Daemon II Blackfyre

Daemon II Blackfyre
Biographical information
Born	184 AC in King's Landing
Died	In King's Landing Imprisoned in the Black Cells by Brynden Rivers and most likely starved to death
Political information
House(s)	Blackfyre
Title(s)	King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men (claimant) Lord of the Seven Kingdoms (claimant) Protector of the Realm (claimant)
Personal information
Culture	Valyrian
Religion	Faith of the Seven
Father	{Daemon I Blackfyre}
Mother	{Rohanne of Tyrosh}
Sibling(s)	{Aegon Blackfyre} {Aemon Blackfyre} {Haegon Blackfyre}

"Politics can also explain the prophecies of Daemon Blackfyre the Second, a Targaryen bastard rumored to possess the family gift. While posing as a hedge knight, he told a future Lord Commander of the Kingsguard that he dreamt of a dragon hatching at Whitewalls Castle and took it as a sign he'd win the Iron Throne. Perhaps if he'd slept a bit longer, he'd have dreamt of the King's Hand putting down his rebellion a day later, before it even began."

―Samwell Tarly

Daemon II Blackfyre was a member of House Blackfyre and the second of the Blackfyre Pretenders.

Biography

Background

Daemon II Blackfyre was the third son of Daemon I Blackfyre, a legitimized bastard son of King Aegon IV Targaryen and his cousin Daena Targaryen. He had three brothers: Aegon, Aemon and Haegon. In contrast to his silver-haired and purple-eyed siblings, Daemon II had black hair and dark eyes. After the Blackfyre defeat at the Battle of Redgrass Field and the deaths of Daemon I, Aegon and Aemon, Daemon II went into hiding.

At a later point, Daemon tried to instigate a rebellion, "reigning for a night". While posing as a hedge knight, he told a future Lord Commander of the Kingsguard that he dreamt of a dragon egg hatching at Whitewalls Castle, and took it as a sign that he would win the Iron Throne. A day later, however, Brynden Rivers put down Daemon's rebellion before it even began, having him imprisoned in the Black Cells with Daemon most likely starving to death.

Game of Thrones: Season 1

Daemon II, along with his siblings is mentioned in the House Targaryen entry of the book The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms.

Game of Thrones: Season 8

Daemon is mentioned under the entry of Ser Duncan the Tall, in the Book of Brothers, which the new Lord Commander of the Kingsguard Brienne of Tarth was flicking through.

Family

Daemon I Blackfyre Deceased

Rohanne of Tyrosh Deceased

Aegon Blackfyre Deceased

Aemon Blackfyre Deceased

Daemon II Blackfyre Deceased

Haegon Blackfyre Deceased

Wife Deceased

Daemon III Blackfyre Deceased

Son Deceased

Maelys Blackfyre Deceased

In the books

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Daemon II was the third son of Daemon Blackfyre. He appears in The Mystery Knight, the third of the Dunk & Egg novellas. His two older brothers died childless, so when they were slain along with their father at the Battle of the Redgrass Field, Daemon II became the nominal head of House Blackfyre as it fled into exile.

Daemon II was an attractive man with classic Targaryen features of silver hair and purple eyes. He even had prophetic dreams, a trait passed down through the Targaryen/Blackfyre bloodline. Secretly, Daemon II actually wasn't a great fighter: all of his practice duels and jousts had been publicly staged, and the knights he allegedly lost to had actually been paid to feign defeat.

George R.R. Martin has confirmed that Daemon II was a homosexual. He apparently never fathered any children, meaning that his younger brother Haegon Blackfyre was his direct heir.

Daemon II attempted to instigate another uprising in the name of House Blackfyre in the year 212 AC, sixteen years after the First Blackfyre Rebellion. To accomplish this, he posed as a common fiddler (by dyeing his distinctive silver hair black), and attending a large tournament being held by House Butterwell at Whitewalls, in the Riverlands. While there, he hoped to surreptitiously recruit many of the well-armed knights in attendance to his cause.

Due to a series of events, however (which Ser Duncan the Tall and Aegon V Targaryen participated in), Daemon II revealed his true identity and faced the hedge knight Ser Glendon Flowers in a Trial by combat, in the format of a joust. Despite having been badly tortured the night before, and still suffering from his injuries, Glendon unhorsed Daemon II on the very first tilt, revealing to all gathered at the tournament that he wasn't the great fighter he thought he was, much less a legendary fighter like his father Daemon I. Any support he had quickly evaporated, and the "Second Blackfyre Rebellion" turned out to be more of a failed plot than an actual war like the first rebellion. Brynden "Bloodraven" Rivers soon arrived at the tournament with a royal army and arrested him. Bloodraven intended to keep him alive and imprisoned, however, to discourage his uncle Bittersteel and the other Blackfyre supporters in exile from crowning Daemon II's younger brother Haegon as the new head of House Blackfyre.

Not only was Daemon II secretly terrible at martial combat, he wasn't even a very good actor. Much of his plot hinged around pretending to be a commoner named "Ser John the Fiddler" to infiltrate a tournament inconspicuously, and secretly win over knights to his cause. Daemon II, however, continued to dress in fine expensive clothing, which raised obvious suspicions about how a common fiddler could afford fine silks. Moreover, Daemon II also talked down to high-ranking noblemen as if he was their equal or superior - not realizing that commoners would never speak so rudely, and causing many to grow suspicious of him (even Ser Duncan, born a street urchin and not very politically savvy, quickly realized "John the Fiddler"'s behavior was very odd).

Appearances

• – "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things" (mentioned in text)
• – "A Golden Crown" (mentioned in text)
• – "Prophecies of the Known World" (illustrated)
• – "The Iron Throne" (mentioned in text)
• – "The Blackfyres" (illustrated)

External links

• Daemon II Blackfyre on A Wiki of Ice and Fire (potential spoilers for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight)