What is the Pact of Ice and Fire in House of the Dragon? Cregan Stark’s involvement explained

Now that Lord Cregan Stark has been cast in Season 2 of House of the Dragon, viewers are curious about the young Northern lord and what role he is going to play in the next season.

One of the major things that will be a part of the Dance of the Dragons in Season 2 will be his alliance with Queen Rhaenyra and the Blacks.

The alliance, known as the Pact of Ice and Fire, was made between Cregan Stark and the Blacks after Prince Jacaerys flew North on his dragon to meet with the Starks at Winterfell.

Here’s everything we need to know about the Pact of Ice and Fire.

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What was the Pact of Ice and Fire?

Artwork by Mike Hallstein

The Pact of Ice and Fire was an alliance between two Houses of Westeros during the Targaryen Civil War, the Dance of the Dragons. The term was coined by the historian Grand Maester Munkun.

This Pact was made between House Stark and the branch of House Targaryen under Queen Rhaenyra, known as the Blacks.

As we last saw in Season 1, Queen Rhaenyra sent her two sons, Prince Lucerys and Prince Jacaerys, to form alliances with the various Lords of the realm. Prince Lucerys went to the Stormlands to meet Lord Borros Baratheon, the Lord of Storm’s End.

Unfortunately, he met his end at the hands of Prince Aemond and his dragon Vhagar. What we do not see is Prince Jacaerys’ flight to Winterfell to meet Lord Cregan Stark, the Lord of Winterfell.

Seated on his dragon Vermax, Prince Jacaerys flew to the Eyrie, Sisterton, and White Harbor before finally heading to Winterfell to negotiate. We will most likely see this event early on in Season 2 of House of the Dragon.

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Why was the Pact of Ice and Fire made?

Credits: Generated with Leonardo AI

There are many different theories about why the pact was made between the two. According to Mushroom, the court fool of King’s Landing in Fire and Blood, it was due to a marriage pact.

Mushroom claims that Prince Jacaerys slept with Cregan Stark’s half-sister, Sara Snow. He claims that Lord Cregan was furious when he heard of this, but his anger was quelled when Sara informed him that she and Prince Jacaerys had secretly been wed, speaking their vows in the Godswood of Winterfell before having any intimate relations with each other.

Mushroom says that this satisfied Lord Cregan and led to the formation of the Pact between the houses.

However, the historian Archmaester Gyldayn doubts this version of events and questions whether Sara Snow even existed at all. He dismisses the tale of marriage as another one of Mushroom’s tall tales, saying that Prince Jacaerys’ morals and character would not let him break his betrothal of 11 years.

Prince Jacaerys was betrothed as a child to Lady Baela Targaryen, and it seemed quite unlikely to Gyldayn that Jacaerys would break such a vow to protect the virtue of a Northern bastard girl. He does concede that Prince Jacaerys may have slept with her if she did indeed exist but completely dismisses any claims of marriage.

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What were the conditions of the Pact?

Cregan and Jacaerys by @wicked_circle on Twitter

The version that most historians agree upon is that Lord Cregan Stark and Prince Jacaerys bonded over their shared interests of hunting, drinking, and fighting. Since Prince Jacaerys had recently lost his younger sibling Lucerys, he looked upon Lord Cregan as a brother.

In turn, Jacaerys reminded Lord Cregan of his late younger brother. Therefore, the Pact was sworn as an oath of brotherhood. According to the Pact, It was agreed that the firstborn daughter of Prince Jacaerys would marry Lord Cregan’s son, Rickon Stark, in exchange for the support of the Northmen in the war.

After this oath was made, Lord Cregan Stark assembled an army of northerners to fight in the Dance of the Dragons. Under Lord Roderick Dustin, also known as Roddy the Ruin, the Winter Wolves were formed.

They were a group of grizzled, old, veteran Northern warriors who went south to join the Blacks and fight in the war. House Manderly of Whiteharbor, a noble family in the North, also contributed some knights towards the cause.

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What happened during the Dance of the Dragons?

During the war, the Winter Wolves fought valiantly in various battles. They secured many victories, but their numbers dwindled, eventually being wiped out. Their final battle was the First Battle of Tumbleton, where the Blacks faced defeat after two of their own dragonriders switched sides and sabotaged them.

After his forces were eliminated, Lord Cregan Stark himself joined the war efforts. By this time, Prince Jacaerys had been killed in The Battle of the Gullet, and King Aegon II had executed Queen Rhaenyra.

Theoretically, this ended The Pact of Ice and Fire, as Jacaerys never fathered any daughters. This meant that a royal princess would never marry into House Stark.

Regardless of this, Lord Cregan stayed faithful to the Starks’ code of honor and marched to King’s Landing with a host of warriors. However, by the time he reached there, he found that King Aegon II had been poisoned.

With both Rhaenyra and Aegon II dead, the war of succession finally came to a close. The members of the council in King’s Landing did have a successor in mind. This was Queen Rhaenyra’s son, Aegon the Younger. He ascended the throne as King Aegon III Targaryen.

At this time, Lord Cregan Stark briefly governed the city as Hand of the King for six days, in a period which came to be known as the Hour of the Wolf. With the characteristic sense of justice of the Starks and the Northerners, Lord Cregan meted out harsh sentences to those he considered guilty of war crimes.

This included the killers of King Aegon II, as Lord Cregan objected to a monarch being killed. Though the Pact between Jacaerys and Cregan was never fulfilled, Lord Cregan Stark was richly rewarded for his role in supporting the new king, Aegon III Targaryen.

 

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