Maester Aemon Targaryen

• Individual Picture Notes
  • Peter Vaughan as Maester Aemon in HBO Game of Thrones

• General Notes
  • 
    Third son of King Maekar I Targaryen, Aemon was sent to the Citadel according to the wishes of his grandfather, King Daeron II Targaryen. At the time, King Daeron II had four grown sons, three with sons of their own.  He felt that having too many potential Targaryen heirs was as dangerous as having too few.
    
    At the Citadel, Aemon forged his chain and earned the title of Maester Aemon. He served an unidentified lord until his father, now King Maekar I, summoned him to court to serve the Iron Throne. Not wanting to displace the Grand Maester, Aemon chose instead to serve at the keep of his eldest brother, Prince Daeron.
    
    After Daeron's death, Maester Aemon's whereabouts are unknown until the death of King Maekar I, when Aemon was summoned to court in the year of the Great Council.  Aemon was offered the crown, quietly, but he refused, ceding rule to his younger brother, Aegon. He then decided to serve as a Black Brother of the Night's Watch for fear that he might be used in a plot to usurp his brother.
    
    Maester Aemon stayed at Castle Black during the wildling and Other conflicts, providing guidance to Jon Snow and the rest of the men of the Wall.  With Stannis's occupation of the Wall, the new Lord Commander, Jon Snow, sent Aemon to Oldtown with Samwell Tarly and the wildling girl Gilly to remove all "royal blood" from Melisandre's grasp.  However, the sea voyage was too hard for the old man. He died of a chill at the age of one hundred and two. According to Alleras, a novice at the Citadel, he was the oldest living man in Westeros.
    
    Aemon was also the only living link to the events of The Hedge Knight and The Sworn Sword.  His brother was Aegon Targaryen, known by the short form 'Egg', whom Aemon mentioned in moments of delirity during his final days. He was also mentioned in The Mystery Knight by Ser Duncan the Tall, who Aemon measured as 6 ft 11 in tall.