Viserys I Targaryen

Born in 77 AC as the eldest son of Prince Baelon the Brave, Viserys was never bred for the throne. Only when his father died of a burst stomach in 101 AC did the realm turn to him, and a great council of lords and maesters confirmed him over any competing claim. He took the Iron Throne in 103 AC as the fifth Targaryen king.

His reign is remembered as the last peace before the storm. After Queen Aemma Arryn died in childbed in 105 AC, Viserys named her daughter Rhaenyra his heir and had the lords of the realm renew their oaths to her. Yet he also took Alicent Hightower to wife, and the sons she bore him — Aegon, Aemond and Daeron — grew into a second court with ambitions of its own.

Viserys never resolved the contradiction. He refused to set Rhaenyra aside, refused to send her rivals from the capital, and trusted that love would hold where law would not. When he died in 129 AC, within hours the Green council had crowned Aegon II, and half a century of peace unravelled into the Dance of the Dragons.