The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Martin, George R.R.. Fire and Blood. Random House, 2018. Print.

The history begins with the narrator, Archmaester Gyldayn of the Citadel at Old Town, informing his students of how time is measured by Aegon’s conquest. Before this system of time is even in place, the Targaryens are one of 40 powerful families in Valyria that ride and raise dragons. The Targaryens are a minor house, but when Daeny the Dreamer has a prophetic dream about the Doom, Aenar moves his family from their ancestral Valyria to Dragonstone, an island off the coast of Westeros. About 100 years later, Aegon Targaryen decides to conquer the seven kingdoms and become king of Westeros. He conquers six of them, but the Dornish prove impossible to bend. After losing his sister, he agrees to leave Dornish power in place and signs a peace treaty.

After Aegon, his son Aenys becomes king. Aenys is kind and gentle, but he does not have the strength to rule. Westeros grows restless under his rule, and when he marries his son to his daughter, as Targaryens customarily do, the Faith, which condones such marriages, rises up against him in a series of holy wars. He weakens and becomes ill on Dragonstone, where his brother Maegor’s mother takes care of him. But he does not recover. He perishes and leaves the realm to his son Prince Aegon, but Maegor steals the realm and kills the prince. After a cruel reign that involves torture and execution and high taxes, Maegor is discovered dead on the Iron Throne.

The prince’s younger brother Jaehaerys comes into power and rules for more than years with his sister and wife Alysanne. They have over ten children together and create a prosperous and happy realm. He intends to leave the realm to his oldest son, Aemon, but Aemon is killed by accident while in the south. Jaehaerys names his younger son, Baelon, his heir, but Baelon dies during a hunting trip. Unsure whether to select Baelon’s son or his elder daughter’s son as his heir, so Jaehaerys forms a council, and they decide succession should favor the male, so Jaehaerys names Viserys his heir.

Viserys is a kind man, but he is soft and hates conflict. He names his daughter with his first wife, Rhaenyra, his heir. When he marries Alicent and has male children with her, he refuses to change his plan for succession. When he passes, however, Alicent and her son Aegon II stage a coup and take control of the Iron Throne. A horrific civil war breaks out over the next two years, killing almost all the Targaryens and their dragons, not just through infighting, but in the resulting riots their strife causes the realm to exhibit. The war ends after both Rhaenyra and Aegon II are dead and their son and daughter are married to one another, bridging the two houses together.

After the Dance of the Dragons is done, the realm is all but shattered. The Targaeryens are depleted and the dragons are almost gone, but King Aegon III and his queen Jaehaera are able to create an unsteady peace. At just ten and eight, though, they were not old enough to rule. A council of seven was formed to serve as regents alongside the small council. Tyland Lannister acted as a wise and king Hand of the King, but when he died and was replaced by Unwin Peake, who desired power, the king and queen became hostages in the castle. The young queen was found dead, having fallen from her tower, and many suggested Unwin was responsible, especially when he attempted to force the king to marry his own daughter, but the council rejects his suggestion. A ball is held and Aegon III selects his cousin Daenaera Velaryon. His uncle returns from sea with his brother Viserys, and the court rejoices. Unwin resigns from his position but leaves all his men in place.When the city learns that the Viserys' foriegn wife's father is responsible for a staggering embezzlement, Unwin's men take the opportunity to seize the city an attempt to have her taken away. The coup is thwarted, though, and the court is cleansed of the traitor. Torrhen Stark comes from the North to rule until Aegon III's sixteenth birthday, at which time the king dismisses him and his council and begins his reign.