Jaehaerys I's Regency

Jaehaerys I’s Regency was the unsettled interval between his accession as a child and his assumption of personal rule at sixteen. It placed Dowager Queen Alyssa Velaryon and her husband, Rogar Baratheon, at the center of government, but did not reduce the young king to a figurehead: from the outset, he claimed a voice in decisions made in his name. The period’s defining political problem was how to govern after Maegor’s fall without turning the former king’s supporters into a new source of rebellion.

Accession and the Regency

Jaehaerys came to the Iron Throne while still a year and a half short of manhood. The succession was settled even as Maegor’s remains were being prepared for the funeral pyre. Alyssa was appointed regent, and Rogar, Lord of Storm’s End, became Hand and Protector of the Realm. Their authority was substantial, but the young king insisted from the beginning on having a voice in the decisions taken under his name.

The transition began amid uncertainty about how many of Maegor’s adherents would submit to the new king. Many great houses and lesser lords had already abandoned Maegor, but a number of lords near King’s Landing and in the crownlands had remained loyal until his death. Some fled to their own strongholds; Lord Rosby took hemlock after Maegor was found dead, while Buckwell and Rollingford sailed for Pentos. When Jaehaerys and his sisters Rhaena and Alysanne arrived at the Red Keep on dragons, Lords Darklyn and Staunton joined Lord Towers in yielding the castle. The court account presents these three lords kneeling and laying their swords at the young king’s feet: a public act of submission at the opening of a reign still dependent on the regents’ authority.

Conciliation and the Council

Alyssa and Jaehaerys treated the choice of councillors as part of the work of mending the realm. They reasoned that rewarding only their own supporters while excluding Maegor’s former men and the Faithful would deepen divisions and create fresh grievances. Instead, the young king recalled Edwell Celtigar, who had served as Maegor’s Hand, to serve as lord treasurer and master of coin. His appointment made the policy of conciliation concrete: prior service to the defeated king did not automatically bar a man from office under the new regime.

Other appointments drew on different allegiances and areas of experience. Jaehaerys chose his uncle Daemon Velaryon, one of the first great lords to abandon Maegor, as lord admiral and master of ships. Prentys Tully, Lord of Riverrun, became master of laws; his wife, Lucinda, accompanied him to court and was noted for her piety. Command of the City Watch, King’s Landing’s largest armed force, went to Qarl Corbray, who had fought for Aegon the Uncrowned. Rogar stood above these councillors as Hand. The resulting council brought together men whose political histories differed, while keeping the chief offices under the authority of the regent and her husband.

The King’s Voice and the Limits of His Power

Jaehaerys attended most council meetings, though not every one, and was never shy about making his views known. His participation mattered: the regency was conducted in his name, but he was already involved in shaping its decisions. At the same time, access to counsel did not mean that he possessed the final say. The chronicles distinguish his active presence from the structure of power: throughout the regency, ultimate authority rested with Alyssa and Rogar.

That division is also visible in the regents’ handling of the marriage of Jaehaerys and Alysanne. Rogar wanted time because he believed the still-unconsummated marriage might yet be undone. Alyssa wanted time for a different reason: the bloodshed surrounding the earlier marriage of her son and daughter haunted her, and she hoped to prevent history from repeating itself. Whatever their separate concerns, she and Rogar still had a realm to govern until Jaehaerys reached his sixteenth nameday. His presence in council therefore existed alongside his dependence on the regency, not in place of it.

End of the Regency

On the twentieth day of the ninth moon of 50 AC, Jaehaerys reached his sixteenth nameday. Under the laws of the Seven Kingdoms, he was now old enough to rule without a regent, and the regency came to its appointed end. Across the realm, lords and smallfolk waited to see what kind of king he would be. The transition completed a period in which the government had balanced the authority of two adult regents with the political participation of a young king, while trying to reconcile former opponents rather than exclude them wholesale.