House of The Dragon:The Rise of the Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms

Chapter 183: Chapter 182 – The Sin of Greed (II)

When all the lords left the Small Council Chamber, Gael rose from her chair and poured wine for Maekar, Jaehaerys, and Alysanne.

“Janos wasn’t pleased; he’s going to refuse to send troops in the future.” Gael remarked in a calm tone. “As for Tommen, he’s just a cat disguised as a lion. Surprisingly, the rest are quite excited about the idea of the war.”

“Janos isn’t a short-term problem,” Maekar answered calmly. “Janos’s niece, Lady Jayne, is the true Lady of the Vale. The girl is too young to reign, so her uncle took up the regency in the meantime.”

Janos was not from the main branch of House Arryn; even though he was only the temporary lord, he could not reign as one would in Dorne. The lords of the Vale would never accept a ruler from a secondary branch while the main branch was still alive and well.

“If he disobeys, he doesn’t need to stay alive.” Maekar would not allow any obstacle in the coming holy war. He killed Loreon, he killed Matthos, and he could very well kill someone lesser like Janos.

“Boy, you’re truly bold to allow these noble houses to absorb other noble houses that rebel.” Jaehaerys spoke at that moment, still somewhat surprised by the boldness of letting the noble houses grow stronger this way.

Although he knew it was meant to create a web of interests among the lords, it was still a bold strategy and quite difficult to balance in the future.

“Bold? No, I am quite clear-headed and calm.” Maekar shook his head and continued, looking at Jaehaerys and asking with a smile. “My king, what is the greatest difficulty in centralizing House Targaryen’s power?”

“Obviously the noble houses that rule like small kingdoms within their respective fiefs…” Jaehaerys spoke without thinking too much, but, as he answered, his eyes narrowed, and he understood what Maekar wanted to do.

“Yes, the fewer noble houses there are, the easier it will be to control these territories,” Maekar said with a laugh. “The greedier they were, the faster their fall would be. They’ll realize too late that you have to have the capacity to digest these fiefs.”

“But what if they discover your conspiracy?” Gael asked in a confused tone.

“My sweet Gael, never underestimate the greed of nobles for land, especially these noble houses that survived the Age of the Hundred Kingdoms. They won’t pass up the chance to expand their territories, even knowing it might be a conspiracy,” Maekar said in a calm tone.

More territory, more profit. Especially these fiefs controlled by lesser noble houses. Though these fiefs weren’t rich in population, they had an already established economy. One village might not amount to much, but what about ten or thirty? That’s already a great profit.

How could these nobles not take the risk, even knowing something was wrong?

“The best part is that they’ll do the dirty work for me.” Maekar let out a laugh, thinking about this particular point. If he did it himself, there would obviously be many problems, but these Great Lords would take on that villain’s role for themselves.

Maekar could imagine House Lannister and other noble houses using conspiracies, blackmail, and assassins to force these small noble houses into rebellion.

“Westeros has many noble houses.” Alysanne said with a sigh. “In the Reach alone, there are 61 noble houses.”

“However, what will you do with these territories? Put other nobles in their place?”

This was also a great problem of a medieval society. The lack of skilled labor. Maekar wasn’t talking about carpenters or masons, but people fit to manage a city or villages.

With the monopoly on knowledge, it was simply impossible to control a kingdom without nobles.

“I will use the Maesters while I raise a generation of commoners capable of taking up posts to manage a city or village.” Maekar answered in a calm tone. Centralizing a kingdom wasn’t so easy; there were many problems he had to solve, and some would take decades to complete.

Alysanne’s eyes lit up at Maekar’s words; the same could be said of Jaehaerys.

“You want to give power to the commoners to balance the nobility?” Jaehaerys asked in a curious tone.

“Yes, public officials called mayors. The mayor will handle internal affairs, while the sheriff will handle military affairs. Power should not rest in the hands of just one man. Not only that, there will be other officials to oversee and balance the mayor’s power.” Maekar answered Jaehaerys’s questions.

Every word from Maekar seemed to make Jaehaerys reflect deeply. It showed that Maekar wasn’t just trying to do things blindly but already had a solid plan. Even if it took decades to see good results, it was something Jaehaerys had never thought of before.

“That’s brilliant.” Jaehaerys sighed, feeling a fire bubbling in his chest. He wanted to live to see these changes happen. He wanted to see the kingdom truly become a centralized realm governed only by House Targaryen’s laws.

“Yes, it’s brilliant, but it will take ten to thirty years for real change to actually happen.” Maekar sighed; this kind of change was never fast and sudden. England needed the Hundred Years’ War to clear out the nobles and decades to manage to centralize power in the crown.

“It took a hundred years just to consolidate House Targaryen’s reign, showing the people that we would be different from the Age of the Hundred Kingdoms, when kingdoms rose and fell within days. Thirty years is a very good amount of time for such changes.” Unlike Maekar, Jaehaerys did not feel that thirty years was such a long time, especially considering how troubled it had been to consolidate House Targaryen’s power over these hundred years.

“However, it’s impossible to eradicate the nobility. We need the nobles.” Alysanne spoke at that moment. As monarchists, it was simply impossible to eradicate the nobility.

“I will create the Chamber of Lords, where the new nobility and the old nobility will draft and debate laws and help administer the country’s internal affairs.” Maekar said with a laugh. “Let the new and old factions kill each other while I calmly watch.”

For the first time, Jaehaerys looked at Maekar with a satisfied gaze. He finally saw the art of balance in Maekar. He didn’t ask about the new nobility Maekar was talking about. The boy already had plans within plans, and he didn’t need to give himself a headache helping with his problems.

“Just take it slow; changing things too fast always brings chaos and death.” Jaehaerys advised Maekar in a calm tone, even gentler than before.

“I know, I can’t rush things too much.” Maekar answered calmly; he certainly knew he couldn’t move fast, as it would cause more harm than good to the kingdom.

“Let’s not talk about politics; I have good news.” Feeling the atmosphere growing somewhat gloomy, Gael spoke with a smile.

“I’m pregnant again,” Gael said softly.

Alysanne showed a joyful expression, and Jaehaerys was pleased. The kingdom needed an heir; that was one of the kingdom’s greatest priorities. Gael being pregnant again was simply wonderful news. House Targaryen would be gaining more members and would grow even stronger in the future with more and more dragonriders.

“That’s good; if it’s a boy, marry him to Viserys’s daughter, Rhaenyra.” Jaehaerys said with a smile. That was the best way to make both brothers a family again. Besides, it would keep the dragons within House Targaryen.

Surprisingly, Maekar was not against the idea. Although, with Blood Magic, he no longer feared other dragonriders, the idea of giving dragons to other noble houses made him sick.

“I’m not against it, we cannot let other noble houses obtain dragons through marriage.” Maekar said in a calm tone, then looked at Jaehaerys with a strange look. “I still don’t understand how you allowed Rhaenys to marry Corlys.”

There would have been no problem if Corlys had become Rhaenys’s prince consort, but Rhaenys married Corlys instead. Their children were not Targaryen but Velaryon.

“It’s the price of trying to consolidate our rule.” Jaehaerys said with a sigh. “We were too distant from the other Great Noble Houses. I married my daughters to other lords with the aim of bringing the relations between the powerful noble houses closer together and also to secure their loyalty.”

Maekar frowned imperceptibly. The idea of using daughters as tools for marriage was simply unacceptable. Not to mention the power the noble houses gained by marrying a Targaryen princess. A child with half Targaryen blood was still enough to lay claim to a dragon.

“Stop discussing politics; let’s celebrate my pregnancy.” Seeing the conversation turning back to politics, Gael spoke in a displeased tone.

Maekar and Jaehaerys glanced at each other and saw the helplessness in each other’s eyes. Both shrugged and did not dwell on the subject further. Either way, Gael’s child would not be born any time soon, and it would take even longer still to be of age to marry.

——–

My friend started a Star Wars fanfic called: “Star Wars – God Emperor of the Sith”. If anyone’s interested, check it out and see if you like it.

Read my other books:

House of The Dragon:The Rise of the Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms

Game Of Thrones: The God-Emperor of Planetos

Percy Jackson: Godwyn the Golden.

Game Of Thrones: The King’s Court Wizard