Bartimos Celtigar

Bartimos Celtigar put his island and its dragons behind Princess Rhaenyra from the moment the war began. He argued for a direct strike: use the numerical advantage in dragons to fall on King's Landing without further delay. The queen, however, leaned toward the caution urged by Prince Daemon Targaryen, and Bartimos's plan was set aside.

When the capital finally fell to Rhaenyra, Bartimos joined her Privy Council as master of the treasury. The coffers were empty: the green faction had carried off most of the gold and spent the rest before fleeing. Bartimos revived the old taxes his ancestor Edwell Celtigar had once imposed and pushed them further still, doubling the levies on wine and beer, tripling the port fees, and charging every merchant simply to keep his doors open; even innkeepers had to pay a silver stag for every bed in their inn.

The betrayals uncovered at Bitterbridge pushed Bartimos to press Rhaenyra toward harsher action: he called for the arrest of Ser Addam Velaryon and the woman known as Nettles, whom he saw as a danger to the queen's cause.

Soon after he proposed another remedy for the ailing treasury: a tax on every child born outside of marriage, meant both to fill the crown's coffers and to discourage more bastards from being born.

When hunger and rage broke into riots across the streets of King's Landing, a mob stormed Bartimos's mansion. His own servants abandoned him or turned against him, and his kinsman Arthor died in the assault. Bartimos was bound to a post and tortured until he gave up every hiding place for his fortune.

Among the crowd was a tanner named Wat, who told Bartimos he hadn't paid the "cock tax," so his manhood would settle the fine. Wat later rode through the streets on horseback, showing off the old councillor's severed head and genitals while proclaiming the end of all the queen's taxes.