George R R Martin - The Rise of the Dragon

Baratheon and the other lords captured by the Wyl of Wyl were ransomed, but each man had his sword hand removed prior to their release. Aegon retaliated with Balerion, burning Wyl’s keeps and watchtowers, but the Widow-lover took refuge in the caves and tunnels and lived on.

In 8 AC, the Dornish raided across the Sea of Dorne, using ships from a Stepstones pirate, burning towns and villages on the southern shore of Cape Wrath and setting half the rainwood alight. Visenya Targaryen responded by burning more Dornish castles. In 9 AC, she returned again—this time with Aegon—and still more castles burned.

Oldtown attacked.

In 10 AC, the Dornish responded by sending two armies into the Reach. The first, led by Lord Fowler, captured the stormlands castle Nightsong, then held by Lord Caron. Lord Manfred Hightower of Oldtown responded by sending an army to Nightsong, led by his son, Ser Addam. And it was only then that the second Dornish army—led by Ser Joffrey Dayne—was deployed, attacking and burning villages, farms, and fields for sixty miles around the now mostly undefended Oldtown. Ser Joffrey killed Lord Hightower’s younger son, Garmon, when he attempted to lead a sortie. Meanwhile, by the time Ser Addam reached Nightsong, the castle had been abandoned, its garrison slaughtered, and Lord Caron and his family carried away as captives. And when Ser Addam finally returned to Oldtown, Dayne and his army had already escaped back to Dorne. Lord Manfred died not long after, and was succeeded by Addam. Aegon considered another invasion of Dorne in response, but young Lord Theo Tyrell was reluctant to support him after what had happened to his father and his father’s army.

Instead, the Targaryens employed their dragons. All three flew to Dorne. Aegon and Balerion burned Skyreach, and Visenya and Vhagar burned Starfall. But when Rhaenys and Meraxes flew to Hellholt, they were struck down by an iron bolt from a scorpion placed on the castle’s highest tower. Meraxes fell from the sky, flailing in her death throes, destroying the tower and part of the wall before dying. What became of Rhaenys is less clear. She may have been flung off and fallen to her death; she may have been crushed beneath her dragon. But some claim she survived, only to be tortured to death in Hellholt’s dungeons.

What followed Rhaenys’s death came to be known as the Dragon’s Wroth. For two years, Aegon and Visenya flew over Dorne repeatedly, burning every Dornish castle—and often more than once. Only Sunspear was spared—though for what reason, we can only speculate. Perhaps because the Martells had purchased a dragonslaying engine from Lys, or perhaps because the Targaryens hoped to turn the Dornish people against Princess Meria—though, if that was their aim, it failed. Additionally, the Targaryens placed bounties on the heads of the Dornish lords. Half a dozen Dornish lords and ladies were killed—but most of the assassins did not live to claim their rewards. The Dornish responded in kind, and so the stormlords Connington, Mertyns and Fell met their doom.

During the years of the Dragon’s Wroth, Aegon and Visenya were each attacked by Dornish assassins on several occasions. It was such an attack in 10 AC—foiled by Visenya herself—which led Visenya to establish the Kingsguard for Aegon’s defense. This company of seven knights, swearing their service, honor, and lives to the king, would swiftly become a celebrated brotherhood, containing some of the greatest knights in the history of Westeros.

The most infamous event of 12 AC was another Dornish reprisal—this time committed by the Wyl of Wyl. He led raiders to Fawnton during the wedding of Ser Jon Cafferen and Alys Oakheart. He and his men gelded the groom, killed the bride’s father, Lord Oakheart, and most of the wedding guests, then raped the bride and her handmaids before selling the women into slavery in Myr.

Dorne was a scorched wasteland by this point. There was no sign that the Targaryens would relent in their destruction until Dorne yielded, but neither was there any sign that the Dornish would yield. However, in 13 AC, Meria Martell, the Yellow Toad, died. Her son, Prince Nymor, succeeded her, and he seemed less willing to continue the conflict than his mother. He dispatched his heir, Princess Deria, to King’s Landing with the skull of Meraxes and an offer of peace—though one that left Dorne independent.

Queen Visenya and Orys Baratheon were both opposed to the deal. The new Lord Oakheart advised, by raven, that Deria should be sold to a brothel, to be used as his sister had been. Though Aegon refused to harm an envoy under a peace banner, he was still unwilling to allow the Dornish peace without submission. Before he announced his refusal, however, Princess Deria gave the king a letter from her father. The contents of that letter remain unknown to this day, as Aegon burned it and never spoke of its contents. But whatever the letter contained—theories about the letter include emotional appeals, sorcery, and even threats against Aegon’s son and heir, Aenys—it stirred Aegon to fly to Dragonstone that night. When he returned the next morning, he agreed to the proposal and signed a treaty of eternal peace.

Deria brings Prince Nymor’s letter.

Astute readers may notice that Aegon claimed rule over the Seven Kingdoms, but ultimately only conquered six. However, a shrewd bit of political maneuvering served a dual purpose here. For generations, the riverlands had not been an independent kingdom but instead had been traded back and forth between the Storm Kings and the ironborn.

By granting the riverlands to Edmyn Tully, splitting it apart from the Iron Islands, Aegon not only gained a valuable ally, but created what could be termed a seventh kingdom, even as Dorne resisted integration into Aegon’s new realm. A technicality—but an important one for a realm that made much of the number seven.

Lord Edmyn Tully of Riverrun

Aegon I’s court.

AEGON I’S EARLY reign may have been beset by war, but he also made many efforts to bind his new realm together. He and his sisters encouraged the nobility to send their children to King’s Landing to serve as pages and handmaids. They brokered marriages between far-removed noble houses to create connections between distant regions. And they made regular royal progresses, so that the whole realm could see their new rulers, gaze upon their dragons, and experience their justice. In fact, Aegon only spent half his time at the Aegonfort or Dragonstone; for the rest, he was out and about in his kingdom.

When he held court on these progresses, Aegon made sure to consult with maesters familiar with the local laws of the regions, which he used to guide his judgments. His chief goal was to establish peace, not harmonize the laws, so he declared that the first new law in the realm was the King’s Peace, which forbade private wars between feuding noblemen.

But over time, Aegon did standardize customs, duties, and taxes throughout the realm, so that no port or person had more favorable terms than another. And to court the favor of the Faith, he exempted the septs, septries, and the holy men and women of the Faith from taxation. In fact, courting the favor of the Faith and the High Septon became a pattern for most of the early Targaryens, as the Faith had great influence over the people of the Seven Kingdoms.

Aegon the Conqueror did not rule alone, however. Even from the earliest days of his reign, his sisters and queens ruled alongside him. Whenever he traveled on a progress, one of the queens would remain

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