Four years after The Conquest Aegon Targaryen started the First Dornish War, during which
he attempted to bring the dornish under Targaryen rule.
A bloody war, during which Queen Rhaenys Targaryen was supposedly killed together with her dragon,
Meraxes, at Hellholt.
The First Dornish War lasted for nine years, and eventually ended after a visit from Princess
Deria Martell, the daughter of Prince Nymor Martell, the ruling Prince of Dorne.
She brought the skull of Meraxes and a letter with her, which was given to Aegon.
Though the contents of the letter have never been revealed, after reading the letter, Aegon
flew on Balerion to Dragonstone.
He returned the next day, and agreed to a peace between Dorne and his kingdom.
Aegon would keep up good relations with Princess Deria, and is known to have visited Sunspear
together with his eldest son, Aenys.
The remaining years of Aegon's reign were peaceful.
He spent much of his time consolidating his power by traveling throughout the Seven Kingdoms
and building his capital at King's Landing.
During his rule he tread carefully with the Faith of the Seven, so they would not oppose
him.
Aegon built a grand sept on Visenya's Hill and agreed to the construction of an even
grander one known as the Sept of Remembrance on Rhaenys's Hill.
Seven years after the Conquest, Aegon became a father for the first time, when his younger
sister-wife Rhaenys gave birth to a son: Aenys.
However, Aenys was a sickly boy, and Rhaenys's death shattered him.
Aegon grew desperate, and there were worries about whether or not Aenys would even live.
He even went back to crawling around as if he were a baby.
As Aenys had troubled health, there were rumours that he had been fathered by a singer instead
of Aegon.
However, when Aenys bonded with his dragon Quicksilver, his health improved, and the
rumors faded away.
As Visenya by then had not gotten pregnant yet, some believed she was barren, and suggested
to Aegon that he should take a new wife.
Although many young women were presented to Aegon, the King refused to take another bride.
Eventually, eleven years after the Conquest, Queen Visenya announced her pregnancy, and
gave birth to Aegon's second son, Maegor, the next year.
Aegon raised his firstborn son Aenys at King's Landing, and took him with him on his progressions.
Occasionally, he even let Aenys train with his Valyrian steel sword Blackfyre.
Lacking daughters, he married fifteen years old Aenys to a cousin, Lady Alyssa Velaryon,
the daughter of his master of ships.
King's Landing initially lacked walls, and the likely reason is that the Targaryens believed
no one would attack a city which housed dragons.
However, when Aegon learned about a pirate fleet sacking Tall Trees Town in the Summer
Isles, Aegon came to the realization that he and Visenya were not always in the city.
As such, he ordered the construction of massive walls to be build around the city.
Construction began in year 20 AC, and was completed in six years.
In year 33 AC, Aegon made his final progression throughout Westeros, during which he visited
Winterfell.
Afterwards, Aenys and his children would make the progresses in Aegon's stead.
Towards the end of his reign, Aegon decided that the Aegonfort was not a suitable seat
for a king.
The structure was torn to the ground in year 35 AC.
Aegon moved his family and court back to Dragonstone.
Visenya was placed in charge of the building of the Red Keep, and it was rumored that Aegon
had done this so that he would not have to suffer her presence on Dragonstone.
In year 37 AC, at the age of sixty-four, on Dragonstone, while telling his two eldest
grandsons Aegon and Viserys the tales of his conquest at the Painted Table, Aegon died
from a stroke.
He was cremated on Dragonstone, and his funeral pyre was set aflame by Vhagar.
Although Aegon's reign had largely been peaceful, many of his subjects desired to
go back to the days of old, when there were still seven Kingdoms.
Others wanted vengeance for the deaths of their loved ones in wars, and yet others saw
the Targaryens as abominations.
Because of this, the reigns of both Aenys and Maegor were tumulus, and filled with battles
and chaos.
Aenys First, offspring of Aegon and his beloved sister-wife Rhaenys became the king after
his father.
He was tall like his father, but softer, slender and weedy.
His crown was of gold, elaborate and much larger than his father's.
Aenys was a dreamer and a dabbler in alchemy.
He enjoyed court life just as Rhaenys had, and was a great patron of the arts.
He was a good singer, with a "strong, sweet voice".
Aenys could also make friends very easily, and was very popular with women.
He loved to ride, but his favorite mount was always his dragon Quicksilver.
Yet, Aenys hungered too much for approval, and hesitated over decisions for fear of disappointing
one side or another.
Aenys was not close with his half-brother Maegor while growing up, since he was kept
by his father's side in King's Landing, while Visenya and Maegor lived on Dragonstone.
Aenys was trained by his father's Kingsguard, but lacked his brother's size and strength.
He was at Highgarden when he learned of his father's death, and swiftly flew to Dragonstone
for the funeral and coronation.
After Aegon's cremation, Aenys gifted his brother Maegor with the sword Blackfyre, traditionally
held by kings, and admitted to all those assembled that he was not nearly the warrior his brother
was.
He even told Maegor that they would rule together.
Aenys's ascension to the throne, upon the death of his father Aegon, led to many uprisings
by lords who considered him weak.
Aenys indeed proved to be weak and indecisive during these crises, and was unable to effectively
take action against them.
Much of the responsibility fell to others.
The first of these challenges was by a bandit outlaw known as Red Harren, who claimed to
be a grandson of Harren the Black.
The last of the four rebels to be killed, Harren was eventually cornered by Aenys's
Hand of the King, Lord Alyn Stokeworth.
Harren killed Alyn in the fighting, but was in turn killed by Alyn's squire.
On the Iron Islands, a man who claimed to be King Lodos reborn was dispatched by Goren
Greyjoy.
Following the death of Harren the Black decades ago, Lodos was crowned King of the Iron Islands
with a driftwood crown by the Drowned God's priests gathered at Nagga's Bones on Old Wyk.
Back in the days, when King Aegon I attacked the Iron Islands to put down several rebellious
would-be kings, real Lodos turned to his god and called on the krakens of the deep to drag
down Aegon's warships.
When the beasts failed to appear, Lodos filled his robes with stones and walked into the
sea to "take counsel" with his father.
Thousands followed him.
Their corpses would wash up on the shores for years to come, except for Lodos's own
body.
After defeating false-Lodos, Goren sent the pickled head of the would-be king in a jar
to King Aenys.
In gratitude, Aenys granted Goren a favour.
However, this would proof a regrettable decision, as Lord Goren used it to expel the Faith of
the Seven from the Iron Islands, to the dismay of the rest of the realm and to the anger
of the Faith.
The Vulture King rose in the Dornish marches, and gathered many followers.
The Martells mostly ignored the Vulture King, and while Princess Deria Martell assured King
Aenys that they were doing everything they could to put the rebellion down, in the end
it came down to the Marcher lords to resolve the situation.
Former Hand of the King, Lord Orys Baratheon, and the Marcher lords, including Savage Sam
Tarly, took part in the chase which became known as the Vulture Hunt.
It is claimed that Savage Sam's Valyrian steel sword, Heartsbane, was red from hilt to point
with the blood of the Dornish outlaws he had slain.
In the Vale, Jonos Arryn rose against his own brother, Lord Ronnel Arryn.
Lord Royce gathered forces and penned Jonos up in the Eyrie, which caused the death of
Ronnel and his family.
In the end, it was Prince Maegor Targaryen who flew up to the Eyrie on Balerion to resolve
the situation, and had Jonos and all his followers hanged.
Maegor became a new Hand of the King as a reward.
Another crisis arose in year 39 AC, when Prince Maegor took a second wife while his first
wife was still alive.
This angered the Faith of the Seven and the High Septon.
Aenys tried to placate the Faith by stripping Maegor of his office and sending him into
exile to Pentos.
Septon Murmison was appointed new Hand of the King by Aenys as a way to try and appease
the Faith of the Seven, though this could not completely fix matters.
Aenys further enraged the Faith in year 41 AC, when he wed his daughter, Princess Rhaena,
to his son and heir, Prince Aegon.
Aenys received a denunciation from the Faith, addressed to "King Abomination".
The pious lords of the realm, and even the smallfolk who had once loved Aenys, turned
against him.
Murmison was expelled from the Faith for performing the incestuous wedding, and was torn apart
by smallfolk two weeks after he performed the ceremony.
Thus the Faith Militant uprising began.
The Warrior's Sons, an order of Westerosi knights sworn to the Faith of the Seven, fortified
the Sept of Remembrance on Rhaenys's Hill.
Some Poor Fellows, order of Westerosi, mostly smallfolk, sworn to the Faith of the Seven,
attempted to murder the King and his family, scaling the walls of the castle, and slipping
into the royal apartments.
It was only thanks to Ser Raymont Baratheon, a knight of the Kingsguard, that the royal
family survived.
In the face of this, Aenys abandoned the city with his family and fled to the safety of
Dragonstone, where Dowager Queen Visenya Targaryen, his aunt, counseled him to bring "Fire and
Blood" to the Starry Sept and Sept of Remembrance.
Aenys, incapable of making a firm decision, fell ill.
By late year 41 AC, most of the realm had turned against him.
Thousands of Poor Fellows prowled the roads threatening and slaying any of the King's
supporters, and dozens of lords took up arms against the Iron Throne.
Aenys looked like a man of sixty even though he was only thirty-five years old, and maesters
despaired of improving his condition.
However, Dowager Queen Visenya took over his care and Aenys briefly improved.
But he suffered a collapse upon learning that his eldest son and daughter were besieged
at Crakehall.
Aenys died in year 42 AC, after only ruling for five years, at the age of thirty-five.The
circumstances of Aenys's death are under much speculation.
Some say he died from stress, others that he was killed by Dowager Queen Visenya Targaryen
so she could place her son Maegor on the Iron Throne.
Visenya was known as many things, but a woman of pity is not one of them, so many asked
why she tended to the care of the nephew she despised.
The Iron Throne, due to Visenya's actions after Aenys' death, passed to Aenys's half-brother
Maegor instead of Aenys's eldest son Aegon.
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