Rhaenys; the Queen who Never Was – A history

Rhaenys; the Queen who Never Was – A history

Reise Targaryen Rider of Mel’s the Red Queen is known as the queen Who Never Was but why and how close was she to becoming Queen let’s take a look hi everyone this is Robert welcome to indeep geek on this channel we dive deep into the worlds of A Song of Ice and Fire Lord of the Rings and The Witcher as well as some other things when we get the time welcome by the time of the dance of the dragons and the house of the Dragon TV show Reise Targaryen is already well known as the queen Who Never Was a title that in the book mushroom claims to have invented at 55 years old when the Civil War started she had already lived a full life and obviously there will be spoilers here for House of the Dragon so proceed with caution she was born in the year 74 AC after a tumultuous few years following the death of Aon the Conqueror the realm was at peace King Jaris I first was on the iron throne and he and his wife Allison were ruling wisely and producing a large family after the tragic early deaths of their first two children their third Aon grew up to be their Heir Prince of Dragonstone and next King of the Seven Kingdoms he married jeline Baratheon a good political match but seemingly also a loving one and their eldest and only child was Reise Reise therefore grew up as the only child of the Undisputed heir to the Iron Throne a situation not unlike rayer’s later in the early years following her father viserys’s confirmation as Heir then King many perhaps even she will have believed that she would one day inherit indeed Queen Allison when presented with baby rise declared her our Queen to be you see at this stage the question of whether a woman could rule the Seven Kingdoms hadn’t ever really been an issue Aon the Conqueror ruled rather than his older sister viena but in practice the three of them co-ruled anyway and she seemed okay with it and after that the throne was taken by an eldest son or by force there hadn’t really been a strong female candidate who claimed the throne some clearly thought that a woman could inherit some clearly thought otherwise still all that must have felt like a long way away as rise grew up her father was fit and healthy and could be expected to rule for many years after Jaris died she gained a reputation for being clever proud and fearless she claimed a dragon melie the Red Queen at 13 years of age and married kis valion when she was 16 at 18 she was pregnant with their first child whether or not she had planned it that way the marriage to Kus that she seemingly organized herself was a very strong political union he was much older than her but brought with him Valyrian Heritage the massive valaran Fleet his nine voyages had turned his house into the richest in the land and influence as the most well-traveled and storied Wester Rosie perhaps ever but that was the moment things changed for rise’s prospects her father aiman had been on the island of tth fighting some mirish Invaders when he was hit by a crossbow bolt and died the shot hadn’t even been aimed at him he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time that meant that King jeris had to choose his new Heir and Prince of Dragonstone and at a time when everyone was still in shock and mourning for aon’s death he had been just 37 years old jeris chose to promote his next oldest son Balon re’s Uncle rather than RIS herself or The Unborn Child she was carrying no doubt jeris had his reasons Balon was undoubtedly popular among the people a strong and renowned fighter and leader and already had two healthy sons viseris and Damon so the succession would be assured for another generation added to which Balon rode vagar and wielded dark sister and oldest son would soon claim the legendary bolerium the black dread the decision could be justified but still no one doubted that had Reise been male she would have been named Heir instead of Balon this caused deep Rifts re’s husband Kus quit the small Council the baratheons re’s mother’s family were angered and most notably Queen Allison was too we read this the most prominent denter was good Queen Allison who had helped her husband rule the Seven Kingdoms for many years and now saw her son’s daughter being passed over because of her sex a ruler needs a good head and a true heart she famously told the king a is not essential if your grace truly believes that women lack the wit to rule plainly you have no further need of me and thus Queen Allison departed King’s Landing and flew to Dragonstone on her dragon Silverwing she and King jeris remained apart for two years the period of estrangement recorded in the histories as the second quarrel for the maesters to call this a quarrel is a typical example of them underplaying things this was a rift between ruling King and ruling queen that lasted two years and was never really settled two of the other most powerful families in the land the valaran and the baratheons were also angered and withdrew from public life for longer than that and the fault lines resurfaced N9 years later when Balon the prince who had been chosen instead of Reise also died that’s what led to the great Council of 101 on the TV show they kind of merged that with the earlier succession crisis so it looked like it was between viseris and Rise but in truth at that Council reise’s claim had largely been passed over already because she was a woman the question there was if even if a woman could not inherit herself self the line of succession could pass through a woman to a man rise had been the only child of the heir to the throne maybe she couldn’t inherit but could it skip her and go to her son Lor or must the line of succession only ever pass through men the barathan and valion once more sided with rise and her son Lor and they were joined by the Starks mandes and others but the council overwhelmingly chose viseris this time the Rift seemed even more serious we’re told that Damon had started amassing an Army in support of viseris had he lost and Kus was doing the same for Lor thankfully Civil War was averted then all of which though shows why viseris his decision later to confirm rira as his Heir rather than his son aegon was so controversial viseris himself was only on the throne because the realm had twice clearly and deliberately decided that a woman could not inherit nor could the line of inheritance even pass through her to someone else simply put under the succession rules he put in place viseris should not have even been on the Iron Throne himself Reise should have been which is why Reise was known as the queen Who Never Was but what did she make of it all perhaps predictably the maesters who wrote far and blood don’t really tell us so we have to read a bit between the lines we know that she was clever and capable and seemingly politically ambitious if her choice of husband was anything to go by we’re also told that she was proud and had a fiery temperament and that she had some very strong allies so we might expect a strong response when she got passed over for the throne but instead we just get this Reise herself was the first to raise objection you would Rob my son of his Birthright she told to the king with a hand on her swollen belly and that’s it two sentences not even a recognition that she herself was being snubbed just a simple statement about the son she thought she carried I don’t know about you but I suspect the maesters have left quite a bit out there similarly when it came to the great Council of 101 we just hear that she and Kus used their influence and wealth to try to win votes for their son Lor but nothing about her in particular I do like how on the TV show she seems to have come to some kind of personal acceptance or understanding that she will never be Queen she doesn’t seem bitter about it just filled with a slightly World weary wisdom for Raina that she won’t be accepted either as I said earlier it’s hard not to imagine rise seeing an echo of her own history in rira so perhaps beneath the fiery exterior there was a healthy streak of pragmatism perhaps she realized or decided quite early on that she could not change the way of the world she could just make the best of her own position so instead of pushing her own claim she pushed that of her son and when that didn’t work she pushed the claims of his children with rira even if probably they weren’t technically actually his children and she didn’t inquire too much into the rather suspicious death of her son and his widow rira’s very fast marriage to Damon afterwards seriously in the same calendar year Lor died she had remarried and the new couple had a newborn son that’s quick work at any of these moments Reise could probably have reacted much stronger she was a targaryan a dragon rider married to a living legend in callus valaran there were times she could have demanded blood or even pushed for civil war she could have married her children to powerful foreign allies or engaged in sneaky plots to claim the throne for herself but she never did she always seemed to be the adult in the room holding herself back out of sheer pragmatism or love for her family or well we aren’t told but then finally war did break out over an issue that will have seemed so close to reise’s own experience the oldest child a daughter being passed over for the iron throne in favor of a younger relative and suddenly Reise seems to come to life once more at that first black council meeting mushroom describes her entrance like this with Lord Kus came his wife princess Reise five and 50 her face lean and lined her black hair streak with white yet Fierce and fearless as she had been at 2 and 20 she is the first to say outright that they are at War even though this is before any Army march or even the last peace emissaries have been sent she urges an allout dragon attack on King’s Landing suggests finding new riders for vermithor Silverwing and sheep stealer long before jeris who usually gets the credit basically Reise who for so long had stayed silent in the history books at least was now the chief champion of all out War though once more she was here ignored at that point even Damon was urging a less confrontational approach but re’s own Taste of war was not long to come soon after the castle at rook’s rest an ally of rera was under siege with rera seemingly unengaged with the conflict at the time and Damon elsewhere she took it on herself on melly’s to come to its Aid it was a trap though Aon on Sunfire and aanon vagar were there waiting this is what happened princess Reise made no attempt to flee with a glad cry and a crack of her whip she turned melie towards the foe against vagar alone she might have had some chance but against vagar and Sunfire together Doom was certain the the dragons met violently a thousand feet above the field of battle as balls of fire burst and blossomed so bright that men swore later that the sky was full of suns the Crimson jaws of Melly closed around sunfire’s golden neck for a moment till vagar fell upon them from above all three beasts went spinning toward the ground they struck the ground so hard that Stones fell from the battlements of rook’s rest half a league away perhaps I’m reading too much into the text but this sounds like a woman who has finally had enough she could have escaped perhaps or tried to instead she flies her Dragon straight for aegon the usurpers knowing that she was outnumbered and would probably die because vegar was there too and she does it with a glad cry why because here she was after Decades of being marginalized and ignored having men take what she saw as her Birthright from her and her loved ones having consistently stuck to pragmatism and resisted calls for civil war she was backed into a corner fighting another woman’s fight and she had one chance to take out the man who must have symbolized so much of what had happened Aon the second born who took the throne promised to a woman so she turns her Dragon towards him with a glad cry the fact that she does not manage to actually kill him just badly Dam damage him is not really the point it’s that in these last moments indeed within that glad cry I think we finally see what she had been holding back all those years Reise was the queen Who Never Was but she was Majestic to the last did you know that I am also covering House of the dragon and The Wider World Of A Song of Ice and Fire over on my second Channel idg live with live streams short form videos and much more if you’d like to check it out there’s a link in the center of your screen now or for more videos like this on this channel there’s a link on the left of your screen that’s all for this time thanks for watching I’ll see you again soon

Explore the best of fantasy and sci-fi in depth, with analysis of the worlds of Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, The Witcher and more.

For more House of the Dragon content: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVTclEEyY1SJYM8uXrRXIHuBP9OmWSDQ7

Join me on Patreon – http://patreon.com/indeepgeek
My channel for live content, including interviews and weekly livestreams – youtube.com/@IDGlive
My audiobook channel: The Well Told Tale – youtube.com/thewelltoldtale

Follow me on:
Twitter – @indeepgeek
Instagram – indeepgeekofficial
Facebook – https://facebook.com/indeepgeek
TikTok – @indeepgeek

For merch, audiobooks, and all things In Deep Geek, explore my website – www.indeepgeek.com

Thank you to the talented artists who allowed their work to be featured in this video. You can find them and buy your own prints by following the links below:
Amok – https://www.instagram.com/amokrus/
Jota Saraiva – https://www.instagram.com/jota.saraiva.art/
Ertac Altinoz – https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/ertacaltinoz/
Celebril – http://celebrilart.com/

This video was brought to you with support from my amazing Patreon community – special thanks to

Stephanie Frederick, Maura Lee, Rabbi Rob Thomas, Brooke Geer Person, Josh Bielemeier, Jane, Vance, Ivie Hilburn, Jimmy, Vercingetorix, John-Paul DeLuca, Filbert, Frank Glad, lemmy101, The Lady Gordon, Rick Mendez, Max Kingdom, Karen Armstrong, BradBraddersBradley, Edward Ryan, Stephanie B, Coleen, Ben Androvich, Nana L, Brennan Barnes, Ivanka Hainzl, Howland’s Little Sister, Charis Messalina de Valence, Donna Daley, Cade Norman, Murray D, NOscar, Rick Hoppe, Leathery Wings, James Pisano, Bridget Boyle, TheStarkInWinterfell, Ellemcee, Alannah Prestayn of Braavos, Raymond Joy, Jonathan Harrison, Petyr Pebble, Jason Mauleon Rosario, Milton Christopher Appling, Edward Ennett, Katy Smith, 26Artgirl, Karen Thomas, Rickon, Cathrine Furseth, James Fitzpatrick, Doug Hughes, lawnduck20, Perseffanie, Emily Mole, Lady Dane, The Late Escapist, Natalie Donald, J. Gregory Henderson, whalawitsa, Luna Cascade, Dan MacKay, Johnny Targs, Kevin Warner, Julie Bernard, Bear, Susan Lonergan, Bo Riley, Lyle Hammac, Alex Butter, Pam Peterson, Bettina Charlotte Nielsen, T boz, Angela Marie Young, Sarah Awesomesauce, Stephanie Erickson, KaliKo_Jack, SeaGreenMango, GeorgeRRTolkien, Antihero Association, Richard Woodard, Caiden Timmons, ThatVBGuy, Tyler Barnhart, John H. Austin, Jr, NikFromNJ, Ty Farnsworth, Beesman, EJ, Willow Button, Julia Kendall, Jonny Ceriani, Mary Frances Angelini, Emma Sheiman, Joseph Jones, Christine Denny, Julien Dubois, Leland, Tricia Brady, LiK, Simen Dalstein, Scott Maraldo, Shelley J, Karen Wennerlind, Martin Sjöstrand, Kristen H, King of Imps, Minerva Gale, Eric Nelson, Michiel Venema, Kate, Brandie Roberts, Kendra Summers, reed m, Commander Ray, Mayra Lawson, Lola Roebuck, Mark P, Nicole Stewart, Norse Sultan, Rasler, Steven Spauldingt, Patrick Ward, Amy vh Hines, Slippery1989, Una Haller, Almo71, Ravi Kakarala, Jacob Culp, Janet Lyn, NikFromNJ, Magepie, Ms. Fox, Jon Greenwood, Jahan, Justice, Biscuit Jones, Biscuit Jones, Cookie Tywyn, Ranabir Mitra, CRChesnutt, Kip Ingram, Savannah Smith, Tadeo D’Oria, Mario Murray, Leland, AaronM127, Denis Warner, Callie Summers, Gena Z, Joseph Barresi, Karen, KGO, Martin Maleček, Karamy CG, Alvino V, DickCrabb’sSquire, Haley Harstad, Ian Landsman, Lord Medici, Mathew Pauley, Aidan Butler, Phelan Walker, Andrew Roberts, Bill Boxall, Caleb Wiers, InquisitorXarius, Marcelo Zanetti, A Son of Ice and Fire, Madeline Tyrell-Dayne, Dave Nite, Johanna Ayers and Fool of a Took

Affiliate Links – (buying books from our Bookshop.org shop supports this channel and local bookshops at no extra cost to you.)

Books for fans of A Song of Ice and Fire:
https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/a-song-of-ice-and-fire

Other books we love:
https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/indeepgeek

Thanks for watching!

(All pictures used are in the public domain, or used under fair use copyright laws, or with the express permission of the artist).