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After The Dragons Danced (A Rhaena Targaryen SI) -- 09. Under the Regents
🕑 Added 2024-10-04 09:00:00 +0000 UTCExcerpt from ‘Fire and Blood: Aegon II Targaryen - The Reign and Regency of the Broken King’ by Archmaester Rhaegar Targaryen
.…The Hour of The Wolf ended only six days after it had begun, on the tenth day of the fourth moon of the 131st year after Aegon’s Conquest. Once the last of the traitors had been executed or put in the dungeons awaiting their journey to Castle Black, Lord Cregan Stark, newly betrothed to Lady Alysanne Blackwood, returned his chain of office to Prince Aegon, declaring his intention to return to Winterfell immediately after the wedding between Aegon and Jaehaera was done. There are some who thought he might have easily remained the King’s Hand for years, or even seized the regency until young Aegon came of age, but the south held no interest for him. ‘The Snows are falling in the North,’ he announced, ‘and my place is at Winterfell.’ However, his return faced a thorny issue.
Lord Stark had marched south with a great host, made up in large part of men unwanted and unneeded in the North, whose return would bring great hardship and mayhaps even death for the loved ones they had left behind. Lady Alysanne Blackwood and Lady Rhaena Targaryen suggested suitable solutions for this problem. In the wake of the war, and the devastation that Vhagar had wrought, the lands along the Trident were full of widows, Lady Alysanne told Lord Stark. With winter at hand, strong backs and willing hands would be welcome in many homes. In King’s Landing as well, Lady Rhaena suggested to the Northman, there was a need for strong men to aid in the rebuilding and protection of the city, since ruin and lawlessness had become the norm in the streets by then. Lord Stark agreed to both suggestions; although later actions would prove that Lady Rhaena had secured these men for her own ends.
In the end, less than a thousand men accompanied Lady Alysanne and her nephew, Lord Benjicot Blackwood when they returned to the Riverlands after the royal wedding. Hundreds of marriages were made at ‘Widow Fairs’ held at Raventree, Riverrun, Stoney Sept, the Twins, and Fairmarket. ‘A wolf for every widow,’ was what these Widow’s Fairs were touted as. The rest of the Northmen, numbering nine thousand, swore themselves in service to the Crown; where they were made the first legionnaires of what would come to be known to history in later years as The Dragon's Teeth, the fearsome army in service to only House Targaryen and the Crown.
Five hundred of these men would set off from King’s Landing days after; commanded by Eldric Umber and with Lady Baela riding among them. The reason for their departure and their intended destination would not be known at first, but it would become clear soon enough.
It must be remembered that Lord Corlys Velaryon, renown in song and story as the Sea Snake, was the man that engineered the fall of the usurper, although some, Lord Cregan Stark chief amongst them, would deride him as a Kingslayer who used a woman’s weapon to dispatch a king he did not like. No matter how one views the actions of the Lord of the Tides at this juncture, it cannot be denied that it was by his efforts that the Dance of the Dragons came to an end, and peace in the realm was restored.
When Lord Kermit Tully’s host appeared before the walls of King’s Landing two days after the Battle on the Kingsroad, the last battle of the war where-in a fresh host of the Riverlands obliterated Lord Borros Baratheon’s host, Corlys Velaryon rode out to greet them with Prince Aegon the Younger somber at his side. “The king is dead,” the Sea Snake proclaimed, “long live the king.”
In the following days, when the rivermen had the city in their hands and before the Lord Cregan and his Northmen arrived, a strange euphoria hung over King’s Landing. The rivermen were welcomed eagerly by the denizens of the city and hailed as liberators who had come to keep them safe from further devastation caused by the war. Aegon the Usurper’s corpse was consigned to the flames, in hopes that all the ills and hatreds during his tyranny would be burned away with his remains. Thousands climbed Aegon’s High Hill to hear Prince Aegon proclaim that peace was at hand. This time is known in history as the False Dawn. False, for the Hour of the Wolf had not yet come and gone.
During this False Dawn, Lord Corlys Velaryon would sue for peace with all the great lords of the realm that were still considered to be in rebellion, with the intention of officially putting an end to the Dance of The Dragons. A cloud of ravens had risen from the Red Keep, summoning the usurper’s remaining loyalists in Oldtown, the Reach, Casterly Rock, and Storm’s End to King’s Landing to do homage to their new monarch. Safe conducts had been granted, and full pardons promised. One by the one those ravens returned, bearing answers to the old man’s peace offers.
Casterly Rock was the first to respond. Lord Jason Lannister had left six children when he died in battle: five daughters and one son, Loreon, a boy of four. Rule of the Westerlands had therefore passed to his widow, Lady Johanna, and her father, Roland Westerling, Lord of The Crag. With the Red Kraken’s longships still menacing their coasts, the Lannisters were more concerned with defending Kayce and retaking Fair Isle than renewing the struggle for the Iron Throne. Lady Johanna agreed to all the Sea Snake’s terms, promising to come herself to King’ Landing to do obeisance to the new king on his coronation, and deliver two daughters to the Red Keep to serve as companions to the new queen (and as hostages to ensure her future loyalty). She agreed to restore the portion of the royal treasury that Ser Tyland Lannister had sent west for safekeeping as well, provided that the Iron Throne ‘command Lord Greyjoy to crawl back to his islands, restore Fair Isle to its rightful lords, and free all the women he carried off.’
In the Stormlands, many of the men who had survived the Battle on the Kingsroad had made their way back to Storm’s End afterward. Hungry, weary and wounded, they drifted home alone or in small groups, and Lord Borros Baratheon’s widow, the Lady Elenda Caron, had only to look at them to realise they had lost their taste for battle. Nor did she wish to put her newborn son, Olyver Baratheon, at risk, for that little lord at her breast was the future of House Baratheon. Though her eldest daughter, Lady Cassandra, wept bitter tears when she learned she was not to be Aegon the Usurper’s second wife, Lady Elenda soon agreed to terms. Still weak from her labour, she could not come to the city herself for the coronation, she wrote, but she would send her own lord father to do homage in her stead, and three of her four daughters to serve as hostages.
Last to respond was Oldtown. The wealthiest of the great houses that had rallied to the Usurper, the Hightowers remained the most dangerous, for they were capable of raising large new armies quickly from the streets of Oldtown, and with their own warships and those of their close kin, the Redwynes of the Arbor, they could float a significant fleet as well. Moreover, one-quarter of the Crown’s gold still rested in deep vaults beneath the Hightower, gold that could easily have been used to buy new alliances and hire sellsword companies. Oldtown had the power to renew the war.
Two accounts have come down to us explaining why they did not.
The first involves the intervention of the infamous Lady Samantha Tarly, the daughter of Lord Donald Tarly of Horn Hill and Lady Jeyne Rowan of Goldengrove; both houses that had taken up arms for the queen during the Dance. Lord Ormund had only recently taken her as his wife when the Dance began, his first having died some years before in childbirth. Upon his death at Tumbleton, his lands and titles passed to his eldest son, Lyonel, a youth of fifteen on the cusp of manhood. The second son, Martyn, was a squire to Lord Redwyne on the Arbor; the third, Garmund, was fostering at Highgarden as a companion to Lord Tyrell and cupbearer to his lady mother. All three were children of Lord Ormund’s first marriage. When Lord Velaryon’s terms were put to Lyonel Hightower, it is said, the young lord ripped the parchment from his maester’s hand and tore it into shreds, swearing to write his reply in the Sea Snake’s blood.
His lord father’s young widow had other notions, however. Lady Samantha was fierce, fiery and beautiful, and had no intention of giving up her place as the Lady of Oldtown and mistress of the Hightower. Lyonel was only two years her junior, and he had been infatuated with her since she first came to Oldtown to wed his father. Whereas previously, the lady had fended off the boy’s advances, now Lady Sam (as she would be known for many years) yielded to them, allowing him to seduce her, and afterward promising to marry him…but only if he would make peace, “for I would surely die of grief should I lose another husband.”
Faced with a choice between ‘a dead father, cold in the ground, and a living woman, warm and willing in his arms, the boy chose love over war’. Lyonel Hightower capitulated, agreeing to all the terms put forth by Lord Corlys, including the return of the Crown’s gold. A great scandal ensued when the young lord then announced his intention to marry his father’s widow however, and the reigning High Septon immediately forbade the marriage as ‘a son marrying their mother was a form of incest, not accepted even in Valyria of Old’, but even that could not keep these young lovers apart. Thereafter, the Defender of Oldtown kept Lady Sam by his side as his paramour for the next thirteen years, fathering six abominations upon her.
This is the tale as the first account tells it, in any case. The second, ascribes a different cause to Lord Lyonel’s change of heart; and a more likely one.
Lady Baela’s suspicious sojourn from the capital had been a topic of much rumour in King’s Landing. Some said she had grown weary of the capital and in her wild and impulsive nature, decided to search out adventure in the Seven Kingdoms accompanied by her ‘Wolf Pack’, while others said that she had gone mad and had forgotten who she was. The truth however, was much more sensible.
Lady Baela journeyed for the best part of a moon’s turn to Red Lake, to search out the dragon Silverwing. She found the cave that the dragon had made for herself, and wasted no time in claiming the mount. News of this spread quickly throughout the realm and not a fortnight later, as Lady Baela and her Dragon’s Teeth were being guested by Lord Wilbert Crane, envoys were sent by Lady Joanna Lannister to seek the dragon’s aid against Lord Greyjoy. Baela’s help, at this time anyway, only came in the form of a warning, a fly-by above the ironborn fleets while Silverwing lit the dusk sky in white flames. Lady Baela wished to contribute more to the campaign and drive the ironborn back to their islands, but she was to return to King’s Landing as soon as possible. Lady Joanna hoped that the sight of the mighty Silverwing would cow the ironborn; it did not, though the woes of the Westerlands shall be recounted in full later on in this volume.
Once the news of Lady Baela claiming of Silverwing reached Oldtown, Lord Lyonel Hightower immediately capitulated to the Sea Snake’s demands, sent the part of the treasury that had been entrusted to them by Tyland Lannister for safekeeping at the beginning of the Dance back to King’s Landing, and pledged to travel with some of his maiden cousins to serve in the retinue of the new queen.
“Jaehaera has Hightower blood,” he is reported to have said, “her grandmother’s ambition has been realised.”
As the date of Prince Aegon’s coronation and the royal wedding drew closer, many were arriving from every point of the compass. From the west came Lady Johanna Lannister and her father, Roland Westerling, Lord of the Crag. From the south came twoscore Hightowers from Oldtown, led by Lord Lyonel and Lady Samantha. Though forbidden to wed, their passion for one another had become common knowledge by this time, and so great a scandal that the High Septon refused to travel with them, arriving three days later in the company of the Lords Redwyne, Costayne, and Beesbury.
Lady Elenda, the widow of late Lord Borros Baratheon, remained at Storm’s End with her infant son, but sent her daughters Cassandra, Ellyn and Floris to represent House Baratheon. (Maris, the fourth daughter, had joined the silent sisters for the part she had played in the death of Prince Lucerys Velaryon). Lady Baratheon’s father, Olyver Caron, Lord of Nightsong and Marshal of the Marches, escorted the girls to the city, and would remain with them as their guardian while they served in Queen Jaehaera’s retinue, and he in the Regency Council.
Alyn Velaryon and his cousin Monford came ashore as well, and the Manderly brothers, Torrhen and Medrick Manderly, returned once more from White Harbor with a hundred knights in blue-green cloaks. Even from across the narrow sea they came, from Braavos and Pentos, from all three cities of the fallen Triarchy, from Old Volantis and the rest. From the Summer Isles appeared three tall black princes in feathered cloaks, whose splendour was a wonder to behold. Every inn and stable in King’s Landing was soon full, whilst outside the city walls; a city of tents and pavilions arose for those unable to find accommodations. The tavern keepers of the city waxed fat and happy for a time, as did the whores of the fine houses along the Street of Silk, though the common people complained about the noise and stink.
With the Dragonpit still in ruins, the wedding of Prince Aegon and Princess Jaehaera was celebrated outdoors, at the top of Visenya’s Hill, where towering grandstands were erected so the men and women of the nobility might sit in comfort and enjoy an unobstructed view. The day was cold but sunny, the records of this time tell us. It was the seventh day of the seventh moon of the 131st year after Aegon’s Conquest, judged to be a most auspicious date.
The Dowager Queen presented her granddaughter to her groom, while dressed in a dramatic black and red gown, which signalled to all that she had eagerly accepted the new king and put aside her grudges with Rhaenyra and her faction. The High Septon performed the rites himself, and a deafening roar went up from the commonfolk when His High Holiness declared the prince and princess one. Tens of thousands packed the streets cheering King Aegon the Second and Queen Jaehaera as they were carried in an open litter up to the Red Keep, where the prince was crowned with a circlet of yellow gold, simple and unadorned, and proclaimed Aegon of House Targaryen, the Second of His Name, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, and Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. Aegon himself placed a similar crown upon the head of his child bride.
Though a solemn boy, the new king was undeniably handsome, lean of face and form, with silver-white hair and purple eyes, whilst the queen was a beautiful child. Their wedding was as lavish a spectacle as the Seven Kingdoms had seen since the coronation of Aegon the Usurper in the Dragonpit. Even the triumphant flight around the city walls did not lack, for Lady Baela, now Princess Baela, was a dragonrider once more. The roars of Silverwing joined the raucous cheers of the commonfolk as the dragon made three laps around the city before landing in the courtyard to join her brother, the king. All those who had thought that House Targaryen had been snuffed out were soundly dissuaded of that notion at this display.
The king’s first act was to establish male-preference primogeniture as the official law of succession for the Iron Throne, from that day until the end of time, to avoid the conflicts over succession that had plagued the realm since Aegon the Conqueror established Targaryen rule over Westeros. This principle specified that the sons of the monarchs and their lines would come before daughters and their lines, who would come before brothers of the monarch and their lines, who would come before sisters of the monarchs and their lines in the precedence to the Iron Throne of Westeros.
The king would then reverse the decree made by the usurper during his short, sad, false reign, and declare that his mother, Rhaenyra Targaryen, was to be recognised as the true queen, not Princess Helaena. The Usurper and his brothers were then stripped of all royal titles they ever held in their life and branded as traitors who committed treason by disobeying the king’s wishes. Only Helaena Targaryen would retain her title as princess of the blood, by the virtue of being a king’s daughter, but nothing more.
There were some who grumbled at the seemingly contradictory nature of the above two decrees, but there was an easy answer prepared for them. The official law of succession would take effect beginning from Aegon the Second’s reign onwards, and would thus not affect the precedents by which the kings of the past were crowned. After all, Maegor usurped his nephew and claimed the throne for himself, Jaehaerys was king above Aerea and Rhaella, the children of his older brother Aegon the Uncrowned; and Viserys ascended the throne above his cousin Rhaenys, the daughter of the Old King’s eldest son, Aemon. If one was to question whether Rhaenyra posthumously being declared queen was lawful, they would also be questioning the reigns of all Targaryen kings after Aenys.
Since he was only ten years of age and firmly in his minority, the king’s next act was to name the men who would protect him and rule for him. These men were selected and agreed upon by the Great Lords of the realm, although according to the accounts that have come down to us of this deliberation, the Dragon Twins had influence on the choices made.
Until Princess Baela and Rhaena came of age in 132 AC, it was agreed that the realm would be governed by a Regency Council. What this meant was that each member of a traditional small council would be granted the powers of a regent in order to ensure that power was shared equally between those lords who were once Blacks and those who were Greens. This was seen as the fairest approach to maintain the realms fragile peace, and ensure the wounds that had torn the realm asunder two years past did not bleed anew.
In this regard, the following were selected to serve on what was named the Regency Council:
Lord Corlys Velaryon of Driftmark - Hand of the King and Regent
Ser Torrhen Manderly of White Harbour - Master of Laws and Regent
Lord Manfryd Mooton of Maidenpool - Master of Coin and Regent
Ser Tyland Lannister of Casterly Rock - Master of Ships and Regent
Lord Roland Westerling of The Crag and Casterly Rock - Advisor and Regent
Lady Jeyne Arryn of The Vale - Advisor and Regent
Lord Olyver Caron of Nightsong - Advisor and Regent
Archmaester Munkun of the Citadel - Grand Maester and Regent
Ser Corwyn Corbray - Lord Commander of the Kingsguard and Regent
Conspicuous omissions from the council included Kermit Tully, Unwin Peake, Sabitha Frey, Thaddeus Rowan, Lyonel Hightower, Johanna Lannister and Benjicot Blackwood, but as later actions would prove, only Lord Peake was truly angered by this exclusion.
This same principle was applied in selecting the men who would be inducted into the sacred order of the Kingsguard. Ser Corwyn Corbray, the younger brother of Lord Leowyn Corbray and wielder of Lady Folorn, was made the Lord Commander, an appointment that would displease Ser Willis Fell, the sole survivor of the Kingsguard of King Viserys the First’s time. Ser Oscar Tully, the younger brother of Lord Kermit Tully, who had gained renown during the False Dawn as one of the Lads, was made Ser Corwyn’s second.
The rest of the places White Swords were filled by: Ser Regis Groves, a fierce sword from the knightly House Groves; Ser Robin Massey, the elder brother of Lady Elinda Massey who served as the head of the king’s household at this time; Ser Robert Darkyn, the nephew of the famous but deceased Ser Steffon Darklyn; and Ser Adrian Thorne, a hard man that had served as the Captain of the Lion Gate in the Gold Cloaks since Prince Daemon’s time as Lord Commander. (his relation to Ser Rickard Thorne is unknown)
The wedding celebrations were the grounds by which the Dragon Twins entertained most of the nobles of the realm and the envoys sent from the Free Cities. Grand Maester Munkun, who was present for these meetings, reports that Princess Rhaena met with Maegoro Paenymion of Volantis, her childhood acquaintance from the time of her father’s exile from The Seven Kingdoms (and kin through Princess Saera Targaryen, the disgraced daughter of the Old King); the son of the Sealord of Braavos; Prince Reggio of Pentos and other envoys sent from the other Free Cities: Qohor, Norvos and Lorath. Notable for their absentia in these meetings were the Three Daughters, as both princesses had grievances with them due to their attack on the Gullet during the Dance, which led to the death of Prince Jacaerys Velaryon, Princess Baela’s betrothed.
Much was gained from these meetings. The Princesses sought redress for the Triarchy’s attack upon Dragonstone and Driftmark, and desired for the rest of the Free Cities to not take it as an offence against their sovereignty, nor to interfere with what they would do soon after the wedding celebrations were over. Volantis and Pentos on the other hand, wished to conquer the Disputed Lands that had once been occupied by the recently fallen Triarchy.
The Triarchy had been a thorn in the side of both Volantis and Pentos since the later years of King Jaehaerys’ reign, at the turn of the century. During the Battle of the Borderlands, the three cities put aside their differences and drove Volantis out of the Disputed Lands. Two years after winning that battle, they would try to expand their domains into the Flatlands, but they were driven back by Pentos. After this, they decided to expand seaward instead, sweeping across the Stepstones in a trice and demanding tolls for passing ships, tolls which would become especially ruinous for Volantis and Pentoshi ships as the years went on.
Through the efforts of Prince Daemon Targaryen, both cities formed a grand coalition against the Triarchy, where the prince offered the aid of his dragon in obliterating them should they try expanding their claims on lands in any direction beyond their current borders. In exchange, these two cities would offer peace keeping ships to patrol the Stepstones and deter any fresh invasion from the Three Whores that Daemon had spent years painstakingly removing from that chain of isles.
Princess Rhaena drew out the prospective boundaries that Pentos and Volantis would occupy after their conquests, and she set the condition that none of them were to press any claim, real or imagined, on the Stepstones. No, those isles were for the Iron Throne to annex.
With Braavos, Princess Rhaena, with the help of her grandfather, The Sea Snake, came to a different agreement; albeit at the time, this agreement seemed to have favoured the Free City instead of the Seven Kingdoms. Braavos would keep half a million golden dragons from the part of the treasury that had been entrusted to them during the Dance, and in return, they would deliver the three dragon’s eggs that Elissa Farman had stolen from House Targaryen and sold to them those many decades ago.
The Sealord’s son was exceedingly pleased with that offer, as those dragon’s eggs had never hatched and only served as a monument of pride to the Sealord of Jaehaerys’ time, who had defied the Iron Throne with impunity. This Sealord it seemed, was of a more practical bend and would rather have more coin than the “three pretty stones” his predecessor had acquired.
When the regents heard of this proposal, however, they were outraged.
“Those eggs are worthless,” Ser Tyland retorted, “What use do we have for them?”
To which Rhaena replied, “Should those eggs hatch now, we only have one dragon of fighting size to counter the threat they would pose. We have just come from a war my lords, the realm has yet to be set to rights, and we do not have the strength to fight another.”
Ser Torrhen Manderly was outraged however, “What right does an insipid girl have to barter the crown’s funds?”
“The right of being of House Targaryen,” Baela replied, “and my brother's heir.” At that moment, records assert, Silverwing let out a mighty roar in the skies above them, sending the blustering knight into a stony silence.
Thus it was at the beginning of the eighth moon of the 131st year since Aegon' s Crowning, with the three dragon eggs returned and secured, that the Dragon Twins and their cousin, Alyn Velaryon, the heir to House Velaryon, set sail from Driftmark, on their way to seek reparations from the Triarchy. What they would find however, would be worth much, much more...
