Was Jaehaerys & Alysanne marriage for love or a political match ? - Game Of Thrones Theory

[@Cassandra96]

According to wiki - 'Jaehaerys outlived Alysanne by a few years. She had been his great love, and it was said that the grief caused by their parting hung over his court, reducing him to a shell of the man he had once been.'

[@Pokephira]

If Jaehaerys really believed in the importance of keeping the ability to ride dragons in the family, then it must have been a real problem having so many kids. He essentially had no choice but to dilute the family blood. Depending on if you believe certain fan theories or not, that decision may have doomed the dragons and targaeryens.

[@WorldOfWesteros]

I think you make a good point in terms of blood. They really just got lucky in the sense Viserys parents were siblings, and he married a cousin with fairly strong Targaryen blood. The fading of dragon hatching would have happened sooner if they weren’t luck to have gone down the parts of the family tree they did. I think the amount of kids he had is the hole in this theory, for someone focused on maintaining power having then marrying so many kids outside the house doesn’t fit and frankly sets the stage for the dance to happen. I guess you could say he never intended to have so many, and the marriages was Alysanne’s hobby but it’s still a bit of a hole on the idea it was all pretty planned and Jaehaerys 100% knew what he was doing

[@billychops1280]

Keeping the blood pure is good and all but having many kids with your sister doesn’t dilute it as much as someone would think it’s a good thing to have many children so that the family doesn’t go extinct out of nowhere by something and so that many marriage can be made. Say your a Targaryen and you had 3 sons and 3 daughters, the smart thing to do would be to Mary them to one another and then have their children Mary their cousins otherwise there is a huge chance that your grandchildren have reproduction problems when mating with their siblings just like Rhaegar’s mother had with Aerys. So there should be some distance in marriages in a manner of speaking

[@redadmiralofvalyria867]

@@billychops1280 so in other words, even IF the Targaryens wanted to continue their "valyrian tradition" they should have essentially spread out a little? As in yes do it, but down the line spread out?

[@billychops1280]

@@redadmiralofvalyria867 yes and you can see it in the early family tree, for instance Aerion (lord of dragon stone and father of Aegon the conqueror) had 3 healthy children with his cousin (who was a Velaryon but her mother one of Gaemon and Naerys’s children) so there was still targaryen blood in Aegons mother but there was also enough Valyrian blood to ensure strong and healthy children, now when Aegon had his sons, one was weak and frail and one was strong as a bull and honestly probably taller than Aegon when he died, but the thing with that generation was that Maegor got all the physical attributes but none of the reproductive fonctions needed , where as Aenys was the opposite, he was sickly but had 5 healthy children with his Velaryon cousin (distantly related by that point) that’s why Aenys’s son Aegon had twins with Rhaena and Jaeherys had 14 children with Alyssane,

[@thalmoragent9344]

@@redadmiralofvalyria867 Yeah, precisely. Cousins with some Velaryons and Celtigars tossed in for good measure and fresh blood.

[@saranemcova5448]

Some theorize that older sister of Jaehaerys Rhaena wanted to be Queen, as the oldest child, and she has some supporters, but alliance of Baratheons and Velaryons forced her to not fight for throne. In fact, Rhaena would probably be better match for Jaehaerys (it is hinted that she was special like Daenerys). But I'm not complaining. Alysanne was inteligent Queen.

[@WorldOfWesteros]

I can defiantly but that theory, it does make a lot of sense. I think the only issue i can see is Rhaena saw herself / her children as the rightful heirs, so i'm not sure how happy she would have been marrying Jaehaerys in that instance. I can defiantly see her planning something thought her tour of the west is very suspect

[@jyotirani8187]

I doubt Rhaena would be fit for Jaehaerys, tho. Look at how she treated Andrew Farman.

[@virgilsierra6007]

Even though this video is a couple of years old I just want to say I really like this channel - I read F&B this year and I can honestly say this channel is such a concentrated yet very detailed and interesting summary of all aspects, especially of the reign of Jahaerys

[@WorldOfWesteros]

Glad you like the content and i'm pleased you see the content that way as that is kinda what i've been hoping to create so it's good to know people see it like that

[@virgilsierra6007]

@@WorldOfWesteros it’s cracking content, mate - forwarding these videos not only helps me share your channel but also helps me convince my friends to read the artwork that is F&B 👍🏻

[@ryanelliott71698]

Marriage in Westeros really has a lot of political angles. And we see in Fire and Blood and the main books how it helps but also weirdly looks like a ww1 alliance map. Cough, Frey’s, cough.

[@WorldOfWesteros]

The Frey parallel is an interesting example. Like a lot of fire and blood i think it's important to remember that its written by bias sources, and sometimes reality of a situation gets muddled. Political marriage was such a huge part of society which is what makes the narrative of fire and blood questionable. not impossible just questionable.

[@annieandelsieofarendelle3294]

I think they genuinely did love each other even when they were apart since we know during those two years Jaeherys was practically a shell of a man without her and I doubt Alysanne just stopped loving the man she spent a majority of her life with since she did end up managing to reconcile with him and said that she knew Baelon would be a great king despite her annoyance at him being put before Rhaenys. Sure it might also be for political reasons, but that’s not always a bad thing.

[@WorldOfWesteros]

I have no doubt that they did love each other. There was definitely political elements to the match but I think there is enough evidence in text to say they loved each other.

[@danielsilva-duarte571]

Makes a lot of sense for me. Another thing that always sounded odd for me is why he didn't limited the ownership of dragons only for members of house Targaryen.

[@WorldOfWesteros]

It would have saved a lot of issues down the line in terms of House Velaryon. I get the logic of marrying Rhaenyra to Laynor to merge to claimets lines together, but giving another house access to dragons was always going to cause some huge issues. I just don't think Jaehaerys could have foreseen the absolute mess his own succession would be let alone that of Viserys.

[@thalmoragent9344]

@@WorldOfWesteros I dunno, giving Dragons to the Velaryons wasn't the issue, it was Rhaenyra's bastards that causes the issue, as well as Aegon 2 not being named Heir over Rhaenyra.

[@thalmoragent9344]

Cause why not? Velaryons were close and faithful allies. No problem unless the Targaryens do something dumb... and they did.

[@AlexS-oj8qf]

If I were a Targaryen King I would make anyone marrying my daughter to be obliged to take the name Targaryen.

[@maealegrado9236]

I would say that only the males can pass dragon eggs to their children. It's not to be sexist because most women take their husband's last names

[@AzzurroProductions]

@@maealegrado9236 Can pass dragon eggs to their children? What does that mean? lol Rhaenys was a fierce dragon rider and raised two dragon riding children, one who claimed Vhagar

[@maealegrado9236]

@@AzzurroProductions Her children are Velaryons. If any Targaryen woman marries outside the family she'll most likely pass dragon eggs on to her kids. When that happens her husband's house now has some sort of power since kids go under their father's name. What the Targaryens want is to keep the power only within House Targaryen.

[@SilvX610]

To be honest, if they were afraid of other families taking advantage of dragons by marrying Targaryen daughters, why didn't they pass dragons only through the main branch?

[@alexandrostheodorou8387]

If a kid from the female line ascends the throne they become Targaryen while on the throne Simple.

[@sankarkrishnan407]

If Jahnerys was so calculated why he didn't marry Rhaenys to Viserys to avoid a future political turmoil. If that marriage happened no great council, no dance of the dragons.

[@WorldOfWesteros]

This is actually very good question as they we both were both close in age. If i had to make a guess i would say it's probably as Jaehaerys never expected Aemon to die so young and probably though he's have more children perhaps a son in the future. Viserys didn't marry Aemma till after Aemon was dead, but Rhaenys married Corlys before. Aemon dying so young definitely threw a spanner in the works.

[@sankarkrishnan407]

@@WorldOfWesteros Jaherys missed the point that House Velarayon also had access to dragons. He can't do anything. When more dragons born more dragon riders also. If Dance of the dragons may not happen many more houses will have the access to dragons and targaryns will be weak in future.

[@Divine_Chareka]

Thank you for this upload, had missed your videos Ser

[@WorldOfWesteros]

Glad you enjoy them my friend.

[@user-jo6tw9dz7s]

This just show how good of a king he is

[@WorldOfWesteros]

Yep, even at such a young age, he knew exactly what it meant to be King and what he needed to do

[@Eddy1938-b]

Makes sense, it must have hurt having someone troublesome kids (Saera). Rogar was certainly power hungry, Alysanne could have married a Velaryon

[@WorldOfWesteros]

It really makes me wonder how complicate Alyssa was in Rogar's plan, i mean she stood by him for a long time and went against her own children so it makes you wonder how involved she really was in the planning.

[@thalmoragent9344]

@@WorldOfWesteros But what was her plan, against her own kids

[@Adamswisher97]

Well spoken

[@Caramelo23606]

I mean, they had 13 children...

[@emilybarclay8831]

It’s possibly to marry both for love and for political gain. They’re not mutually exclusive. That being said, I don’t think Jaehaerys and Alysanne’s relationship was as loving as it was portrayed. Maybe in the early days, but it’s clear they fell out of love in later years

[@WorldOfWesteros]

This is a really balanced take. Like a lot of things in fire and blood i think the truth is somewhere in the middle ground

[@hayleylongster4698]

I don't think they fell out of love so much as fell into reality lol. That's usually how longterm romantic relationships work

[@bclr6843]

I was thinking BS but think of the power gained by house valaryon by wedding a dragon rider bride was huge and could have been even bigger not to mention how things could have went if those kids married more out and had children with the survival of Dragons. I think you make a excellent point