Was Daeron the Good planning to do away with incest?

[PrinceBaelorBreakspear]

Since Aerys the first has had his wife ret-conned from his sister to a Penrose cousin, and since all of Daeron's other children married outside of the family do you think he planned to do away with brother-sister incest? We now know Egg intended to. Was he carrying on a policy of his grandfather's?

[Stallion That Mounts Texas]

Aside from Aerys I being the only outlier, its possible, or more likely it was a rare case of way too many male dragons. Other than Aelinor, there may not have been any other eligible brides to marry, even from House Valryon, Celtigar or Lys. It may have been more about necessity.

[PrinceBaelorBreakspear]

That's a fair point, but if Daeron wanted to keep the bloodlines pure wouldn't he have married his heir to Aelinor Penrose rather than having her marry his asexual second son? There is also the potential that Daena the Defiant had children other than Daemon whose children could marry back into the royal line.

[RumHam]

The real reason for the incest was to maintain control of their dragons. Once they no longer had dragons there was really no reason to keep doing it.

[oba]

Political concerns also have to be taken into account, as well. Daeron had just joined Dorne to the realm, which would have caused friction with those regions that had been constantly skirmishing with the dornish. That’s why marrying Baelor to Jena Dondarrion (marcher lords) made sense, for example.

With the Rhaegel-Alys Arryn match, depending on the timing, it may have been as simple as rewarding Lord Arryn for his service during the 1st Blackfyre Rebellion.

[naseridrl]

Once the dragons were gone they needed to bind the realm to tem another way. And marriage is a good was to do that. They no longer had their fear weapon they needed to go for other measures. Plus he had proof from his own personal circumstances that marriage can really work in building alliances and bridges. Maybe he wanted to carry that on as it'd worke for him so successfully.

[complexphoenix]

The Targaryen family tree in the appendix shows that Daeron and Mariah had no daughters. It's probably as simple as that. And since he didn't have daughters, Daeron might as well make matches for political advantage.

Baelor Breakspear wed a Dondarrion; I wonder if this was to help bind up the wounds of the Blackfyre Rebellion, since the Marcher Lords were the biggest Blackfyre supporters? Or maybe the Dondarrions bucked the trend and sided with the Targaryens and they got this marriage as a reward? Well, the text doesn't say, and in any case that portion of the line died out.

Aelinor Penrose was probably a cousin by way of Princess Elaena. Rhaegel married an Arryn, which is a Great House, so the advantages of that one are obvious. Maekar's marriage to a Dayne was probably meant to further strengthen ties to Dorne; or perhaps it had to do with the fact that Daynes have purple eyes.

[Bael's Bastard]

Since Aerys the first has had his wife ret-conned from his sister to a Penrose cousin, and since all of Daeron's other children married outside of the family do you think he planned to do away with brother-sister incest? We now know Egg intended to. Was he carrying on a policy of his grandfather's?

It is hard to say, because like Aegon I it does not appear that he had any daughters to marry any of his sons to. And in the cases where his sons had sons and daughters (Rhaegel, Maekar), there was a marriage (Rhaegel's twins) and betrothal (Egg and Daella).

[Lord Varys]

I was first going with the political marriage thing, too. We know that Daeron II had friends among the Marcher Lords some of which later turned against him. Baelor's marriage to Jena Dondarrion could have been a way to cement a lasting friendship. Just as with the Maekar-Dyanna Dayne thing - however that also could have been a love match, with Dyanna being a lady-in-waiting, or the daughter of a lady-in-waiting to Mariah Martell.

Rhaegel's marriage to Alys Arryn and Aerys' to Aelinor Penrose could then have been simply ways to reward stalwart Targaryen loyalists after the First Blackfyre Rebellion. Some Stormlords and the Arryns really proved their valor on the Redgrass Field.

However, with Ran confirming that Aelinor Penrose was a cousin of Aerys I who is not descended from Elaena Targaryen, my guess would be that Daeron II might actually have continued the incest in the only way possible. A marriage of cousin to cousin - distant cousin to distant cousin, apparently, but still cousin to cousin. Those cadet branches could have either be founded by Daena Targaryen - if she ever married, which does not seem to be the case - or go all the way back to Baela and Alyn Velaryon's children or Rhaena Targaryen's six daughters by Garmund Hightower.

Any children of Daenerys and Maron would have been way too young to marry any of Daeron's sons, and most certainly not any grandchildren of theirs, descended from daughters who married into other houses.

[naseridrl]

Maybe he was going for both bloodline marriages and political marriages. Perhaps e was trying to put his eggs in both baskets. Appease people and make poltical marriages all whilst having some Targs with a pure bloodline for when hey sort out the dragon problem.