A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a highly faithful adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s 1998 novella The Hedge Knight, which is set about a century before the events of Game of Thrones and more than 70 years after the prequel House of the Dragon. It’s a fairly tight and self-contained story, taking place almost entirely at a jousting tournament, which means you don’t need to know much about the series’ long history to jump into the adventures of the poor knight Dunk (Peter Claffey) and his plucky squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell).
ut one event looms large in shaping the shows’ characters and foreshadowing what’s to come for Westeros. Consider us your maester and read on for a lesson on the Blackfyre Rebellion.
What is the Blackfyre Rebellion?
Succession is a messy business in any monarchy. While the Targaryens ruled Westeros for 280 years, they repeatedly fought among themselves about who would be the next person to sit on the Iron Throne. One such battle is playing out in House of the Dragon, where the dispute over whether King Viserys intended to pass on his crown to his son Aegon or his daughter Rhaenyra erupts into a civil war. The Targaryens faced another major succession fight about 60 years later, which ended about a decade before A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
King Aegon IV, who would come to be called Aegon the Unworthy, was probably the worst Targaryen ruler until Mad King Aerys II’s reign ended their dynasty. While upholding Targaryen tradition by marrying his sister to keep the family’s bloodline pure, Aegon IV also had nine mistresses, siring numerous bastards. He liked one of them, Daemon Waters, more than his trueborn heir, Daeron II. Aegon IV proved that favor by giving Daemon the house’s Valyrian steel sword, Blackfyre, which was wielded by the dynasty’s founder Aegon the Conqueror and became a symbol of the monarchy.
Daemon was so pleased by this gift that he took the name Daemon Blackfyre, creating a new branch of House Targaryen with color-flipped heraldry showing a black dragon on a red background. Aegon IV then legitimized all of his bastards on his deathbed, setting off a conflict known as the Blackfyre Rebellion where Daemon claimed to be the rightful heir to the Iron Throne. Westeros again erupted in civil war, a conflict that ended with Daemon dying in a battle near King’s Landing.
How does the Blackfyre Rebellion fit into A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms?
Daeron II’s sons Baelor (Bertie Carvel) and Maekar (Sam Spruell) helped defeat Daemon, and both princes play major roles in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. While they crushed the Blackfyre Rebellion, Targaryen power remains fragile. The House of the Dragon doesn’t actually command any flying, fire-breathing monsters in this era of Westeros history, making it easier for the other great houses to consider challenging them. Complicating the situation further, Daeron II’s heir Baelor, who is currently serving as Hand of the King, has no children of his own. And while Daemon’s two eldest sons died with him, he has other descendents living in exile.
All of those factors mean that Dunk is walking into a very fraught situation he doesn’t understand. He was just a child when the Blackfyre Rebellion ended, and while he’s seen the scale of bloodshed that civil war can bring, he doesn’t realize how close the kingdom is to going to war again. Dunk just wants to prove himself as a fighter and secure his future as a knight, but there are battle lines being drawn for the next conflict, and he’s going to find himself getting far more entangled in politics than he should.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms debuts on HBO Max on Jan. 18, with new episodes on Sundays through Feb. 22.
