48 AC

48 AC was the decisive year in which Maegor I Targaryen’s six-year reign ended and Jaehaerys Targaryen claimed the Iron Throne. The transfer of power unfolded amid collapsing support for Maegor, a challenge raised at Storm’s End, and a coronation at Oldtown that sought to give the new king’s rule public and religious authority.

A kingdom turning against Maegor

In the sixth year of Maegor’s reign, the king’s inability to produce a living heir was widely treated as evidence that he was cursed. When Queen Elinor’s child was stillborn, the suspicion deepened. Maegor had settled on a human explanation: under interrogation, Tyanna of the Tower confessed to poisoning the pregnancies of Jeyne Westerling and Alys Harroway, and threatened that Elinor’s child would suffer the same fate. The episode offered a grim answer to the question of why Maegor’s queens had borne no surviving children, but it did nothing to stabilize his rule.

Instead, signs of political disintegration appeared across the realm. Joffrey Doggett, once Maegor’s captive, was reported as a guest at Riverrun. Septon Moon again gathered thousands of the Faithful and marched through the Reach toward Oldtown, intending to confront the High Septon and demand that he denounce Maegor and lift his ban on the military orders. Lords Oakheart and Rowan joined the march rather than oppose it; Lord Celtigar resigned as Hand and returned to Claw Isle. Reports from the Dornish Marches added the prospect of invasion to the king’s troubles. Maegor’s remaining followers, already shaken by the fate of Elinor’s child, began to abandon him.

Jaehaerys proclaimed at Storm’s End

The break became open at Storm’s End, where Rogar Baratheon proclaimed the fourteen-year-old Jaehaerys the lawful king. Jaehaerys named Rogar Protector of the Realm and Hand of the King. Queen Alyssa and Jaehaerys’s sister Alysanne stood beside the prince as he drew Dark Sister and vowed to end his uncle’s rule. A hundred banner lords and stormland knights acclaimed him.

The prince’s claim had dynastic complications. Jaehaerys was the only surviving son of Aenys I, but his elder brother Aegon the Uncrowned had claimed the throne before his death in battle against Maegor. Aegon had left twin daughters, Aerea and Rhaella. If Maegor were treated solely as a usurper, the succession might therefore be argued to belong to Aegon’s elder daughter, Aerea, rather than to Jaehaerys. The proclamation at Storm’s End was thus not merely a rejection of Maegor: it asserted a particular answer to an unsettled question of inheritance.

Rogar also emphasized the strength behind the claim. Jaehaerys rode Vermithor, while twelve-year-old Alysanne commanded Silverwing. Rogar presented the siblings’ two dragons as a decisive contrast with Maegor’s single dragon. Their youth did not prevent them from becoming the public focus of a rival kingship, backed by both a great lord’s authority and visible military power.

Maegor’s death and the end of his line

Maegor died in 48 AC, after a reign of six years and sixty-six days. The manner of his death remained uncertain. Some believed the Iron Throne itself had killed him; other accounts suspected Queen Elinor, the Kingsguard, or an unknown intruder. Suicide was also proposed. The guards’ claim that no one had entered the throne room after two departing courtiers, and before Elinor discovered the king, complicated attempts to settle the question. The Red Keep’s secrets left the death without a definitive explanation.

Maegor’s death ended his direct line as well as his reign: he left no child and no heir of his body. His corpse was burned in the yard of the Red Keep, and his ashes were later interred on Dragonstone beside those of his mother. The uncertain circumstances of his death contrasted with the clarity of its political consequence: the throne passed to a young rival whose claim had already been publicly asserted.

Coronation and the change of reign

After the way to Oldtown was made safe, Jaehaerys was crowned in the Starry Sept in the waning days of 48 AC. The High Septon who had been the target of Septon Moon’s march anointed the young king and placed Aenys’s crown upon his head. The ceremony was followed by seven days of feasting, as hundreds of lords came to swear their swords to Jaehaerys. The gathering included his sisters Rhaena and Alysanne, his nieces Aerea and Rhaella, Queen Regent Alyssa, Rogar Baratheon, the Kingsguard commander, Grand Maester Benifer, the Citadel’s archmaesters, and Joffrey Doggett, who arrived under the king’s safe conduct rather than in chains.

Joffrey and Lucinda Tully urged Jaehaerys to reverse Maegor’s decrees and restore the Warrior’s Sons and Poor Fellows. The new king refused to reinstate the military orders, declaring that the Faith would have the Iron Throne’s protection. He did, however, cancel the bounties Maegor had placed on members of those orders. His position distinguished protection of the Faith from permission for rebellion: he would not wage war against his own people, but would not tolerate treason.

The coronation made the change of ruler visible through a religious rite, the crown of Aenys, and the oaths of assembled lords. Yet 48 AC did not erase the disputes that had preceded it. Jaehaerys inherited both a contested succession and a fractured realm; the year’s ceremonies marked the beginning of his rule, not the instant resolution of those divisions.