Chapter 203: The Valyrian Crown

In the observational records of the Maesters, the continent of Westeros, currently in deep autumn, officially entered the year 300 of the Conquest Era, though the commoners and nobles felt little of this.

The reason is simple: the long summers and winters lasting several years, along with springs and autumns that last a full year, have severely diminished the ability of ordinary people to perceive the changing of seasons.

The uncertainty of seasonal transitions has caused the concept of months to vanish from the minds of commoners; in reality, most people only remember the day and month of their own Name Day, and their remaining sense of time is limited to the alternation of day and night and the repetition of weeks.

But high-ranking nobles still seek out significant days to perform certain actions, so that historians might add a layer of sacred meaning when recording them.

For instance, now, on the first day of the year 300 of the Conquest Era, King Arthur I announced his next marriage.

"To uphold the traditions of House Targaryen, to ensure the blood of the dragon remains pure, and to prevent civil war within the royal family, I, Arthur Targaryen, have decided to enter into a sacred marriage with the Stormborn Daenerys Targaryen. The gods and the lords present here shall witness our betrothal ceremony."

Wearing a crown of pure gold, Arthur stood on the dais before the Iron Throne and announced this decision in a loud voice to the six members of the Small Council, over forty nobles, and nearly a hundred selected wealthy merchants and commoners in the Throne Room.

Behind him, the Dragon Queen, dressed in white silk robes, sat proudly upon the Iron Throne, gazing intently at the Red Keep and the Throne Room she had dreamed of.

The cause of this awkward situation was simple: Arthur had arrived later than Daenerys, and not wanting to pull the Dragon Queen up from where she was already seated on the Iron Throne, he simply stood on the dais to conduct the ceremony.

"I shall correct one thing: Arthur's surname is not Targaryen; only after marrying me may he bear my family name."

Seemingly in a contest, Daenerys spoke in a voice louder than Arthur's.

Her claim also had logic to it; even if a king orders a name change, it must be approved by the Jiaodu of that family.

After the Usurper's War, the only legitimate members of the Targaryen line were the "Sleeping Dragon" Viserys and Daenerys.

And after the Sleeping Dragon experienced the "Golden Bucket" challenge, even though Daenerys is female, she remains the undisputed Jiaodu of House Targaryen.

In other words, Arthur's process for changing his name was somewhat procedurally flawed, but at the time, the Reachmen were desperate for a King of the Seven Kingdoms, and the Riverlanders did not mind their king being upgraded to King of the Seven Kingdoms, so the matter was muddled through.

"My surname is recognized by all the nobles across the Seven Kingdoms, not something I obtained only by marrying you. If you have objections, we can let the nobles vote at the Great Council to discuss the validity of this matter."

Arthur responded to this issue without turning his head.

While the two argued on the dais, the hundreds of people in the hall listened in silence. Even someone as restless as Tyrion Lannister was much better behaved.

Many people keenly sensed that this marriage was not entirely harmonious.

Daenerys did not show weakness, "Nobles are merely the King's vassals; what right do they have to express opinions on the royal family? If you insist on discussing this at the Great Council, then the date of our wedding shall be postponed until after the Great Council."

Arthur thought about it, and it was not unacceptable; at the very least, by that time, representatives from all families would be present, and they would have no reason not to offer gifts for the King's wedding.

"As you wish!"

The Great Council that the two spoke of was something Arthur had discussed with his queens and several trusted ministers.

In the year 101 of the Conquest Era, in order to choose a convincing heir from among the sons of Laenor Velaryon—the son of the eldest daughter (the Queen Who Never Was, Rhaenys) of the eldest son of Prince Baelon—the Old King Jaehaerys I convened the first Great Council at Harrenhal.

According to the records of Maester Ge Er Dan, it was the result of this meeting that led the nobles to reach a consensus that the succession order of females or the male descendants of females was weaker than that of the male descendants of younger sons.

The Great Council of 136 was held to select a new regent, because the king at the time, Aegon III, had not yet come of age, and the old regents were fighting for power, making a mess of the kingdom.

As for the third Great Council, it was the Great Council of 233, where the "Peasant King" Aegon V, after many twists and turns, was successfully chosen as the new master of the Iron Throne.

These three Great Councils were all held to resolve major issues of the kingdom at the time, and their essence was to determine ruling power and succession rights.

But what Arthur wanted to discuss at the Great Council was not succession, but the obligations that the nobles should fulfill.

The entire Targaryen conquest actually spanned three generations.

The first-generation Conqueror Aegon I and his sisters only brought the six kingdoms into the Targaryen Dynasty in form; the second-generation Maegor, riding his dragon Balerion, crippled the highly threatening Church Militant; the third-generation Jaehaerys built upon this to reconcile with the Church and reclaimed the power of judgment from the septons and septas.

But what the third generation did went far beyond that; he and Queen Alysanne the Good promoted the establishment of written law and created the Circuit Court to limit the power of the nobles; the five great roads were also built during his reign, greatly strengthening the connections between the Seven Kingdoms.

To the Southerners, the significance of the five great roads was merely that of a wide path, but to the North, which lacked grain during the long winters, the Kingsroad was a road of survival.

That is a magical road in the sky, bringing happiness and health to us Northmen!

Even during the reign of Jaehaerys I, the King was not yet the warden of King's Landing, the largest latrine in the Seven Kingdoms; Jaehaerys I vigorously overhauled King's Landing, actively building deep wells and sewers to maintain hygiene.

In the later years of Jaehaerys I, the prestige of the royal family reached its peak.

This peak period of the Targaryens lasted until the death of Viserys I; during the reign of Viserys I from 103 to 229, the dragons laid eggs steadily and they hatched one after another, and the prosperity of the continent of Westeros reached its peak since the First Men crossed the sea.

But after the Dance of the Dragons, the Targaryens lost the vast majority of their dragons, with the only remaining members being Aegon III and his two sisters (the daughters of Daemon Targaryen and Laena Velaryon), while his younger brother Viserys II was still a live-in son-in-law in Lys.

The seven regents chosen by the nobles and the Maesters greatly deceived these children, so all the measures to strengthen royal power implemented during the reign of Jaehaerys I were abolished, and the nationwide Circuit Court vanished from history.

By the time of Aegon V, the man known as the Peasant King wanted to emulate his ancestor Jaehaerys I, strengthening royal power and weakening the power of the nobles to improve the rights of commoners—that is, to let the commoners live a little better—but this provoked opposition from the nobles. Furthermore, because his own experience of marrying for love influenced his offspring, most of his children also married for love and broke their betrothal agreements with the great noble houses, which caused the prestige of the royal family to decline further.

The decline of royal power stemmed from the disappearance of the dragons, but now the royal family has a total of four dragons in their growth phase, and through marriage, they have gained the support of the most powerful Reach; Arthur decided to first strengthen the power of the Iron Throne.

Therefore, after unifying the North and the Stormlands, convening a Great Council that could build a consensus among all parties was imminent.

In addition to restoring some of the practices from the time of Jaehaerys I, Arthur and Daenerys also wanted to push for more measures beneficial to the royal family and the commoners.

For example, during a transition of the throne, no noble outside the Crownlands may leave their own lands with troops, and Crownlands nobles and the royal standing army may not leave their lands or stations without the late king's decree; violators will be beheaded or exiled to the Wall.

Another example is the full implementation of the written law established during the time of Jaehaerys I: the punishment for treason and oath-breaking is death, poachers and thieves will lose a hand, the punishment for intentional injury is discretionary dismemberment, rapists will be castrated, and many lesser crimes will be punished with flogging.

Of course, Arthur also wanted to play a cunning trick: re-minting and issuing Gold Dragon coins.

The primary power of the Master of Coin is to manage the entire kingdom's coinage system and collect the Coinage Tax from it.

This process is realized through three mints outside King's Landing.

During the later years of Robert, Petyr Baelish, the Littlefinger, began to tamper with the coinage.

A proverb circulating in the Seven Kingdoms: Give Lord Baelish one Gold Dragon, and he can turn it into two with a snap of his fingers.

The secret here is very simple: melt down old Gold Dragon coins with a gold content of over seventy percent to cast new Gold Dragon coins with a gold content of only about thirty percent.

The clever Littlefinger turns one old Gold Dragon into two new Gold Dragons, and the remaining twenty percent of the gold goes into his own pocket.

Due to the lack of education, only a few knowledgeable nobles on the Western Continent guessed Baelish's scheme, such as the Queen of Thorns, Lady Olenna, and the former Lord of House Lannister, Tywin.

The former actively hoarded old Gold Dragons and traded using the gold coins stored in Highgarden—the gold coins issued by the descendants of Garth the Greenhand, which are only half the size of a Gold Dragon—while the latter, on the grounds that the royal family owed a massive debt to House Lannister, stopped sending gold to the mints and stopped sending money to King's Landing.

Littlefinger amassed a vast fortune through this method, but because there were no official articles from the Small Council, he could only do this in secret.

But Arthur is different; as King, he can openly order nobles everywhere to send all the gold coins stored in their cellars for hundreds or even thousands of years to the mints, to be cast into Gold Dragons bearing the portrait of the upper body of Arthur I or Daenerys III.

"One exchanged for two"—it sounds very profitable.

After the new marriage relationship was established, those invited to the scene began to applaud and celebrate, speaking auspicious words.

"The glory of the Dragon family shall be reborn!"

"King Arthur's happiness has reached a new level."

"May the gods protect you."

Although the majority of the people believed in the Seven, the vast majority could not say the words of the Seven's protection, as in the faith of the Seven, taking multiple wives was an act of blasphemy.

This was just a small detail; in reality, the party announcing the engagement was a success, and the selected commoner representatives scrambled to express their support and endorsement of this royal move to the nobles.

After all, those who did not support it would not have been selected.

As for the part about the High Septon witnessing it, it was ignored by everyone; besides the King clearly violating the dogmas of the Seven, the fact that there was currently no Most Devout in King's Landing was also a very important factor.

After the meeting, Arthur returned to the Great Council Chamber with courtiers and guards to continue discussing the war in the south.

Meanwhile, Daenerys Targaryen, keen on the Iron Throne, was actively meeting with nobles and commoner representatives of King's Landing.

On the stairs leading from the Throne Room to the council chamber, new good news was delivered to the King.

Tristan, the commander of the King's Landing City Watch who was temporarily in charge of managing the rookery, read the letter to the King and the others.

This was not because Arthur was being arrogant and letting others read the letter, but because the nobles of the Seven Kingdoms had a tradition of having Maesters read letters sent by ravens.

Because the great lords used characters infrequently and were not well-educated, they might misread them if they read them themselves.

"My eldest daughter, Arianne Nymeros Martell, will be betrothed to King Arthur I... A vanguard of five thousand has gathered near Skyreach at the southern end of the Prince's Pass; they will first capture Nightsong, and then continue north to attack the rebels... A follow-up force of ten thousand is currently gathering, including House Yronwood, House Dayne of Starfall, House Gargalen of Salt Shore, House Santaga of Spottswood, House Uller of Hellholt, and others, who will continue to fight for House Targaryen."

The letter had three main points: first, Doran Martell agreed to the betrothal of Arianne and Arthur, but the letter did not mention whether the next heir to Dorne would still be Arianne or Arianne's descendants.

Second, an army of five thousand had finished gathering at the southern end of the Prince's Pass, mainly including nearby forces such as House Fowler of Skyreach, House Manwoody of Kingsgrave, House Blackmont of Blackmont, and a branch of House Dayne of High Hermitage.

It is worth mentioning that the commander of this army was the Knight of High Hermitage, Gerold Dayne, also known as "Darkstar."

The third point was also military-related; the armies of houses further from the Prince's Pass were still gathering, and they would be the second Dornish force to attack the Stormlands. Doran Martell promised that at least before the decisive battle with the main force of the Golden Company, these ten thousand men would appear to participate in the battle under the walls of Storm's End.

"Your Grace, the sincerity of the Dornishmen is sufficient; my brother's determination to support House Targaryen is in no way inferior to any northern noble."

Prince Oberyn rarely spoke up for such matters.

It was no wonder; with this mobilization, Dorne would not only gain the position of Queen but also gain Nightsong, which had not been taken in thousands of years, which would greatly improve the offensive and defensive situation in the war between Dorne and the Stormlands.

The lord of Nightsong was House Caron, and the Jiaodu of this family often held the title of Commander of the Stormlands. The former Jiaodu, Bryce Caron, had died for Stannis outside King's Landing, and the only person left in the entire family was a Bastard named Roland Storm.

Currently, Roland had been renamed Caron by Stannis and held the title of Count of Nightsong in absentia.

As for Roland himself, he should currently be outside Storm's End, having surrendered to the Golden Company.

Given the situation of House Caron, it was entirely possible to let a Dornish family inherit the lands of Nightsong.

"But you are getting quite a lot as well; Nightsong alone is worth an expedition of fifteen thousand troops."

As he walked into the Great Council Chamber, Arthur said.

He thought for a moment and added a few more clauses, "You must also return the Valyrian Crown that Daeron I Targaryen took to Dorne."

Daeron I Targaryen was the eldest son of Aegon III and the eighth Targaryen king to ascend the Iron Throne; his most famous political achievement was the expedition to Dorne.

During his expedition to Dorne, his crown, the only Valyrian circlet of House Targaryen, was lost in Dorne.

If nothing unexpected happened, the crown was currently being kept in some castle in Dorne.

With the strength of House Martell, it would not be difficult to order their vassals to hand over this crown.

PS: Tomorrow is 2023. I wish all my fellow readers good health, all the best, and may all your wishes come true in the coming year.

Asking again for recommendation votes and monthly votes.

(End of this chapter)