Varys: Though the Targaryens had forged the
Seven Kingdoms in fire and blood, they didn't
govern with them.
Until they did.
Maegor, First of His Name, defined counsel
as confirmation and disagreement as treason.
Three Grand Maesters tried to avert disaster.
Instead of taking their advice, Maegor took
their heads.
As a second son and exile, Maegor was never
meant to rule.
But no sooner did Maegor hear of his brother's
death that he flew Balerion to Dragonstone
and demanded the crown.
Only the Grand Maester dared object that the
throne should pass to his older brother's
firstborn son, Prince Aegon.
Maegor insisted that the Iron Throne should
go to the man with the strength to seize it,
and beheaded the Grand Maester.
Prince Aegon soon took him at his word.
He claimed his father's dragon, raised a host
of Westermen, and marched on King's Landing
while Maegor was in Oldtown.
Far from the capital, Maegor couldn't rally
an army to match Aegon's.
So he ordered his banners to swarm Aegon's
larger army from all sides, confusing the
young prince and slowing his advance.
Beneath the Gods Eye, Maegor's disparate forces
came together and attacked Aegon as Maegor
himself swooped down from the clouds.
For the first time since the Doom of Valyria,
dragon fought dragon in the sky.
But Aegon's dragon was no match for Balerion
the Dread, who was four times its size.
When Aegon fell to his death, his army broke
and fled.
For slaying his own nephew, Maegor forever
after became known as "The Cruel."
Though, of course, not to his face.
The next Grand Maester dared object to Maegor
taking a third wife when taking his second
wife had ruined his brother's reign because
Maegor's first wife was the niece of the High
Septon.
But Maegor beheaded the Grand Maester and
declared war on the Faith.
He set fire to the Riverlands, the Westerlands,
and the Reach in a campaign to root out disloyal
lords and sponsored a more pliant High Septon.
None of it worked.
Maegor may have returned to the capital with
two thousand skulls of the Faith Militant,
but most of them weren't soldiers.
They were simple folk who had sheltered the
outlaw septons or turned out in droves to
hear them denounce the wicked king.
The third Grand Maester dared to declare Maegor
the father of his own heir.
But when his second wife miscarried, and Maegor
saw the monstrous stillbirth, Maegor beheaded
the Grand Maester for his insolent adherence
to truth.
So he had no one to warn him when his third
wife, sensing an advantage, declared that
his second wife had been unfaithful, and produced
a list of potential fathers of the misshapen
child.
Not only did Maegor execute his second wife
and her father, his own Hand of the King,
but he also marched on her family's castle
and slaughtered everyone who bore a drop of
her family's blood.
But his third wife couldn't give him a child
either.
Desperate to cement his stolen throne with
an heir, Maegor took three wives at once,
known as the Black Brides because each were
women he'd widowed in his wars.
All three women grew full with child in time,
but each gave birth to the same twisted monstrosities
as his second wife.
One need not be a maester, much less a Grand
Maester, to deduce the common thread here.
Though Maegor stamped out the fires of rebellion,
his cruelty and fear only scattered more tinder
over the realm until even the smallest ember
could set the realm alight.
One day, the Faith Militant emerged from the
shadows, and the lords sent to quash it joined
it instead.
His Hand resigned and retired to his island
home.
Finally, House Baratheon declared for Maegor's
own nephew as the rightful king.
The Lannisters, Tyrells, and Arryns soon joined,
adding more than half the might of Westeros
to the prince and his two dragons.
Which became three when Maegor's niece and
involuntary Black Bride stole away from the
Red Keep with her dragon.
Her treason wasn't even the last.
Maegor's own lord admiral sailed the Royal
Fleet into his nephew's harbor.
But most fitting of all, when Maegor tried
to send ravens to call his banners, he found
that his fourth Grand Maester had learned
from his predecessors and fled.
Maegor spent one final night on the Iron Throne.
He was found in the morning with his wrists
slashed and one of the throne's blades jutting
from his throat.
Nobody knows if it was one of his queens or
Kingsguard or one of the thousands who wanted
him dead.
Or even Maegor himself, frustrated that his
body had failed his will.
Whoever the culprit, no doubt he died as all
tyrants do.
Believing that history would vindicate him.
It hasn't.
History may be written with fire and blood,
but histories aren't.
As any good advisor could have warned him.
