Honestly Jaehaerys absolutism is probably why the dynasty fell. Most (if not all) Targs would have learned about Jae’s legacy through their maesters which is the same propaganda we know from fire & blood. Kings & their heirs would have most likely aspired to emulate him & his “golden reign” as such they would try to copy his decisions.

Viserys I, even though after the Great Council of 101 cemented the crowns succession through male primogenitor, most likely choose Rhaenyra as his heir since Jaehaerys did the same with Baelon surpassing the rightful heir in Rhaenys. Leading to the dance.

Aegon III dismissing his regents unjustly like Jaehaerys did lead to further resentment between the lords and crown, now without dragons to intimidate them.

Daeron I most likely wanting to regain the absolutism rule that Jaehaerys had but now that the dragons were gone he declared an ultimately doomed war against Dorne to try to regain his dynasties prestige and power. Leading to his own death.

Baelor I meddled in the Faith of the seven like Jaehaerys did in order to mold it to his own image. Ended up alienating the members of his realm that worshiped the old gods and further corrupted the Faith by allowing the crown to interfere in its appointments.

Aegon IV led the realm into corruption and vice with his absolutism and ultimately led to generational rebellions with him choosing his preferred heir in Daemon Blackfyre over the rightful heir in his son Daeron just like Jaehaerys.

Daeron II believing in Targaryen absolutism didn’t make any diplomatic concessions or negotiations with his angry lords over granting Dorne special concessions and favouring them in his court. Leading them to turn to the Blackfyre cause.

Aerys I read about the good ol days of his dynasty instead of evolving with the times

Maekar I died to a Blackfyre rebel lord, which was ultimately a symptom of his own family

Aegon V probably the only King who realized the Targaryen dynasty had to change with the times and escape the chains of their past. Instead of relying on the sole power of the crown he arranged powerful alliances with great lords of the realm and was intent on pushing through smallfolk reform which could of seen the start of a new era in Westeros leading to a more unified & prosperous realm. Instead his children failed him by choosing Jaehaery’s romantic love instead of duty to the realm & broke their betrothals. This lead to the collapse of Targaryen goodwill with the realms lords, the weakening of the crowns oaths, and the destruction of further smallfolk reform. Aegon now desperate turned back to the absolutism of the past and tried to regain that by hatching dragon eggs leading to the tradegy of summer hall and the weakest the dynasty has been since the dance.

Jaehaerys II in emulating his namesake he abandoned his betrothal & duty to the realm and married his own sister bringing back the incestuous practices that his own father was trying to abandon. Greatly paralleling Jaehaerys I & Alysanne  but without their dragons this lead into open rebellion against the crown. Also forcing his own children to marry one another against their own will ensuring that any chance of Aegon V’s family reforms die with him.

Aerys II combination of Targaryen incestuous madness and absolutism leads to the fall of the dynasty.

Great video btw always fun to hypothetically talk about this fictional dynasty lol.

"the small folk- who never even saw mirren silk- paid the tax burden"

And so art truly does imitate life.

It's remarkable how detailed this video becomes without even addressing the fact that Jaehaerys was a terrible husband and father.

Me when I’m Jaehaerys and my heir, Aemon, hasn’t had another child in like 20 years and obviously won’t have a son, and my second son Baelon has a son who is only 3 years younger than Aemon’s daughter, but I wisely decide to marry them to different people and to let House Velaryon have dragon eggs, all while plotting to piss them off by passing over their superior claim.

Jaehaerys is the epitome of "damned by faint praise", he just happens to have been surrounded on both sides by civil war

me, clicking on an hour long video essay about a character I forgot existed in that doorstop of a book: GET HIS ASS!

Okay to springboard on this since I've been learning more about Targaryen history. Much of the blunders of the Great Counsel is paid to the civil war with the Dance of the Dragons. But there were even further far reaching consequences; Aegon V.

Aegon was the Targaryen ruler who most tried to push reforms to improve the lives of the smallfolks, given that he once lived amongst them, and even tried to reach the middle ground and finally stamp out the incest in his family. His regency came about a second Great Counsel, and he very much was not the nobilities first pick but was the one they were forced to settle with after Maester Aemon refused to forsake his vows.

And what we were left with was not only nobility who actively resented their new ruler because he was not their first pick, but they actively tried to stonewall his reforms because it went against their interests.

Just finished a biography about Henry IV, who usurped a tyrant and changed the line of inheritance that soon led to the War of the Roses, and you are right on the money, every point. Henry has the reputation of a good guy but when you get into the details, his determination to be a glamorous chivalrous knight, though he was rarely successful in battle, and his refusal to focus on diplomacy damned his realm to the same level of taxation that they suffered under with the previous tyrant Richard II and caused the continuous rebellion that plagued his reign. This is a great analysis

55:37 This means that Rhaenys’s claim is… actually based on male preference primogeniture, not absolute primogeniture. She was the only surviving child of the late Prince of Dragonstone, and thus under that system would come before the children of any of her uncles or aunts, and before her own children. If she was selected, I have no doubt that the lords of Westeros would’ve expected Laenor to succeed her, not his elder sister Laena.

That aside, male-preference primogeniture still allows women to inherit anyway. We see this with various lord and ladies like… none other than Jeyne Arryn. Her uncle had a living son, Arnold who in turn had a son of his own, Eldric. But after the deaths of Jeyne’s father and all of her brothers, she succeeded to the Vale

I think a lot of your points about the institution of the crown isn’t helped by the fact is there was no king of the seven kingdoms before Aegon, and that was brought by the sword first. I believe that Maegor and Jaehaerys both show how it was not the institution of the crown, but dragon fire and blood that kept the Targaryens on the throne. I think Daenerys will follow his path of her will and ideals will be enforced.

I think it another major thing, when looking into what type of person Jaehaerys was, is looking into the temperament of his dragon. Vermithor hatched when he was an infant, Vermithor was with Jaehaerys for the entirety of his formative years and a good chunk of his lifespan. Bonded creatures - in the World of Ice & Fire - very much come to take some traits from their bonded humans, just as much as humans take from their bonded creatures. It is VERY telling that Vermithor is a particularly ferocious dragon; he is the Bronze Fury for a reason. Jaehaerys certainly rubbed off upon his dragon in some way, just as Vermithor certainly rubbed off on him.

To be fair, the absolutism in and of itself was defensible. Jaehaerys had no reason to believe his family would ever lose their dragons and even if he did, that's an argument for quickly creating a stronger Crown while they could, not decentralising. Concentrating power in the Iron Throne can be a good thing, I notice this video doesn't mention at all (sorry if I missed it) the roads he built throughout the realm for example. You could easily imagine an alternate future where House Targaryen doesn't tear itself apart, instead amassing ever more control over Westeros, perhaps even expanding.

Dealing with an insurgency by killing its leader was, in this particular case also a fine option. Offering terms to someone who proclaimed 'Westeros will not be clean again until all the Targaryens have been slain or driven back into the sea' would be... questionable. Moon was a fanatic and a brute, being rid of him, then putting the Faith in its place with implicit threats and cooperation with Hightower could well have worked out long-term.

Arguably the worst decision Jaehaerys ever made was the least absolutist, to hold that Great Council. That, bad foreign policy and how he treated his family, particularly the women in his life were in my view the worst parts of his reign.

Jaehaerys is far better remembered than he should be. Even now, when most fans call him out, it's on him being a bad father or to say all his achievements are Alysanne's and Barth's.

To add to the point on the security of dragons, Rhaenys' marriage a complete and total disaster, a sign of either a refusal to look at the issue or a lack of understanding of his own power structure

Jaehaerys tried to centralize power the dynasty in himself which was based in dragon power. And to his credit it seems as though he didn't distribute dragon eggs as his grandson would, only three of his children became riders, the heir and spare and oldest daughter.

But then in 90 AC, Rhaenys married outside of the family to Corlys Velaryon. At this point, Aemon and Jocelyn were in their mid thirties and had not had a recorded pregnancy in sixteen years. We know Jaehaerys did not want her to be the queen, but there isn't anything stating he discouraged the betrothal, despite the fact it was very likely that Rhaenys would not have a surprise brother to inherit, and even if she did, it creates more problems. Targaryen incest, for better or worse, centralized dragon riding power. Rhaenys wedding Corlys only really works if she is to be the heiress, otherwise no matter if her brother or uncle or cousin inherits, a new source of power is formed. Rhaenys and Meleys. That is an existential threat to the dynasty

And Jaehaerys gave this his blessing, and not only that, there is nothing which suggests this was debated in council or in the house.

However, this still creates an issue if she inherits, because Baelon and his sons are still around and outnumber her. Baelon had Vhagar, and Daemon and Viserys could and then claimed their own mounts. By not tying them together, and then letting them claim dragons, shows a severe lack of foresight and planning. There isn't really a good excuse for it.

Jaehaerys had 2 possible lines of inheritance that had dragons, and he didn't tie them together, no matter which one inherits, Rhaenys/Viserys and their kids would be best equipped to continue Jaehaerys' system of rule by dragon.

The obvious solution and house custom is ignored, which is Rhaenys marrying Viserys, who is only three years younger than her. It would cement both senior claimants of the lines of the heir and spare into one line. And as cousins the Faith wouldn't even object. Yet this match is never discussed in the text, even though it's both Targaryen custom and logical considering the style of rule. Aemon and Daenerys, Baelon and Alyssa, Vaegon and Daella were treated as prospective partners from childhood. Yet why not Viserys and Rhaenys? They had no respective sister or brother to marry and were separated only by three years, and their fathers loved each other. Alyssa died when Viserys was six and Baelon refused to remarry, no sisters for him. Rhaenys at that point had no brothers. Why not push them towards each other?



Also to note, Alysanne then marries Daemon off to Rhea Royce, she clearly intended for him to start a cadet branch, a third dragonriding source of power.

Instead of dynastic politics and actual ruling, we get pages and pages on sex scandals regarding daughters who end up either dying or falling from the narrative. Considering his mission to centralize royal power, I don't see how the Velaryon marriage and then snubbing is anything less than an utter failure of Jaehaerys' personal rule. We can endlessly speculate on the family dynamics, but the lack/failure of dynastic planning from both Jaehaerys and Alysanne makes them look incompetent, ineffectual, and downright creepy.

Jaehaerys wouldnt have needed a great council if Rhaenys was married to Viserys, or if she was dragonless. Rather than being a failure in of itself, the Great Council is the symptom of an existential issue that the text never acknowledges as something that was under his driest purview.

The fandom loves the idea of the Targaryen's golden era, look at the fan art, and all that. It's all stylized, when you look for the substance it's based on third hand tellings of book passages, inferences, or downright fanon. I could write a whole paper on the bizarre family dynamics. But you probably don't need to hear about that.

The DUMBEST thing Jaehaerys ever did in my opinion was refuse to utilize Targaryen Exceptionalism for anything other than marrying his little sister. Targaryen Exceptionalism as a concept was absolutely genius, and then completely under utilized due to Jaehaerys' obvious fixation with having a male heir ascend the throne after him. That fixation ultimately leads to the downfall of his family line.

When it came to marrying direct family members, Targaryen's were different and special. As the only dragon riders left on earth and the blood descendants of old Valyria, it was established that they are not beholden to the same religious laws or cultural customs as those who are descendants of the Andals.

But when it came to female Targaryen's and their inherence, suddenly they aren't so different and need to uphold the Andal custom of male primogeniture. Targaryen women also ride dragons, and we can confirm that at the very least Aegon the Conqueror's sisters/wives fought on dragon back and were warriors in their own right. Even with the Westerosi belief that women are "the weaker sex", Targaryen women possess the same physical traits, genetic heritage, and dragon riding abilities that set their male relatives apart from common men.

Targaryen Exceptionalism could have easily been used to set female Targaryens apart from common women and Andal customs, including to support their right to inherit and ascend to the throne.

Sucession laws were not codified in 101 AC either. The council only chose an heir. They did not vote on any criteria by which inheritance should be decided in general. It would be perfectly valid to interpret the ruling as favoring strict primogeniture but skipping over any line that had been disinherited as Jaehaerys had already disinherited Rhaenys when choosing Baelon over her.

The first inheritance law to apply to all Targaryen lands was the Widows Law of 52 AC. This affirmed male preference primogeniture but also forbid any man from disinheriting a child of his first wife in favor of a child of a subsequent wife. That implies that it did not forbid a man from choosing to disinherit a child in favor of another child from the same mother as Jaehaerys himself effectively did when naming Baelon his heir over Aemon's child.

It seems to me that Viserys was trying to follow the Widow's Law when he insisted on keeping the daughter of his first wife ahead of the sons of his second wife but wanted Alicent and her children to still live lives of luxury under Rhaenyra's protection.

The best king of Westeros was actually Alysanne. She really care for the commom people, but unliky Aegon, the Conqueror, she had charm and was able to persuate people. To end the cruel tradition of the "First Night" she didn't demand to end this to his husband, she mention Lord Gargon Qoherys, called "Gargon the Guest, infamous for abusing the right of the first night at every local wedding, he was brutally murdered, without catching the culprits, marking sure that could happend to anyone. She also promoted welfare projects, including securing clean drinking water sources for the smallfolk of King's Landing and Mediating Disputes: Used her diplomatic skill and counsel. If Egg would have a queen like her he wouldn't need dragons, he really could help the people.

23:11 after a brief rabbit hole researching common herbal poisons that a peasant could feasibly have access to, I have concluded that you are right. Most common herbal poisons tend to be rather obvious in symptoms, often with lots of vomiting. To have something that would kill so silently, you'd need something very special

This video is a masterclass in historical research. Not saying that the events in ASOIAF are historical, but a masterclass in how we should research historical events. You can't just read a piece of paper that says that Jahaerys was a great king, a smart builder and a romantic husband, and take those words at face value. You have to think why those words are written, what are the interest behind of writting them and point out the contradiction. And this applies to every chronic, both fictional and real. Very, very well done, John.

I feel like the portion of the video about Jaehaerys’s ascent is poorly explained. For one, Maegor himself was not the lawful heir to the throne, that was Rhaena’s husband, the murdered Aegon the Uncrowned. Aenys had named him Prince of Dragonstone, there was no legal ambiguity as to who the heir apparent was. That aside, Maegor wedding (and subsequently assaulting) Rhaena wasn’t about the claims, it was about his childlessness. He’d already be married thrice before and had no surviving issue. Rhaena by contrast had already produced twin daughters, along with Maegor’s new wives Jeyne Westerling, Dowager Lady of Tarbeck Hall and Elinor Costayne, widow of landed knight Ser Theo Bolling. The purpose was getting hitched to women of proven fertility to hopefully get some children (shocker, it didn’t work).

Also unmentioned is that Fire and Blood EXPLICITLY states there was confusion over who Aenys’s heir was before the birth of Prince Aegon, Rhaena or Maegor, that was never cleared up. There was no clear delineation of what the device of the succession actually was.

As to the take of the capital… yes!? Yes, these people were selfish opportunists. They did NOTHING while Maegor usurped the throne, held his brother’s widow and youngest children hostage, committed bigamy, murdered 2 of his nephews in cold blood, r*ped his niece, killed Elinor Costayne’s husband so he could wed her, held his grandnieces hostage and killed multiple lords and Grand Maesters for giving advice he didn’t like. You speak of valor? How about the valor of the men who actually did fight for the rightful heir, Prince Aegon? Those who bled and died, like none other than Queen Jeyne Westerling’s first husband, Lord Tarbeck. Maegor’s supporters facilitated kinslaying, massacres (like those of the men who build the Red Keep) and treason. The death penalty is the APPROPRIATE PUNISHMENT for such high crimes.

And a minor syntax correction, regent. Not regents. Rogar Baratheon was Hand of the King, but he was not regent, that was solely the province of Queen Alyssa Velaryon. She was ultimately the source of the crown’s authority during Jaehaerys’s minority, and when she did give orders, the realm (and the small council) obeyed.

Also, Jaehaerys’s open threat against the Faith in his early reign… actually falls in line with Catholic theology, which the Faith is based on. Namely, the right of jus exclusivae, a right of a Catholic monarch to veto any objectionable candidate for the papacy, that was used 11 (almost 12) times between 1644 and 1903, and that was honored by the papacy. It was only after the election of Pius X that it was explicitly declared unlawful, sinful and grounds for excommunication for any lay power to interfere in the election, solidified by the end of the Austrian, Italian and Portuguese monarchies (with the Spanish crown not interfering in the process), while Belgian monarchs never claimed this right.

51:02 I'm astonished that these two candidates had the balls to make these claims lol. "Maegor's baseborn son" and "Jaehaerys' baseborn son"... these guys definitely had to be crazy to even try these shenanigans.