Rhaenyra Targaryen

Rhaenyra Targaryen is a central figure in George R. R. Martin’s history, Fire & Blood, and in HBO’s House of the Dragon. Born to King Viserys I Targaryen and Queen Aemma Arryn, she is named her father’s heir after the death of her infant brother, Baelon. Viserys publicly requires his lords to swear obedience to her succession, giving her the title Princess of Dragonstone. Her claim nevertheless becomes contested because Viserys later fathers sons with his second wife, Alicent Hightower. Rhaenyra is a dragonrider, bonded with Syrax, and her position places family affection, dynastic custom, and royal power in conflict.

Rhaenyra’s marriages sharpen the dispute. Her first husband is Ser Laenor Velaryon, heir to Driftmark; their sons are Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey. Court gossip questions the boys’ parentage, while Viserys continues to defend them as legitimate. After Laenor’s death, Rhaenyra marries her uncle, Prince Daemon Targaryen. Together they have the sons Aegon the Younger and Viserys. Daemon also supports her political cause and fights for it on dragonback. The two branches of Viserys’s family become known as the blacks, for Rhaenyra’s supporters, and the greens, for Alicent’s children and their allies at court. These labels dominate the ensuing civil war.

When Viserys dies, the greens crown Alicent’s eldest son, Aegon II, in King’s Landing. Rhaenyra is on Dragonstone and is subsequently crowned by her own faction, using a crown associated with her father’s line. The rival coronations begin the Targaryen civil war called the Dance of the Dragons. A crucial early loss follows when Lucerys flies Arrax to Storm’s End to seek Lord Borros Baratheon’s support. There he encounters Aemond Targaryen, Aegon II’s brother, riding Vhagar. The dragons fight in a storm, and Vhagar kills Arrax and Lucerys. That death transforms an already bitter succession struggle into open, vengeful war.

Rhaenyra takes King’s Landing after the greens abandon the capital, and she sits the Iron Throne. Her rule is brief and unpopular. Taxes, arrests, fear of betrayal, and war’s misery undermine her authority. The storming of the Dragonpit destroys dragons and demonstrates how the conflict has turned against the dynasty. Forced to flee the capital, Rhaenyra returns toward Dragonstone to find it controlled by Aegon II’s forces. She is captured with her son Aegon present. In Martin’s account, Aegon II orders the dragon Sunfyre to kill her. Rhaenyra’s son, Aegon the Younger, becomes King Aegon III, preserving her line afterward.