The year 171 AC brought the death of King Baelor I, the accession of King Viserys II, and the first signs of the rule that would follow him. Baelor’s fast after Princess Daena’s birth of Daemon Waters ended in collapse and death. Viserys began his reign by undoing many of Baelor’s restrictions and restoring the machinery of rule, while Prince Aegon remained restless, pleasure-seeking, and ill-suited to Dragonstone.
Day 1: King Baelor continued a fast begun after Princess Daena gave birth to her bastard son, Daemon Waters. The king treated the birth as a sin requiring penance, alarming the court as his fasting lengthened.
Day 20: King Baelor collapsed on the fortieth day of his fast while praying in the royal sept. The Kingsguard carried him to Maegor’s Holdfast, and Prince Viserys summoned the maesters to attend him.
Day 28: King Baelor died and was given funeral rites in King’s Landing. His remains were burned and then carried through the city, while Prince Viserys succeeded him as king.
Day 10: King Viserys II held his first major public court. He rescinded a number of Baelor’s restrictions, restored taxation and trade measures, ended exemptions tied to maiden daughters, reduced duties, and began remaking the realm’s governance in a more worldly manner.
Day 27: Prince Aegon returned unexpectedly from Dragonstone after finding the ancient seat gloomy and uncongenial. Before leaving, he altered arrangements there and returned to King’s Landing with little patience for the role his father had assigned him.
Day 17: King Viserys continued reforms to law, coinage, and the royal household while leaving the small council largely intact. Court talk also turned to the vacant Handship and to tourneys and contests in the Crownlands.