Baelor Targaryen

Baelor was born in 170 AC, first son of the then-prince Daeron and the Dornish princess Myriah Martell, a marriage arranged years earlier by the reigning king. He was named for that king as a tribute, and news of the birth drove the old monarch to starve himself to death.

The throne changed hands twice in short order: first to the newborn's great-grandfather, who reigned barely a year, then to his grandfather, who named Daeron Prince of Dragonstone. That king's dissolute life caught up with him in 184 AC, and Baelor's father ascended the Iron Throne as Daeron II, passing the title of heir on to Baelor.

In 187 AC the court held a tourney for the wedding of Princess Daenerys, Daeron II's sister, to Prince Maron Martell. Baelor unhorsed rival after rival until the final tilt, where he defeated Daemon Blackfyre; from that bout came the nickname Breakspear.

The dark hair and eyes he had inherited from his mother fed an old suspicion: the lords of the Dornish Marches had feuded for generations with the land Myriah Martell came from, and eyed with distrust an heir who looked so little like the fair-haired Targaryens of old.

When the First Blackfyre Rebellion broke out, Baelor argued for leniency toward the rebel leader, a stance that clashed with his uncle Bloodraven's harsher instincts. Even so, he fought without reservation in the war that followed.

At the Battle of the Redgrass Field, in 196 AC, he led the Dornish and Stormlands forces against the rear of the rebel army. His men's charge drove the rebels into the shield wall held by his brother Maekar, a maneuver later sung of as the Hammer and the Anvil.

After the battle his father named him Hand of the King. In time he earned a name as a fine Hand and the soul of chivalry, and was also granted the title Protector of the Realm.

In 209 AC, at the tourney of Ashford, Baelor spoke up so that an unknown knight named Duncan would be allowed to joust. He did so because he knew Duncan's old master-at-arms, Ser Arlan of Pennytree, whom he had once unhorsed after breaking four lances at a tourney held at Storm's End.

During the lists, Ser Duncan struck a Targaryen prince in defense of a puppeteer. The next day Baelor sat in judgment alongside his brother Maekar, Lord Leo Tyrell, and Lord Ashford. The wronged prince demanded a Trial of Seven, and it was granted.

Duncan gathered five men with the help of a squire called Egg and Ser Raymun Fossoway; he needed one more, and Baelor stepped forward, believing Duncan's account, against Maekar's furious objections. He said: "This man protected the weak, as it is the duty of any knight worth his salt. Let the gods decide if he was right or wrong."

Before the melee he advised Duncan's champions to use tourney lances, which would strike home before their opponents' shorter war lances, and pointed out that the three Kingsguard on the other side had sworn not to harm him, leaving a safe front to attack.

In the midst of the melee, a blow from Maekar struck Baelor in the head by accident, and the wound proved fatal. His body was burned, following Targaryen funeral custom.

He had married Lady Jena Dondarrion, with whom he had two sons, Valarr and Matarys. Both died years later, alongside Daeron II himself, during the Great Spring Sickness. Of his brothers, the throne passed first to Aerys, then to Maekar.