House Targaryen

Aegon V Targaryen

Egg

Life: 200 AC
House: Targaryen

Once a hedge knight's squire, later a king who governed for the smallfolk — the chronicle keeps the ending of his reign, and its cost, veiled for readers not yet there.

Aegon Targaryen was Maekar I's fourth son, never raised or educated to expect the crown, and spent his boyhood — under the name Egg, a name the smallfolk's fondest stories about him never let go of — squiring for the hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall rather than sitting any lord's council. Three unexpected deaths in the space of a few years put him on the Iron Throne anyway in 233 AC, chosen by a Great Council that passed over nearer claimants, and Aegon governed with a smallfolk's-eye sympathy the more established lords found alarming: reforms aimed at curbing noble privilege over the common people, none of them popular with the men whose privileges they curbed, and most of them left unfinished at his death.

The arc of Aegon V Targaryen

This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.

Aegon's later reign turns increasingly toward an obsession the Citadel treats with real unease: a search, backed by expeditions as far as Asshai, for the lost Valyrian knowledge of hatching dragon eggs, in hopes of returning dragons to a Targaryen dynasty that had not had one in over a century. In 259 AC, gathering family and allies at Summerhall to mark the impending birth of a first great-grandchild, that obsession ends in a fire whose cause the histories never settle — a blaze that kills Aegon himself, his son and heir Duncan, and Ser Duncan the Tall, even as, amid the same chaos, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen is born.

Where the books leave Aegon V Targaryen: died in 259 AC in the fire remembered as the Tragedy at Summerhall, alongside his eldest son and heir Prince Duncan and the Lord Commander of his Kingsguard, Ser Duncan the Tall

These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.

Sourcesfire-and-bloodtwoiafthe-hedge-knightthe-mystery-knight

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House

Who is Aegon V Targaryen?

A fourth son never raised to expect the crown, known in his youth as Egg, who came to the Iron Throne via a Great Council and pursued reforms favoring the smallfolk over the great houses.

What was the Tragedy at Summerhall?

A fire in 259 AC believed connected to Aegon V's obsessive search for the lost Valyrian art of hatching dragon eggs — the chronicle treats exactly who it claimed as spoiler territory.