Paddy Considine as King Viserys I Targaryen

He ruled from 103 AC to 129 AC and was the fifth Targaryen king to sit on the Iron Throne. Viserys took over from his grandfather, the Old King Jaehaerys I. He continued his grandfather’s peaceful rule and tradition, but he also accidentally started the civil war called the Dance of the Dragons that would later destroy the realm. During the rule of Jaehaerys I, Viserys was a dragon rider who rode Balerion until the dragon died of old age. After Balerion died, Viserys never formed a bond with another dragon.

How King Viserys I Targaryen Looks Like Appearance and Character

Viserys liked peace and didn’t like fighting. He was also fat and friendly. People said he was friendly, willing to help, and eager to please. Viserys was never thought to have a strong will, but he wasn’t flexible or unable to make up his mind either. Once he made up his mind, he stuck to it.

It was said that King Viserys was very kind, and the Red Keep became a place of song and beauty while he was king. He threw many balls, feasts, and tournaments, and he gave his friends and family a lot of gold, offices, and awards. Both lords and smallfolk adored Viserys.

Viserys had a lot of health problems in his middle years because he was too fat. He had gout, painful joints, back pain, and breathing problems. Near the end of his life, his size almost stopped him from going up the steps to the Iron Throne.

He wore the crown of his grandpa, Jaehaerys I Targaryen, and had a bushy, silver-gold mustache.

King Viserys I Targaryen Youth

In 92 AC, King Jaehaerys I picked Prince Baelon Targaryen to be his heir. However, he died before the Old King, which raised questions about who would take over. The Great Council of 101 AC picked Viserys, Baelon’s oldest son. They had been married for ten years, and he was twenty-six years old.

Early Years of King Viserys I Reign

In the year 103 AD, Jaehaerys I Targaryen, the Old King, passed away in his bed. Viserys’ grandfather left him a safe throne, a full treasury, and a legacy of kindness. When Viserys was alive, House Targaryen had the most people and dragons it had had since the Doom of Valyria. The smallfolk were hopeful about Viserys’ rule because he was known as the “Young King” when he took the Iron Throne. Mushroom, a dwarf, was the fool at his court.

In 104 AD, the tournament to choose King Viserys I as heir was held in Maidenpool.

The Young King was eager to keep his grandfather, Jaehaerys the Wise, happy and at peace. He held a beautiful court with his cousin and wife, Queen Aemma Arryn. Their daughter, Princess Rhaenyra, was six years old when her father became king. They had a son who died when he was very young. When she was eight years old, the princess became his royal cupbearer and was always with him at feasts, balls, and tournaments. Rhaenyra was called “the delight of the realm.”

Prince Daemon Targaryen, Viserys’s younger brother, saw himself as his brother’s heir and wanted to be called Prince of Dragonstone. Viserys loved his younger brother Daemon, even though he had some problems. But he didn’t want Daemon to take over as king. Viserys hoped that his wife would give birth to a son and solve the problem of who would take over the throne.

Viserys made his brother a member of the small council. It got so bad between Daemon and Ser Otto Hightower, who was the Hand of the King, that Viserys put Daemon in charge of the City Watch in early 104 AC to get rid of Hightower from the council. Otto tried to persuade Viserys to make Rhaenyra his child because he was afraid Daemon would become king. Viserys said no because he was sure he and his wife would have a son one day. Later, Aemma got pregnant, which made the king very happy.

In the year 105 AD, Aemma died while giving birth to the king’s son and heir. He was named Baelon after Viserys’s late father, Prince Baelon the Brave, but he died the next day, after Aemma. While the king was grieving, his brother Daemon was seen making drunk jokes with his friends about the “heir for a day” in a brothel on the Street of Silk. When the sad Viserys heard this, his sadness turned into anger.

After the mourning time was over, Viserys held a big ceremony in 105 AC to make Rhaenyra the heir and Princess of Dragonstone because his brother was being selfish. Many lords and landed knights bowed to the princess and swore to protect her rights to become queen. Danemon stormed out of the city in a rage.

Viserys were training Princess Rhaenyra to be queen. He taught her how to rule and added her to his small council.

Story of King Viserys I Second Marriage

Viserys wasn’t even thirty yet, so Grand Maester Runciter was the first person to tell him he should get married again. She suggested Laena Velaryon, who was the daughter of Lord Corlys Velaryon. Viserys was picked as heir to the Iron Throne over Corlys’s son, Laenor Velaryon, in the Great Council of 101 AC. This kind of marriage would have healed the split between the Iron Throne and Driftmark. Viserys picked Alicent Hightower instead. She is the 18-year-old daughter of Ser Otto Hightower, who is his Hand of the King.

Viserys and Alicent got married in the year 106 AD. Queen Alicent kissed Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and called her “daughter” after she poured wine for her new stepmother at the wedding feast. People say that when Prince Daemon Targaryen heard that his brother was getting married, he nearly killed the servant who brought the news. Even though Daemon and House Velaryon were at war with the Triarchy over who would control the Stepstones, the calm Viserys didn’t care.

They got along well at first, but that didn’t last long. In 107 AC, Alicent gave birth to a healthy son named Aegon. In 109 AC, a girl named Helaena was born, and in 110 AC, a son named Aemond was born. Soon, Queen Alicent and Princess Rhaenyra stopped getting along because they both wanted to be the first lady of the land.

Even though Alicent had given Viserys male children, the king didn’t change the order of succession because he had already named Rhaenyra as his heir in his will. Otto Hightower yelled at the king so much that Viserys sent him back to Oldtown and made Lyonel Strong, the Lord of Harrenhal, Hand.

There were now two sides in court. The queen’s party was made up of strong lords who were friends with Alicent and backed her sons’ rights. The princess’s party, which backed Rhaenyra as heir, was against them. The Free Cities sent letters to Braavos, Pentos, and Volantis letting them know about how cool things were between the two.

It was 111 AC, and Viserys and Alicent had an event to mark the fifth occasion of their wedding. People started calling the queen and princess “greens” and “blacks” when they talked about them because the queen wore a green dress and the princess wore black and red, which are Targaryen colors.

The tourney also saw Daemon return to the court. Daemon gave Viserys the crown he claimed while fighting for the Stepstones as a way to make up with his brother. But within six months, Daemon was sent back to the outside world of King’s Landing.

Grand Maester Runciter said that the two brothers just got into a fight, but it was said that Daemon took Rhaenyra’s virginity. Lyonel Strong told King Viserys, who was very angry, that Daemon should be put to death for treason, but Septon Eustace warned the council of the bad reputation of killing a family member. So Daemon was sent away instead.

Viserys hated fighting, and he tried many times to stop the fighting between the blacks and the greens, but there were many fights and fake apologies on both sides. Both his wife and daughter loved him, but they only loved each other when he told them to. The Seven Kingdoms were at peace as long as Viserys was in charge.

Viserys thought it was time for his daughter Rhaenyra to get married in 113 AD. Queen Alicent wanted her oldest son, Prince Aegon, to become king someday, so she wanted the girl to marry him. Viserys wouldn’t let it happen because Aegon was ten years younger than Rhaenyra and the two hardly ever got along.

To make peace between the Iron Throne and Driftmark again, the king and council picked Laenor Velaryon to marry Rhaenyra. Rhaenyra, on the other hand, spoke out against the match, saying that Laenor would rather have her half-brothers than her.

Viziers told Rhaenyra that he would change the succession if she didn’t agree to the marriage, and that’s when she gave in. Rhaenyra married Ser Laenor against her will in 114 AD, but it is not clear if the marriage was ever completed. Laenor mostly stayed on Driftmark, where beautiful squires surrounded him.

He only went to Dragonstone to see Rhaenyra every once in a while. In the autumn of that same year, Rhaenyra had her first boy, Jacaerys Velaryon. The baby didn’t look like either of his parents, though. He had brown hair, brown eyes, and a pug nose instead. This led to a rumour that the baby’s real father was Ser Harwin Strong, Lord Lyonel’s son and Rhaenyra’s sworn guard who lived with her on Dragonstone.

In the same year, Queen Alicent had her third boy, Daeron. In order to keep them from fighting, Viserys had Jacaerys and Daeron share a wetnurse until they were weaned. Rhaenyra soon gave her dad two more grandchildren. Lucerys Velaryon was born in 115 AC, and Joffrey Velaryon was born in 117 AC. The fact that all three of Rhaenyra’s children had pug noses, brown hair, and brown eyes made people even more sure that Ser Harwin Strong was their real father.

Princess Daemon and her wife Laena Velaryon had two children. Their names were Baela and Rhaena. Viziers and Daemon made up again, and with the king’s approval, Princess Rhaenyra set up marriages for Jacaerys and Lucerys to Baela and Rhaena. The king hoped that this would change Daemon’s ways, but it didn’t.

The Later Reign Story

People called the year 120 AD the “Year of the Red Spring” because so many people died and bad things happened.

However, Viserys was the only one who believed the families of Rhaenyra and Alicent when they said they were sorry. Anyone who spreads rumours about Ser Harwin Strong will lose their tongue, and the king told him to leave Dragonstone and go to Harrenhal.

After that, Harwin and his father Lyonel, the Hand of the King, were killed in a huge fire at Harrenhal. Some people said the curse of Harrenhal caused the fire, while others said it was Daemon, Lord Corlys Velaryon, Harwin’s younger brother Larys Strong, or even Viserys. The king called Ser Otto Hightower back to be the King’s Hand.

In the same year, Rhaenyra’s husband, Ser Laenor Velaryon, died in a fight with Ser Qarl Correy, who was married to him but was said to be seeing someone else. Everyone in the realm was shocked when Rhaenyra and Daemon got married without Viserys’s knowledge.

It was a big scandal because neither Laena nor Laenor had been dead for six months. Rhaenyra and Daemon’s first boy, Prince Aegon the Younger, was born at the end of the year. Viserys was the name of Rhaenyra’s second son, who was born in 122 AD.

The blacks and greens became more hostile towards each other when Rhaenyra and Alicent’s children were forced to be close. The royal children and grandkids learned how to ride dragons, and people who came to the court saw dragons from one side snapping and spitting flames at dragons from the other side.

In the year 126 AC, Rhaenyra claimed that Lucerys, her second-oldest son, should be chosen as the heir to Driftmark. On the other hand, several lower cousins of House Velaryon tried to convince the Iron Throne that her sons were immoral and had no right to Driftmark, but they were ignored. King Viserys heard them but kept quiet.

After telling them to cut off their mouths, he slipped and cut his hand on the Iron Throne. The king had a fever from an infection, and Grand Maester Mellos couldn’t get him better. It was thought that he would die. Viserys didn’t get better until Maester Gerardys cut off two of his fingers. Princess Rhaenyra brought Maester Gerardys from Dragonstone to King’s Landing. It was the last time Viserys sat on the throne.

Rhaenyra suggested that her trusted Maester Gerardys take over as Grand Maester after Mellos died. Queen Alicent wished that Maester Alfador, who worked for House Hightower, be named to the job. Viserys didn’t choose between the two options because he was under attack from both. He told both his wife and daughter that the Citadel would choose the new leader. In the end, Archmaester Orwyle was chosen by the assembly to be the new Grand Maester.

During the last ten years of Viserys I’s rule, Otto Hightower mostly filled the small council with people who agreed with him. In the last year of Viserys’s rule, 129 AC, Lord Larys Strong was in charge of whisperers, Ser Tyland Lannister was in charge of ships, and Lord Jasper Wylde was in charge of laws. It’s not clear exactly when these men joined the council.

As Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Criston Cole was already a devoted supporter of Alicent’s side. On the other hand, Orwyle was seen as politically neutral partly because of his vows as a Maester. Old Lord Lyman Beesbury, who had been master of coins since the end of Jaehaerys I’s rule, was the only one who didn’t agree with them.

King Viserys I Targaryen Death

People called the year 120 AD the “Year of the Red Spring” because so many people died and bad things happened.

Prince Daemon Targaryen’s wife, Laena Velaryon, died after giving birth. While she was being buried, Aemond Targaryen got into a fight with Rhaenyra’s sons. He called them scum from House Strong. Aemond lost an eye when Lucerys used a knife to protect Jacaerys. However, Viserys was the only one who believed the families of Rhaenyra and Alicent when they said they were sorry.

Anyone who spreads rumours about Ser Harwin Strong will lose their tongue, and the king told him to leave Dragonstone and go to Harrenhal. After that, Harwin and his father Lyonel, the Hand of the King, were killed in a huge fire at Harrenhal. Some people said the curse of Harrenhal caused the fire, while others said it was Daemon, Lord Corlys Velaryon, Harwin’s younger brother Larys Strong, or even Viserys. The king called Ser Otto Hightower back to be the King’s Hand.

Rhaenyra suggested that her trusted Maester Gerardys take over as Grand Maester after Mellos died. Queen Alicent wished that Maester Alfador, who worked for House Hightower, be named to the job. Viserys didn’t choose between the two options because both attacked him. He told both his wife and daughter that the Citadel would choose the new leader. In the end, Archmaester Orwyle was chosen by the assembly to be the new Grand Maester.

As Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Criston Cole was already a devoted supporter of Alicent’s side. On the other hand, Orwyle was seen as politically neutral partly because of his vows as a maester. Old Lord Lyman Beesbury, who had been master of coins since the end of Jaehaerys I’s rule, was the only one who didn’t agree with them.

Paddy Considine as King Viserys I Targaryen

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