The Targaryen Family Tree gets complicated and we’re in it for the show. The much-anticipated HBO series and Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon has finally arrived, and explores the story of House Targaryen nearly 200 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen.
Based on George R R Martin’s book Fire and Blood, the show revolves around Daenerys Targaryen’s ancestors and will follow the bitter civil war known as the Dance of Dragons that breaks out the Iron Throne.
So, let’s come and take a look at our explainer and figure out how complicated and essential it is to know the key role of these blondes:
KING JAEHERYS I
House of the Dragon begins with a prelude introducing “The Old King” King Jaeherys I, the longest-reigning Targaryen monarch and ruled for 55 years, the one who had the most peaceful reign of any Targaryen. He wasmarried to his sister, Alysanne Targaryen, with whom he had two sons who lived to adulthood and multiple daughters. As he approached death with no heir apparent, he convened a Great Council to decide who would succeed him among at least 14 contenders, with the vote coming down to his two grandchildren Rhaenys and Viserys.
PRINCESS RHAENYS VELARYON
Rhaenys had a stronger claim to the Iron Throne, as the daughter of Jaehaerys’ eldest son, Aemon, and Jocelyn Baratheon. She is known as the Queen Who Never Was because her father, the rightful heir to the throne, died, leaving King Jaehaerys I Targaryen to appoint a new successor. While many believed it should have been Rhaenys who was next in line, a council of lords chose to appoint her cousin, Viserys, as the next monarch instead. Rhaenys is married to Lord Corlys Velaryon also known as the Sea Snake, who is a central character in House of the Dragon.
KING VISERYS I
King Viserys Targaryen is a distant ancestor of Daenerys. As the grandson of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, Viserys was selected as one of multiple claimants to the throne when Jaehaerys’s sons died, leaving his grandchildren as claimants. At a council to decide the succession, the lords of Westeros voted for Viserys to rule after his grandfather. Viserys ruled over the realm at a time of relative peace and prosperity and is married to Queen Aemma Arryn. They only had one legitimate child, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen.
PRINCESS RHAENYRA TARGARYEN
As the only child of the king, she would be the presumed heir if she wasn’t a woman. However, rather than let Daemon get the crown, Viserys decides to name her as his successor anyway, in a divisive move that becomes the closest a queen will get to the Iron Throne until Rhaenyra’s great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter Daenerys. A dragon rider and a budding tactician, Princess Rhaenyra will end up fighting in a civil war against her half-brother Aegon II, the oldest son of Viserys and his second wife, Alicent Hightower.
PRINCE DAEMON TARGARYEN
Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) is the second-born son of Prince Baelon, the grandson of King Jaehaerys, and the younger brother to King Viserys. Due to Viserys’s lack of male children, Daemon occupies the position as the heir to the Iron Throne, despite being considered a ‘rogue Prince’. Daemon commands the City Watch of King’s Landing and instituted their famous gold cloaks as a uniform. Due to their conflicting interests, Daemon is in a fierce conflict with Viserys’ Hand of the King, Ser Otto Hightower.
KING AERYS II
Before the Baratheons ruled over Westeros in Game of Thrones, there was King Aerys II, the last Targaryen to sit on the Iron Throne. “The Mad King” was initially beloved during his peaceful reign, before he slowly became paranoid and murderous. After his execution of Ned Stark’s father and brother led to Robert’s Rebellion, Aerys was betrayed by his hand, Tywin Lannister, and killed by Jamie Lannister. The reign of the Targaryens was over, but the lineage lived on through his two younger children Daenerys and Viserys, who were smuggled away to the Free Cities.
DAENERYS STORMBORN
We don’t currently have any expectations that Daenerys will make an appearance in House of the Dragon, especially with it being set almost 172 years before she was born.But House of the Dragon will chart her ancestors, so we thought she was worth mentioning. Daenerys is Viserys’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great granddaughter, with her brother also sharing a name with their ancestor. Her father was King Aerys II Targaryen, otherwise known as The Mad King, whose death at the hands of Ser Jaime Lannister marked the end of the Targaryen dynasty ruling on the Iron Throne.
Daenerys shares the name of one of King Jaehaerys’s daughters, while her brother Viserys was named after King Viserys.
