The first marriage of Viserys I

[Lord Varys]

Viserys I has been criticized a lot of his decision to not marry Laena Velaryon and take Alicent Hightower instead.

However, if you care check his marriage to Aemma Arryn, it will become clear that she was actually a child bride, too, explaining why Viserys would not be married to a young girl yet again. If you check the dates, it is all but confirmed that Aemma Arryn was born in 82 AC, as this is confirmed to be her mother's year of death in TRP, and we also know that she died in childbirth delivering Aemma (from TWoIaF).

From TRP we know that Viserys I was married about a decade to Aemma Arryn when ascended the Iron Throne in 103 AC, which would indicate that Viserys and Aemma married in 93 AC - when Viserys was sixteen years old, but Aemma Arryn only eleven years old.

This seems to have been a very ill-made match, as Aemma was obviously way too young for marriage, nor should she have been capable of bearing children. In fact, it is very likely that the number of miscarriages and stillbirths Aemma had have their root not so much in the Targaryen blood but the fact that Viserys impregnated her early. If the marriage was consummated on the wedding in 93 AC, Aemma could have had her first pregnancy (and miscarriage) at the age of 11/12.

The most likely reason for this match would have been political, possibly as way to strengthen Prince Baelon's claim to the Iron Throne by ensuring that Viserys would continue Baelon's line with a bride with Targaryen blood, and by binding House Arryn and the Vale to Baelon and Viserys in case that there should be a struggle for succession following Jaehaerys' death (those ties to the Vale was apparently only reinforced by the later marriage between Prince Daemon and Rhea Royce - although part of that match may also have been to get Daemon out of the way).

We have to keep in mind that Jaehaerys' decision for Baelon in 92 AC led to the Second Quarrel, and the subsequent separation of Jaehaerys and Alysanne. Alysanne was very powerful at Jaehaerys' court, and if the couple had never reconciled, and if Alysanne had outlived Jaehaerys, she could easily have helped Rhaenys challenge Baelon's claim. I'd also not be surprised if Alysanne had left KL for Driftmark following her fallout with Jaehaerys, to live with Rhaenys and Corlys for a time. Alysanne's friends and supporters at court would most likely have sided with Alysanne over the issue of succession, and followed her lead rather than Jaehaerys'.

Thus things may have looked very bad for Baelon and Viserys in 92/93 AC, explaining the need Jaehaerys and Baelon saw for an alliance with another great house, that is the Arryns, who conveniently also had Targaryen blood. Rhaenys had the Velaryons and the Baratheons, after all, and possibly also the support of Alysanne. And despite the fact that Jaehaerys and Alysanne eventually reconciled, we don't necessarily have to believe that Alysanne changed her view on the succession. There is a pretty good chance that Viserys would have not prevailed in 101 AC if Alysanne had still been alive...

We should take the fact that 16-year-old Viserys was married to an 11-year-old girl as a pretty strong sign that Princess Rhaenys was by that time already married to Corlys Velaryon (most likely after a long betrothal), and that the Viserys-Aemma was a way to counter the advantage Rhaenys had over Baelon who enjoyed the support of Houses Velaryon and Baratheon.

Considering the bad experience/awkward position Viserys may have found himself in - having to have sex with an eleven- or twelve-year-old girl - I really understood why he had no desire to marry 12-year-old Laena Velaryon after Aemma's early death.

[VVSINGOFTHECROSS]

Interesting theory Lord Varys once more!

I do believe that Jaehaerys might have made a blunder there, especially considering his wife's skill and talent.

[The hairy bear]

I agree that no sane 28 year old man would want to marry a 12 year old girl, specially if he had already a designated heir. I also wouldn't blame Viserys for marrying again, as he was still young and needed to sire more children in case something happened to Rhaenyra.

But Viserys is to blame for many other mistakes:

• Chosing a girl from a powerful family with kingly ancestors. The Hightowers had proven to be ambitious, had a lot of influence with the Faith and the Citadel, and it was not hard to predict that they would try to put one of them at the Iron Throne. It would have been more prudent to choose a woman from a lesser house, or even a Volantene woman (as a way to cement an alliance against the Triarchy).
• Not renewing the lord's oath to Rhaenyra. At 105 they all sworn their allegiance to the princess, but after 15-20 years had passed, Viserys had male sons, and many of the original lords had died (in all likelyhood,of all the great lords ruling in 129, only Jeyne Arryn had sworn fealty to Rhaenyra). If pehaps summoning everyone to repeat the oath wasn't needed, asking the big lords to do so when they visited King's Landing would have been wise.
• Bringing back Otto Hightower to the court was an obvious mistake, and perhaps the worst he did. Likely, he paid for it with his own life.

[Lord Varys]

Well, I guess Jaehaerys had reasons why he decided to name Baelon his heir instead of Rhaenys, possibly most likely because he knew/thought that more lords in the Realm would agree with that - but he may not have foreseen Alysanne's reaction to this decision, as well as the popular support Corlys and Boremund showed for Rhaenys in the months/years immediately after that decisions. Which then led to the Viserys-Aemma match, to counter Rhaenys' strong ties to the Velaryons and Baratheons with Baelon's alliance to another great house with Targaryen blood.

Without the Great Council in 101 AC there would clearly have been a war for succession following Jaehaerys' death. Rhaenys, Corlys, and Boremund were pissed, and they had the numbers and the strength to challenge Viserys' ascension.

THB,

I agree with your assessment on Viserys' mistakes; my point here was to emphasize that the Viserys-Aemma match clearly must have been an unusual early incestuous political match, and not something that was in the making from the start. Until 92 AC Prince Aemon was Jaehaerys' heir, and Baelon/Alyssa and their children were all nothing but spares. It is very likely that Viserys, Daemon, and Aegon (if he was still alive) were not supposed to continue the incestuous Targaryen lines and would all have gotten rich matches suitable for younger princes if Aemon had not died, and Baelon had not be named Prince of Dragonstone in his place.

I disagree with your suggestion that Viserys should have taken a bride from a lesser noble house. If we look at the Targaryen elitism at this point, incest matches aside, I think only a marriage to a former Westerosi royal house, a foreign ruling house (Martells; noble houses in the Free Cities) would have been considered proper for the monarch. Would Viserys still have had the power to go through with a less noble bride? Almost certainly. And I guess a second wife of lesser nobility would also have had much more difficulty to push the claims of her sons against Rhaenyra's. But it could have gone pretty much the same way, as the family of the queen always gains influence and power simply through that fact.

In that regard, we also have to keep in mind that Alicent, while being a Hightower and thus of a very noble lineage, is merely of a cadet branch of House Hightower, not the main line - which in itself is the explanation as to why House Hightower actually survived the Dance, I think. She was not really the best Hightower Viserys could get, and is thus closer to a lesser noble family than a daughter of the Lord of Oldtown would be - keep in mind, that we don't know from which house Alicent's mother came from.

As to Viserys' death:

We clearly should consider the possibility that he was slowly poisoned. He died at a very convenient moment for the Greens, and nothing suggests that he suffered from a lasting illness. Yandel and Gyldayn describe him as old etc. but this was not truly the case. The man died at the age of fifty-two, that is not exactly very old age. No idea what sort of poison that could have been. The finger thing did seem to have been a genuine dangerous injury, though, and if we assume that Gerardys-made-Orwyle remains the maester of Dragonstone elected Grand Maester, my guess is that he actually tried to save Viserys, and was not complicit in any attempt to poison him.

Thus I think it is also possible, even very likely, that Otto and Alicent jumped on the chance the (recently) bad health of Viserys gave them to poison him without making it appear as a sudden and suspicious death, while Rhaenyra was in confinement on Dragonstone due to her advanced pregnancy, unable to react quickly.

The way the tale is told is that Viserys gradually retreated from the governance of the Realm, leaving more and more power in the hands of Ser Otto, but if he was actually recovering after the amputation of his fingers, this may have changed in the future. Otto/Alicent may also have chanced on the opportunity provided by the injury to administer a poison that would draw out the sickness

[Winterfell is Burning]

It's quite possible the marriage was only consummated later, like Tommen's would be.

[Rhaenys_Targaryen]

I find it very interesting that Viserys' wedding to Aemma took place during the Second Quarrel..

As Laena Velaryon was born in 93 AC, I'd say that Rhaenys could easily have been pregnant when Jaehaerys choose his successor in 92 AC. Rhaenys' marriage to Corlys definitly predated Viserys' mariage to Aemma.

[Lord Varys]

Winterfell is Burning,

it may be that the marriage was only consummated later, but not all that much later, as Aemma supposedly had some stillbirths and miscarriages prior to Rhaenyra's birth in 97 AC (who was most likely conceived in 96 AC, when Aemma was 14).

I could see Viserys consummating in 93 AC during the wedding, as the whole point of such an early marriage must have been for Viserys to conceive children of his own as soon as possible - if not, then they could only have betrothed Viserys to Aemma in 93, and postponed the wedding until Aemma came of age - or was at least somewhat older.

The problem with Tommen is that he should still be physically incapable of consummating his marriage, at least for 1-2 years - the same is not true if an older man takes a child bride.

Rhaenys,

yes, with Alysanne effectively being Jaehaerys' co-ruler, their fallout could have had serious repercussions of the whole Realm, if they had not gotten back together - and, as I've already said, I'm inclined to believe that Viserys would have not won at the Great Council if Alysanne had still been around, or had even outlived Jaehaerys. People would have listened, if Alysanne had backed Rhaenys/Laenor over Baelon/Viserys after her brother-husband's death.

[Rhaenys_Targaryen]

Lord Varys,

Nothing seems to suggest that the lords of the realm valued Alysanne's opinions more than those of Jaehaerys. So the outcome of a Great Council with both Jaehaerys and Alysanne still alive would not be as clear, I think. The lords of the realm were the ones to chose who Jaehaerys' heir would be. The whole point of Jaehaerys calling a Great Council was because he wasn't capable of making the decision on his own.

The Lords would have listened to Alysanne, surely. But the victory seems to have been so very clear - with Viserys rumored to have had so many more votes than Rhaenys - that Alysanne might not have been able to have turned the tables.. She might have been able to change the ratio, but I doubt that Viserys would have been on the losing side, in the end..

Alysanne being alive so late in time, might have stimulated a betrothal between Rhaenyra and Laenor at a much earlier age, though, to merge the lines of House Targaryen together.

[Lord Varys]

Rhaenys,

it seems that Jaehaerys was pretty much broken during the Great Council. If Alysanne had still been around and thrown her charisma into the ring, things may have not been as clearly as they were after her death. It makes a difference if you know that the dragonriding co-ruler of the ailing king may continue to stick around for quite some time now, backing, supporting, and pushing the claim of her granddaughter or great-grandson, or if you know that most of the adult male Targaryens are in Viserys' camp.

But my original point was not so much about Alysanne winning the Great Council for Rhaenys/Laenor but Jaehaerys' decision in 92 AC may have created much more uproar and turmoil with the powerful people and friends Aemon and Rhaenys had at court and in the Realm.

Baelon's place as Prince of Dragonstone may not have been so sure as it appeared, in part due to Alysanne's temporary break-up with Jaehaerys. The fact that Jaehaerys decided to call a Great Council upon Baelon's to discuss the succession is in itself a testament of his weakness and to the seriousness of the matter. If Baelon had been widely accepted as Heir Apparent to the Iron Throne, Jaehaerys could just have named Viserys Prince of Dragonstone upon Baelon's death, but he clearly felt/knew that this would not do. Corlys/Rhaenys and Viserys/Daemon seem to have been willing to let this whole thing escalate into a war in 101 (with Corlys supposedly assembling a fleet and Daemon mustering men-at-arms).