Eddard Targaryen

Aegon II Targaryen was the eldest son of Viserys I Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, and his contested accession set the royal family against itself in the Dance of the Dragons. Crowned at King’s Landing while his half-sister Rhaenyra Targaryen claimed the throne from Dragonstone, he became one of two rival monarchs whose conflict ended with both dead.

Identity and Succession

Aegon was the eldest son of King Viserys and Queen Alicent. His claim was disputed by Rhaenyra, his half-sister and ten years his elder. The concise royal record gives his reign as 129–131 AC and identifies him as the eldest son of Viserys; the account of the civil war makes clear that neither his birth nor his coronation settled the succession.

The dispute had a precedent in the Great Council of 101 AC. There, the lords chose Viserys over Laenor Velaryon by an overwhelming margin, reportedly more than twenty to one. Many thereafter treated the decision as establishing that the Iron Throne could not pass to a woman or through a woman to her male descendants. That understanding favored Aegon’s claim, but the succession crisis showed that a precedent, however broadly accepted, could not prevent a rival from asserting a competing right.

Coronation in King’s Landing

After Viserys’s death, Aegon’s supporters prepared a coronation in the Dragonpit, whose immense dome, stone seating, thick walls, strong roof, and bronze doors made it a defensible setting. Ser Criston Cole placed the iron-and-ruby crown of Aegon the Conqueror on the prince’s head and proclaimed him king. With the High Septon too old and frail to travel from Oldtown, Septon Eustace anointed Aegon with holy oils and blessed him in the seven names of god.

Alicent crowned her daughter Helaena, Aegon’s wife and sister. After kissing Helaena’s cheeks, the queen mother knelt before her and addressed her as queen. The ceremony thus publicly established both Aegon’s kingship and Helaena’s queenship, while joining the new royal household to the authority of the Faith through anointing and blessing.

Accounts disagreed sharply over the size of the crowd. Grand Maester Munkun, relying on Orwyle, reported more than a hundred thousand smallfolk packed into the Dragonpit, their cheers shaking its walls; Mushroom said that the stone benches were only half full. The disagreement leaves the scale uncertain, but the coronation was staged as a public act of recognition as well as a dynastic claim.

Rival Coronation and Open Conflict

Rhaenyra’s coronation on Dragonstone provided an immediate counterclaim. Ser Steffon Darklyn, who had deserted Aegon’s Kingsguard, arrived with loyalists and the stolen crown worn by Jaehaerys the Conciliator. In a ceremony witnessed by three hundred people, Daemon Targaryen placed that crown on his wife’s head and proclaimed her queen. Daemon claimed the title Protector of the Realm, and Rhaenyra named their eldest son, Jacaerys, Prince of Dragonstone and heir to the Iron Throne.

Rhaenyra’s first act as queen was to declare Ser Otto Hightower and Alicent traitors and rebels. She distinguished them from Aegon, Helaena, and her other half-brothers, saying that they had been led astray and could come to Dragonstone, bend the knee, and ask forgiveness. She said she would spare their lives because they were her blood, and condemned kinslaying. The offer of pardon made the divide within the family explicit: Rhaenyra named Aegon as a rival, but initially presented reconciliation as possible if he submitted.

When news of her coronation reached King’s Landing the next day, Aegon answered with a demand for coercion. He called Rhaenyra and Daemon guilty of high treason and demanded that they be attainted, arrested, and killed. The competing ceremonies had used different crowns and settings, but the dispute was no longer only a question of titles: each side treated the other’s claim as a threat to be overcome.

Reign and Ending

The royal record places Aegon’s reign between 129 and 131 AC. His ascent was disputed by Rhaenyra, and both perished in the war between them, which singers called the Dance of the Dragons. The evidence establishes the conflict’s outcome for the rival claimants but does not specify here the circumstances of Aegon’s death.

Aegon’s coronation drew on inherited symbols—the Conqueror’s crown, a formal royal proclamation, and religious anointing—to assert continuity and authority. Rhaenyra’s rival crowning answered with the older crown associated with Jaehaerys and a claim of her own to rule. Their opposed ceremonies show how ritual could make each claim visible without resolving it; the competing assertions instead framed a war that destroyed both claimants.