- This article is about the son of King Aegon II Targaryen. You may be looking for King Jaehaerys I Targaryen.
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- "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
 Targaryen Deceased |  Targaryen Deceased | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Velaryon  Deceased |  Granddaughter of Jaehaerys I Deceased |   Deceased |  Grandson of Jaehaerys I Deceased |   Deceased |  Grandson of Jaehaerys I Uncle and husband of Rhaenyra Deceased | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Velaryon Deceased |  Targaryen  Deceased | Grandson of Jaehaerys I Uncle and husband of Rhaenyra Deceased |   Deceased |  Deceased |  Deceased | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Velaryon Deceased |  Velaryon Deceased |  Velaryon Deceased |  Deceased |  Deceased |  Deceased |  Deceased |  Deceased | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Jaehaerys Targaryen was born in 123 AC and was larger and healthier than his twin sister Jaehaera, but was born with six fingers of his left and six toes on each foot. A dragon egg was placed in his cradle, which hatched into Shrykos. In the same year, two of Jaehaerys's half-siblings were born - a boy to a whore in the Street of Silk and a girl to one of Queen Alicent Hightower's maidservants. Jaehaerys's trueborn brother Maelor was born in 127 AC. In 129 AC, Jaehaerys and his siblings were brought to visit their grandfather King Viserys I Targaryen on his deathbed, where he entertained them with a fictional story about their great-great-grandfather King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, in which he flew on north of the Wall on his dragon to fight against wildlings, giants and wargs.
Shortly after the beginning of the Dance of the Dragons, Prince Lucerys Velaryon was killed by Prince Aemond Targaryen in the Dance Over Storm's End. Prince Daemon Targaryen hired the former Gold Cloak Blood and the rat-catcher Cheese to murder one of King Aegon II Targaryen's sons in retaliation. As Queen Helaena Targaryen brought her children to her mother's chambers in the Tower of the Hand, which she did on a nightly basis, the two men ambushed them. The men ordered the queen to choose which of her sons would die. She offered herself, but they refused and she tearfully chose Maelor, whom she deemed too young to understand the situation. Blood decapitated Jaehaerys instead and the two men fled with the prince's head.
