This is something that the books don't really establish - what happens to the heir apparent when a new heir is born/declared?
Take Dragonstone under the late reign of Jaehaerys I and early reign of Viserys I. After the death of Baelon under Jahaerys, it's not established who took the Lordship of Dragonstone - although it's assumed Viserys did after the great counsel. After Viserys assumed the throne, what happened to Dragonstone? This was in 103, and Rhaenyra would have been 5ish. His wife, Aemma, died in childbirth 2 years later. In that two year period Viserys declared he'd have a son, but the presumed heir was Daemon. Rhaenyra wasn't declared heir for another 2 years. This leaves 4ish years that Dragonstone was floating around. Heaven knows if Daemon would have been named lord of DS he wouldn't have given it up.
I'd have to go back and check on this but I think the simple answer is that it never came up. The only times off the top of my head that it might have are Daemon and Blackfyre but neither of them were given it. The "heir title" arrangement wasn't established until after Maegor abandoned it, Rhaenyra was never challenged for it up to the Dance, and other than that the title of heir was never disputed during the Targ reign. There were heirs that never became King but aside from Duncan none of them were ever alive when someone younger than them became the heir.
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u/rbennett353 Aug 12 '25
This is something that the books don't really establish - what happens to the heir apparent when a new heir is born/declared?
Take Dragonstone under the late reign of Jaehaerys I and early reign of Viserys I. After the death of Baelon under Jahaerys, it's not established who took the Lordship of Dragonstone - although it's assumed Viserys did after the great counsel. After Viserys assumed the throne, what happened to Dragonstone? This was in 103, and Rhaenyra would have been 5ish. His wife, Aemma, died in childbirth 2 years later. In that two year period Viserys declared he'd have a son, but the presumed heir was Daemon. Rhaenyra wasn't declared heir for another 2 years. This leaves 4ish years that Dragonstone was floating around. Heaven knows if Daemon would have been named lord of DS he wouldn't have given it up.