The Great Spring Sickness was a pandemic that affected the Seven Kingdoms around the year 209 AL. King Daeron II Targaryen perished during it.[1]
In the books
The Great Spring Sickness was a plague epidemic that followed the Great Spring of 209AL, killing tens of thousands in the Seven Kingdoms. It killed tens of thousands, specially in the major cities; it was bad in Lannisport, worse in Oldtown, but worst of all in King's Landing, where four in ten succumbed to it. A strong man could wake up healthy in the morning and die by the evening.
King Daeron the Good, his last Hand of the King, and his two most immediate heirs, Princes Valarr and Matarys, as well as the High Septon, a third of the Most Devout, and nearly all of the Silent Sisters in King's Landing perished to the plague. Lord Brynden Rivers, the Hand of the King to Daeron's successor, Aerys I Targaryen, ordered the many bodies be brought to the Dragonpit and burned by pyromancers. The light of their wildfire pyres could be seen as a glow throughout the city during the night.
The only regions not affected by the plague were the Vale of Arryn and Dorne. The Arryns closed off the Eastern Road at the Bloody Gate to all travel, as well as blocking all travel by sea, isolating the Vale from the epidemic. Similarly, the deserts of Dorne and the narrow passes of the Red Mountains helped to isolate it from the disease's spread.
