House Targaryen

Jaehaerys I Targaryen

the Old King

Life: 34 AC
House: Targaryen
Titles: King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men · Lord of the Seven Kingdoms
Allegiance: House Targaryen
Seat: King's Landing (the Red Keep)
Culture: Valyrian (Targaryen)
Religion: The Faith of the Seven, reconciled with the crown after Maegor's war upon it
Notable for: Reigned longer than any Targaryen king before or since, ruling in partnership with his sister-wife Alysanne

The Old King's decades on the throne reshaped the realm — the chronicle holds the ending of his reign back for readers not yet there.

Jaehaerys Targaryen inherited a realm exhausted by his uncle Maegor's cruelty and spent the next fifty-five years doing, by most measures, the opposite of everything Maegor had: making peace with the Faith rather than warring on it, building roads and a proper Kingsguard tradition rather than secret passages and executions, and ruling in close, genuinely collaborative partnership with his sister-wife Alysanne, whom the smallfolk came to love nearly as much as they loved him. Together they are credited with more of the Seven Kingdoms' functioning institutions than perhaps any other single Targaryen reign, and it is no small part of his reputation that a king so long in power left behind so few enemies willing to say a bad word about him.

Key events

34 ACBorn into House Targaryen, nephew to King Maegor I.
48 ACInherits the crown at Maegor's death, taking a realm exhausted by his uncle's cruelty.
48-103 ACSpends fifty-five years making peace with the Faith, building roads and a proper Kingsguard tradition, and ruling in genuine partnership with his sister-wife Alysanne.
101 ACHis son and heir, Prince Baelon, dies suddenly, throwing the succession into dispute among rival grandchildren.
101 ACConvenes the Great Council of 101 AC, which controversially rules that the Iron Throne cannot pass through a woman's line, placing Viserys on the throne over his cousin Laenor Velaryon.
103 ACDies at sixty-nine, having reigned fifty-five years — the longest of any Targaryen king — and is laid to rest with Alysanne's ashes on Dragonstone.

Reading the character

Jaehaerys I is the closest thing Fire & Blood offers to an unambiguous success story among the early Targaryen kings — a reign defined by institution-building, reconciliation with the Faith his uncle had savaged, and a genuine partnership with his sister-wife Alysanne that the smallfolk are recorded as loving nearly as much as they loved him personally. Very few rulers in this dynasty's history leave behind so few enemies willing to speak ill of them.

The one real blemish is a matter of succession rather than governance, and it's a significant one: the precedent his Great Council sets to settle his own crown, barring women from inheriting the Iron Throne, is quietly ignored by his own successor within a generation — a contradiction the Old King leaves unresolved at his death, and one that the realm would eventually pay for in a war he never lived to see.

The arc of Jaehaerys I Targaryen

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

Jaehaerys's one lasting misstep was a matter of succession rather than governance: when his son and heir Prince Baelon died suddenly in 101 AC, the Great Council convened to settle the crown between rival grandchildren ruled, controversially, that the Iron Throne could not pass through a woman's line — a precedent that placed Viserys on the throne over his own cousin Laenor Velaryon, and that Viserys himself would later ignore in naming his daughter Rhaenyra his heir regardless. That contradiction, planted in the Old King's final years and left unresolved at his death, is the seed the Dance of the Dragons would eventually grow from.

Where the books leave Jaehaerys I Targaryen: died in 103 AC at sixty-nine, having reigned fifty-five years — the longest of any Targaryen king before or since — and was laid to rest with his sister-wife Alysanne's ashes on Dragonstone

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-princess-and-the-queen

Explore further

House

Who is Jaehaerys I Targaryen?

The Targaryen king who reigned longest of any before or since, ruling in partnership with his sister-wife Alysanne and rebuilding the realm after Maegor the Cruel's tyranny.

What was the Great Council of 101 AC?

A council Jaehaerys convened to settle his succession after his heir's sudden death, which set a precedent barring women from the Iron Throne — a precedent Viserys I later overturned in naming Rhaenyra his own heir.