Prepare for “House of the Dragon” With a Targaryen History Lesson

The history of House Targaryen stretches back several centuries to ancient Valyria. After surviving a cataclysmic collapse of the existing order in Essos, House Targaryen was left as the last house of dragon-riders.

Following a period of war in Essos, Aegon Targaryen (later Aegon I) set his sights on conquering the lands to the west: Westeros. He intended to unite the Seven Kingdoms under one rule, and within a few years, he had conquered six of the seven kingdoms of Westeros. The only holdout was Dorne, which eventually joined the fold in a formal capacity but retained more autonomy.

Aegon I founded the Targaryen dynasty that would rule over Westeros for nearly three centuries. The royal house faced a number of uprisings, both political and religious, but held onto power through the reigns of both cruel and wise kings. Several generations down the line, the fifth Targaryen king to sit on the Iron Throne was Viserys I, the grandson of Jaehaerys I, the Conciliator.

The reign of Viserys I was fraught with questions about who would succeed him, which “House of the Dragon” depicts. Viserys’s first marriage only left one surviving heir, his daughter Rhaenyra, who he declared his intended successor. His remarriage after his first wife’s death, however, produced three sons and a daughter. Viserys’s insistence on keeping Rhaenyra as his heir led to the formation of rival factions at court.

House Targaryen, as “Game of Thrones” pointed out, had a practice of intermarriage within their own family line. When Rhaenyra was widowed, she married her uncle, Prince Daemon, whose own wife had died, and the couple had three children.

Upon the death of Viserys I, his widow Alicent and the commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Criston Cole, chose to defy his stated wishes for the succession, and crowned Viserys and Alicent’s eldest son as King Aegon II. Rhaenyra was not even aware of her father’s death until later.

Rhaenyra refused to give up the throne and declared war on her half-brother Aegon II. The resulting civil war became known as the “Dance of the Dragons” and permanently weakened House Targaryen. Nearly all of the dragons in existence were killed during the brutal civil war, as well as many key members of House Targaryen. With so many heirs now dead, Aegon II was forced to betroth his surviving daughter, Jaehaera, to Rhaenyra and Daemon’s son, Aegon the Younger, who eventually ascended the throne as Aegon III.

Nearly 300 years after Aegon I’s conquest, the reign of his descendant, King Aerys II, spelled the end of Targaryen rule in Westeros. Aerys had hoped to do great things during his reign, but his temper and his descent into madness left the kingdom in disarray – and vulnerable to the machinations of other factions, including the Lannisters and Baratheons.

The final straw came over a romantic rivalry between Robert Baratheon and Aerys’s heir, Prince Rhaegar. Rhaegar disappeared with Lyanna Stark, Robert’s intended, and both the Baratheons and Starks believed Rhaegar had kidnapped Lyanna. When Rickard Stark, Lyanna’s father, and Brandon Stark, her brother, confronted King Aerys about the scandal, he accused them of treason and had the duo executed, igniting a civil war.

Robert killed Rhaegar in battle, and Lyanna’s brother, Ned, found her just in time to stay with her as she died. Aerys, now fully the “Mad King,” plotted to use wildfire to destroy the entirety of King’s Landing – and all of its innocent citizens.

In the end, Jaime Lannister killed King Aerys, and Robert Baratheon took the Iron Throne. Under Robert’s rule, any and all Targaryens, whether legitimate or illegitimate heirs, were tracked down and killed. The only ones known to have escaped were Rhaegar’s younger siblings, Viserys and Daenerys, who fled to the Free Cities.

A decade or so after the fall of the dynasty, Viserys Targaryen attempted to build support to retake the Iron Throne. He secured a key alliance by marrying his teenage sister, Daenerys, to Khal Drogo, a Dothraki warlord.

Daenerys’s early days of marriage were traumatic and frightening, but in time, she came into her own and developed a real love relationship with Khal Drogo. When Viserys threatened a pregnant Daenerys, Drogo had him killed with molten gold.

In quick succession, Daenerys lost both her unborn child and her husband. She placed her dragon eggs on Drogo’s funeral pyre and walked into it herself, only to emerge unharmed with three newly hatched dragons.

Over the years, Daenerys took up the quest for the Iron Throne herself. She freed thousands of Unsullied slaves, took over Meereen, and built up an impressive army. It’s at this point in the story that the books and TV series diverge. “House of the Dragon” takes place in the TV universe, so we’ll go from there.

Daenerys eventually built up enough of a presence to start attracting attention from the great houses of Westeros, even as their own civil war rages after the death of Robert Baratheon. Most notably, she gained the support of Tyrion Lannister, on the run from Westeros and ready to make a break from his own house. She also allied with House Greyjoy of the Iron Islands, House Martell of Dorne, and House Tyrell of the Reach, and finally arrived in Westeros.

While at Dragonstone, she met Jon Snow, Ned Stark’s illegitimate son and the King in the North. Jon refused to bend the knee to Daenerys, instead seeking an alliance against the Night King’s army. She was also surprised when one of her dragons, Drogon, allowed Jon to touch him.

During a rescue mission, one of Daenerys’s dragons, Viserion, was killed by the Night King, and Jon was seriously injured. In the aftermath, Jon and Daenerys came to an understanding and eventually began a romance.

During this time, back in the archives of Winterfell, Samwell Tarly and Bran Stark uncovered a secret. Rhaegar Targaryen didn’t kidnap Lyanna Stark – they were in love, and they ran away together. Bran uses his Greensight to “see” the truth: Rhaegar had his first marriage annulled and married Lyanna, who became pregnant.

Lyanna wasn’t murdered during the war, but died giving birth to a son named Aegon. With her dying words, she begged her brother Ned to keep him safe, which he did by claiming her son as his own illegitimate son, Jon.

Still unaware of his real lineage, Jon journeyed to Winterfell with Daenerys and their army. There, Sam finally told Jon that he was a Targaryen by birth and the true heir to the Iron Throne.

The revelation of Jon’s true parentage shocked both Jon and Daenerys. Jon struggled both with the implications for his romance with Daenerys, as well as what it meant for his relationship with his siblings (actually, cousins), but reassured Daenerys that he didn’t want the throne.

As her army moved closer to King’s Landing, Daenerys’s mental state began to decline. She slowly became more paranoid and brutal, much like her father did decades earlier. The murder of her friend and advisor Missandei seemed to be the last straw. Despite easily conquering King’s Landing by catching the army unaware, Daenerys chose to completely burn the city with dragon fire.

Ultimately, Jon realised that Daenerys’s reign would never be the wise and just reign that they had both planned and hoped for. He found her in the throne room, inches away from the Iron Throne, where he reaffirmed his love for her before killing her. Drogon melted the Iron Throne with his anguished fire, then carried Daenerys’s body away, never to be seen again.

Jon went into exile and rejoined the Night’s Watch as penance for killing Daenerys. Instead of hereditary birthright, Tyrion proposed an elected monarch, chosen by the heads of the great Houses. The other leaders eventually agreed and crowned Bran Stark. With a new king on the throne and Jon in exile, House Targaryen finally comes to an end.