Welcome back to Fantasy Explorer. Today we will be starting a new series called Fire and Blood After the Dance. It is about the characters and notable events that happened in Westeros after the Dance.Our character today is one of the most famous and greatest Targaryen kings, King Daeron I - Daeron the Young Dragon
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| King Daeron I - Daeron the Young Dragon |
Daeron is the first son of King Aegon III, born in King's Landing and appointed Prince of Dragonstone by his father upon his birth.
He first ascended the throne in 157 AD at the age of fourteen after his father's death, taking over with his uncle Prince Viserys as his hand, as Viserys indicated that Daeron did not need guardians despite not being of official age to rule yet.
Prince Daeron was described as handsome, with long hair and never a beard.
Daeron was known for his gold and black armor and clothing.
He had great self-confidence, a charming personality and was loved by all who knew him, especially his sister Princess Daena who greatly revered him and he loved her and brought her gifts whenever he returned from Dorne.
Daeron was always intelligent and loved reading and writing, writing about the conquest of Aegon I and his sisters and his conquest of Dorne and the submission of Sunspear. Maester Keith described King Daeron's writing style as simple and uncomplicated but full of battles, blood and courage.
King Daeron was a fierce warrior and conquering king, and a young man who was extraordinarily skilled in military tactics.
When Daeron came to power, he decided to muster his armies to conquer Dorne, the only kingdom that his great-grandfather Aegon the Conqueror of the Seven Kingdoms had not formally annexed and where Queen Rhaenys and her dragon Miraxis had died in the past.
Daeron had always believed that Dorne was a Targaryen mission to complete, but his ancestors had not, and it was up to him to right their wrongs and annex it to the Seven Kingdoms.
When King Daeron presented the idea of invading Dorne to his council, they opposed it, first and foremost his uncle and hand, Prince Viserys, who reminded him that Dorne was too difficult for Aegon I himself and his two sisters, even though they had three huge dragons, so how could King Daeron annex it when he did not even have a single dragon? Daeron replied, "You already have one, and it stands before you now." From here, Daeron derived the title (Daeron the Dragon). Viserys could not dissuade Daeron from his opinion, as he had made up his mind and prepared his armies and allies for the Dornish invasion.
In the year 158, Daeron began planning his invasion, keen to learn from all the mistakes of his predecessors when they first invaded Dorne, and decided to divide his army into three sections. The first section, led by King Daeron himself, would march by the Goat's Way, a place located in the middle of a rocky mountain road that connects Dorne to the Stormlands, to avoid the sand traps in the Dornish desert that the Dornish had set for their invaders. Another division, led by Lionel Tyrell, marched by another route near the Dornish coast, and the final division was with Alyn Velaryon's naval fleet.
After a year of fierce battles in which the young Dragon King demonstrated his prowess for his age and lost 10,000 men, the Prince of Dorne and his high lords submitted to the Targaryen King Daeron I, who was not yet fifteen years old, to be the first king to officially include Dorne in the Seven Kingdoms and effectively rule all seven kingdoms together.
The king remained in Dorne for a while to ensure that there would be no attempts to overthrow him and that Dorne would be in harmony with the Seven Kingdoms, but at that time he was subjected to a failed assassination attempt in which the knight Aemon, the dragon knight and cousin of King Daeron, was injured, as he received a poisoned arrow in defense of his kingship. Fortunately, Aemon was able to survive the poison of the arrow, but he contracted a fever and needed to return to the capital, King's Landing. Indeed, King Daeron decided to return with Aemon to the capital, along with 40 hostages from the nobles of the Dornish families.
The conquering king returned to the capital in triumph in 159, leaving Lord Lionel Tyrell in charge of Dorne. He decided to marry one of his sisters to a Braavosi sea lord, seeing this as an important alliance that would secure Dornish trade from pirates.
However, he did not know that his alliance with Braavos would anger the Free Cities of Lys and Pentos, who would choose to support the Dornish thugs in their revolt against the king.
Although the lords and princes of Dorne submitted to King Daeron, the Dornish thugs continued to resist and revolt against the king,
and even killed Lord Lionel Tyrell himself and his men, with Lionel Tyrell losing nearly 50,000 of the men Daeron had left in Dorne to keep the peace over the next two years.
Then the king decided to return to Dorne himself in 161 with his soldiers to come to an understanding, and although the Dornish rebels were carrying banners of peace, they treacherously killed the king in Sunspear, and the young king died with the Blackfyre sword in his hand at the age of eighteen, and with him died three of his loyal guards who fought and tried to defend their king to the last breath, including Ser Oliver Oakheart.
His knight Aemon the Dragon Knight was taken hostage, but he resisted them and killed two of the Dornish rebels before he was bound and put in the dungeons.
After his death, Dorne regained its independence and separated from the crown once again.
The body of the dead king arrived in Westeros first to a small city in the Stormlands, where his body remained for 3 days before reaching the capital. This city later became known as the Weeping City because all its inhabitants wept bitterly in grief over the death of the young king; as did all the people of Westeros.
Daeron was succeeded by his brother, Baelor I, as the king had neither married nor had children to be his heirs, and the Dornish hostages in King's Landing were thrown into the dungeons by Prince Viserys, the King's Hand. Although most of the lords were vengeful after Daeron's death, Baelor the Blessed forgave the killers and led to a rapprochement with the Dornish. This was actually one of the main reasons why Dorne was finally incorporated into the Seven Kingdoms.
(We'll learn more about Baelor and his journey to Dorne next time.)
In Old Town there is a statue of King Daeron I riding a tall stone horse, raising his sword towards Dorne.
George R. R. Martin, author of the Fire and Blood series and the World of Ice and Fire books, said that he drew inspiration for Daeron from the Macedonian emperor Alexander the Great.
"Daeron I is the Alexander the Great of Westeros," he said. It is nice to mention that Jon Snow was a huge fan of the young King Daeron I, as he was one of his heroes who inspired him for his bravery and intelligence.