Aegon II and Aegon III's Hostile Uncle-Nephew Relationship

Aegon II and Aegon III’s Hostile Uncle-Nephew Relationship was a dynastic conflict in which kinship offered little protection: Aegon II seized his young nephew after defeating Rhaenyra, treated him first as a possible hostage and later as a threat to be deprived of heirs, while negotiations to unite their branches failed. Their relationship shows how the struggle for the Iron Throne turned a family tie into a question of custody, succession, and whether the rival line would be allowed to continue.

Kinship and the Succession Dispute

Aegon III was the son of Rhaenyra Targaryen, Aegon II’s half-sister. Their place in the same royal family did not settle who should rule. The Great Council of Harrenhal of 101 AC had chosen Viserys Targaryen over Rhaenys Targaryen by a reported margin of more than twenty to one. Many later regarded its decision as a precedent against a woman inheriting the Iron Throne or passing a claim through her to her descendants. That precedent formed part of the political setting in which Aegon II’s claim and Rhaenyra’s claim collided.

The contest made Aegon III more than a child caught between adults: as Rhaenyra’s son, he embodied the line that might continue her claim. Aegon II’s treatment of him changed with the immediate political circumstances. His decisions reveal a distinction between sparing a boy for practical use and accepting him as a legitimate dynastic successor.

Capture and the Hostage

When Aegon II’s men captured Rhaenyra, Aegon III was with his mother. The king had Rhaenyra taken from her son and delivered to Sunfyre; Aegon III witnessed her death. The episode fixed the relationship in stark terms: the uncle’s victory over the mother was enacted in the child’s presence, and the possibility of reconciliation began under the shadow of that loss.

Aegon II nevertheless forbade Ser Alfred Broome from killing the prince. He judged that the ten-year-old might be useful as a hostage, since Rhaenyra’s supporters remained in the field and still had to be dealt with before he could hope to reclaim the Iron Throne. Aegon III was manacled and taken to the dungeons beneath Dragonstone. This was a reprieve, but not a gesture of trust or familial care: the king preserved his nephew because the boy could serve a political purpose.

A Proposed Dynastic Settlement

After Rhaenyra’s death, Corlys Velaryon resisted demands to support Aegon II unless the king accepted terms meant to reunite the divided realm. Corlys sought pardons for those who had fought for Rhaenyra and proposed that Aegon III marry Jaehaera Targaryen, Aegon II’s daughter, with the two children proclaimed joint heirs. In this arrangement, marriage would join the rival branches and give each a place in the succession. Corlys also demanded the immediate release of Baela Targaryen.

Alicent Hightower was angered by the proposal that Rhaenyra’s son be named heir to her own son, but Larys Strong persuaded her to accept Corlys’s terms. Corlys then pledged loyalty on Aegon II’s behalf and received a royal pardon and his former place on the small council. The agreement was a political opening, not a settled personal reconciliation between uncle and nephew: it depended on the king accepting a future in which Aegon III remained alive and could inherit.

Rejection and the Threat to the Line

Aegon II rejected that settlement when the succession came under renewed discussion. Although Alicent had reluctantly agreed to the betrothal without the king’s consent, Aegon II wanted to marry Cassandra Baratheon and have sons of his own. He would not permit Aegon III to marry Jaehaera, fearing that the boy might father children whose claims would complicate the succession. He instead ordered that his nephew take the black or be made a eunuch, insisting that Aegon III must have no children and that Rhaenyra’s line must end.

Tyland Lannister considered even those measures too lenient and argued for the boy’s immediate execution, on the grounds that he would remain a threat while alive. Corlys condemned the king and council and left the chamber in anger. Aegon II was close to accepting Borros Baratheon’s offer to kill Corlys, but Larys reminded him that doing so could cost him the support of Corlys’s heir, Alyn Velaryon, and the Velaryon fleet. The proposal to join the children’s claims had thus given way to explicit attempts to eliminate Aegon III’s future, checked for the moment by the political value of Corlys’s support.

Aftermath and Continuing Suspicion

Aegon II’s death did not immediately remove the danger surrounding his nephew. During the unsettled aftermath, Cregan Stark investigated the dead king’s murder while Aegon III was kept in Maegor’s Holdfast, apart from the wider court. When the boy questioned the confinement, Cregan said it was for his protection: he believed that figures including Corlys, Larys Strong, and Perkin the Flea had saved Aegon III in order to govern through him. The accusation was Cregan’s judgment, not proof that those men had in fact acted together for that purpose; it nevertheless shows how the young king’s custody and political usefulness remained central concerns after his uncle was gone.

The relationship therefore moved through capture, conditional survival, a proposed marriage settlement, and renewed efforts to prevent the nephew’s line from succeeding. Aegon II’s temporary willingness to keep Aegon III alive as a hostage never became acceptance of him as heir. The attempted union with Jaehaera offered a way to make kinship serve peace, but the king’s refusal left Aegon III’s future entangled in the same struggle that had cost him his mother.