Daena Targaryen
Daena Targaryen | |
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Daena by Amok© | |
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Alias | Daena the Defiant |
Allegiance | House Targaryen |
Culture | Valyrian |
Born | In 145 AC[1], King's Landing[2] |
Spouse | King Baelor I Targaryen |
Princess Daena Targaryen, also known as Daena the Defiant, was the eldest daughter of King Aegon III. She was the sister-wife of King Baelor I Targaryen, the lover of King Aegon IV, and mother to Daemon Blackfyre.[3]
Contents
Character and Appearance
Daena was wild almost from birth. A Targaryen to the bone, she was strong, beautiful, and wilful and like the rest of her siblings had Valyrian looks. Her long silver-gold hair was thick and curly, an untamed mane that framed her heart-shaped face and her sparling purple eyes. To top it off, she had a a fearless "I'll dare anything" smile. Daena was lithe and athletic. She was an expert horsewoman and also a hunter and a fine archer with her short recurved bow.[3][2]
She worshipped her father and idolized her brother Daeron. Daena's dress was often as dramatic as she was. As a child, she always wore black in emulation of her father. After her brother Baelor failed to consummate their marriage, she changed to all white, and vowed to wear nothing else until she had been properly bedded, in hopes of shaming him - this did not work. Baelor liked her in white, feeling that it made her look more innocent. Later, as a pampered prisoner in her brother's court, Daena made several escapes, usually by dressing as a washerwoman or serving girl (once with the connivance of her cousin, Aegon).[3][2]
She always wore the golden three-headed dragon pendant she had inherited from her father. At court she wore it on a fine golden chain; when in disguise, she hung it on a leather thong and hid it beneath her clothes. Supposedly she even wore it when bathing and when making love.[3]
History
Daena was the eldest daughter of Aegon III and Daenaera of House Velaryon, and was born in 145 AC. She had two older brothers, Daeron and Baelor, and two younger sisters, Rhaena and Elaena. In 160 AC, at the age of 15, Daena was married to her brother Baelor.[4][5] Daena and Baelor's marriage was an unhappy one, with her pious brother obsessed by the Faith of the Seven. Baelor refused to consummate their marriage and had it dissolved when he ascended the Iron Throne, after Daena's elder brother King Daeron I died in Dorne.[4]
After Baelor's ascension, Daena and her sisters, Rhaena and Elaena, were confined to their own apartments in the Red Keep,[6] which soon became known as the Maidenvault, so the sight of them would not tempt Baelor or others in his court to mortal lusts. Daena was sixteen at this time.[3]
During her time of confinement at the Maidenvault, Daena escaped several times[2] and had an affair with her cousin Prince Aegon, despite his marriage to his own sister-wife Naerys. When she became pregnant she refused to name the father of the child and became known as "Daena the Defiant". Her son was born robust and healthy, with the purple eyes and silver-gold hair of the Targaryens. Daena named the boy Daemon and raised him alone.[3] The father was only revealed years later when King Aegon IV Targaryen gave Daemon the ancestral Targaryen sword Blackfyre, acknowledging him as one of his bastards, while also legitimizing him.[7]
After Baelor's death, there were some amongst the smallfolk — and even some lords — who felt that the Iron Throne should by rights now pass to Daena, as she was Aegon III's eldest daughter. However, a decade of isolation in the Maidenvault had left Daena and her sisters without powerful allies, and memories of Rhaenyra Targaryen and the Dance of the Dragons had left many leery of the idea of a woman on the Iron Throne. Also, Daena the Defiant was seen by many as being wild, unmanageable, and wanton (as a year earlier she had given birth to her bastard son Daemon). The precedents of the Great Council of 101 and the Dance of the Dragons were therefore cited, the claims of Baelor's sisters were set aside, and the crown passed to their uncle Viserys II.[8]
Family
Daena's Blackfyre descendants
Daena Targaryen | Aegon IV Targaryen | Barba Bracken | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Daemon I | Rohanne of Tyrosh | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Aegon | Daemon II | Aenys | Two sons | Calla | Aegor Rivers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Aemon | Haegon | Unknown wife | Daughter(s) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Daemon III | Son(s) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Daemon | Maelys | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Quotes by Daena
Quotes about Daena
References and Notes
- ↑ See the Daena Targaryen calculation
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 George R. R. Martin's A World of Ice and Fire.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 So Spake Martin: Three Maidens in the Tower, June 27, 2006
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 30, Jaime IV.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Baelor I.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 28, Cersei VI.
- ↑ So Spake Martin: The Great Bastards, December 26, 2005
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire.
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