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| “ | King Jaehaerys once told me that madness and greatness were two sides of the same coin. Every time a new Targaryen is born, he said, the gods toss the coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land. | „ |
| ~ Arstan Whitebeard to Daenerys Targaryen |
King Jaehaerys II Targaryen is a supporting character in the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series. He was king of the Seven Kingdoms, the second born son of King Aegon V Targaryen and Queen Betha Blackwood, and the sixteenth Targaryen to sit the Iron Throne.
Jaehaerys was the younger brother of Prince Duncan, the older brother and husband of Princess Shaera, and the older brother of Prince Daeron and Princess Rhaelle. Jaehaerys was the father of King Aerys II Targaryen and Queen Rhaella Targaryen, the grandfather of Prince Rhaegar, Prince Viserys and Queen Daenerys Targaryen, and the great-uncle of King Robert I, King Stannis, and King Renly Baratheon.
He ascended the throne at the age of thirty-four, and his reign was short, having lasted only three years. Dalbridge, a senior veteran ranger of the Night's Watch, served as King Jaehaerys II's squire in his youth.
Appearance[]
Jaehaerys was sickly looking, pale and frail with large purple eyes and shoulder length hair. He wore his grandfather Maekar's crown. He suffered from numerous ailments throughout his life.
Biography[]
Jaehaerys's father, King Aegon V Targaryen, had developed a deep distaste for the Targaryen practice of incestuous marriages and inbreeding, thus he became determined to end such custom. In 237 AC, he betrothed his second son Jaehaerys to Celia Tully, the daughter of the Lord of Riverrun. However, since a young age, Jaehaerys had more of a traditional mindset, as he was in love with his sister, Princess Shaera, who reciprocated her brother's feelings. Their parents King Aegon and Queen Betha noticed this and were alerted because of it. They did everything they could to separate the two siblings, yet this only inflamed their passion more. In 237 AC, the same year as Jaehaerys's betrothal, Shaera had been betrothed to Luthor Tyrell, the heir to Highgarden.
When Jaehaerys's and Shaera's elder brother, Prince Duncan Targaryen, broke his betrothal to the daughter of Lord Lyonel Baratheon in 239 AC and married a common born peasant girl known as Jenny of Oldstones, Jaehaerys and Shaera took note. After a brief rebellion from House Baratheon, King Aegon relented to Prince Duncan's desire, though Duncan was excluded from the line of succession for this. Jaehaerys became the crown prince, heir to the Iron Throne. To reconcile with House Baratheon, Jaehaerys's youngest sister, Princess Rhaelle Targaryen, was betrothed to Lord Lyonel's heir, Ormund Baratheon.
In 240 AC, when they were fifteen and fourteen respectively, Jaehaerys and Shaera followed in Duncan's footsteps. They eluded their guardians in the Red Keep, found themselves a septon, and secretly wed and consummated the marriage. Aegon despaired over this, but had no choice to accept it, as the marriage had been consummated, and thus the High Septon would never annull it. Like with Duncan, he was forced to relent to Jaehaerys and Shaera's wishes, while at the same time dealing with the anger and wounded pride of both House Tully and House Tyrell, who were slighted by the broken betrothals.
At the age of eighteen, Prince Daeron Targaryen, younger brother of Jaehaerys and Duncan, followed in his siblings' footsteps when he also broke his betrothal to Olenna Redwyne, when the two had been engaged since they were both nine (although Olenna claims she did everything she could to make sure said betrothal never came to fruition, as she speaks contemptuously of the "queer notions" of Houses Targaryen and Baratheon). This meant all sons of King Aegon V married for love, instead of duty (though Daeron never married, as he was secretly homosexual and lover of Ser Jeremy Norridge), which the king had only agreed to because he himself had been allowed to do so with his wife.
In 244 AC, Jaehaerys and Shaera had their first child, a son who they named Aerys. A daughter, Rhaella, followed within the next two years.
While Jaehaerys himself had married for love, he displayed hypocrisy when he later commanded his son, Prince Aerys, and daughter, Princess Rhaella, to marry each other, despite neither desiring this match and both having feelings for other people (Aerys desired Joanna Lannister and Rhaella desired Ser Bonifer Hasty). A woods witch (currently known as the Ghost of High Heart), brought to court by Jenny of Oldstones, prophesied that the prince that was promised would be born from Aerys and Rhaella's line. While King Aegon V was frustrated and disappointed by Prince Jaehaerys forcing his own children to practice incest, he let his son have his way. In 259 AC, the firstborn child of Aerys and Rhaella, Prince Rhaegar, was born in the Stormlands, on the same day that the Tragedy at Summerhall took place, a tragedy which killed multiple members of House Targaryen, including King Aegon V Targaryen and his eldest son, Prince Duncan, as well as Duncan's namesake and Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Duncan the Tall.
After the Tragedy of Summerhall, Jaehaerys ascended the throne at the age of 34. Despite his young age, his reign would be short, lasting only three years. Dalbridge, who would later join the Night's Watch, served as a squire to Jaehaerys II in his youth.
The most notable event that occured in his reign was the War of the Ninepenny Kings. The conflict had been brewing for some time. The Band of Nine seized the Stepstones and Jaehaerys feared they would use the islands as a base of operation to launch a war on the Seven Kingdoms. Despite being the least martial of Aegon V's sons, he proved capable of defending realm from the Blackfyre pretender Maelys the Monstrous, the major plotter of the fifth and last Blackfyre Rebellion. Wanting to end the Blackfyre threat once and for all, Jaehaerys assembled the armies of the Iron Throne. Jaehaerys wanted to command the attack against Maelys himself, but his Hand of the King, Lord Ormund Baratheon, counselled the king to remain at King's Landing with Queen Shaera. Instead, Lord Ormund led the attack himself. In 260 AC, the Targaryen armies landed on three of the Stepstones and the war lasted for most of that year. In the end, it was a young knight, Ser Barristan Selmy, who slew Maelys in single combat. With Maelys dead, the rest of the Band of Nine lost interest in Westeros and fell back to their own domains.
Due to his delicate health, Jaehaerys was considered weak by many, but Ser Barristan Selmy, whom he raised to the Kingsguard, thought differently. Jaehaerys's reign only lasted three years, but he reigned well in those short years. He proved a capable king, restoring order to the kingdom, ending the Blackfyre threat and reconciling many of the Great Houses who had grown unhappy with his fathers' reign. In 262 AC, after barely three years on the throne, King Jaehaerys II Targaryen died after a short illness, complaining of a sudden shortness of breath, at the age of 37.
A Clash of Kings[]
In 299 AC, 37 years later, Dalbridge, a veteran ranger of the Night's Watch serving in the Shadow Tower, who had been King Jaehaerys II's squire, dies beyond the Wall at the Skirling Pass. Dalbridge is killed by Rattleshirt's warband at the Skirling Pass, while staying behind to fight wildlings to buy time for Qhorin Halfhand, Ebben, Stonesnake, and the steward Jon Snow.
A Storm of Swords[]
Arstan Whitebeard mentions Jaehaerys to Daenerys Targaryen, who is struck by the realization that Arstan knew her grandfather and will be able to tell her about her family. While telling Daenerys about the Targaryen madness, Arstan mentions that Jaehaerys once told him that madness and greatness were two sides of the same coin.
A Dance with Dragons[]
After Queen Daenerys's disappearance in the Dothraki Sea, her Hand Ser Barristan Selmy thinks to himself that it is his failures that haunt him at night, one of which is King Jaehaerys, whom he feels he failed, as he had stood in his white cloak beside the Iron Throne as madness consumed Jaehaerys’s son, Prince Aerys. Ser Barristan recalls that he stood, and saw, and heard, and yet did nothing.
In the Meereeen's Great Pyramid's audience chamber, when Admiral Groleo's severed head is presented to King Hizdahr zo Loraq, Ser Barristan, who served so many kings he cannot help but imagine how they might have reacted to this provocation, thinks that even Jaehaerys, known by many as a weakling, would have ordered the arrest of Bloodbeard and the Yunkish slavers for having killed a granted hostage during peace negotiations.
Trivia[]
- Unlike other Targaryen kings, Jaehaerys II was completely omitted from the lore of TV series continuity, making Aerys II the son of Aegon V instead of his grandson.
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