- This article is about the son of King Aegon II Targaryen. You may be looking for King Jaehaerys I Targaryen.
 | |
- "The grief and rage of losing a child could burn down the world."
- ―Catelyn Stark
Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen was a Prince of the Targaryen dynasty.
Biography
Jaehaerys was the eldest son of Aegon II Targaryen and his sister-wife Helaena Targaryen. He presumably had a very close relationship with his mother. When his cousin Lucerys Velaryon was killed by Jaehaerys's uncle Aemond Targaryen, Lucerys's stepfather/great-uncle Daemon Targaryen, who was also Jaehaerys's great-uncle, hired two assassins to kill Aegon's and Helaena's children. One was a former "Gold Cloak" known as Blood and the other was a rat-catcher known as Cheese who knew all the sewers around King's Landing. This meant that they both had perfect recognition of the layout of the Red Keep. After breaking into the royal apartments, they found Helaena putting her children to bed. They demanded a son for a son. Helaena pleaded they kill her instead, but they refused. She named Jaehaerys's younger brother Maelor as the victim. However, Cheese just told Maelor that his mother wanted him dead, and some believe that Helaena named Maelor because Jaehaerys was heir to the Iron Throne, or because Maelor was just too young to understand. This request became an act of defiance against the Greens, as Blood just beheaded Jaehaerys with a single blow. By the time the guards came, the Queen was cradling her son's body. Jaehaerys's death would eventually led to his mother's insanity and suicide.[1]
Family tree
 Deceased |  Deceased | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  Deceased |  Granddaughter of Jaehaerys I Deceased |   Deceased |  Grandson of Jaehaerys I Deceased |   Deceased |  Grandson of Jaehaerys I Uncle and husband of Rhaenyra Deceased | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Deceased |   "Queen Rhaenyra, First of Her Name" Deceased | Grandson of Jaehaerys I Uncle and husband of Rhaenyra Deceased |   Deceased |  Deceased |  Deceased | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Deceased |  Deceased |  Deceased |  Deceased |  Deceased |  Deceased |  Deceased |  Deceased | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In the books
Prince Jaehaerys was born in the year 123 AC, barely a year after his parents had wed. The greens at the court of King Viserys I Targaryen were happy to proclaim that Prince Aegon Targaryen now had heirs of his own. A dragon egg was placed in Jaehaerys's cradle, and as well one in the cradle of Jaehaerys's twin sister, Jaehaera. Both eggs soon hatched, and for Jaehaerys, the dragon Shrykos was born.
That same year, two of Jaehaerys's half-siblings were born: a boy, whose mother was a whore on the Street of Silk, and a girl, whose mother was a maidservant of Jaehaerys's grandmother, Alicent Hightower. In 127 AC, Jaehaerys's trueborn brother, Maelor, was born.
In 129 AC, on the third day of the third moon, Jaehaerys, his sister Jaehaera, his brother Maelor, and their mother, Princess Helaena Targaryen, went to visit their grandfather, King Viserys I Targaryen. There, Jaehaerys listened to the story Viserys told, about their great-great-grandsire, King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, Jaehaerys's namesake, and how he had flown north of the Wall on his dragon to fight against wildlings, giants, and wargs. After the story was told, Jaehaerys, his siblings, and his mother, left, as the King was tired.
The Dance of the Dragons
At the death of King Viserys I Targaryen, Jaehaerys and his twin sister were six years old. With Aegon II Targaryen crowned King, Jaehaerys became the heir to the throne.[1]
Jaehaerys's uncle killed the second son of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, Lucerys Velaryon. Prince Daemon Targaryen, upon learning about this, declared vengeance, writing that there would be “(a)n eye for an eye, a son for a son.”
Sometime thereafter, two men, remembered in history only as Blood and Cheese, snuck into the chambers of Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower, which were located in the Tower of the Hand. As was her custom, Queen Helaena Targaryen took her three children to visit their grandmother at dusk, before they went to bed. Once Queen Helaena entered the chambers with Jaehaerys, Jaehaera, and Maelor, Blood barred the door and slew the Helaena's guardsman whilst Cheese appeared and snatched up Maelor. Cheese told Helaena that they were two "debt collectors". They told the queen “an eye for an eye, a son for a son” and asked her which one of her sons she wanted killed. The queen offered herself but the two killers refused, telling her that it had to be a son, a boy.
On her knees weeping, Helaena eventually named her youngest child, two-year-old Maelor, to be killed. Upon those words, Blood gave a grin and slew Prince Jaehaerys instead, striking off the boy's head with a single blow from his sword. The two men did no further harm to either Jaehaera or Maelor, and only fled with Jaehaerys's head in hand.
