Viserys II Targaryen


 * For other characters who share the same name, see: Viserys Targaryen (disambiguation).

Viserys II Targaryen, is an unseen character in Game of Thrones. He is not expected to appear in the series, being long dead by the time it begins.

Viserys II was the second king of his name to sit on the Iron Throne and the tenth king of the Targaryen dynasty to rule the Seven Kingdoms. He was an ancestor of Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen. He was formally styled Viserys of House Targaryen, the Second of His Name, King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm.

Background
Viserys II inherited the throne from his nephew, Baelor I Targaryen. He was the father of Aegon IV Targaryen, who succeeded him in the Iron Throne, and Naerys Targaryen.

Season 1
Viserys II, along with his descendants, are mentioned in the House Targaryen's entry of the book The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Viserys II was the youngest son of Rhaenyra Targaryen and the younger brother of King Aegon III, the Dragonbane. The father of Aegon III and Viserys II was Rhaenyra's husband and uncle, Daemon Targaryen (younger brother of Viserys II's namesake, King Viserys I). Viserys II served as Hand of the King to both his nephews, Daeron I, the Young Dragon, and Baelor I, the Blessed, helping keep the realm intact first while Daeron warred and then as Baelor prayed. It was rumored that he had the stonemason Baelor had appointed as High Septon poisoned. It was also rumored that he poisoned Baelor, which is the reason he's not remembered fondly.

Viserys II was clean-shaven with long hair. He had a prominent nose, bushy eyebrows and a shrewd, calculating look to him. He wore the simple crown of Aegon III.

Grand Maester Kaeth's classic book on the art of good rulership, Lives of Four Kings, actually omits Viserys II from the title. As Tyrion Lannister points out, it would have been more accurate to call it "Lives of Five Kings". Kaeith does briefly mention Viserys II, but devotes very little content to him because he only reigned for one year before his death. Oberyn Martell felt that even this was too much, far more than Viserys II's brief reign merited. Tyrion strongly counter-argues that while Viserys II officially reigned for only one year, he truly ruled and preserved the land for much longer as Hand of the King, keeping the realm together while Daeron obsessed with fruitless conquests and Baelor obsessed with prayer.

Viserys II was only eight years old when the devastating civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons broke out between his mother Rhaenyra and his half-uncle Aegon II. While his brother Aegon possessed an immature dragon named Stormcloud (who later died), Viserys II did not possess one, though he did have a dragon egg (it is unknown if it ever hatched). As the civil war escalated Rhaenyra decided to send her youngest two sons to the Free City of Pentos for safety, where Daemon had allies, but their ship never arrived. The "Kingdom of the Three Daughters" entered the war on Aegon II's side - an alliance of Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh who had previously fought Daemon in the Stepstones (and whom Pentos was allied with Daemon against). The Three Daughters sent a massive naval fleet to break the blockade of Blackwater Bay which Rhaenyra's Velaryon fleet had established, and the boat carrying her two sons sailed right into it. Aegon III managed to escape on Stormcloud (though it suffered mortal injuries in the process), but Viserys II was captured by the enemy fleet. It is unknown what became of him in the intervening time period before Aegon II's death and the ascension of his older brother to the Iron Throne.