Jaehaerys I Targaryen

He was born in King's Landing in the year 34, the fourth child of Aenys Targaryen and Alyssa Velaryon, with three older siblings — Rhaena, Aegon, and Viserys — and two younger ones, Alysanne and Vaella. His sister Rhaena set a dragon egg in his cradle; it would hatch into Vermithor. In 37 Aegon I died at Dragonstone and his father took the throne.

In 41 the Faith rose up after the marriages of Rhaena and Aegon; Poor Fellows stormed the Red Keep and the family fled to Dragonstone. Most of the realm sided with the Faith, Aenys fell ill, and when he learned his elder children were besieged at Refugio Quebrado, he collapsed and died three days later.

After Aenys's death, Jaehaerys attended his father's cremation at Dragonstone. Alyssa fled with him and Alysanne to Marcaderiva while Visenya flew to Pentos to bring Maegor back from exile; Maegor seized the throne, brushing aside the claim of Jaehaerys's elder brother Aegon.

Back in King's Landing, they watched Maegor marry Tyanna of the Tower. By 44 they were living as Visenya's hostages on Dragonstone; when she died, Jaehaerys, Alysanne, and their mother fled the island with their dragons, Vermithor and Silverwing. Maegor retaliated by having Viserys tortured to death, and Jaehaerys became Aenys's eldest living son, since Aegon had already died in battle the year before.

In 47 Maegor forced three widows to marry him, among them Jaehaerys's sister Rhaena, and disinherited Jaehaerys in favor of Rhaena's daughter Aerea. The realm turned against the king; Rogar Baratheon was the first great lord to openly back Jaehaerys, followed by the Lannisters, the Tyrells, the Arryns, and the Tullys. Rhaena fled Maegor with the sword Blackfyre, and two Kingsguard knights — among them Ser Olyver Bracken — deserted to Jaehaerys.

Maegor died under murky circumstances in 48, and Jaehaerys reached the capital before Rogar's army, flying to King's Landing on Vermithor. He jailed the few loyalists left behind; at only fourteen, his mother Alyssa ruled as queen regent alongside Rogar, whom he named Hand of the King.

Jaehaerys pardoned most of Maegor's former servants in exchange for hostages or gold, but executed those directly responsible for torturing Viserys, and Ser Maladon Moore for Queen Tyanna's murder. Of Maegor's Kingsguard, all but Ser Harrold Langward chose the Wall; Harrold demanded trial by combat and lost to the knight who fought for the crown, Ser Gyles Morrigen, who days later took command of the new Kingsguard.

In Oldtown, after the death of the septon Luna, the High Septon crowned Jaehaerys at the Starry Sept. The king lifted the bounties on the Poor Fellows and the Warrior's Sons, pardoned those who laid down their swords, and in return the Faith agreed to let the throne judge its own.

In 49, Alyssa and Rogar married in what became known as the Golden Wedding; Jaehaerys felt it as an intrusion, though he did not object, since he hadn't opposed his sister Rhaena's marriage on Fair Isle either.

The privy council searched for a bride for Jaehaerys without consulting him, and settled on marrying Alysanne to Orryn Baratheon. The moment Alysanne told him, Jaehaerys acted: they flew together to Dragonstone and married in secret, with the septon Oswyck presiding. Jaehaerys refused to consummate the marriage, believing Alysanne still too young.

Rogar arrived soon after and, learning the marriage was unconsummated, tried to pull them apart; the Kingsguard stood between him and their king. Alyssa took Rogar back to the capital, and the young king and queen stayed behind on Dragonstone, where they would spend the rest of Jaehaerys's minority while the realm remained unaware of the marriage.

In 50, Jaehaerys came of age and returned to King's Landing, where he reconciled with his mother and reshuffled the privy council, naming Rego Draz of Pentos master of coin. He pardoned Rogar on condition that he respect the queen, and exiled Orryn Baratheon for ten years for trying to abduct the novice Rhaella at his brother's order.

To fix the treasury he taxed luxury goods and the battlements of new or expanded castles, sparing the common people. In 51 Alysanne finally reached the capital and they married publicly, with the septon Barth officiating; only a thousand guests attended, far fewer than at Rogar and Alyssa's wedding. This time the marriage was consummated.

Jaehaerys sent seven heralds across the realm to preach the Doctrine of Exceptionalism, and this time the kingdom did not rise against him as it had against his siblings. Rhaena came to the wedding and asked her brother for two things — Dragonstone for herself, and custody of her daughter Aerea, the king's heir — and he granted both. Months later, Alysanne announced she was carrying his first child.

In 51 Jaehaerys and Alysanne began their first great royal progress, starting in the Crownlands with a retinue of fewer than a hundred men. At Maidenpool, three holy sisters attacked the pregnant queen, and Jaehaerys cut the journey short to bring her home. In 52 the child came early and died three days later; Jaehaerys later finished the postponed leg of the journey in the Vale.

In 53 he traveled alone to the Riverlands, since Alysanne, pregnant again, chose to stay behind; she gave birth to a daughter, Daenerys, and Jaehaerys flew from Stone Septry the moment he heard. With her, he finally had an heir of his own.

The following year Elissa Farman fled Dragonstone with three dragon eggs stolen from Queen Rhaena; they were never recovered. The High Septon died, and Jaehaerys flew to Oldtown to secure, with Lord Donnel Hightower, the election of a successor sympathetic to his doctrine. On the way back, word reached him that his pregnant mother lay dying at Storm's End; Alyssa died there, and the child could not be saved. That same year Androw Farman poisoned several ladies at Dragonstone, and Daemon Velaryon resigned as Hand, replaced by Myles Smallwood. Before the year was out, Queen Rhaena arrived with news that her daughter Aerea had vanished on Balerion.

In 55, Jaehaerys began working with the septon Barth, Grand Maester Benifer, Lord Albin Massey, and Queen Alysanne to set down a single legal code for the realm — a project that would take decades. His son Aemon was born that year. In 56 Aerea returned on Balerion, gravely ill, and died soon after; Jaehaerys then banned any ship that had sailed near Valyria from docking in the Seven Kingdoms, and made visiting Valyria itself punishable by death.

In 57 Prince Baelon was born, and Barth replaced Myles Smallwood as Hand; after easing the crown's debt to the Iron Bank of Braavos, Jaehaerys began building sewers, wells, and fountains in King's Landing. In 58, on his way to Winterfell, he was held up in the capital mediating a trade war between Pentos and Tyrosh; Alysanne went ahead alone and was received coldly by Lord Alaric Stark. Jaehaerys joined her half a year later, and Alaric showed him his brother Walton's tomb in the crypts.