Dance of the Dragons

"During the great Targaryen civil war known as 'the Dance of the Dragons', a king and queen each vied for the throne, dividing their House - and its dragons - against each other."

- Varys

The Dance of the Dragons was a massive civil war between two rival branches of House Targaryen, fought 170 years before the events of the Game of Thrones (TV series)|Game of Thrones]] TV series. It is called "the Dance of the Dragons" by singers and in popular memory, because it was the only major war in Westeros in which both sides had dragons. It was also the first full-scale civil war to ever take place in the Seven Kingdoms. During the Dance brother fought brother, Targaryen fought Targaryen, and dragon fought dragon.

Ultimately, Rhaenyra was captured and Aegon II had her fed to his dragon, while forcing her son to watch. Aegon II, however, was badly wounded in the war and died months later. The war was stalemated, but with no other male heirs Rhaenyra's son then succeeded as King Aegon III.

Most Targaryen dragons were killed during the course of the war, and within a few years they went entirely extinct later in Aegon III's reign.

In the books
The war began when King Viserys I died. His designated heir for many years had been his only surviving child by his first wife, his daughter Rhaenyra. Viserys I later remarried, however, and had several younger children by his second wife, the eldest of which was Rhaenyra's half-brother Aegon II. The Seven Kingdoms had never had a Ruling Queen before, and many were troubled by the thought of Rhaenyra succeeding to the throne. By the inheritance laws of the Andals, a younger brother succeeds ahead of an elder daughter, but the Targaryens had never formalized royal inheritance laws for their new realm after the Targaryen Conquest 130 years before. Viserys I, however, had extracted oaths of fealty from the major lords of the realm that Rhaenyra would succeed him.

The same day that Viserys I died, Aegon II's followers staged a coup, and he was soon crowned in King's Landing. Rhaenyra, as the Princess of Dragonstone, had her powerbase on Dragonstone island, where she responded by being crowned queen and declaring Aegon a traitor.

Aegon II's main supporters were his mother Alicent's family, the powerful House Hightower that rules Oldtown. Rhaenyra's main supporters were her first husband's family, House Velaryon, as well as her mother's family, House Arryn. The rivalry between Rhaenyra on one side and Alicent on the other festered at the royal court for years during the reign of Viserys I. One way this rivalry took shape was in the fashions of clothing that courtiers wore, to display their faction allegiance. Once at a major tournament Rhaenyra wore a striking black gown, after the black field of Targaryen heraldry, while Alicent wore a striking green gown (the actual colors of House Hightower's heraldry are a white tower on a grey background; Alicent just happened to enjoy green dresses). Soon, all of Rhaenyra's supporters started wearing black clothing, while all of Alicent's followers started wearing green. Over the years, the popular names applied to both factions were inspired by the colors they wore: Rhaenyra's supporters were called "the Blacks", and Aegon II's supporters were called "the Greens".

The Blacks were mostly in the northeastern half of Westeros, while the Greens were mostly in the southwestern half. Dorne was not yet part of the realm and remained neutral during the war. The Blacks included the Arryns, the Starks, and the Tullys (along with most if not all of the Riverlords, even the Freys). The Starks felt bound by honor to remain true to the fealty oaths they had made to Rhaenyra when her father was still alive. Major Greens included the Hightowers and Lannisters. Rhaenyra had thought the Baratheons would support her, but in what she saw as a major betrayal they sided with Aegon II. The Greens faced their own betrayal, however: they had assumed that all of the Reach would side with the Greens, but instead the northern half of the Reach - leery of Hightower dominance - sided with the Blacks (including the Tarlys, Rowans, and Caswells). Even some of the Hightowers' own direct vassals in the south sided with the Blacks. The Tyrells often pick the side they think is going to win in any conflict, but with the Reach itself evenly split, there was no obviously winning side. In addition, the current Lord of Highgarden was an infant boy, leaving his regent mother in a precarious position - so the Tyrells remained officially neutral throughout the war.

During the war, the Greens controlled the mainland of the Crownlands, though Rhaenyra controlled the islands of Blackwater Bay and most of the navy (similar to how generations later, Stannis Baratheon controlled the islands in the bay while the Lannisters controlled the mainland). This left the Greens in control of the three largest of the five cities in the realm (King's Landing, Oldtown, and Lannisport), the mineral riches of the Westerlands and the fertile fields of the Reach. They also secreted away the old royal treasury of Viserys I. The Greens had thought that the Greyjoys would join them - not realizing that the great wealth they controlled ironically made them a more enticing target. Seeing little profit in sailing all the way to the eastern side of Westeros to raid the modest lands of the Vale or Dragonstone, the Greyjoys nominally sided with the Blacks in order to raid the Lannister-Hightower lands along the eastern coast.

The war was a stalemate, with many unexpected victories as well as unexpected losses for both sides, with no clear victor emerging. Even King's Landing itself traded hands, though there was no siege - Rhaenyra's new husband Daemon (her own uncle) had reorganized and essentially created the City Guard as it would later be known, and remained loyal to him. After the Greens foolishly left the capital city lightly defended to attack Rhaenyra's armies massing at Harrenhal, her forces on Dragonstone moved against King's Landing, and the Gold Cloaks threw the gates open at their arrival. Rhaenyra actually did sit on the Iron Throne for about half a year.

The war eventually degenerated into near-anarchy as a string of betrayals happened in rapid succession on both sides. Rival kings started popping up in different parts of the realm - ranging from the Greyjoys behaving functionally independent (though never claiming it), to dragonriders deciding that they would make better kings than Rhaenyra or Aegon II, to even petty street thugs carving out their own fiefdoms in King's Landing and declaring themselves "king" of half the city.

Eventually, Rhaenyra was captured by Aegon II, and he fed her to his dragon while her son watched. Aegon II was badly burned and injured in the war, however, and his legs were shattered. He continued to rule for another half a year, but both sides had fought to near-exhaustion by that point. Only those regions which had not played a major part in the previous fighting still had major armies left: the Arryns for the Blacks (because heavy snows had blocked the Vale's mountain passes), and the Baratheons for the Greens (who had cynically sat back and let the other Green armies get killed, preserving their own strength). In a final, last-ditch attack, the handful of surviving Tully forces marched against the vastly superior Baratheon army defending King's Landing - but by avoiding any conflict, the Baratheon soldiers were unblooded and inexperienced, while the Tully forces were hardened veterans of almost every major land battle in the war. In a shocking upset, the young teenagers left in charge of the Tully army (known as "the Lads") shattered the Baratheon army, leaving King's Landing undefended. Aegon II swore that he would fight until the last, but his advisors realized the most sensible choice - and had Aegon II poisoned, to avoid a siege which would result only in further loss of life (the "Histories and Lore" videos imply that Aegon II died of mortal wounds - he was crippled and may not have lived much longer, but he was poisoned before he could succumb to his injuries).

The civil war lasted two years and gutted the Seven Kingdoms, with dragons burning out vast swaths of the countryside, and entire towns reduced to ashes. Even though both sides knew that winter was coming when the war started they continued in their destructive conflict: near the end of the war a harsh winter began which was to last six bitter years, killing off many who had managed to survive the actual fighting. The devastation was so great that it took a full generation to recover.

At the start of the war there were 20 living dragons: 9 older and huge dragons, 8 younger dragons still large enough to be ridden to war, and 3 hatchlings too small to ride. By the end of the war, all but three had died - which of which disappeared, their ultimate fates not learned until years later. Silverwing, mount of old King Jaehaerys I's wife Queen Alysanne, went wild with grief over the death of her kin in the war and none could ride her. Another dragon was hatched near the end of the war, bringing the total number of surviving dragons to four. None of them would live for long, and there were too few dragons left to maintain a stable breeding population (the dragons were already experiencing heavy inbreeding, not unlike their Targaryen masters: all dragons descended from only the three that the Targaryens had during the War of Conquest.  The last dragon, said to be a stunted creature, died only 33 years after the war ended, later in the reign of Aegon III, for which he became known as "Aegon the Dragonbane" (though he did try to hatch new dragons from preserved eggs, unsuccessfully).  For this reason some think that the name "the Dance of the Dragons" that the singers and romances apply to the conflict is bitterly inappropriate (combined with the massive loss in human life), and that it might be more apt to call the civil war "the Death of the Dragons".