The Shivers Plague was a fast-moving epidemic that struck Westeros during the cruel winter of 59–60 AC. It spread from the east through ports and along waterways, killing people across the realm and overwhelming ordinary remedies. Its reach into King’s Landing and the royal household made the disease a public calamity and a personal trial for Jaehaerys Targaryen and Alysanne Targaryen; the death of their daughter Daenerys also challenged the belief that Targaryens were immune to illness.

Background and Spread

The epidemic arrived in a season already marked by scarcity. The winter hit the North first and hardest: crops failed, streams froze, and the cold brought famine to communities whose stores could not sustain them. Lord Alaric Stark had ordered that half of every harvest be preserved, but not all his bannermen had complied. Food shortages and rising prices reached beyond the North as harvests failed in the riverlands, the westerlands, the Vale, and even the Reach. Across the Seven Kingdoms, bread became dearer, meat rose in price still faster, and fresh produce largely vanished from towns and cities.

Against this background of hunger and cold, the Shivers appeared. The maesters recognized it from accounts of an earlier outbreak, but its ultimate origin remained unknown. It was thought to have come across the sea, perhaps from one of the Free Cities or lands farther away. Port cities and harbor towns were believed to suffer first and most severely. Many smallfolk blamed the smaller black rats seen leaving ships in port, though the Citadel never established that rats carried the disease to its satisfaction. Fear nevertheless changed household practice throughout the realm: homes of every size began to require cats, and kittens became so valuable that they could sell for as much as destriers.

In the winter of 59 AC, the disease entered from the east, crossed Blackwater Bay, and moved up the Blackwater Rush. Islands off the crownlands were affected before it reached King’s Landing. From there, the toll widened across the Seven Kingdoms, striking the noble and humble alike. The old and young faced particular risk, but people in the prime of life were not spared. The epidemic’s passage from ports and islands into the wider realm made it impossible to treat as a distant or localized calamity.

Symptoms and Treatment

The illness began with a chill, which victims might at first mistake for ordinary cold. They sought extra warmth, blankets, furs, hot soup, or mulled wine, but these comforts did not halt the disease. Shivering followed and intensified; victims’ teeth chattered, and their hands and feet could twitch and convulse. Blue lips and coughing blood were signs that death was near. Once the first chill began, the course was swift: death could come within a day, and no more than one victim in five recovered.

The maesters could describe the symptoms and the rapid course, but they could neither explain the disease’s origin nor stop or cure it. Treatments and proposed remedies multiplied without establishing an effective answer. Poultices and potions were tried; hot mustard, dragon peppers, and wine spiced with snake venom were among the suggestions. The afflicted were immersed in hot water, sometimes heated nearly to boiling, while other proposed cures ranged from green vegetables and raw fish to red meat or even drinking blood. Fumes from burning leaves were also used, and one lord ordered fires built around him. The variety of these measures underscores the limits of contemporary knowledge: the disease was familiar enough to be recognized, but not understood well enough to control.

The Realmwide Toll

The islands and settlements around the crownlands suffered early losses. Edwell Celtigar, once a Hand and a much-disliked master of coin, was the first lord to die; his son and heir followed three days later. Lord Staunton and his wife died at Rook’s Rest, and their children’s attempt to shut themselves away did not save them. On Dragonstone, Queen Alysanne’s beloved Septa Edyth perished. On Driftmark, Daemon Velaryon, Lord of the Tides, recovered after coming close to death, but his second son and three daughters died. Lord Bar Emmon, Lord Rosby, and Lady Jirelle of Maidenpool were among the other victims.

The losses reached the great houses and the institutions that served the realm. Lord Prentys Tully died at Riverrun, followed a day later by Lady Lucinda. Lyman Lannister and several lords of the westerlands succumbed. Lord Tyrell of Highgarden survived the illness but died four days after recovering, in a fall from his horse. Rogar Baratheon escaped the plague, and his son and daughter by Queen Alyssa recovered, but his brother Ser Ronnal and both of his brothers’ wives died.

Oldtown lost a quarter of its population. Eustace Hightower survived, but his wife and children did not, nor did his grandsire, the Lord of the Hightower. The High Septon died, along with forty members of the Most Devout and a third of the archmaesters, maesters, acolytes, and novices at the Citadel. In King’s Landing, the hardest-hit place in the realm, the dead included two Kingsguard knights, three lords of the council, and Grand Maester Benifer, who had served for fifteen years. The disease therefore removed not only household members and neighbors but also figures responsible for the city’s defense and the realm’s administration.

The death of Qarl Corbray, commander of the City Watch, had immediate consequences. Many watchmen were themselves ill, and with their commander gone, lawlessness spread through the streets and alleys. Shops were looted, and people were robbed, assaulted, or killed. Jaehaerys sent Kingsguard and household knights to restore order, but their numbers were insufficient; he soon had to recall them. The plague’s harm thus extended beyond its victims: sickness and death weakened the institutions meant to protect those who remained.

The Royal Household and Its Aftermath

The crisis reached the royal family after the Red Keep had been secured. The gates were barred and the watch on the castle walls doubled. After attending sunset services and taking a modest meal, the royal household retired for the night. During the night, Princess Daenerys woke her mother to say she was cold—the first sign of the Shivers.

The response was urgent and wide-ranging. Daenerys was given prayers, poultices, hot soups, scalding baths, blankets, furs, hot stones, and nettle tea. A wet nurse was summoned because some believed a mother’s milk might help. Maesters and religious attendants came and went; Jaehaerys ordered a hundred new ratcatchers hired and offered a silver stag for every dead rat. Daenerys asked for her kitten, which was brought to her. As her shivering worsened, it squirmed from her grasp and scratched her hand. Near dawn, Jaehaerys ordered a dragon hatchling brought from Dragonstone, hoping it might help his daughter.

Nothing succeeded. A day and a half after waking her mother, Daenerys died. Alysanne collapsed, and Jaehaerys, exhausted, flew Vermithor to Dragonstone to tell the Dragonkeepers that the hatchling was no longer needed. On returning to King’s Landing, he sought answers from Septon Barth, but the wise man could not explain why the princess had died. The royal couple’s grief was shared by thousands of parents that winter, but Daenerys’s death carried an added significance: she was Targaryen on both sides, and the dynasty had believed its Valyrian blood protected it from disease. The epidemic made that confidence untenable. As Jaehaerys and Alysanne mourned their daughter, they had to confront the possibility that their family was not exempt from mortal illness.

When the Shivers had run its course, Jaehaerys returned to the work of rebuilding his court, now deprived of friends and councillors. The epidemic’s ending did not undo its losses or restore the people it had taken. Its lasting force in the history of the reign lies in that double consequence: it exposed the realm’s inability to cure a familiar but poorly understood contagion, and it brought the vulnerability of the royal family into sharp view.