The fourth episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, "Seven," sees our valiant hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) caught in quite a bind. After coming to the defense of the puppeteer Tanselle (Tanzyn Crawford) in the previous episode by beating the sadistic prince Aerion Targaryen (Finn Bennett) away from her, Dunk is now facing serious criminal charges for assaulting a member of the royal family. He'll have to duke it out in a trial of seven, an archaic form of trial by combat which has rarely ever been evoked in Westeros' history.
This episode lets us spend plenty of time with the Targaryen family, from the noble Baelor Targaryen (Bertie Carvel) to Aerion's taciturn father Maekar (Sam Spruell), and even Egg's oldest brother, Daeron the Drunken (Henry Ashton). Yet one important Targaryen who has not appeared in the show is the King of the Seven Kingdoms himself: Daeron II Targaryen, also known as Daeron the Good.
King Daeron is a far cry from the drunken grandchild who bears his namesake, but don't expect to see him in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The story this season is based on, "The Hedge Knight," keeps the focus firmly on the tourney at Ashford Meadow, and King Daeron is too busy ruling the Seven Kingdoms to attend.
Still, you might be curious to learn a little more about the ruler of Westeros during this story, who fathered both Baelor and Maekar, and spent a lifetime preparing the former to rule the Seven Kingdoms as his heir.
Who is Daeron I Targaryen a.k.a. Daeron the Good?
Daeron rose to the Iron Throne following the death of his father, Aegon IV Targaryen, who was widely known as Aegon the Unworthy for the bacchanalian way he ruled and for his extremely controversial deathbed decree to legitimize the dozens of bastards he had sired during his reign. That decree ultimately caused the single worst conflict of Daeron's rule, the First Blackfyre Rebellion, when several of the bastards banned together to try to place Daemon Blackfyre on the Iron Throne instead of Daeron.
Before the First Blackfyre Rebellion, Daeron was renowned for being a just, thoughtful king who did much to unify the realm. He is the one who finally brought Dorne into the fold, and he did so without a single drop of blood being shed, but rather with marriages. Daeron married Myriah Martell, elevating her to Queen of the Seven Kingdoms; afterward, he betrothed his daughter Daenerys to Myriah's brother, Prince Maron Martell, who subsequently bent the knee and cemented Dorne as part of the Seven Kingdoms.
Daeron has four children: Baelor, Aerys, Rhaegal, and Maekar. Baelor takes after his father, as we've seen in the show, and is an honorable man who serves ably as Hand of the King. Aerys is a bookish sort who's largely uninterested in the burden of rule. Rhaegal has a "touch of madness," as Targaryens often do. And Maekar is a prickly but skilled warrior, who, along with Baelor, plays a major role in ending the Blackfyre Rebellion.
The Blackfyre Rebellion tested Daeron's rule in the extreme, and when it finally ended with the death of Daemon Blackfyre at the Red Grass Field around 13 years before season 1 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Daeron become a much sterner ruler. He stripped lands and titles from many of those who supported the Blackfyres, as a way to punish what he viewed as a terrible betrayal by vassals he had always tried to rule fairly.
That brings us more or less to the point of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. We don't want to discuss some of the latter troubles of Daeron's reign, because it will contain spoilers for both this season and next season of the show. But suffice to say, in the grand scale of Targaryen rulers of Westeros, Daeron the Good ranks among the better ones.
Two episodes remain of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Catch the next one on February 15 at its usual time of 10:00 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.