House Targaryen

Aenys I Targaryen

Life: 7 AC
House: Targaryen
Titles: King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men · Lord of the Seven Kingdoms
Allegiance: House Targaryen
Seat: King's Landing (the Red Keep)
Culture: Valyrian (Targaryen)
Religion: The Faith of the Seven, deeply hostile to his reign
Notable for: Aegon the Conqueror's first son and second Targaryen king, whose gentle reign was consumed by rebellion

A gentle king tested by rebellion from his first year on the throne — the chronicle keeps the ending of his reign veiled for readers not yet there.

Aenys Targaryen was Aegon the Conqueror's first son by Queen Rhaenys, born small, sickly, and slow to thrive in a family that measured its children largely by how soon they could sit a dragon — a test Aenys reportedly failed until a hatchling of his own, gifted young, finally gave the frail boy something to grow into. He succeeded his father in 37 AC already carrying a reputation for gentleness the Seven Kingdoms did not, in that raw and recently conquered decade, much reward in a king; where Aegon had ruled through the plain fact of three dragons and an army no one could match, Aenys inherited neither his father's menace nor, apparently, much of his father's political instinct.

Key events

7 ACBorn Aegon the Conqueror's first son by Queen Rhaenys, small, sickly, and slow to thrive.
no fixed yearGiven a dragon hatchling of his own young, finally giving the frail boy something to grow into.
37 ACSucceeds his father Aegon I as king, inheriting a realm that measured strength very differently than it measured his own gentler temperament.
37-38 ACFaces four separate uprisings in his first year alone, the worst fed by the Faith Militant's outrage at Targaryen incest and excess.
37-42 ACNever fully regains control of the realm his father conquered, ruling with visibly less of Aegon I's menace or political instinct.
42 ACDies suddenly after five turbulent years on the throne, amid suspicion — never proven — that his aunt Visenya had a hand in it.

Reading the character

Aenys I's reign is a useful reminder that Aegon the Conqueror's dynasty was built on a level of force his own son simply couldn't replicate, and that the realm noticed the difference almost immediately. Four rebellions inside a single year is a remarkable start to any reign, and the Citadel's chroniclers are fairly blunt that Aenys's own gentleness, rather than any specific policy failure, is what let the trouble spread as far as it did.

He's also a quiet illustration of how thin the line was, in this earliest Targaryen generation, between a king simply not surviving his own family's ambitions and a king being actively removed by them — his death opens the throne to a brother whose cruelty would make the realm miss Aenys's failures rather more than it ever appreciated his intentions.

The arc of Aenys I Targaryen

This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.

Aenys's reign was rebellion almost from the start: four separate uprisings in his first year alone, the worst of them fed by the Faith Militant's outrage at Targaryen incest and excess, tested a young kingdom that had never had to survive a weak king before. He never fully regained control of the realm his father had conquered, and died in 42 AC amid suspicion that his own aunt Visenya — never his ally, and openly contemptuous of his fitness to rule — had a hand in ending a reign she had long considered an embarrassment to the line. His death opened the throne to his brother Maegor, whose rule the realm would come to remember far less fondly than Aenys's own gentler, weaker one.

Where the books leave Aenys I Targaryen: died in 42 AC after five turbulent years on the throne, suddenly enough that some at court suspected poison — his aunt Visenya was named in the whispers, though the Citadel records no proof beyond the whispering itself

These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.

Sourcesfire-and-bloodtwoiaf

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Who is Aenys I Targaryen?

The second Targaryen king, son of Aegon the Conqueror, whose gentle and indecisive reign was consumed by rebellions the realm had not faced under his father.

Is Aenys I Targaryen alive?

No — the chronicle need only say that his five turbulent years on the throne ended suddenly; the particulars are treated in his veiled record.