This prologue will describe the events that led to the Dance of Dragons in the canon story-line. I have not read the books or watched the tv series, however, I do know enough to understand what is going on and my research into this subject has been very thorough. I first stumbled across the "ASoIaF" series about two years ago and I have read up about it since. Since I love history, the medieval background of the series is very fascinating to me and I like how G.R.R. Martin used actual historical events and individuals as a literary basis. The history of his world of Westeros is so detailed and fascinating; it resembles actual history!
But enough gushing. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the prologue (plus soak up some information). :)
In 103 AC, Jaehaerys Targaryen, the First of His Name, died in his sleep. Known as the "Conciliator" for his skill in peaceful negotiations and later as the "Old King" as he reached his advanced years, Jaehaerys was beloved by all of the Seven Kingdoms for his reforms, fair reign and most importantly of all, for establishing a long standing peace during his fifty-four year tenure as king. The news of his passing caused all of Westeros to mourn including Dorne, the old adversary of Jaehaerys's grandfather, Aegon the Conqueror. After Jaehaerys was cremated and his ashes were stored away in the Red Keep's crypt beside the remains of his beloved sister-wife Alysanne, who predeceased him four years earlier, Westeros entered a new era. Due to most of the Old King's sons dying during his reign, Jaehaerys's oldest grandson Viserys ascended to the Iron Throne as the new king.
Viserys was only six and twenty when he was crowned. By his side were his newly crowned queen consort, and first cousin, Aemma Arryn and their then six year old daughter Princess Rhaenyra. A sweet little girl, Rhaenyra was adored by the Seven Kingdoms and she was called "The Realm's Delight" because of it. Being the only child of Viserys and Aemma, Rhaenyra was treasured and indulged by both her parents. She was given whatever she wanted and she had no shortage of friends to play with at court.
A year later in 104 AC, a knight from the Stormlands asked for the seven year old princess's favor during the Tourney at Maidenpool. Rhaenyra granted it and the knight went on to win both the jousting competition and melee with his prized morning star. After his victory, the knight took the crown of roses and he named the little princess the Queen of Love and Beauty. An overjoyed Rhaenyra begged her father to make the knight, Ser Criston Cole, her sworn shield and her father was more than happy to grant his child her wish. From that day onward, Criston and Rhaenyra were inseparable.
To add to Viserys' already joyful reign, his wife became pregnant again and the king hoped and prayed for a healthy son to follow since Aemma's earlier pregnancies resulted in several miscarriages and a son who had died shortly after his birth. Rhaenyra was delighted with her mother's pregnancy as well since she wanted to be a big sister. Late into 105 AC, Queen Aemma did indeed give birth to a son. Tragically, the queen's frail body couldn't bear the strain of childbirth this time and she passed away. To compound Viserys and Rhaenyra's grief even more, newborn Prince Baelon died the next day in his cradle…
Sorrow became eclipsed with rage when the king found out through a source that his younger brother, Prince Daemon, had been celebrating his apparent naming as heir to the Iron Throne in a brothel on the Street of Silk in the infamous Flea Bottom slum of the capitol. Upon hearing how Daemon and his lackeys were making drunken and insensitive toasts to the "Heir for a Day," Viserys's recently deceased baby son, the king became absolutely enraged and he made up his mind on who his successor was going to be. After his grief had passed, the king held a grand feast and he was sure to invite every important nobleman, including his younger brother.
There, in front of everyone who was in attendance, the king announced that in light of his wife and son's passing, he had settled on an heir for the Iron Throne. Daemon smirked to himself as his brother began his announcement, confident that he was destined to become the next king after Viserys. But it was not Daemon that Viserys had chosen, but his daughter Rhaenyra. After the shock had passed, nobles and knights from all over the realm swore oaths of fealty to the eight year old girl. The princess's beloved uncle furiously yet silently left the banquet hall and he rode out of King's Landing seeing nothing but red.
A year after she was named her father's heir, Rhaenyra gained a stepmother through Alicent Hightower, the then eighteen year old daughter of her father's Hand of the King, Ser Otto Hightower. During the wedding feast, the princess poured her stepmother's wine and Alicent brought the girl close and she kissed her on her forehead, calling her "daughter" to all who could hear it. As the first year of Viserys' second marriage progressed, the relationship between his new queen and his daughter was happy. During this time, Alicent became pregnant and unlike her predecessor, she was strong and her womb bore her husband a healthy son whom the couple proudly named Aegon.
But the birth of her younger half-brother did not bring joy to Rhaenyra. She did not want Aegon to take away her title as heir to the throne and she acted coolly when she first visited her newborn half-sibling in her stepmother's bedchamber. To add to the situation, Viserys did not name his newborn son as his heir. This greatly concerned his Hand along with Alicent. They asked him why he didn't make Aegon the heir to the throne and Viserys told them that he had set his mind on Rhaenyra because she already had some political experience by serving as his Royal Cupbearer and by sitting in during his numerous meetings with his small council and he didn't want to start all over again with Aegon.
After this, the once warm relationship between Alicent and Rhaenyra began to grow cold. This division between the king's second wife and daughter grew only larger as the queen gave birth to two more healthy children; Princess Helaena in 109 AC and Prince Aemond in 110 AC. With the exception of her half-sister, Rhaenyra did not care for her younger half-brothers and they in turn, did care for their older half-sister. The year 111 AC brought the tensions to light during the tourney that was held that year to celebrate the fifth wedding anniversary of the king and queen. Queen Alicent wore a splendid gown made of rich green silk with gold thread brocade along the hems and she looked truly elegant and regal in the royal box that oversaw the festivities.
Her fourteen year old stepdaughter meanwhile wore an extravagant gown of her own. It was a magnificent dress of crimson and sable silks, the colors of House Targaryen, with silvery pearls decorating the bodice and intricate black Myrish lace lining the ends of her sleeves and the border of her dress's collar. Both outfits clashed against the other and to add to the tension, Rhaenyra's beloved sworn shield, Ser Criston Cole, unhorsed and defeated the queen's younger brother Ser Gwayne Hightower. Visiting dignitaries took note of the frigid atmosphere surrounding the princess and queen during the rest of the tourney and the subsequent feast thereafter. The colors of the dresses caught on and henceforth, the two parties of the schism at the royal court were called the "Blacks" (the group that supported Princess Rhaenyra's succession) and the "Greens" (those who supported the claims of Queen Alicent's sons to rule).
Two years later in 113 AC, Rhaenyra was made the Princess of Dragonstone and it enraged her stepmother, much to her stepdaughter's smug satisfaction. But that same year, Rhaenyra suffered the first grievous blow to her reputation. She became the centerpiece of a vile scandal in which it was rumored that she had been taking "lessons" on how to please men from her uncle Daemon in order to win the heart of Ser Cole, but was subsequently seduced and deflowered by Daemon instead. Because of the scandal, Ser Criston Cole was disillusioned by the princess he once adored and he left her service and, as if to rub salt into Rhaenyra's already gaping wounds, he became Queen Alicent's sworn shield. Despite what had supposedly happened, Viserys did not change his line of succession and it took everything within him to not strangle his younger brother with his bare hands.
Things got from bad to worse for the princess when she was engaged to her second cousin, Laenor Velaryon. She protested the match, saying that Laenor was homosexual, reportedly quoting that her half-brothers would be more to Laenor's liking, but her father threatened to take away her claim to the throne if she didn't comply with the marriage. The princess begrudgingly accepted, and in 114 AC, Rhaenyra and Laenor were married. The tourney held to celebrate the wedding was won by Ser Criston Cole, however this time, he wore the favor of the bride's stepmother instead. It was Alicent's turn to look smug as her knight fatally struck down Ser Jofferey Lonmouth, the supposed lover of the newly knighted and married Laenor and he also broke the bones of her stepdaughter's newly sworn shield, Ser Harwin Strong, resulting in the court fool Mushroom giving him the nickname "Breakbones."
A month after their wedding, Rhaenyra and Laenor moved to Dragonstone and were accompanied by Ser Strong. Shortly afterwards, the princess announced her first pregnancy and just two weeks later, the queen revealed that she had become pregnant for the fourth time, greatly exciting Viserys. Later that same year, Rhaenyra and Laenor had their first son together, Prince Jacaerys Velaryon. A week after his first grandchild's birth, Viserys welcomed his third son, Prince Daeron, into the world. In the years 115 and 117 AC, Rhaenyra had two more sons with her husband: Lucerys and Jofferey, the latter who was named in honor of his father's beloved knight.
Scandal greeted each boy upon his birth due to the glaring fact they that did not look Valyrian at all. The Velaryon brothers each had brown hair and eyes and pug noses, physical traits that were suspiciously similar to Ser Harwin Strong. Despite the obvious bastardy of his grandsons, Viserys still refused to revoke his daughter's claim to the throne. Due to his stubbornness, the marriage between the king and queen began to sour, as did the relationship he had with his sons. To make things even worse, the year 120 AC proved to be an especially bad year for the royal family and their allies.
Looked back on as the "Red Spring," 120 AC was riddled with deaths and the further worsening of the relationship between Alicent and Rhaenyra. To start it off, Laena Velaryon, Rhaenyra's beloved sister-in-law and the second wife of Prince Daemon, died three days after giving birth to a deformed son who lived for only an hour after his arrival into the world. Second, Rhaenyra's husband was murdered at Spicetown by the hands of his lover, Ser Qarl Correy, after an argument between the two became deadly. Third, a mysterious fire broke out at the dreaded castle Harrenhal, killing both Ser Harwin Strong, who had been removed from Dragonstone by order of the king, and his father Lord Lyonel, who was also Viserys's second Hand of the King. After Lyonel's death, Viserys reinstated his father-in-law Ser Otto as his Hand.
During the funeral of Ser Laenor Velaryon at High Tide, the seat of House Velaryon on the island of Driftmark, a fight broke out between the Velaryon brothers and their half-uncle Aemond in the castle courtyard. Aemond was trying to claim the dragon mount of the recently deceased Laena, Vhagar, when his half-nephews caught him and tried to stop him. Aemond insulted the boys by calling them bastards and he pushed three year old Jofferey into a pile of dragon dung before taking off on the back the ancient dragon. After flying around the castle, Aemond descended back into the courtyard and as he dismounted Vhagar, his nephews ambushed him. They beat him and during the heat of the moment, five year old Lucerys took out his dagger and he cut out his half-uncle's right eye.
The blinding of the prince enraged his mother, while Aemond insulting his nephews stirred the ire of his widowed half-sister and both women argued viciously that night over who was at fault for the incident. Rhaenyra claimed that it was Aemond's fault that he lost an eye because he was bullying her sons while her stepmother countered that such violence was unnecessary and that Lucerys should lose an eye as punishment for blinding her boy. Viserys somehow managed to calm the two women down and he forced them apologize to each other, but everyone except the king knew that the apology was false. The next morning, Rhaenyra departed from Driftmark for Dragonstone with her sons in a veil of icy silence. Accompanying the princess and her children was her uncle Daemon.
After returning to Dragonstone, Daemon began to court his niece and shortly afterward, the two were wed and the couple each received stepchildren from their new spouse: with Rhaenyra's three sons becoming Daemon's stepsons and the twin daughters the prince had with Laena, Baela and Rhaena, becoming their cousin Rhaenyra's stepdaughters. News of the avunculate marriage* shocked King's Landing because the princess had married so soon after her first husband's death and also because Daemon had claimed a third wife so quickly after the passing of his second spouse. Viserys, although flabbergasted, still did not take away his daughter's claim to the Iron Throne, but he did not speak with his younger brother again for some time out of anger. Shortly after the incestuous marriage, Rhaenyra became pregnant for the fourth time and near the end of the year, the princess bore her uncle-husband his first surviving son. The boy, who bore pure Valyrian features this time, was christened with the name Aegon.
The name enraged Alicent since she felt that her stepdaughter and brother-in-law were trying to slight her by naming their son Aegon while she had a child who shared the exact same name. To differentiate the boy from his half-uncle, baby Aegon was nicknamed the "Younger" and the latter, the "Elder." Two years later in 122 AC, Daemon's niece-wife gave birth to another son whom she named Viserys, in honor of her father. Years passed, and the tensions between the Blacks and the Greens worsened. Rhaenyra's sons had to be educated and trained in swordplay alongside their hated half-uncles by the decree of their grandfather whenever they came to visit the Red Keep.
The boys would pick fights, argue or undermine the studies of the other. Even their dragons snapped at each other in the Dragonpit. When Corlys Velaryon became terribly ill in 126 AC to the point that it appeared that he would die, his former daughter-in-law came to his sickbed and she tried to persuade him to name his second born grandson Lucerys as the heir to Driftmark. This caused an uproar amongst Corlys's nephews and grandnephews, and the men went to the Red Keep to beseech the king to prevent Lucerys from inheriting Driftmark on the grounds that the boy was a bastard. Viserys was angered by these men calling his beloved grandson a bastard and in his fury, the king slashed two of his fingers to the bone on the sharp armrest of the Iron Throne.
The king ordered the tongues of the men who slighted Lucerys removed and he decreed that this would be the fate of anyone who called his grandchildren bastards in his presence again. After the incident, the king's health began to worsen as his fingers became infected and he later had them amputated by Maester Orwyle. During the feast to celebrate the recovery of his health, Prince Jacaerys asked his half-aunt, Princess Helaena if he could dance with her. Aegon the Elder, the princess's older brother and husband, took offense to this and blades were drawn and the Kingsguard had to move in before the princes could gravely injure one another. Nobody knows what Rhaenyra's reaction to this was, but it can be easily guessed that it wasn't good.
As the year passed, Viserys' health began to decline again. He spent most of his time in his bedchamber (he never sat on the Iron Throne again due to the incident with the Velaryon's) where his courtiers, small council members, wife, children and the three grandchildren born from the incestuous marriage between his son and daughter visited him. As his health continued to worsen, a feeling of anxiety crept into the souls of the inhabitants of the Red Keep. With him dead, who was going to keep the Blacks and the Greens from going after each other's throats? What would the future hold after Viserys would pass away?
One faithful night another year later, the king would make a decision during his final days that would change the course of history for Westeros forever…
*= An avunculate marriage is an incestuous union between and uncle and his niece, or an aunt and her nephew. Marriages like these, especially the former, have been practiced by royal dynasties since the earliest civilizations. Infamous examples of this form intermarriage include: King Philip IV and Marianna of Austria (she was her uncle's second wife and their son, Charles II, was the final king of the Spanish-Hapsburg dynasty. He couldn't produce an heir due to being sterile and suffering from various physical and mental disabilities resulting from the generations of incest in his family) and Roman Emperor Claudius and Agrippina (Agrippina was the mother of Nero and her uncle's fourth wife. They did not have any children together and she may have poisoned Claudius to ensure her son's ascension to the throne.) Although not a member of royalty, Adolf Hitler was born from such a union as well. It could explain a few things...
Pardon the tangent but I couldn't resist.
