Rhaenyra Targaryen wanted dragon riders, and that’s exactly what House of the Dragon season two’s penultimate episode gave her. The Queen has never been stronger, but Fire & Blood readers know something she doesn’t. (At least not yet.) Rhaenyra has a notorious family member to thank for one of her new dragonriders. Hugh Hammer’s mother, the one he was too ashamed to tell his wife about, was Saera Targaryen, the ostracized daughter of King Jaehaerys. She is one of the most interesting, most compelling members of House Targaryen in history. And thanks to her bastard son she’s far more important than we ever knew.
Hugh Hammer’s Targaryen Blood Comes From His Mother
On House of the Dragon, Ulf the White previously said he’s the bastard son of the late Baelon the Brave, father of King Viserys and Prince Daemon. Before the well-liked bar patron headed to Dragonstone to answer Rhaenyra’s call it wasn’t clear if even he believed that bold claim. We still don’t know if he’s truly Baelon Targaryen’s child, but he is clearly a dragonseed of House Targaryen. Unclaimed dragons have only accepted riders strong with the blood of Old Valyria.
That’s certainly true of the other common born member of King’s Landing who claimed a dragon in House of the Dragon season two’s seventh episode. Unlike Ulf, though, Hugh the blacksmith knows exactly where his Targaryen blood comes from. Hugh Hammer knew his mother, and based on what he said about her she can only be Saera Targaryen, a fascinating figure from George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood.
Hugh Hammer told his grieving wife something he’d never shared with her before. He told her about his mother. “She worked in a pleasure house,” Hugh said. “She was granted more freedom than most, because of who she was. And because rich men paid more to fuck a woman with silver hair. She used to tell me I was no different from her brother’s boys, Viserys and Daemon.”
Who Is House of the Dragon‘s Saera Targaryen?
There’s only one sister of Baelon Hugh could be talking about. Saera Targaryen was the fifth daughter (and ultimately the ninth child out of 13) born to King Jaehaerys and Queen Alyssane. She was beautiful, smart, charming, and brave. She was also uncontrollable, disobedient, stubborn, manipulative, and temperamental. Saera Targaryen craved attention and lashed out when she didn’t get it, which wasn’t always easy as one of many children. (Though her father was far more susceptible to her wiles than her mother.) She was also fond of cruel pranks, didn’t get along with her sisters, and started drinking at age 11.
Once Saera went through puberty the amorous Princess started setting her sights on many men who came to the royal court. But it was her “friendship” at the age of 15 with two other ladies and three young lords that ultimately led to her self-imposed exile from the Realm. The six spent all their time together, which worried many about what they might get up to. King Jaehaerys was not among the concerned. With Saera’s servants always with the group he assumed it was impossible for them to do anything untoward.
He was wrong. One of Saera’s pranks at a brothel led to a massive scandal where the Princess admitted to her father she had already slept with all three of her male friends. (One of her others friends was also pregnant with one of the lord’s child, but wasn’t sure who the father was.) The irate King wanted to denounce Saera immediately, but his wife talked him out of it. Only the Princess made things worse by trying to escape with a dragon, which led to her imprisonment.
Saera Targaryen’s Exile, Escape to Essos, and Life in Volantis
After Saera watched from her cell while her father killed one of her male “friends” in Trial by Combat, Jaehaerys sent his daughter to Oldtown to serve with the silent sisters. He thought that would get her in line, teach her proper decorum, and put her on a righteous path.
He was wrong again. After a year-and-a-half of harsh living, Saera Targaryen escaped and made her way to Essos where she began working in a pleasure house in Lys. When news of her new profession eventually reached King’s Landing it crushed Jaehaerys. He forbade his wife from even writing their daughter, let alone visiting her. Alyssane ignored him and wrote Saera letters on occasion, never getting a reply. She also hired guards to watch over her daughter. And after three of their other girls died, she pleaded with her husband to call Saera back home. Jaehaerys refused.
Saera moved to Volantis after roughly 14 years, both wealthy and infamous. As Hugh Hammer said on House of the Dragon, a silver-haired Targaryen Princess like Saera could fetch a high price for her services. In her new city she became even richer as the owner of a well-known pleasure house. (Based on his apparent age Saera Targaryen gave gave birth to Hugh Hammer during her time in Lys.)
When Jaehaerys called the lords of Westeros to a Great Council to pick his heir (which ended with then naming Viserys), three men made claims by saying they were Saera’s bastard sons. She did not press her own claim, though. When asked why, Saera Targaryen famously said, “I have my own kingdom here.”
A disgusted, angry, heartbroken Jaehaerys never got over his daughter’s escape or her life in Essos. In his last days, when a young Alicent Hightower looked after him, he often mistook her for Saera Targaryen. The Old King believed his lost daughter had finally returned to him.
Hugh Hammer, Saera Targaryen’s Son, Claims the Dragon Vermithor on House of the Dragon
Instead Saera Targaryen’s brave son Hugh Hammer came home instead. Now, after going to his family’s ancestral castle on Dragonstone, he’ll help Jaehaerys’ granddaughter Rhaenyra fight for the Iron Throne. And he’ll do it, in an unexpected twist of fate, by riding Jaehaerys’ very own dragon Vermithor.
The bastard child of an ostracized daughter, a white-haired blacksmith born in a pleasure house, is now a dragonlord of the only creature capable of matching Vhagar’s might. That alone has completely changed the Dance of the Dragons and the Realm’s future. It’s also changed what we knew about Saera Targaryen’s story. Even after all these years the notorious Princess is still making her presence felt in House Targaryen.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist and dragon historian. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.