- "When Rhaenyra's last son married Aegon's only daughter, the Dance of the Dragons offically ended."
- ―Shireen Baratheon
Queen Jaehaera Targaryen was a Princess and Queen of the Targaryen dynasty.
Biography
Jaehaera was the only daughter of Aegon II Targaryen and his sister-wife, Helaena Targaryen.
When the Dance of the Dragons was over, her father resumed his kingship by killing his half-sister, Rhaenyra Targaryen. However, he was poisoned half a year later. Since Jaehaera's brothers, Jaehaerys and Maelor, were both dead by this point, the throne passed to her cousin Aegon III. Her marriage to Aegon led to an official end to the civil war of House Targaryen.[1]
Family tree
Template:House Targaryen family tree Dance of the Dragons Era
In the books
The heavy inbreeding from the Targaryens' incestuous marriages often resulted in mental or physical defects: variants of them may have appeared in Aegon II's children, unsurprisingly, given that his wife was his own sister Helaena. Eldest son Jaehaerys was born with six fingers on his left hand, and six toes on each foot, but otherwise was a completely healthy, mentally stable, and happy young boy. Jaehaerys's twin sister Jaehaera, however, was physically normal but had some sort of mental condition: she was not violently "insane", or blissfully delusional like Baelor Targaryen, but was very shy and had muted responses to events around her. Jaehaera did not smile or cry as a baby, or have any of the normal reactions a baby has. This continued as she grew older, and she was said to be "a strange girl...never weeping or smiling as children do". At the age of six she was called "sweet and simple". From her description, Jaehaera apparently had some form of Asperger's/Autism spectrum mental condition.
Though in-universe she is called "simple" there is no indication that she was a lackwit (of less than functional intelligence) - rather it seems that in-universe the maesters don't really understand what autistic spectrum disorders are. At the same time, she doesn't appear to have been entirely withdrawn from the world around her (or exhibiting outright selective mutism): given that she is also described as "sweet" and other interactions in the text, she appears to have gotten along well enough with her mother and brothers.
Jaehaera was bonded to the dragon-hatchling Morghul, though by the time the Dance started he was far too small for even a six-year old girl like her to ride. Morghul died, unridden, during the Storming of the Dragonpit.
After the murder of Princess Rhaenyra's second son, Prince Lucerys Velaryon, Prince Daemon Targaryen declared vengeance, writing that there would be "an eye for an eye, a son for a son". Jaehaera was present in the Tower of the Hand when Blood slew her twin, Prince Jaehaerys. Prior to the boy's death, as the queen prevaricated, Cheese warned her to make a choice soon, before Blood grew bored and raped Jaehaera.
When Rhaenyra Targaryen’s dragons first appeared in the skies above King's Landing, Lord Larys Strong spirited Jaehaera out of the city along with her father, Aegon II Targaryen, and younger brother, Maelor. Larys led them out through a secret passage of Maegor's Holdfast, of which only he had knowledge. Jaehaera was put in the charge of Ser Willis Fell, who swore to bring her safely to Storm's End.
Following the deaths of her parents, brothers, and uncles in the Dance and the victory of the Blacks, Jaehaera was married to her cousin King Aegon III Targaryen as part of the peace agreement. Since she was eight years old at the time of the marriage and Aegon was eleven, it was not consummated. A nasty incident ensued when her grandmother, Alicent Hightower, still bitter and angry over the death of her son, Jaehaera's father Aegon II, and the succession of Aegon III, reportedly urged Jaehaera to kill Aegon in his sleep. Jaehaera began screaming in uncontrollable terror of her grandmother at this (possibly due to the trauma of seeing her brother murdered in front of her). After hearing what had happened, the Hand of the King, Ser Tyland Lannister (having already banned Alicent from attending court for fear she would try to assassinate the young King) forbade Alicent from ever interacting with her granddaughter again.
Death
Two years after her marriage, Jaehaera died when she reportedly threw herself from Maegor's Holdfast and was impaled on the spikes of the dry moat below. She lived for a half hour in agony before her death. Her grandmother Alicent Hightower was still alive at the time in gentle imprisonment - she lived to see her entire (legitimate) bloodline extinguished. Grieved, Alicent didn't long survive Jaehaera, perishing in the Winter Fever plague that soon swept through Westeros.
Jaehaera's death was officially deemed a suicide, akin to that of her mother, Queen Helaena. However, many suspected that she had been murdered at the instigation of Lord Unwin Peake, the Hand of the King and one of the seven regents, as Lord Peake hoped to marry his own daughter to King Aegon instead. It was variously suggested that Jaehaera had been murdered by Ser Mervyn Flowers of the Kingsguard, bastard brother of Lord Peake, who had been at her door when she died; or that Mervyn had merely stood aside to allow Tessario the Tiger, a sellsword in Lord Peake's service, to do the deed.
Whatever the case, Jaehaera was therefore not the mother of any of Aegon III's children in the novels: he later remarried to his cousin Daenaera Velaryon, who bore all of his children. No confirmation has appeared yet that this is also the case in the TV continuity.
See also
References
- ↑ "The Dance of Dragons (Histories & Lore)"
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