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“ | Get that wretched creature out of my sight. | „ |
~ A terrified Aegon III Targaryen to his northmen guards after seeing Lady Rhaena Targaryen's dragon Morning. |
“ | Aegon: Lord Manderly, pray tell me how old I am, if you would be so good. Torrhen: You are ten-and-six today, Your Grace. A man grown. It is time for you to take the governance of the Seven Kingdoms into your own hands. |
„ |
~ Aegon III Targaryen to Torrhen Manderly before coldly dismissing him from regency. |
King Aegon III Targaryen, also known as Aegon the Younger, the Broken King and infamously Aegon the Dragonbane, is a major character in the A Song of Ice and Fire franchise. He is the seventh Targaryen king to sit the Iron Throne and rule the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.
He is the youngest son born from the marriage of his mother Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and her uncle-husband Prince Daemon Targaryen. His youngest brother is Viserys II Targaryen. Aegon is also the half-brother of Princes Joffrey, Lucerys and Jacaerys Velaryon, who are born from the marriage of Rhaenyra and her first husband Leanor Velaryon but are disputed to be the bastard sons of Ser Harwin Strong. During his earliest reign, he became the husband of Queen Jaehaera Targaryen, who died before the marriage could be consummated, as the two were still children. His second wife was Queen Daenaera Velaryon, with whom he had two sons, Princes (later kings) Daeron and Baelor, and three daughters, Princesses Daena, Rhaena, and Elaena Targaryen.
As he was severely marked by his experiences during the Dance of the Dragons, Aegon III is best-known for his mostly joyless and melancholic behavior and has a strong fear and hatred of dragons, ever since he was forced to watch as his mother was burned and eaten alive by Aegon II's dragon Sunfyre. Prior to that, Aegon had a dragon for his own, Stormcloud. His so-called broken reign became known for the time when the last of the Targaryen dragons went extinct, following the death of the Last Dragon, which King Aegon is blamed for, earning him the nickname Dragonbane.
Appearance[]
Aegon was a handsome boy with dark purple eyes which looked almost black, and silver hair which was so pale that it was almost white. He was lean of face and body. By the age of ten, Aegon was considered tall for his age. According to a semi-canon source, Aegon wore a short beard with no mustache.
Aegon dressed simply, and in black (always, according to Maester Yandel, very often, according to Archmaester Gyldayn). Under his velvets and satins, he would wear a hair shirt. He owned black gloves and a golden chain displaying the three-headed dragon of House Targaryen. He wore a circlet of yellow gold, simple and unadorned.
Personality[]
Aegon III is known for being a severely broken and sullen man as a result of his traumatic experiences during the Dance of the Dragons. Being a joyless person he rarely smiled or laughed even during his childhood. According to court fool Mushroom, Aegon can be courtly and graceful if it is required of him, but there is a darkness within him at the same time which never went away. Aegon is somber in personality, due to his guilt over having abandoned his brother Viserys when they were attacked by the Triarchy's naval forces while on their way to Pentos and had believed him to be dead. Because he had lost most of his brothers during the Dance of the Dragons and had watched his mother Rhaenyra being burned and devoured by his uncle's dragon, he was called "broken" by Grand Maester Munkun, who also described King Aegon III as being dead from the inside.
He has little interest/had no pleasure in almost nothing, such as women, sports and any physical activities. He never attended tourneys. He was also not interested in food and drink, which led him to not eat often. As a result, he often had to be reminded to eat at times. Aegon never enjoyed reading, dancing or singing and had no interest in sword fighting and the arts of war. Despite being seen gazing out at the stars at a window during the Hour of Wolf, he was never interested in studying Astrology.
While broken in behavior, Aegon is also emotionless, as he seldom displayed any feelings, but because he had seen his mother's aforementioned death he has developed a strong fear and hatred of dragons, and the mere mentioning of them would send Aegon into a rage and he was even unwilling to go near one; an example is when he paled with fright upon seeing Lady Rhaena Targaryen's dragon Morning.
Despite being clever, he didn't socialize much and never started a conversation. Though he would answered questions as curtly as possible, he was often dour, solemn and gloomy, being mostly silent and often retreating into silence and solitude to brood alone in isolation. Because he isolates himself from others, he never had many friends and even rarely got any good sleep. Following his coronation, he rarely left the Red Keep. Though he is anti-social and emotionless, there are a few times where Aegon showed his true feelings, such as when he returned Daenaera Velaryon's smile and telling her she is pretty. In addition, his gloom was lessened shortly after marrying her. The return of his brother Viserys caused some joy to return to Aegon while much of his confidence had been restored.
Despite this, and while being a good man in heart, who sought to keep order in the realm and provide peace, justice and plenty, Aegon III nevertheless always remained a melancholic, cold-hearted person, who doesn't liked to be touched and would retreat to his chambers for days on end to brood alone in silence and passivity.
Biography[]
Aegon was born towards the end of 120 AC to Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and her uncle and second husband Prince Daemon Targaryen. He was named after King Aegon I Targaryen or Aegon the Conqueror, who had conquered and unified six of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros during his lifetime. Rhaenyra naming her son Aegon offended her step-mother Queen Alicent Hightower, the second wife of Aegon's grandfather King Viserys I Targaryen, as she took it as a slight against her own son, who is also named Aegon. Because both princes have the same name, history refers to Rhaenyra's son as Aegon the Younger while Alicent's son is referred to as Aegon the Elder.
As his Rhaenyra had been married to Ser Leanor Velaryon prior to his marriage to Daemon, Aegon had three older brothers by his mother's first marriage, Jacaerys, Lucerys and Joffrey Velaryon. He also has two older half-sisters by his father's first marriage to Lady Laena Velaryon, Princesses Baela and Rhaena Targaryen. Two years later, Rhaenyra gave birth to Aegon's brother Viserys. Aegon lived with his family on Dragonstone. In 129 AC, when Rhaenyra learned of the coronation of her brother King Aegon II Targaryen, even though her father had made her his heir, she went into a rage, causing her to go into early labor, eventually giving birth to Aegon's sister Visenya, though she is proven to be stillborn with several deformities.
During his time on Dragonstone, Aegon and his brother Viserys shared a bedchamber with each other and were constant companions, as they took lessons and played together. At some point, Aegon bonded with his dragon Stormcloud, but didn't ride him yet.
Dance of the Dragons[]
Even though Aegon's mother Rhaenyra had been named the heir to the Iron Throne by King Viserys, however, following his death, Aegon's uncle King Aegon II Targaryen had been crowned instead, resulting in a war of succession known as the Dance of the Dragons.
Though Aegon II had named Rhaenyra a traitor after learning of her coronation on Dragonstone, he attempted to offer peace terms, in which Prince Aegon and Prince Viserys will be given places of honor at the royal court, which was angrily refused by Rhaenyra, much to his fury.
Later in 129 AC, Aegon and Viserys were sent by their eldest half-brother Jacaerys to Essos for their safety while their mother secures the Iron Throne. Aboard the cog Gay Abaddon, the two brothers began sailing for Pentos, where they will be fostered by the Prince of Pentos. Unfortunately, during the voyage, they were intercepted by an enemy fleet of 90 warships from the Triarchy, who support the Greens, the supporters of King Aegon II, during the civil war. While Aegon & Viserys cog and escorts were being attacked, the former was able to flee on his dragon Stormcloud, but in the process abandoned his brother (something that would come to haunt Aegon into his future regency).
As they fled, Stormcloud was wounded in the process, being shot in the belly by countless arrows and a scorpion bolt through his neck. Despite this, they managed to reach Dragonstone. As his hot blood gushed black and smoking from his injuries, Stormcloud perished within the hour, and Aegon the Younger never flew again for the rest of his life.
A year later in 130 AC, Queen Rhaenyra successfully captured King's Landing, as the Greens' army led by Ser Criston Cole of the Kingsguard and aided by Prince Aemond were busy marching to Harrenhal through the Riverlands. Once she felt secured enough, Rhaenyra summons her son to the capital. Because she had lost Lucerys and Jacaerys during the war, she became more protective of Aegon, as she named him her cupbearer just so he could always stay close to her. His experiences during the Dance of the Dragons had left Aegon traumatized, as he rarely spoke a word during his time in King's Landing.
Though Rhaenyra had successfully secured the Iron Throne, she continued face several threats, most notably Aegon II Targaryen, who had disappeared together with his daughter Princess Jaehaera, Aemond and his dragon Vhagar, who are busy raining destruction and terror on the Riverlands, the Hightower army led by Lord Ormund Hightower and Prince Daeron Targaryen and his dragon Tessarion, who defeated every enemy they came across during their advance on King's Landing. When Rhaenyra's hand, Lord Corlys Velaryon, suggested peace terms where he would take Princess Jaehaera as his own ward until she would marry Prince Aegon, Rhaenyra refused, however.
During her short-lived reign, which will last for half a year, Queen Rhaenyra began to slowly lose control over King's Landing, mainly due to having committed mass executions daily and imposing heavy taxes to refill the royal treasury, which consequently caused her to lose the support of the people living in the capital, who came to despise her, leading them to give her the nickname "King Maegor with teats".
Rhaenyra ultimately lost her grip on King's landing when, after Queen Helaena Targaryen committed suicide, the smallfolk rose in a violent riot, eventually leading to the Storming of the Dragonpit, where all the dragons inside were killed. Aegon and his mother were standing on the roof of the Red Keep as they witnessed Prince Joffrey Velaryon falling to his death from Rhaenyra's dragon Syrax as he attempted to reach the Dragonpit. The next morning, Aegon and Rhaenyra were forced to flee the capital together with a few loyal men and women. After traveling through Rosby and Stokeworth, they were allowed entry into Duskendale but on the condition that they won't stay for long.
Having lost nearly all of her children (and apparently Prince Viserys), Rhaenyra became more broken and despairing, refusing to separate from her apparent last surviving son during their stay in Duskendale, and Prince Aegon became a "small pale shadow" by her side. Once their stay had expired, Rhaenyra was forced to sell her crown in order to buy passage on a Bravoosi ship to return to Dragonstone, refusing the advice of Ser Harrold Darke to seek refuge with Lady Jeyne Arryn in the Vale. However, Rhaenyra was unaware that during her absence, Dragonstone, which served as her base of operations had secretly fallen to King Aegon II with the aid of the traitorous Ser Alfred Broome.
When Rhaenyra and Aegon the Younger arrived, they found the burnt corpses of Black loyalists hanging from the gates of the castle. Aegon immediately realized what this meant and cried out to his mother to flee but was too late. When Rhaenyra's last remaining Queensguard were slain, Aegon picks up one of their swords to protect his mother only for Alfred Broome to contemptuously knock it aside. Aegon and Rhaenyra were then taken to the castle yard where they encountered a half-burned Aegon II with his dying dragon Sunfyre, who was gravely wounded during a fight with Baela Targaryen and her dragon Moondancer. After a brief exchange of words, Aegon the Younger was forcefully separated from his mother and was forced to watch as his uncle's dragon burned and ate Rhaenyra alive, leaving him in horror. From that point on, Prince Aegon was left forever scarred and his strong fear and hatred of dragons was cemented.
Though Ser Alfred Broome wanted to have Aegon killed, King Aegon II refused this, as his nephew is a valuable hostage against the Blacks and so has him manacled in the dungeons below Dragonstone. In King's Landing, Corlys Velaryon, who had sworn his allegiance to the Greens, insists that Aegon the Younger was to marry Princess Jaehaera in order to unite the Blacks and the Greens as one and demands that the two children should together be named Aegon II's heirs. This was refused by dowager queen Alicent Hightower but was reluctantly convinced by Lord Larys Strong to accept the betrothal.
However, when King Aegon returned to King's landing, he refused the notion, as he wanted to end Rhaenyra's line, and he suggests that Prince Aegon join the Night's Watch or be made an eunuch so that he won't father any children. Though Lord Tyland Lannister, King Aegon's Master of Coin, argued that Aegon the Younger should be executed, Larys Strong, however, convinces Aegon II to agree to the betrothal and to name his nephew his heir, insisting that the situation would be dealt with once the Dance of the Dragons is over. While Prince Aegon continued to be his uncle's captive, the Blacks, despite Rhaenyra's death, stubbornly continued fighting the Greens in support of Aegon the Younger's cause. After Aegon the Elder was poisoned by his own men, Lord Corlys and Prince Aegon rode to meet the Blacks while under a peace banner to surrender King's Landing to Lord Kermit Tully, the Lads and their army of Rivermen. Following his uncle's death, Aegon inherited the Iron Throne as King Aegon III Targaryen in 131 AC.
Regency[]
As King Aegon III had ascended the Iron Throne at the age of ten, his Hand and a council of regents would rule in his stead for five years until he came of age. During Aegon's regency, numerous political schemes, plots, and assassinations happened in those years, as the regents and Hands fought one another for political power, often using Aegon III as a pawn.
Cregan Stark[]
During the False Dawn, the riverlords who had marched against King's Landing and the forces of Aegon II swore fealty to the new king. After Aegon II had been cremated, Prince Aegon proclaimed on Aegon's High Hill that peace was at hand, while Lord Corlys Velaryon send forth promises of pardons to Aegon II's former loyalists. Together with the Sea Snake and the Lads, King Aegon welcomed Lord Cregan Stark to the city. However, as he had recently learned of the murder of Aegon II and wanting to march on Oldtown, Storm's End and Casterly Rock to continue the war, Cregan immediately seized power in King's Landing with his army of fearsome northmen during the Hour of the Wolf. This spread fear throughout King's Landing and numerous rumors claimed that Lord Cregan planned to take Aegon the Younger to Winterfell to wed him to one of his daughters (although Cregan had no daughters at the time). Others, believing Cregan to be both a traitor and a usurper, claimed that he planned to kill Aegon so he could seize the Iron Throne for himself by marrying Princess Jaehaera. While Cregan investigated the murder of Aegon II, he, in his paranoia, confined Aegon III to Maegor's Holdfast for his own safety, with no companion but the boy Gaemon Palehair, a former royal pretender from the Moon of the Three Kings. Lord Cregan did allow Aegon to be visited by his half-sisters, Baela and Rhaena Targaryen. During her time as a ward to Lady Jeyne Arryn, Rhaena gained a dragon of her own when her dragon egg hatched, and she named her dragon hatchling Morning. King Aegon immediately paled with fright upon seeing Morning and he commanded his guards to remove it.
Peace was declared, but Cregan still intended to do justice, by putting on trial and executing those he held responsible for the death of Aegon II Targaryen. Lord Cregan arrested twenty-two men, as well as Lord Corlys Velaryon, Lord Larys Strong, Ser Perkin the Flea, and Ser Gyles Belgrave of the Kingsguard. In order to administer justice Cregan has King Aegon name him his Hand of the King and presided over the trials. The only person spared from condemnation was Lord Corlys Velaryon, on Aegon's authority, who restored Corlys to his offices and honors and gave him a seat on the small council. Although Aegon was in his minority, still uncrowned, and not yet anointed as king, Cregan agreed to let Aegon's decree stand, despite his right to ignore it. Aegon watched the executions of those condemned while stone-faced, though in the end only Gyles Belgrave and Larys Strong were beheaded by Cregan, while many others took the black. Afterwards, Cregan Stark returned his chain of office to Aegon, and returned to Winterfell.
Aegon was married to his cousin, Princess Jaehaera Targaryen, on the seventh day of the seventh moon in 131 AC. The ceremony was performed outside of the ruined Dragonpit on Visenya's Hill. The marriage united the two branches of House Targaryen. Following the wedding, the couple traveled in an open litter to the Red Keep, where Aegon was officially crowned as King Aegon III.
Tyland Lannister[]
The newly-crowned King Aegon's first act was filling the five vacancies in the Kingsguard. Ser Tyland Lannister, the Protector of the Realm, Lord Leowyn Corbray, and the council of regents to sit over them. Although Aegon III would sit upon the Iron Throne when it was required of him, he was otherwise not often seen, as he would retreat into silence to brood alone. By the end of 131 AC, the smallfolk King's Landing began to grow unhappy with their king, while rumors about the new Hand began to spread.
The royal marriage was also troubled, as both Aegon III and Jaehaera had been greatly traumatized by their losses and by what they had witnessed during the Dance of the Dragons. After their wedding, they had little contact with one another except on formal occasions, which were rare, as Jaehaera, similarly to her late mother Queen Helaena, disliked leaving her chambers. Jaehaera's only other living relative, her grandmother Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower, could not be trusted around the king (as she was likely to snatch a dagger from a guardsman), nor even with Jaehaera, since when Alicent had last shared a meal with her, she told Jaehaera to cut King Aegon's throat while he was sleeping, causing her granddaughter to run away screaming. Grand Maester Munkun sent a letter to the Conclave of the Citadel, declaring both children "broken", "not normal children", and fearing for the future of the kingdom.
The sudden death of Lord Corlys Velaryon in 132 AC raised the issue of the king's successor. When King Aegon was asked who his heir should be, the king offered the name of his only friend, Gaemon Palehair, though this was ignored by the regents. Although Aegon's half-sisters Baela and Rhaena were dismissed on account of their sex and the regents determined that any son the twins would have, in particular from the elder twin Baela, would be a suitable successor to the king. In accordance, the regents attempted to have the twins married to suitable husbands, unsuccessfully for Baela (who rejected the regents' candidate and eloped to marry her cousin, Lord Alyn Velaryon), but successfully for Rhaena (who chose one of her suitors, Ser Corwyn Corbray).
When a deadly epidemic known as the Winter Fever struck Westeros in early 133 AC, Aegon III distinguished himself by visiting those stricken by the disease, sitting beside them, and sometimes holding their hands or cooling their fevers with damp cloths. While he didn't really speak, he was a great comfort to those afflicted nonetheless, as he listened to their stories and pleas. Most of those he visited died, but those who survived would later speak of the king's "healing hands". King Aegon at beside his Hand, Ser Tyland Lannister, one of the last to die from the Winter Fever, and held his hand as he passed away.
Unwin Peake[]
In the days following Ser Tyland's death, King Aegon, then twelve years old, began to show maturity beyond his age, naming Ser Robert Darklyn and Ser Robin Massey to the Kingsguard. King Aegon further commanded the disgraced former Grand Maester Orwyle to send forth ravens to summon to court Lord Thaddeus Rowan, whom he wished to name as his new Hand while he wished to name Lord Alyn Velaryon as his admiral, and his cousin Baela Targaryen. However, Lord Unwin Peake and Grand Maester Munkun, the two remaining regents healthy enough serve in their office, undid all of the king's appointments. With Munkun's support, Peake seized power and named himself Hand of the King and Protector of the Realm.
Lord Unwin, being power-hungry, opportunistic and caring only for himself and the benefits of his house, also undid the appointments of Ser Robert Darklyn and Ser Robin Massey to the Kingsguard, and instead gave their white cloaks to his own kin. Aegon III had received the decisions of Munkun and Peake with "sullen silence", but he spoke to object to this, pointing out that Kingsguard serve for life. Lord Unwin replied that they do, but only when "properly appointed". Afterwards, the boy king retreated into silence and passivity, refusing to show his true feelings. For the rest of his minority, Aegon did not much participate in the rule of the Seven Kingdoms, only signing and sealing the papers that Lord Peake presented to him. Occasionally Aegon would be brought out to sit the Iron Throne on formal occasions, or to welcome envoys, but otherwise he was not seen much inside the Red Keep, and almost never outside of it.
Nevertheless, Aegon deeply disliked Unwin Peake's appointment of Ser Marston Waters to the position of Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, as Waters had stood by silently at Dragonstone when King Aegon II Targaryen had fed Aegon's mother Rhaenyra to his dragon. Aegon the younger also despised Unwin Peake's personal guard, the Fingers, whose commander, the sellsword Tessario the Tiger, soon killed Robin Massey in a quarrel. Unwin made further appointments around court, with all positions filled by his supporters, family, and friends. This included the appointment of the stern Ser Gareth Long as the new master-at-arms of the Red Keep, who took over Aegon's training at arms, but King Aegon quickly grew to despise Ser Gareth, and would rebel against him by ignoring his instructions, refusing to cooperate, or simply walking away. As Gareth was not allowed to harm the king, he advised Lord Peake to make Aegon's only friend and companion, Gaemon Palehair, into the king's whipping boy so as to discipline him. Gaemon's tears and blood angered Aegon and he became to motivated enough to dramatically improve his skill at arms.
Unwin preferred to ignore Aegon III whenever possible, but on the Feast Day of Our Father Above in 133 AC, the king was made to watch from the battlements of the Red Keep as Lord Peake had its crowded dungeons emptied and had all the offenders punished publicly. Some of the condemned beseeched the king for mercy as they were tormented with their punishments or executions, but Aegon coldly stood still as stone, seemingly not hearing any of the pleas or seeing any of it.
Later that same year, the king's marriage ended when Queen Jaehaera died, seemingly of suicide when she was impaled on the spikes below Maegor's Holdfast, although rumors of murder were told all throughout King's Landing. Lord Unwin attempted to betroth the king to his own daughter, Myrielle Peake, but was met with disapproval by many lords, as he did it so soon after the queen's death. Lord Cregan Stark suggested the north would look on the match with disfavor, Lord Kermit Tully called it presumptuous, and Grand Maester Munkun's support began to waver, acknowledging that the match would be seen as advancing Peake interests rather than being for the good of the realm. Noble ladies wrote to the crown, proposing their own relatives as Aegon's bride (or themselves, in some cases). After facing pressure, Lord Peake instead announced a ball in King's Landing (mocked by Mushroom as the Maiden's Day Cattle Show) where king Aegon III himself would be able to choose his own bride.
In the weeks before the ball, Unwin Peake had his daughter spent much time with the king to win his heart. At the ball itself, held on Maiden's Day, all the maidencandidates were presented to the king as he was seated on the Iron Throne. Aegon only nodded to each before the Kingsguard led her away. Aegon's disinterest increased with every passing hour, which, according to Mushroom, was exactly what Peake had desired. When only a few maidens remained, Baela and Rhaena Targaryen arrived with their kinswoman Daenaera Velaryon, a six-year-old girl, and announced that they had brought their brother his new queen. Aegon responded positively to Daenaera, in which he returned her smile and telling her she looked very pretty. Afterwards, the last few candidates were brought forward hurriedly, and it was so clear that Aegon wished to end the parade that the final maiden sobbed as she curtsied. Afterwards, the king summoned his cupbearer, Gaemon Palehair, who announced that Aegon would wed Daenaera Velaryon. Although Peake afterwards insisted that Aegon should instead be married to an older girl, as to be able to father heirs, he was overruled by the other regents. Aegon and Daenaera were wed on the last day of the year.
For a short while following his marriage, Aegon became less gloomy, and was more seen within the Red Keep. He even left the castle three times to show Daenaera the sights of King's Landing. King Aegon even began to attend the meetings of the small council, which pleased a few of the regents. However, Lord Peake felt slighted by the king's presence and whenever Aegon asked a question, Unwin would wrongly accuse him of wasting the council's time, or tell him the subject was beyond the understanding of a child. Soon, Aegon stopped attending the council meetings, and began returning to his former, passive self.
Thaddeus Rowan[]
In 134 AC, Lord Alyn "Oakenfist" Velaryon returned to King's Landing from his first great voyage. Unwin, who was supsicious of Alyn, had forbidden King Aegon from going to greet him but was overruled, and the king, queen, and court traveled to the docks to welcome Alyn's ship Lady Baela home. There, Lord Velaryon presented King Aegon with a "treasure" acquired in Lys: Aegon's younger brother Prince Viserys, whom the king immediately recognized and he jubilantly embraced Viserys with tears of joy. His brother's survival and return lifted the guilt Aegon had felt since fleeing from the Gay Abaddon, and this did much to restore his confidence. However, this made Lord Unwin furious by the cost of the ransom that Alyn had paid for Prince Viserys, and threatened to resign his post over it, which the regency council quickly accepted, as he was not well-liked amongst them, and they appointed Lord Thaddeus Rowan as the new Hand of the King. Nevertheless, Unwin's appointments continued to serve in their positions, and Unwin bequeathed his guards to Lord Rowan.
Viserys's return also much reduced of his brother's loneliness, as he resumed his role as Aegon's constant companion, like when they were boys together on Dragonstone. Unfortunately, this caused King Aegon to neglect his other friend, Gaemon Palehair and even Queen Daenaera. Prince Viserys had come to King's Landing accompanied by his wife, Larra Rogare, and several of her brothers, whose family are the owners of the wealthy and powerful Rogare bank. The following year, when Larra gave birth to a son, who was named Aegon in his uncle's honor, King Aegon III's succession seemed secure. Viserys, who had kept his own dragon egg with him during his captivity, similarly presented his own son with an egg. However, when King Aegon learned that the dragon egg of his niece Laena Velaryon had hatched into a monstrosity, a wingless wyrm which injured the babe in the cradle, he ordered all dragon eggs removed from the Red Keep. Though Viserys was greatly angered by this, the eggs were sent to Dragonstone, and Viserys refused to speak to Aegon for a month.
With his brother's absence, Aegon III began to spend more time with Daenaera again. Unfortunately, it was during a quiet dinner that Aegon shared with his queen, as well as Gaemon Palehair, who was also serve as his food taster, that the latter collapsed from belly cramps and Daenaera also suffered from stomach pains. Grand Maester Munkun gave Daenaera a powerful purgative, which probably saved her life, but Gaemon died within the hour. Gaemon's death greatly devastated Aegon and Viserys mended his rift with his mourning brother as they sat by Daenaera's bedside. Although Aegon was comforted by his brother in his grief, the loss of Gaemon left him inconsolable, and his old gloom settled over him once more, leaving him uninterested in the court and his kingdom.
It was determined that the poison used to poison Queen Daenaera and Gaemon was the tears of Lys, baked in the apple tarts. As Aegon usually did not eat sweets, he was not harmed. Lord Thaddeus Rowan, investigated the attempted assassination, but his work was halted when he determined that the confessions of the cooks, who had been tortured by the Lord Confessor George Graceford, were valueless. However, with the fall of House Rogare in Lys and the bankruptcy of their bank, the Rogares in Westeros were arrested in swift order. While one of Larra's brothers fled to Braavos, the other two were arrested by the gold cloaks and by Ser Marston Waters of the Kingsguard. Though it was initially believed that Thaddeus Rowan had ordered the arrests, he himself was arrested by the Kingsguard Ser Mervyn Flowers, Unwin Peake's bastard half brother, while Peake's former guards stood aside. Rowan's family and servants were also arrested.
Marston Waters[]
When Kingsguard Ser Amaury Peake and a dozen men-at-arms arrived at Maegor's Holdfast to arrest Larra Rogare, they were confronted on the drawbridge by Prince Viserys and then King Aegon III. Ser Amaury announed that Ser Marston Waters was the new Hand, appointed by the regents, and when King Aegon replied that Thaddeus Rowan was one of his regents, Amaury said that he had been arrested for treason, on authority of the Hand. Prince Viserys burst into mocking laughter but denied entry to Amaury and his men. he plants a battle axe upon the drawbridge and warns them not to cross it, before he and Aegon retreated back into the castle. When Amaury's men passed the axe, Larra's personal guard Sandoq the Shadow emerged, and slew them all. After Sandoq was done, he returned to the safety of the holdfast, and King Aegon commanded the portcullis to be lowered and the drawbridge raised. He, Prince Viserys, Queen Daenaera, Lady Larra Rogare, Sandoq, the court fool Mushroom, several ladies-in-waiting, and a few guardsmen would remain within the castle-within-a-castle for eighteen days of the secret siege.
On the first day, Ser Marston Waters came to swear that he meant no harm to Aegon, and had only acted to protect the king from false friends and traitors. He swore that none would do harm to Aegon while he stood by him. From the battlements, Aegon angrily and bitterly replied that Marston had stood by him when Sunfyre ate his mother, and only watched. Aegon would not let Marston stand by and watch while Viserys's wife was killed. On the following days the besiegers brought Grand Maester Munkun and Septon Bernard, who drew no response from Aegon. However, when Ser Gareth Long attempted to convince the king to yield, the angered Aegon shouted at the master-at-arms that Gaemon Palehair was dead, and they would get no blood from beating his bones.
On the twelfth day, the besiegers brought forth Thaddeus Rowan, in chains, with his face so swollen that he was unrecognizable. With a slurred voice, Rowan confessed to plotting with the Rogares to poison both King Aegon and Queen Daenaera and replace them with Prince Viserys and his wife Larra Rogare. Aegon was left shocked by this until Prince Viserys asked Lord Rowan if he was part of the plot too, to which Rowan agreed. Upon further questions, the latter also agreed that Gaemon Palehair had poisoned the tarts, and even agreed to Mushroom's inquiry if Rowan had poisoned King Viserys I Targaryen. At this, Aegon III declared that Lord Rowan had been tortured by traitors into making false confessions and demanded of Ser Marston Waters, to "seize the Lord Confessor, if you love your king… else I will know that you are as false as he is." According to Archmaester Gyldayn, the fifteen-year-old King Aegon seemed "every inch a king" in that moment.
Though Marston Wasters did act by arresting George Graceford, who named the other conspirators (all appointments of Unwin Peake), he was slain when he went to arrest Ser Mervyn Flowers. The conspirators said they had acted because they considered Aegon to be weak, or because they did not trust Larra Rogare and her foreign religion, though some claimed that they had acted under the genuine belief that Thaddeus Rowan and the Lyseni were the real traitors. The mistrust within the Red Keep was so great that Aegon and Viserys did not open the gates of Maegor's Holdfast until six days later, when they saw Munkun send forth ravens to the king's leal lords. By that point, they had run so short of food within the holdfast that Queen Daenaera cried herself to sleep at night, and two of her ladies were so weak from hunger that they had to be helped across the moat.
Torrhen Manderly[]
King Aegon III reinstated Lord Thaddeus Rowan as Hand of the King, but it soon became clear that the brutal torture he had suffered from had left him unfit to serve as Hand. Subsequently, the king had to dismiss him, and Grand Maester Munkun temporarily became the New Hand of the King, until a new one could be named. At the gathering of lords in 136 AC, three new regents were selected by lot, while Lord Torrhen Manderly was chosen as the new Hand.
Lord Manderly presided over the trials of the conspirators, which lasted thirty-three days. King Aegon attended only three times, on the days that judgment was pronounced upon Gareth Long, George Graceford, and Septon Bernard. He showed no interest in the rest, and never asked about their fates. Lotho and Roggerio Rogare were also put on trial for the collapse of the Rogare Bank, and though Prince Viserys came every day to sit beside his wife Larra as she watched the judgement of her brothers, Aegon never attended.
End of the regency[]
“ | And thus the rule of the regents came to a whimpering end, as the broken reign of the broken king began. | „ |
~ Archmaester Gyldayn on the end of Aegon III's regency and the beginning of his so-called "broken reign." |
On the morning of 136 AC, Aegon's sixteenth nameday came around, now making him old enough to rule the Seven Kingdoms on his own. Accompanied by Sandoq the Shadow and four Kingsguard, the king enters the council chambers, where he dismissed all the regents and his Hand in a cold manner. He also cancelled their plans to have him go on a royal progress. Lord Torrhen Manderly was shocked and greatly offended by how King Aegon had dismissed him in such a brusque manner, and he bitterly considered his own dismissal and the cancellation of his and the regents' plans as a humiliating slight. Archmaester Gyldayn claims that Aegon's act had made him an enemy of Torrhen.
Reign[]
Aegon III Targaryen is regarded in official histories as a broken king who ruled over a broken reign. Up until the end of his days, he remained melancholic and found pleasure in almost nothing and even locking himself in his room to brood for days on end. Though it took ten years for the king to consummate his marriage, when Queen Daenaera Velaryon was sixteen years old, she eventually gave birth to two sons (Daeron in 143 AC and Baelor in 144 AC) and three daughters (Daena in 145 AC, Rhaena in 147 AC and Elaena in 150 AC). After he was born, Prince Daeron Targaryen, King Aegon's eldest son, was named Prince of Dragonstone by his father.
Though King Aegon strived to bring peace and plenty to the realm, however, his cold-hearted and unfriendly behavior prevented him from courting his lords and people, causing him to not have a lot of friends. In the later years of his reign, he and his brother Viserys, now his Hand of the King, dealt with pretenders who claimed to be Prince Daeron Targaryen, who had died years ago during the Second Battle of Tumbleton. They were eventually proven to be imposters.
“ | But the last dragon grew no larger than a cat, and its death earned Aegon, Third of His Name, the epithet "Dragonbane." | „ |
~ Qyburn on the death of the last dragon |
Because the king's distaste for dragons is known to the realm, he is often blamed for the death of the last dragon, who died during his reign, with some rumors claiming that he poisoned her. Following her death, Aegon III became infamously known as "Aegon the Dragonbane". It was thought that on the day the last dragon died, magic began to leave the Known world while summers became shorter and winters became longer and crueler, though Archmaester Marwyn suspected that the order of maesters are responsible for the dragons' extinction, as he claims that they secretly sought to suppress all magic, even though their members are known for also studying the higher mysteries.
Despite his fear and hatred of dragons, Aegon III was regardless convinced that dragons could be use to intimidate those who sought to oppose him. He was urged by his brother to bring in nine mages from Essos to try and hatch a clutch of dragon eggs with magic but were unsuccessful.
Death[]
The reign of the Broken king ended when he died from consumption in 157 AC at the age of thirty-six. On account of how his youth had ended so abruptly, many of his subjects thought of him far older.
Legacy[]
Though history was neutral towards Aegon, however, similarly to his mother and uncle before him, he is mostly cast in a negative light, due to his behavior towards his subjects and alongside the belief that he had murdered the last dragon, which brought forth the complete extinction of all the Targaryen dragons until 299 AC, when his descendant Daenerys Targaryen successfully hatched three dragons, Viserion, Rhaegal and Drogon, thus bringing dragons back into the Known World and making magic more powerful.