Following the devastating Dance of the Dragons, Westeros was briefly and unusually governed by Grand Maester Munkun, who amassed unprecedented power amidst a period of extreme leadership turnover and political instability.
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did you know that at a crucial time in
the history of Westeros the Seven
Kingdoms was ruled by the maesters well
by one maester in particular and with
more power than any king or hand of the
King has ever had before or after let's
take a look hi everyone this is Robert
welcome to indeep geek on this channel
we dive deep into A Song of Ice and Fire
the Lord of the Rings and The Witcher
and more when we get the time if you're
new here
welcome after the end of the dance of
the dragons and I suppose there are
slight spoiler warnings here for House
of the Dragon just proceed with caution
if you're a showon person after the end
of the dance of the Dragons aegon III
was King but he was only 10 years old
both his parents and all his
grandparents were dead and he was
understandably rather traumatized by
what he had already experienced in his
short life everyone agreed that the
continent needed peace and as the wounds
of War were still raw the Iron Throne
itself must be visibly above the fault
lines that had Riven the kingdom aegon
was therefore married to Jara the
daughter of his predecessor and rival
Aon II and the post of defender of the
realm was established an existing title
but not always used and given to a
former member of Team black leoen cor to
balance the new hand of the king
Thailand Lannister former Green in
addition as Aon was under AG the powers
of the king were taken on by a regent or
as it turned out a team of Regents
seven of them no less to ensure that no
one person had too much power and
beneath all that there was the usual
small Council to manage the different
aspects of the realm's bureaucracy and
the Lord's Paramount in the regions so
far so good it was a slightly unwieldy
Administration nine different people who
each thought they could act with the
authority of the king plus the king
himself plus the small council with
their varying egos but it only had to
last a bit over 5 years until Aon III
could take the Reigns himself and
appoint his own team surely in a time of
Peace most if not all of those otherwise
perfectly healthy people could survive
for just 5 years to ensure the balance
of power well let's see Aon III himself
kept out of politics during this time he
rarely spoke or even left his Chambers
unless things got personal to him he
largely left the politics to others as
we've seen the system had been set up so
that no one Personal Agenda could
dominate Westeros it would be ruled by
consensus seven regions a full small
Council a hand of the king and a
defender of the realm but they started
to fall the protector of the realm leoen
cor died of winter fever in 133 AC
Thailand Lannister hand of the king died
in the same year of the seven Regents
Kus valion died of old age in 132 Royce
Karan resigned the same year to focus on
fighting the dornish the next year Torin
Mand resigned because his father had
died and he was now Lord of white Harbor
and Roland westling died of winter fever
and old age the next year 134 AC Jane
Aon died of a chest cold and Manfred
muton died of old age and illness
apparently that's four of the seven
Regents dead within 3 years and another
two resigned the one who miraculously
survived was Grand maester monan we'll
come back to him in a moment because
those Regents were replaced with three
more Unwin Peak was made Regent and also
hand of the king but Fell From Grace
after an attempted coup and was stripped
of both titles Corwin cor lasted only a
few months as Regent before he was
killed in the Civil War in the veil of
Aaron Thaddius Rowan lasted a bit longer
as both Regent and hand of the king but
his fate was even more tragic he died a
Broken Man relieved of his offices and
on his way back home we're not told by
the maesters how he died just that he
died along with two of his sons on the
way home move along there's nothing to
see here we don't know all the members
of the small council at the time but we
do know that Thaddius Rowan was also
master of laws before his untimely death
gmond Peak then alen valion were both
master of ships at various points but
had left the position vacant by 135
Willis Fel Robin Massie and Mar and
Waters all served as Lord commander of
the King's Guard between 131 and 13 five
but all three also died Mar and Waters
also served as hand of the king before
dying in the care of Grandmaster monan
monan again seriously remember the name
because let's pause for a moment and
consider what happened to the leadership
of the Seven Kingdoms between 131 and
135 AC a period when the country had a
few border disputes and the like but was
overall trying to heal and unite after
the Civil War three or maybe even four
Four Hands of the king died one after
the other every member of the small
Council died or left the council six of
the seven Regents appointed died or left
their posts three more were appointed in
their place and all of them left their
posts within 2 years King Aon was warned
of the potential for this incidentally
during his own short stint as hand of
the king craan Stark told the king that
this city is a nest of vipers there are
liars turncloaks and poisoners in this
court who would murder you as quick as
they did your uncle to secure their own
power only one person survived all this
just one person Grandmaster monan if
you've never heard of him don't worry I
suspect history by which I mean the
history recorded by the maesters has
deliberately not Shone much of a light
on him outside of his role as maester and
and
chronicler we know nothing of manan's
early life just that he was chosen by
the citad as their new Grand maaster at
the conclusion of the dance of the
Dragons so if he has any previous
affiliations or prejudices we don't know
but we can be pretty certain that this
is the man that the Citadel wanted there
for whatever agenda they had and after
all this monen writes his true telling
of what happened during this time and
during the preceding dance which even
the maesters accept is a bit less than
true but still our version of fire and
blood is in large part based on his true
telling if you've read Fire and Blood
you'll know that monan and his true
telling are referenced literally dozens
of times as Arbiters of what actually
happened and only occasionally
challenged history is written by The
Victors as they say and I think George
Martin wants us to question whether what
we read is actually what happened anyway
back to monan monan arrives in person in
King's Landing in the year 131 AC
shortly after the end of the war to be
welcomed onto the council of Regents and
we have an intriguing insight into how
he viewed the king he was acting on
behalf of when he wrote back to the
Citadel we read that he thinks first
about aegon and his child bride both of
them are broken aegon shows little
interest in his wife or any other girl
he does not ride or hunt or joust but
neither does he enjoy sedentary Pursuits
such as reading dancing or singing
though his wits seem sound enough he
never initiates a conversation and when
spoken to his answers are so Curt one
would think the very Act of talking was
painful to him he has no friends save
for the bastard boy G in pale hair and
seldom sleeps through the night aegon
seldom smiles and never laughs but
neither does he display any outward
signs of anger or fear save in regards
to dragons the very mention of which
sends him into a rare rage all while was
want to call his grace calm and
self-possessed I say the boy is dead
inside he walks the halls of the red
keep like a ghost Brothers I must be
frank I fear for our King and for the
Kingdom so monan thought that his King
was broken dead inside like a ghost that
sounds like a strong motive to provide
leadership of the Seven Kingdoms in the
king's absence and sometime in the year
135 monan finds himself in control of
the entire Seven Kingdoms how come well
as we've seen monan was the last man
standing of the sizable bureaucracy that
was left managing the Seven Kingdoms
during aon's infancy there had been
seven Regents then six died or left and
three more were appointed and they also
died or were deposed leaving monan as
the sole Regent five different hands of
the king came and went ending with monan
as hand of the king one protector of the
realm died and the post ended and at
least six other members of the small
Council Di died or left their office
leaving monan as the only member of the
small Council hand of the king the only
Regent the only member of the small
Council if you want more of a conspiracy
theory you could point to the fact that
monan was there for the deaths of at
least two of the Regents consistently
acted to contain information of what was
happening in King's Landing from
reaching the wider Kingdom and
personally persuaded aegon to remove the
last other Regent and hand of the king
from power or or perhaps you could just
point to the fact that it feels
inconceivable that perhaps as many as 20
otherwise healthy people should die or
be deposed in such a short space of time
leaving just monan any way you look at
it Mon's role here is really shady and
the timing for a silent coup could not
have been more perfect normally you
might expect the Lord's Paramount to
notice what was going on in King's
Landing and maybe intervene but at this
time the aons were in the middle of a
veil wide Civil War the Starks were
dealing with a brutal six-year winter
the Lannisters were effectively at war
with the greyjoys the tules were dealing
with the devastating aftermath of the
war and the baratheons Lannisters and
tyrells had regencies of their own for
child rulers in summary monan was in
complete charge of the Seven Kingdoms
with his newly acquired Powers as well
as the MA's own influence and control
over Communications and recordkeeping
and no one had any way to to either stop
him or even know what he was doing and
that situation lasted for well we don't
know exactly how long for because Fire
and Blood quickly glosses over that
period but maybe 6 months to a year from
partway into 135 AC through to sometime
in 136 at which point monan oversaw the
apparent random selection of three more
regions though as even Fire and Blood
admits the Lots fell to William STAAR
Mark Merryweather and laurren Granderson
of whom it could truly be said that they
were as inoffensive as they were
undistinguished so not exactly the kind
of political heavyweights that might get
in the way of any plans monan might have
had so monan had pretty absolute power
with almost no oversight for a
significant amount of time and the way
he got it with Regents and hands
dropping like flies around him was
pretty suspicious but what might he have
done with that time well Fire and Blood
gives us few details just that for the
rest of that year the grand maester
served as both Regent and hand for the
realm required governance and aegon had
still not reached the age of manhood and
we have to say that we don't have any
evidence that he did anything
suspicious except the coincidence that
before manan's Reign dragons were still
being hatched from eggs as usual and
after none ever were again the D of the
Dragons had hugely reduced the dragon
population of Westeros at its start
there were 20 by its end just four with
just one of those mourning in Targaryen
control but there were still a lot of
dragon eggs and no one really doubted
that given time the dragon population
would increase once more the thing was
that the new boy King was understandably
rather anti-dragon at the time I say
understandably because he had just
witnessed his mother being eaten by a
dragon and his father and three Brothers
had also just been killed riding dragons
and then as we read in Fire and Blood
the people of King's Landing woke to a
sight that had not been seen since the
dark days of the dance a dragon in the
skies above the city lady Raina at the
age of 19 was flying her Dragon mourning
for the first time the king refused to
step outside to witness it then followed
the hatching of another Dragon but this
one was we read a monstrosity a wingless
worm maggot white and blind it
immediately attacked Baby Lena valaran
the king angrily demanded that all
dragon eggs be removed from the red keep
if ever there was a moment to act it was
now the dragon eggs had been gathered in
one place and out of sight the king
wanted nothing to do with them the
maesters were soon in complete control
of the instruments of government and the
rest of the Seven Kingdoms was
distracted by events elsewhere and and
the maesters did want the dragons dead
we looked at that in our previous video
about the maesters and there is at least
one in the no maer marwin in A Song of
Ice and Fire who believes that the
maesters did kill all the dragons last
time around do we have any evidence that
monan did use his power to poison the
dragon eggs so that no more healthy
dragons were born we don't but then
monan wrote the history of that time so
of course we wouldn't but he 100% had
the meaning motive and opportunity and
it is undeniable that something changed
then to stop healthy dragons being born
incidentally if you're wondering there
were just three dragon eggs that were
outside of the maer's control at this
point so almost certainly weren't
poisoned by them the three that Alyssa
farman stole and then sold to the Sea
Lord of braavos and what happened to
them well I think we next see them in
the opening chapters of a Game of
Thrones but that's another video
is Arch Meester marwin right did the
maesters kill all the dragons the first
time around if so it was here after the
dance of the Dragons as Grand maester
monan emerged alone as the Undisputed
most powerful man in the Seven Kingdoms
and then refused to write anything of
what happened during that period in his
history book if you'd like more videos
like this diving deep into the history
and lore of A Song of Ice and Fire
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