House Targaryen

Maekar I Targaryen

Prince of Summerhall

Life: no fixed AC year given in the text; the fourth son of Daeron II and Myriah Martell
House: Targaryen

A soldier-prince who came to the crown only after tragedy in his own family — the chronicle holds the ending of his reign back for readers not yet there.

Maekar Targaryen was Daeron II's fourth son, given Summerhall as his own seat and, by most accounts, a harder and more short-tempered nature than his elder brothers' — a soldier's temperament that served him well fighting his own bastard half-uncle's forces at the First Blackfyre Rebellion in 196 AC, and rather worse at a tourney some years later. At the Ashford tourney of 209 AC, defending the honor of a woman not his wife in a trial of seven, Maekar struck down his own elder brother Baelor Breakspear, the realm's presumed next king, in what every surviving account insists was an accident of the melee rather than intent — a tragedy that removed Maekar's brother from the succession and set Maekar himself, however unwillingly, several steps closer to a crown he had never been raised to expect.

The arc of Maekar I Targaryen

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

A string of further, unrelated deaths in the royal family left Maekar the last of Daeron II's sons standing by 221 AC, and he came to the Iron Throne that year already better known as a soldier than a statesman. His twelve-year reign, workmanlike rather than beloved, ended in 233 AC crushing a rebellion of his own lords led by House Peake: Maekar led the final assault on Starpike himself, and was killed when a stone dropped from the walls crushed the crown still on his helm. The succession chaos that followed — no clear heir among his surviving sons agreed upon by the realm's lords — was settled only by a Great Council that passed over closer claimants to crown his fourth son, Aegon.

Where the books leave Maekar I Targaryen: died in 233 AC at the Storming of Starpike, the final battle of the Peake Uprising, his crowned helm crushed by a stone dropped from the castle's own battlements

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-sworn-sword

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Who is Maekar I Targaryen?

The fourth son of Daeron II, a soldier-prince who accidentally killed his own brother in a tourney accident and came to the Iron Throne only after several unexpected deaths in the royal family.

Is Maekar I Targaryen alive?

No — the chronicle need only say that leading the final assault of the Peake Uprising in person cost him dearly; the particulars are treated in his veiled record.