Baela I Targaryen

Baela I Targaryen, called  'the Good', was the second female monarch of Westeros and the eighth Targaryen monarch to sit the Iron Throne. The sole daughter of Aegon II Targaryen and his first wife, the Greens' Princess Jaehaera Targaryen, Baela Targaryen was the first monarch to well and truly bridge the divide created in House Targaryen thanks to the Dance of the Dragons. Through her father, she is also the granddaughter of Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen.

 

A wise and judicious Queen, Baela became immortalized in history for her many good deeds. Married to her younger brother Aegon III Targaryen after she took control of her regency council in 190 AC, the two were ill-matched and did not prove fruitful until the Queen was in her thirties.

Pregnant with their first child, it would end in disaster as Queen Baela died of childbirth complications in 175 AC, and passed on the throne to her sickly and newborn daughter, Rhaenyra II Targaryen, who did not last the day either. Ultimately, her throne was then inherited by her husband Aegon, and after he died a year later, their youngest brother, Jaehaerys II Targaryen inherited.

With the demise of Baela and her infant daughter, the line of Aegon the Usurper and his Greens officially died out.

Early Life
Born 142 AC, Baela was the sole, but very much desired child of Aegon II and his wife Queen Jaehaera. She was celebrated and toasted around the realm, seen as the child to heal the scars torn open in the realm from the bloody Dance of her forebearers.

Sadly, her birth year was also marred with tragedy, when her mother Jaehaera threw herself from Maegor's Holdfast and was impaled on the spikes of the dry moat below. She lived for a half hour in agony before her death, a horrific end for a sweet but troubled Queen. Left motherless, Baela was tended to by nurses henceforth, as her new stepmother, the ambitious Queen Myrielle Peake, became obsessed with the twins she gave Baela's father the year after Jaehaera's demise. Still, Baela was beloved by the smallfolk and the King, and her place as his heiress was never once threatened.

Regency Council
After the death of Aegon II, three-year-old Baela was suddenly a very young girl with a very important responsibility. Having inherited the Iron Throne so young, Baela was immediately hidden away behind a council of some seven regents, a council that would come to be known as the Black Council.

In the early days of her reign, Baela’s council acted decisively, and within the first year of their regency, the ancient House of Hightower were extinct, and the House of Costayne had been awarded Oldtown for their leal service throughout both the Dance of the Dragons, and the Blue Dragon Revolt.

Solitary Rule & Marriage
Eventually, in her eightteenth year, Baela would exploit a vulnerability in her regency council, and wrestle control of the realm back into Targaryen hands, for the first time in sixteen years.

Throne in hand, the first issue the new Queen tackled was her marriage and choice of a consort. Baela looked inward, ever-striving to unite Targaryen under one banner, to her half-brothers by her father's second wife. Aegon and Jaehaerys were only her juniors by a year, possibly even less, and thus were well-suited. When approached, however, the elder twin Aegon rebuked his sister and said he could never love her due to her wild nature. However, he agreed that he could, at the very least, wed her. Baela's younger brother Jaehaerys was matched with Visenya Velaryon despite him seeking Baela's hand as well.

Once Baela had control of the crown and a husband in hand, Westeros began to change, becoming a wholly different place to what it was under her regents. Baela’s regency council had long been made up of a majority of Blacks, and so, their acts had rather been vengeful and spiteful. But Baela took a different path. Instead, Baela worked to heal the realm.

Baela's Peace
The first change of Baela’s rule was in how the smallfolk were treated, for she encouraged kindness and charity across the realm as she worked to be a more visible Queen, and ensure peace remained stalwart across the realm. Notably, in the case of the long-standing issues between the Westerlands and the Iron Islands, Baela did not galvanise the lords and ladies of the realm behind her by way of a war, but rather saw a series of marriages brokered between the two kingdoms.

So too did Baela broker such marriages across the realm, with but a few being a daughter of House Beesbury to Lord Peake, the heir of House Mooton to a Mallister, a knight of House Strong to a woman of House Lefford, a Bracken and a Beesbury, and a Darklyn to a Swann.

So too did Baela seek to cleanse her council of the old divides, rather working to ensure it held as close to a balance as possible between Blacks and Greens, and so too those Houses who did not choose a side, for Baela wished not to see such violence beset the realm once again.

For all this, and more, Baela would earn herself the moniker of 'the Good'. At Baela's side, Aegon was an equal voice to her own, but spent more time whoring and drinking than helping her rule; a fact that some believe played a part in why Baela never had children of her own until later in life.

Pregnancy & Death
The announcement of Queen Baela's pregnancy late into her marriage was a cause of great excitement. At last, there would be a true heir to the realm. By the time of her labour unfortunate death in 175 AC, a day on which it is still whispered in some circles that the Grand Maester allowed his hand to 'slip', as it were, the realm lost its finest monarch since possibly the Conciliator himself. Her widowed brother-husband had himself crowned King of Westeros before the body of his sister-wife and newborn daughter were even burned.

Legacy
Baela's newborn daughter, Rhaenyra II, did not even live long enough to be anointed, or for there to be a second regency council assembled for the girl. She followed her mother into the arms of the Seven, the same day she had been born, and the realm wept for their dead Queen and baby Princess. With their deaths, the bloodline of Greens Targaryens officially died as well.

Baela's brother-husband Aegon III inherited after her, and after him, Baela's younger brother Jaehaerys II.

Ascribed similar accolades as other infamous rulers like Aegon the Conqueror and Jaehaerys the Conciliator, Baela the Good is remembered fondly. She is often invoked as a figure of unification and justice in the annals of Westerosi history.

Appearance
Baela Targaryen did not shy away from dressing as she liked. As comfortable in ringmail and boiled leather as she was in the finest ermine and silk, Baela had a warrior's physique, said to resemble more of a man than she did a woman in silhouette alone. Still, she was small, taking more after her mother in that regard, and quick as lightning with Dark Sister in hand.

Her ashen hair was short and mousy, as she favoured her father Aegon II in having hair closer to the colour of steel than the colour of silver. With it never growing out much she often wore it back and out of her eyes, which were the atypical Valyrian violet, and she was remarked often to have the harsh eyes of her grandmother, Rhaenyra the Black. She favoured the crown of Jaehaerys the Conciliator.

Personality
Merciful as the Mother and as judicious as the Father, Baela did not take after her grandmother or her father in terms of character. She was not a vengeful or spiteful sort, rather ruling with tact and grace. That is not to say she was not infallible; she often got into rows and spats with councilors and her Hand, and could keep a grudge as well as any man.