Rhaenys Targaryen (daughter of Rhaegar)

	Rhaenys Targaryen, by ildraws ©
Title	Princess
Allegiance	House Targaryen
Culture	Crownlands
Born	280 AC; Dragonstone, the crownlands
Died	283 AC; Maegor's Holdfast, Red Keep, King's Landing
Father	Rhaegar Targaryen
Mother	Elia Martell
Books	A Game of Thrones (mentioned); A Clash of Kings (mentioned); A Storm of Swords (mentioned); A Feast for Crows (mentioned); A Dance with Dragons (mentioned); The Winds of Winter (mentioned);

Rhaenys Targaryen was the daughter of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and Princess Elia Martell.^[4] She was murdered in the Sack of King's Landing when she was only a toddler.^[5]

Appearance and Character

According to semi-canon sources, Rhaenys looked more like a Martell, taking after her mother, Elia, while her brother, Aegon, looked more like a Targaryen, taking after their father, Rhaegar.^[6]^[7]

Rhaenys liked to pretend her kitten Balerion was actually a dragon, Balerion the Black Dread.^[8] During the Sack of King's Landing, Rhaenys hid under her father's bed, perhaps believing he could somehow still protect her.^[3]

History

Rhaenys and her kitten Balerion, by efpizza ©

In 280 AC, Rhaenys was born on Dragonstone.^[2]^[1] After her birth, her mother was bedridden for half a year.^[9] Rhaenys was presented at court by her father, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. Whilst her grandmother, Queen Rhaella Targaryen, embraced her warmly, her grandfather, King Aerys II Targaryen, refused to touch or hold her, claiming she "smelled Dornish".^[1]

Rhaenys had a small black kitten that she named Balerion, after Balerion the Black Dread, the dragon of Aegon I Targaryen.^[8] Princess Arianne Martell has been told that she held Rhaenys once, when she was too young to remember.^[10]

During Robert's Rebellion, Elia, Rhaenys, and her infant brother, Aegon, were brought to the Red Keep on orders of King Aerys II Targaryen. In preparation for the Battle of the Trident, Aerys used them as hostages, gracelessly reminding Rhaenys's great-uncle, Prince Lewyn Martell of the Kingsguard, that the three were in Aerys's hands. Lewyn took command of ten thousand Dornishmen, but died in the battle, as did Rhaenys's father, Rhaegar. Aerys became convinced that the Dornishmen had betrayed him, and refused to allow Rhaenys and her family to flee to Dragonstone alongside Queen Rhaella Targaryen and Prince Viserys. Rhaenys and her mother and brother were kept at King's Landing as hostages to ensure continued Dornish loyalty.^[11]

During the Sack of King's Landing, a fortnight after the royal forces had left for the Trident, Ser Jaime Lannister of the Kingsguard slew King Aerys in the throne room of the Red Keep.^[12] Though Rhaegar had left the safety of his family to Jaime, the only Kingsguard member left in the city, Jaime did not believe that his father Tywin Lannister, whose troops were attacking King's Landing, would harm Elia or her children.^[13]

However, Tywin commanded the deaths of Rhaenys and Aegon to prove his loyalty to Robert Baratheon.^[5]^[3] While Jaime was killing Aerys, Tywin's men Ser Gregor Clegane and Ser Amory Lorch were scaling the walls of Maegor's Holdfast.^[12] Rhaenys hid under her father's bed, a floor above the nursery where her mother and brother were located.^[3] While Gregor Clegane slew Aegon and Elia, Rhaenys was discovered and dragged out by Amory Lorch, who proceeded to stab her with "half a hundred" thrusts.^[3] Tyrion Lannister recalls hearing of other men-at-arms present during the murder, but does not know their names.^[14] Amory brought Rhaenys's body to Tywin afterwards.^[3]

Tywin claims to have been shocked at the brutality of the deaths of Elia and her children. In Rhaenys's case, he believed Lorch, who tried to justify his savagery by claiming the girl kicked him and would not stop screaming, could simply have offered a few sweet words to calm her, and a pillow to suffocate her.^[3]

After Rhaenys and Aegon's deaths, Tywin Lannister presented their bodies to Robert, laying them beneath the Iron Throne wrapped in crimson Lannister cloaks, to better conceal the blood.^[15] Rhaenys's body was distinctly recognizable, despite its condition.^[16]

Legacy

Elia Martell holding Rhaenys and Aegon, by Rae Lavergne ©

The deaths of Rhaenys, Aegon, and Elia were met with mixed responses. Robert Baratheon was relieved that Rhaegar's children were dead, and that he did not have to be the one to give the order.^[3] Upon the protest of his friend, Eddard Stark, that the two children had been no more than babes, Robert named Rhaenys and her brother "dragonspawn".^[5] Eddard called the act murder, and after a quarrel with Robert, Eddard rode out from King's Landing in a cold rage, heading south to fight the last battles of the war on his own.^[5] Although Ser Barristan Selmy had not personally seen the corpses, he has been haunted by the "bloody bodies" of Rhaenys and Aegon.^[17] Thoros of Myr, who saw the bodies, believes that House Clegane was "built upon dead children" and their arms should display "two bloody infants".^[18] The exiled Daenerys Targaryen holds "the Usurper's dogs" responsible for the murders of Rhaenys and Aegon, and sees no difference between the responsibilities of Houses Lannister and Stark in the events.^[19]

The exiled Viserys Targaryen is convinced that the Dornishmen are determined to avenge Elia and her children, and would thus rise to his cause.^[4] Indeed, Doran and Oberyn Martell, Elia's brothers, have plotted against House Lannister.^[20] According to Varys, Doran's hatred for House Lannister is well known,^[21] and Oberyn, certain that Gregor had not acted on his own,^[22] wants vengeance both on Gregor and the man who gave the orders.^[14] Nymeria Sand, one of Oberyn's daughters, believes that the only fitting payment for the death of Elia's children would be the death of "Lord Tywin's golden twins", Cersei and Jaime.^[23] Doran's daughter Arianne, connecting the murders of Rhaenys and her brother to Robert Baratheon's rise to the throne, calls Robert a monster who climbed onto his throne over the corpses of children.^[24]

In his book The World of Ice and Fire, Maester Yandel describes the events of the Sack of King's Landing in a way that shifts the blame from Houses Baratheon and Lannister, by then allied with Robert through marriage, to other candidates, and cites supposed rumors that the person responsible was King Aerys II Targaryen, or that it had been Elia, to spare her children from a worse fate.^[25]

Quotes

Rhaenys by novembermorgon ©

I see no babes. Only dragonspawn.^[5]
—Robert Baratheon to Eddard Stark

Last night he had dreamt of Rhaegar's children. Lord Tywin had laid the bodies beneath the Iron Throne, wrapped in the crimson cloaks of his house guard. That was clever of him; the blood did not show so badly against the red cloth. The little princess had been barefoot, still dressed in her bed gown, and the boy... the boy...^[15]
—thoughts of Eddard Stark

Rhaenys was a child too. Prince Rhaegar's daughter. A precious little thing, younger than your girls. She had a small black kitten she called Balerion, did you know? I always wondered what happened to him. Rhaenys liked to pretend he was the true Balerion, the Black Dread of old, but I imagine the Lannisters taught her the difference between a kitten and a dragon quick enough, the day they broke down her door.^[8]
—Varys to Eddard Stark

Why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?^[8]
—Varys to Eddard Stark

It was Ser Amory who brought me the girl's body, if you must know. He found her hiding under her father's bed, as if she believed Rhaegar could still protect her.^[3]
—Tywin Lannister to Tyrion Lannister

Ser Amory was almost as bestial [as Gregor Clegane] with Rhaenys. I asked him afterward why it had required half a hundred thrusts to kill a girl of... two? Three? He said she'd kicked him and would not stop screaming. If Lorch had half the wits the gods gave a turnip, he would have calmed her with a few sweet words and used a soft silk pillow. The blood was in him.^[3]
—Tywin Lannister to Tyrion Lannister

Justice is in short supply this side of the mountains. There has been none for Elia, Aegon, or Rhaenys. Why should there be any for you?^[14]
—Oberyn Martell to Tyrion Lannister

Arys: Only a beast would harm a little girl.
Doran: My sister Elia had a little girl as well. Her name was Rhaenys. She was a princess too.^[24]
—Arys Oakheart and Doran Martell

And what did Robert say when he saw them? Did he smile? Barristan Selmy had been badly wounded on the Trident, so he had been spared the sight of Lord Tywin's gift, but oft he wondered. If I had seen him smile over the red ruins of Rhaegar's children, no army on this earth could have stopped me from killing him.^[17]
—thoughts of Barristan Selmy