House of the Dragon “starts with the Great Council of 101 AC”

With just over a month and a half until the premiere of House of the Dragon, the first Game of Thrones successor series, the fires of hype are burning bright. More specifically, A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin has been making the rounds, doing interviews and posting to his blog much more than usual in the lead-up to the new series.

Already, Martin has shared on his Not A Blog that the long-awaited sixth book in his A Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter, is straying “further and further” from the events of Game of Thrones. Then he did a lengthy interview on the Game of Owns podcast where he discussed everything from The Winds of Winter to Fire & Blood to the current wave of fantasy shows sweeping through TV.

It was a great interview, but one of the most interesting bits came when Martin dropped a hint about when House of the Dragon actually begins. The prequel show covers a brutal Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, which took place some 200 years before the original series. But House of the Dragon looks like it won’t be quite as linear as Thrones was; from the events we saw in the latest trailer, it seems like season 1 of House of the Dragon could span at least two decades of Westerosi history.

Now, we know for sure where it’ll all begin. “House of the Dragon starts with the Great Council of 101,” Martin said on the podcast.

Now, this isn’t totally new information; we had a pretty good guess from the latest trailer that we’d see the Great Council of 101 AC in House of the Dragon. It’s not 100% clear whether Martin was being literal — e.g. the first scene of the show will feature the Council — or whether that’s just where the mythology for the series begins, but either way, it’s exciting to confirm that this important event will feature in the story.

But what exactly is the Great Council of 101 AC? Let’s discuss.

The Great Council of 101 AC explained

As with most big problems in Westeros, the Great Council of 101 AC is all about a dispute over who will sit the Iron Throne. Late in his reign, King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, also known as Jaehaerys the Conciliator, found himself without an heir after both of his sons died. Jaehaerys was the longest-reigning king in Westerosi history; he ruled for 55 years, and would eventually pass away in his bed of old age.

Despite the fact that Jaehaerys and his wife Alysanne had many children, Jaehaerys’ long life meant that he outlived quite a few of them. Though it was joked he had “an heir and a spare” in his sons Aemon and Baelon, neither of them lived long enough to succeed the throne. Aemon died fighting Myrish pirates, leaving behind his daughter Rhaenys Targaryen, who was pregnant at the time with a child from her marriage to Corlys Velaryon. Breaking with tradition — which had previously stated that Aemon’s position as heir would have passed down to his daughter Rhaenys — Jaehaerys named her uncle Baelon as the new heir to the Iron Throne.

That didn’t last long. A few years later, Baelon died of a ruptured belly, and Jaehaerys found himself once again without an heir. By that point, he was rather old and didn’t really want to be bothered with matters of succession. So instead of handling it himself, he called all the lords of Westeros to a Great Council at Harrenhal so that they could decide who would assume the throne after he was gone.

It was said that so many people came to Harrenhal for the Great Council of 101 AC that for a time it became the third largest city in Westeros, after King’s Landing and Old Town. No less than 14 claimants were put forth for the throne, some of which were outrageous and quickly discredited. Others were more serious and had many supporters.

The most important claimants were Baelon’s eldest son Viserys I Targaryen, Rhaenys Targaryen, and her son Laenor Velaryon. Despite being backed by the Velaryons, the wealthiest house in Westeros at the time, Rhaenys and her bloodline were once again passed over for the Iron Throne. This is where she got the nickname “The Queen That Never Was.” It’s also where the precedent was established that women could not inherit if another potential male heir was present somewhere along the bloodline.

Ultimately, Jaehaery’s grandson Viserys was chosen as king. He reigned for 26 years, and while it was a largely peaceful rule, it was during his reign that the seeds of the Dance of the Dragons were sown.

Much of the drama in House of the Dragon will take place years after the Great Council of 101 AC, but many of the issues that drive the conflict have their roots in it. It makes a lot of sense that the show would choose to begin with the Council, establishing how the precedent of passing over female claimants came about before Viserys ignores it and names as his heir his own daughter Rhaenyra.

House of the Dragon is due out on HBO and HBO Max on August 21.

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