queen betha blackwood, during the long winter that began her husband, king aegon v’s reign, 234 AC
visenya and rhaenys, alyssa velaryon, the six wives of maegor, alysanne, aemma arryn, alicent hightower and rhaenyra i, helaena, jaehaera, daenaera velaryon, daena the defiant, naerys, myriah nymeros martell, aelinor penrose
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i considered doing a stats post on the lives of the non-Valyrian Queens of Westeros during the Targaryen Dynasty but... unless I include 5/6 of Maegor I's Black Brides (Daena was his niece), I'd only have 3 datapoints to work from. Datapoints that are almost entirely devoid of detail &/or likely to be edited in upcoming works by GRRM.
Queen Alicent Hightower:
GRRM seems very impressed with HotD's takes and its takes are already canon-compliant: the maesters of Oldtown would be very skittish in writing much on Alicent Hightower (in case it reflects poorly on, say, her father or uncle) & Rhaenyra I (whose descendants occupy the Iron Throne, Tommen I included... unless the Hightowers/Faith decides to usurp House Tyrell & change the records on Joffrey I & Tommen I accordingly). I personally prefer to have the maesters Wrong about Alicent's age, enjoying her whole star-crossed thing with Rhaenyra. I also just enjoy Maesters Being Proven Wrong just on principle.
Queen Myriah Martell
doesn't have a date for her birth, wedding, first kill, ascension, or indications that she ever died. the woman just... has her kids, the boys getting specific years of birth, but does not personally get any rep beyond "she wed Daeron when they came of age" and "she had children and didn't die for it". smh at these maesters & their anti-dornish prejudices showing in their work like this. if Alleras gets a preview chapters for Winds, maybe they'll be able to Clarify the subject of "did Queen Myriah die or did she just disappear like Silverwing did".
Queen Betha Blackwood
's existence is already a spoiler for the Dunk&Egg novellas which are, technically, still an ongoing series. so the details of her life probably Exist but they're stuck under 600 pages of "hey want to make a show about The Doom" and "so here's what Corlys saw in Yi Ti" (etc).
cersei and marge don't count here because they're of a different dynasty; jeyne, alannys & selyse don't count because none have hold of the Big Pointy Chair (ditto Dany).
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Queen Betha Blackwood, of Raventree Hall, consort to Aegon V Targaryen.
Betha was known as Black Betha because of her dark eyes and hair. She was a spirited woman, stubborn and willful. (TWOIAF, Targaryen Kings)
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Reflections on how Rhaenyra lost her beauty
It's amazing how persistently people shout that Rhaenyra has gained a lot of excess weight after three pregnancies and at the age of twenty she "lost all her beauty."
Alyssa Velaryon bore her first husband, Aenys, six children. But, attention, no one is saying that she has become ugly and unwanted. In fact, this lustful animal, Rogar, continued to sleep with her even after Alyssa was forty years old and everyone around her believed that she could no longer become pregnant.
Elinor Costayne was nineteen years old and had three children with her first husband. And she was still an attractive woman. She did not lose her beauty after the birth of three children.
Alysanne Targaryen gave birth to thirteen children. But the maesters tactfully keep silent about the impact that a lot pregnancies had on Alysanne’s appearance.
Daenaera Velaryon bore her husband five children in eight years. Daeron was born in 143, Baelor in 144, Daena in 145, Rhaena in 147, Elaena was born in 150. Daenaera gave birth to her three eldest children, one after the other, every year. And nowhere is it mentioned that Daenaera became ugly.
Elaena Targaryen gave birth to seven children, but it is mentioned that as she grew older she became even more beautiful than in her youth.
Rohanne of Tyrosh, wife of Daemon Blackfyre, gave birth more than seven times, but no one bothered to hound her and discuss her appearance.
Dyanna Dayne, Maekar Targaryen's wife, bore him six children, but again, her appearance is never mentioned or discussed.
Betha Blackwood bore five children with Aegon V and again there was no discussion of her appearance.
Rhaenyra is literally the only woman who has been harassed and abused in every possible way for her appearance. The appearance of all the other women who often gave birth to children did not turn them into the hulking monsters that some fans believe Rhaenyra to be, or were not mentioned at all by the maesters. Do you know why?
All of them were either consorts of kings or were not such important political figures. But at the request of the king, Rhaenyra went against the traditions of Westeros and became the first woman to become queen in her own right, and not as a consort. Rhaenyra's only sin was that she was a woman who had power that no other woman in Westeros had. Rhaenyra never asked her father to make her his heir, but she accepted the king's will and fought for what was rightfully hers. But we all read how the patriarchal inhabitants of Westeros and the Cetadelle reacted to this. I'm willing to bet money that if Rhaenyra had not been Viserys's heir, then in the chronicles the courtiers would continue to talk about her as a hot beauty.
It's really funny that Mushroom writes that Rhaenyra was jealous of Alicent's appearance, but Alicent herself was not as beautiful as her daughter Helaena, and Helaena was described as not as bright and beautiful as most Targaryens, and Rhaenyra as a teenager was one of the most beautiful maidens Westeros. And do you really believe that because Rhaenyra gave birth to three sons, she instantly went from hot Valyrian beauty to ugly one?
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The Maternity of Targaryen Kings
(a side-note on "The Life Expectancies of Targaryen Monarchs: Death")
CW: spoilers for HotD and F&B. reference to Targaryen incest, Valyrian eugenics. discussion of underage marriage, teen pregnancy, infertility, traumatic pregnancies.
Underage Mothers
Both Aemma Arryn Targaryen (mother of Rhaenyra I) & Naerys Targaryen (mother of Daeron II) were 15 when they had their first children. Both women later died of pregnancy, both consistently struggling with fertility & having multiple traumatic pregnanies.
Older Mothers
Rhaenys I had Aenys at 32 & Visenya I had Maegor when 41: it is likely that The Conquerors postponed the matter of children until post-conquest.
Queen Alyssa Velaryon was 31 when Jaehaerys I was born, his being her 4th child. Dowager Queen Alyssa later died of pregnancy, by her 2nd husband, aged 43.
Mysterious Women
There is little to no information on:
• Lady Valaena Velaryon, mother of The Conquerors,
• Queen Myriah Martell, mother of Kings Aerys I (1stborn) & Maekar I (4th child),
• nor Lady Dyanna Dayne, mother of Aegon V (her 5th child).
Dornish Mothers: speculation
Both Queen Myriah & Lady Dyanna were Dornish.
Given that Myriah's marriage was key to a peace treaty (& Daeron II was dubbed "The Good") & Dyanna's was a love match, it can be assumed that they were no less than 16 for their 1st pregnancies & had no issues with fertility. Both women had multiple children, all of whom survived to adulthood (dying instead by accident, through folly, in battle, by being 102 years old, or in obscurity), it can also be assumed that their good health was valued.
Revisionist History:
Alicent Hightower
The evolving canon of ASOIAF confuses the details of Queen Alicent Hightower, mother of Aegon II (her 1stborn), though GRRM has professed preference to HotD's telling of The Dance. The Alicent of F&B was a mother at 19; in HotD, Alicent was 14/15. Until further confirmation, Queen Alicent will be left out of accountings though it is likely that Future Revisions will hold HotD's portrayals as truth & F&B's as mistaken or "revised".
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queen cersei lannister, at her wedding to king robert baratheon i, 284 AC.
visenya and rhaenys, alyssa velaryon, the six wives of maegor, alysanne, aemma arryn, alicent hightower and rhaenyra i, helaena, jaehaera, daenaera velaryon, daena the defiant, naerys, myriah nymeros martell, aelinor penrose, betha blackwood, shaera, rhaella
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