Jaehaerys-era Small Council

The Small Council was the Crown’s working instrument of government: a body through which kings delegated routine rule, appointed trusted servants, and responded to financial and political pressures. Its history in the account is not one of an unchanging institution. Under Aegon I Targaryen, it helped bind former enemies to the new monarchy; under later rulers, the effectiveness of royal government depended increasingly on the rivalries and decisions of the councillors themselves.

Early Royal Government and Reconciliation

Aegon I Targaryen relied heavily on his sisters and council, leaving much day-to-day governance to them while retaining the authority to intervene when he judged it necessary. At the Aegonfort, after defeated lords submitted, he restored them to their lands and titles and rewarded his own supporters with offices. He named Daemon Velaryon master of ships, responsible for the royal fleet, and made Orys Baratheon his close counsellor and the first Hand of the King. The appointments joined practical administration to the settlement of the Conquest: former opponents were incorporated into royal service, while loyalists received recognized authority. The council and court also served a wider project of reconciliation. Aegon’s former foes were encouraged to send younger sons and daughters to court, where they could witness royal justice and come to identify with the realm as a whole. The queens arranged marriages between houses from distant regions, including matches linking the Vale with the North and the Riverlands with the Westerlands. These policies were not council appointments, but they belonged to the same work of making the new monarchy govern through connection as well as conquest.

Regency, Revenue, and the Cost of Government

During the regency of Queen Alyssa Velaryon and Rogar Baratheon, the Crown’s depleted treasury made administration a test of political judgment. The wars of Maegor I Targaryen had exhausted royal funds, and the expenses of Jaehaerys I Targaryen’s coronation and his mother’s Golden Wedding had further strained the treasury. Rogar also wanted to complete the Dragonpit before transferring control of the city and kingdom to the young king. Edwell Celtigar, who had already proved ineffective as Hand to Maegor I Targaryen, became an equally ineffective master of coin under the regency. To avoid offending fellow lords, he burdened the smallfolk and commerce instead: port fees were tripled, certain goods were taxed on entry and exit, and new levies fell on innkeepers and builders. The policy failed on its own terms. Construction slowed, inns emptied, and merchants diverted ships from King’s Landing to Driftmark, Duskendale, and Maidenpool. The resulting loss of trade did not refill the treasury; it intensified resentment against Celtigar and the regents, and left work on the Dragonpit halted for lack of funds. The episode shows how the Crown’s ability to govern depended on revenue, but also how the choice of whom to tax could undermine the authority taxation was meant to sustain.

Viserys I’s Council and the Succession Question

As Viserys I Targaryen’s health failed, he entrusted more of the realm’s governance to his Hand and council. By the eve of 129 AC, the council brought together officials whose positions and loyalties would matter in the conflict to come. Otto Hightower remained Hand; Grand Maester Orwyle was thought to favor neither faction; Criston Cole commanded the Kingsguard; and Lyman Beesbury served as master of coin. Tyland Lannister was master of ships, Larys Strong master of whisperers, and Jasper Wylde master of laws. Rhaenyra Targaryen regarded Criston as a bitter enemy, while the wider dispute over succession placed the council within a realm already divided between Blacks and Greens. The death of Grand Maester Mellos exposed how even an appointment could become a factional contest. Rhaenyra pressed for Maester Gerardys, whose healing skills she credited with saving Viserys after his injury on the Iron Throne. Alicent Hightower argued that Rhaenyra and her maester had intervened unnecessarily and urged the appointment of a Hightower-affiliated candidate. Viserys declined to choose between them, pointing out that the Citadel, not the Crown, selected the Grand Maester. The Conclave appointed Orwyle. Viserys appeared to recover some vigor after Orwyle arrived, but his illnesses persisted, and the council assumed a greater share of rule as the king weakened.

The Green Council and the Seizure of Power

When Viserys died, Alicent ordered his room sealed and guarded, and the small council was summoned during the night. It met in the queen’s apartments in Maegor’s Holdfast, with Alicent, Otto, Criston, Orwyle, Beesbury, Tyland, Larys, and Jasper in attendance. Grand Maester Munkun later called this gathering the Green Council. His account drew on Orwyle, who had taken part in the deliberations, but Munkun’s history also cautions that Orwyle had reason to present himself favorably and evade blame for what followed. The council’s decisions joined the claim of Alicent’s son to preparations for a possible war. Tyland replaced Beesbury as master of coin and divided the royal gold among the Iron Bank of Braavos, Casterly Rock, and Oldtown, reserving the remaining share for gifts, bribes, and sellswords. Otto also sought the allegiance of Dalton Greyjoy by offering him the admiralty and a place on the council. Meanwhile, the council examined the records of the Great Council of 101 AC and assessed which houses might support Rhaenyra. The precedent had favored a male claimant, but the records also identified potential supporters of her cause; precedent informed the council’s calculations without resolving the contest. The council withheld news of Viserys’s death from Dragonstone while ravens went to lords it hoped would support Aegon. When the death was finally announced, bells rang and riders proclaimed Aegon’s accession, but the people’s response was mixed: some wept, some cheered, and many remained uncertain. Aegon was crowned in the Dragonpit with the Conqueror’s iron-and-ruby crown, while Alicent crowned his sister and wife, Helaena. The ceremony presented a new king to the realm, but it did not secure universal recognition: Ser Steffon Darklyn had already defected to Dragonstone with Viserys’s crown, and Rhaenyra’s party soon crowned her with the crown of Jaehaerys I Targaryen. The Small Council’s capacity to organize a succession thus demonstrated both its reach and its limit: it could control information, treasury, and appointments, but it could not make a contested claim uncontested.