Inheritance and Succession Laws

Inheritance and Succession Laws in Westeros were not replaced by a single code after the Conquest. Aegon I Targaryen confirmed local inheritance customs and feudal arrangements, while the Iron Throne’s own succession remained vulnerable to disputes over precedent, birth, and political power. The resulting history shows the difference between preserving a law and securing agreement about what that law means when the crown is at stake.

Local Law and Royal Authority

Aegon I Targaryen generally left the customs of the conquered kingdoms in place. Inheritance and succession laws remained unchanged, existing feudal structures were confirmed, and lords retained their established powers within their lands. This policy was part of a broader settlement: rather than remake every local institution, the Conqueror accepted much of the existing order while establishing the Crown as the authority above it.

That settlement did not mean that every lord could wage war to enforce a claim or settle a dispute. Aegon made peace the Crown’s chief concern: lesser lords were expected to bring disputes to their liege lords, while conflicts between great houses could be adjudicated by the Crown. He also regularized customs, duties, and taxes across the realm, but preserved the Faith’s tax exemptions and its courts’ jurisdiction over its own religious members. The arrangement therefore combined local rules and institutions with a royal claim to oversee disputes and maintain peace.

Inheritance Put to the Test

The tension between inherited rules and possession of the throne was exposed when Maegor claimed the crown after King Aenys’s death. Grand Maester Gawen objected that, under the laws of inheritance affirmed by Aegon I Targaryen, the Iron Throne should pass to Aenys’s son Aegon. Maegor answered that the throne would belong to whoever had the strength to seize it, then executed Gawen. His accession thus set the force of possession against the inheritance rules the Conqueror had endorsed.

Maegor later made the succession question explicit in a decree following his wedding: he named Aerea, the daughter of Princess Rhaena, as his lawful heir until he had a son, while sending her twin sister Rhaella to Oldtown to be raised as a septa. The same decree expressly disinherited his nephew Jaehaerys, whom the account identifies as the rightful heir under the laws of the Seven Kingdoms. The declaration shows that a ruler could issue a formal designation, but that doing so did not erase the competing claim grounded in existing law.

The Succession of Jaehaerys and the Great Council

Under Jaehaerys, the question arose again when Prince Aemon died, leaving a daughter, Rhaenys, while his brother Baelon remained a possible successor. Jaehaerys named Baelon Prince of Dragonstone and heir to the Iron Throne, passing over Rhaenys and, potentially, her unborn child. The decision followed established practice, and its supporters argued that Baelon was an experienced adult with sons of his own. Rhaenys objected that the choice deprived her son of his birthright; her husband Corlys Velaryon gave up his place on the small council and admiralty in protest.

Queen Alysanne also opposed the decision, objecting to her granddaughter being passed over because she was a woman. Her departure from King’s Landing for Dragonstone began the Second Quarrel, a two-year estrangement from Jaehaerys. Although the couple later reconciled, they did not reach agreement on the succession. The dispute made clear that established practice could support one claim while family members and powerful houses continued to contest its fairness and application.

After Baelon’s death, the Great Council of 101 AC considered the next succession. Corlys and Rhaenys supported their son Laenor, gathering allies among several great houses, but the assembled lords chose Viserys by a decisive margin; the maesters did not publish the vote count. In the view of many, the council established a precedent that the Iron Throne could not pass to a woman or through a woman to her male descendants, regardless of seniority. The account presents this as a precedent understood by many, not as proof that all future disputes had been eliminated.

Claims, Crowns, and the Limits of Precedent

Public ceremony could reinforce a claim without settling every question of inheritance. Aegon I Targaryen’s first crowning at the Blackwater was followed by an anointing at the Starry Sept in Oldtown, witnessed by far more lords and people; that second coronation became fixed as the beginning of his reign. Centuries later, Aegon II was crowned with the Conqueror’s iron-and-ruby crown, while Rhaenyra was crowned on Dragonstone with the crown of Jaehaerys. These ceremonies made rival claims visible, but the account distinguishes the force of ritual from the harder question of which succession rule should prevail.

The history of the laws is therefore one of continuity and dispute at once. Aegon I preserved regional inheritance customs, and his settlement gave later rulers a framework of local authority under royal peace. Yet the Iron Throne repeatedly exposed the limits of that framework: written or customary rules, a ruler’s designation, council decisions, political backing, and the possession of a crown did not always point to the same successor.