Daeron I Targaryen

Daeron was born in King's Landing in 143 AC, the eldest child of King Aegon III Targaryen and Queen Daenaera Velaryon. Four younger siblings followed: Baelor, Daena, Rhaena and Elaena.

His father's death in 157 AC left him ruling at barely fourteen, one of the youngest men ever to sit the Iron Throne. That is where the name Boy King came from, though his uncle Viserys, made Hand, chose to prop him up rather than press for a regency over a nephew still short of his majority.

Those who knew him then described an unusually sharp young man, able to hold his own against lords three times his age.

To Daeron, Dorne's independence was unfinished business the dynasty had carried since Aegon the Conqueror's day. When he first proposed settling it, he ran into his uncle, his councillors and much of the great lords, who reminded him that unlike Aegon and his sisters he had no dragons at his call. His answer was remembered afterward: they had one standing right in front of them, he said, and it was him.

No one argued with him after that. With Lord Alyn Velaryon leading the fighting, he mapped out a campaign sharper than Aegon I's had been, and by 158 AC the Prince of Dorne and its most powerful lords were kneeling before him. A year later the interior was subdued and the Young Dragon rode back to King's Landing in triumph, leaving Lord Lyonel Tyrell to hold Dorne and taking fourteen highborn Dornish hostages back with him as surety.

The campaign nearly cost him dearly: fighting inland, a poisoned arrow meant for him struck his cousin, Prince Aemon Targaryen, instead, who had to be shipped back to the capital to recover.

After the Submission of Sunspear, Daeron set his feat down in writing in a book he called The Conquest of Dorne. He is remembered for its clean, simple style, though it is also known that he inflated the numbers of his enemies to make the victory look greater.

The next setback came not from Dorne but from the sea: pirates from several Free Cities at war with Braavos were choking off trade with the newly subdued kingdom. Daeron considered marrying one of his sisters to the Sealord of Braavos to buy his support, but the mere possibility of that match pushed the Free Cities to back the Dornish rebels instead. The marriage never took place.

The conquest, celebrated as it was, did not last. A trap killed Lord Lyonel Tyrell, the man Daeron had trusted to govern Dorne, and the king rode south himself to put down the rebellion while Lord Alyn Velaryon fell once more on the Boneway and Blackmont. After a string of small victories, the Dornish lords appeared to yield and agreed to meet in 161 AC to renew their loyalty.

It was a trap. Under that same banner they struck him and the men with him. Three Kingsguard knights died shielding him, and a fourth threw down his sword and yielded, a shame that followed him ever after. Prince Aemon, already known as the Dragonknight, killed two of his attackers before falling wounded and being taken by Lord Wyl.

Daeron I died with Blackfyre still in hand, surrounded by a dozen foes, at eighteen years old. The crown he had worn, the same one Aegon the Conqueror had, was lost that same afternoon on Dornish ground.

Daeron is said to have lost ten thousand men in the conquest and forty thousand more over the three years Dorne kept fighting after his death. He was succeeded by his brother Baelor, who travelled south himself to finally secure the peace Daeron had not managed to hold.

The grief of the townsfolk who watched his body come home from Dorne gave Weeping Town its name. In Oldtown a mounted statue of the Young Dragon was later raised, sword pointed south, toward the land that had killed him.