Jaehaera Targaryen
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 Jaehaerya Targaryen, by riotarttherite © | ||||
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| Predecessor | Helaena Targaryen | |||
| Successor | Daenaera Velaryon | |||
| Race | Valyrian | |||
| Culture | Crownlands | |||
| Born | In 123 AC[1] | |||
| Died | In 22nd day of the 9th moon of 133 AC[1], King's Landing | |||
| Father | Aegon II Targaryen | |||
| Mother | Helaena Targaryen | |||
| Spouse | King Aegon III Targaryen | |||
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| Played by |
Unidentified (season 1) Olive Beever (season 2) | |||
| TV series | House of the Dragon: Season 1 | 2 | |||
Princess Jaehaera Targaryen was the daughter of King Aegon II Targaryen and his sister-wife and Queen Helaena Targaryen. She was the first wife and queen of her cousin King Aegon III Targaryen. Jaehaera had a twin brother, Jaehaerys, and a younger brother, Maelor. The dragon Morghul was bound to Jaehaera.[2]
Contents
Appearance and Character
Jaehaera was born tiny and slow to grow. She did not cry or smile or act as babies normally do.[1] Her lack of emotion continued as she grew older.[3] Jaehaera is described as a sweet and simple girl at the time of the Dance of the Dragons.[1]
History
Early life
Princess Jaehaera was born in the year 123 AC, barely a year after her parents had wed. A dragon egg was placed in Jaehaera's cradle, and as well one in the cradle of her twin brother, Prince Jaehaerys. Both eggs soon hatched, and for Jaehaerya, the dragon Morghul was born.[1]
That same year, two of Jaehaera's half-siblings were born: a boy, whose mother was a whore in the Street of Silk, and a girl, whose mother was a maidservant of Jaehaerys's grandmother, Queen Alicent Hightower. In 127 AC, Jaehaera's trueborn brother Prince Maelor was born.[1][4]
In 129 AC, on the third day of the third moon, Jaehaera, her brother Jaehaerys and Maelor, and their mother, Princess Helaena Targaryen, went to visit their grandfather, King Viserys I Targaryen. There, Jaehaera listened to a fictional tale[N 1] Viserys told, about their great-great-grandsire, King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, Jaehaerys's namesake, and how he had flown north of the Wall on his dragon to fight against wildlings, giants, and wargs. That night, King Viserys died in his sleep.[1]
The Dance of the Dragons
At the time of the death of King Viserys I Targaryen, Jaehaera and her twin were six years old. Her father, Aegon II Targaryen, was crowned king by the greens in King's Landing, but Aegon's older half-sister, Rhaenyra Targaryen, who had been Viserys's proclaimed heir, was crowned queen by the blacks on Dragonstone. This provoked a civil war that became known as the Dance of the Dragons. With her father now king, Princess Jaehaera became third in line to the Iron Throne.[6]
At the start of the war, Jaehaera's uncle, Prince Aemond Targaryen, killed Prince Lucerys Velaryon, the second son of Queen Rhaenyra. Her husband Prince Daemon Targaryen declared vengeance, writing that there would be "An eye for an eye, a son for a son".[4] Sometime thereafter, two men, remembered as Blood and Cheese, snuck into the chambers of Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower in the Tower of the Hand. As was her custom, Queen Helaena Targaryen took her three children to visit their grandmother at dusk, before they went to bed. Once Helaena entered the chambers with Jaehaerys, Jaehaera, and Maelor, Blood barred the door and slew Helaena's guardsman, while Cheese snatched Maelor. Cheese told Helaena that they were two "debt collectors", and asked which one of her sons she wanted to lose. The queen offered herself but the two killers refused, telling her that it had to be a son, a boy. As the queen agonized over the decision, Cheese warned her to make a choice soon, before Blood grew bored and raped Jaehaera. The weeping Helaena eventually named her youngest child, two-year-old Maelor. Cheese told Maelor his mother wanted him dead, then grinned at Blood, who slew Prince Jaehaerys instead, striking off the boy's head with a single blow from his sword. The two men did no further harm to Helaena, Jaehaera, or Maelor, fleeing with Jaehaerys's head in hand while Helaena screamed. The deaths of both Prince Lucerys and Prince Jaehaerys set the civil war ablaze, with both sides calling for vengeance and unwilling to show any mercy.[7]
In 130 AC during the Fall of King's Landing, when Rhaenyra Targaryen's dragons first appeared in the skies above the city, the master of whisperers Lord Larys Strong spirited Jaehaera out of the city along with her father, King Aegon II, and younger brother, Maelor. Larys led them out through a secret passage of Maegor's Holdfast, of which only he had knowledge. Jaehaera was put in the charge of Ser Willis Fell of the Kingsguard, who swore to bring her safely to Storm's End, while the Kingsguard Rickard Thorne was charged to bring Maelor to Oldtown. After the escape, Rhaenyra posted huge rewards for information leading to the capture of Aegon, Jaehaera, Maelor, Willis Fell, Rickard Thorne, and Larys Strong. When that failed to produce anything, Rhaenyra sent out hunting parties of "knights inquisitor" to seek out the escapees, and punish anyone who helped them.[2]
Following the deaths of her parents, brothers, uncles, and dragon in the Dance, and the victory of the blacks, Jaehaera was married to her cousin King Aegon III Targaryen as part of the peace agreement. Since she was eight years old at the time of the marriage and Aegon was eleven, it was not consummated.[8]
Death
Two years after her marriage, Jaehaera reportedly threw herself from her window in Maegor's Holdfast, and was impaled on the spikes of the dry moat below. She lived for a half hour in agony before her death. With her, ended the line of the marriage of King Viserys I Targaryen and his second wife, Queen Alicent Hightower.[9]
Jaehaera's death was officially deemed a suicide, akin to that of her mother, Queen Helaena Targaryen. However, many suspected that she had been murdered at the instigation of Lord Unwin Peake, the Hand of the King and one of the seven regents of Aegon III, as Unwin hoped to marry his own daughter to Aegon instead. It was variously suggested that Jaehaera had been murdered by Ser Mervyn Flowers of the Kingsguard, bastard half-brother of Lord Peake, who had been guarding at the door to her bedchamber when she died; or that Mervyn had merely stood aside to allow Tessario the Tiger, a sellsword in Lord Peake's service, to do the deed.[8][9]
Family
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Notes
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Fire & Blood, Heirs of the Dragon - A Question of Succession.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Triumphant.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Viserys I.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Princess and the Queen.
- ↑ A Forum of Ice and Fire: Inconsistencies, plot holes, and missing details in TSOTD, TRP, and TPATQ (February 28, 2018)
- ↑ Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - The Blacks and the Greens.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - A Son for a Son.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon III.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Fire & Blood, Under the Regents - War and Peace and Cattle Shows.
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