Jaehaerys I Targaryen and Septon Barth

Jaehaerys Targaryen and Septon Barth were joined by a partnership that moved from private counsel to the work of governing: Barth became one of the king’s most trusted advisers, helped him begin the monumental task of organizing the kingdom’s laws, and was eventually appointed Hand. The relationship rested on Jaehaerys’s confidence in Barth’s judgment, but it did not make Barth an answer to every problem. He could guide the king through political choices and long reforms; when Jaehaerys asked why his daughter had died, even Barth had nothing to offer.

Adviser at court

Barth came to the Red Keep to oversee its library, but became one of Jaehaerys’s most trusted advisers. His standing was not simply a matter of proximity to the king: the accounts show Jaehaerys turning to him at moments when religious authority, political calculation, and royal preference collided. Barth could speak frankly enough to persuade the king to abandon a choice he favored, and Jaehaerys later entrusted him with high office and delicate negotiations.

That influence had limits. When the High Septon died, Jaehaerys wanted Barth to become his successor and receive the crystal crown. Barth argued against his own candidacy, pointing out that he was young, little known, unorthodox, and not a member of the Most Devout. He persuaded Jaehaerys that he had no realistic prospect of election and that the king would need a candidate more acceptable to the Faith. Their exchange shows a trusted counsellor exercising influence not by simply endorsing the king’s preference, but by making him confront the practical limits of it.

Lawmaking and the smaller council

In 55 AC, while working in the quiet of the Red Keep’s library, Jaehaerys began an effort to codify, organize, and reform the laws of the kingdom. Barth worked alongside Grand Maester Benifer, Lord Albin Massey, and Queen Alysanne. Jaehaerys called this group his “my even smaller council,” distinguishing its close collaboration from the wider business of the court.

The work addressed a kingdom whose laws had accumulated across many different realms and local traditions. Precedents could contradict one another; even lords exercising the power of pit and gallows could feel free to decide cases as they wished. Jaehaerys regarded this disorder as intolerable and held that a realm with one king should have one law. The undertaking began with gathering, arranging, and studying existing laws, a task expected to take two years, while reforms would continue for decades. Barth became its leading contributor: he would ultimately contribute thrice as much as any other man to the Books of Law that resulted. The partnership therefore joined the king’s resolve to unify legal practice with Barth’s sustained labour on the code.

The Hand and the king’s representative

In 57 AC, Jaehaerys dismissed Myles Smallwood as Hand. Smallwood was loyal and well intentioned, but had proved ill-suited to the small council. This time the king did not want to spend a fortnight weighing dozens of names. He chose Barth, dismissing the objection that a man of Barth’s low birth was unfit for the office. His answer made his own need decisive: he needed Barth.

Within days, the new Hand sailed to Braavos with Ser Gyles Morrigen and six guardsmen to consult the Sealord and the Iron Bank. The mission concerned the three stolen dragon eggs and the possibility of war or peace. Barth explained that Jaehaerys admired Braavos and understood its bitter history with Valyria; the king had therefore sent his Hand rather than appear himself. But the mission also carried the implication that, if talks failed, Jaehaerys might come in person on Vermithor. The episode shows how the king’s trust in Barth extended beyond counsel at court: he made him the public instrument of a sensitive policy, balancing a diplomatic approach with a warning of royal force.

Counsel in grief

The partnership also appears in a moment where political skill and learning could not supply an answer. When Princess Daenerys died of the Shivers, Jaehaerys flew to Dragonstone to tell the Dragonkeepers there was no longer any need to bring a hatchling to the Red Keep. After returning to King’s Landing, he drank dreamwine and sent for Barth. He asked what sin his daughter had committed and why the gods had taken her. Barth, described as a wise man, could give him no answer.

That encounter gives the relationship a human measure without suggesting that Barth could relieve the king’s grief. Jaehaerys summoned him because he trusted him, but trust did not confer power over loss or access to divine explanations. Across their partnership, Barth could redirect an appointment, undertake negotiations, and help shape laws; at the deathbed’s aftermath, his presence mattered, but certainty did not follow.