.
  4. The World of Ice & Fire, The Stormlands: House Baratheon.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 The Princess and the Queen.
  6. The World of Ice & Fire, The Westerlands: House Lannister Under the Dragons.
  7. Fire & Blood, Under the Regents - War and Peace and Cattle Shows.
  8. The World of Ice & Fire, The Riverlands: House Tully.
  9. Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - The Blacks and the Greens.