Aerys Targaryen came to the Iron Throne in 209 AC only because the Great Spring Sickness had, within a single terrible season, killed his father Daeron II and both of his own elder brother's direct heirs, and he ruled the twelve years that followed with a visible lack of enthusiasm for the job fate had handed him. Bookish from boyhood and increasingly withdrawn from court as king, he is remembered chiefly for a fascination with old prophecy and the lost lore of dragons that left the realm's actual governance to whichever councilors could get his attention, and for a marriage to Lady Aelinor Penrose that produced, by every surviving account, no children at all.
House Targaryen
Aerys I Targaryen
- Life
- no fixed AC year given in the text
- 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
- Notable for
- A bookish, disengaged king fascinated by old prophecy and the lost lore of dragons
A bookish king more taken with old prophecy than court business — the chronicle holds the ending of his reign back for readers not yet there.
Key events
- no fixed yearBorn into House Targaryen, son of Daeron II.
- 209 ACComes to the Iron Throne only after the Great Spring Sickness kills his father and both of his elder brother's direct heirs within a single season.
- 209-221 ACRules with visible reluctance, withdrawing increasingly into a fascination with old prophecy and the lost lore of dragons.
- no fixed yearWeds Lady Aelinor Penrose, a marriage that produces, by every surviving account, no children at all.
- c. 212 ACSees a second Blackfyre rising, gathered around a tourney at Whitewalls, uncovered and put down with comparatively little bloodshed.
- 219 ACSees a third Blackfyre rebellion end with the pretender Haegon Blackfyre's death and the capture — and eventual escape — of the exile Aegor 'Bittersteel' Rivers.
- 221 ACDies of unrecorded natural causes, leaving no living child to inherit and passing the crown sideways to his brother Maekar.
Reading the character
Aerys I is a study in the gap between a monarch's personal interests and the job the crown actually requires of him. Everything about his recorded temperament — bookish, withdrawn, more taken with prophecy and dead dragon-lore than with the small council in front of him — suggests a man who never much wanted the throne fate handed him after a plague killed off the more obviously prepared heirs ahead of him.
That disengagement doesn't spare the realm further Blackfyre trouble, but it's notable how comparatively little blood the two rebellions during his reign cost compared to the wars before and after his — whether through good fortune, competent councilors compensating for an absent king, or simply the diminishing returns of a rebel cause several defeats past its prime, Aerys's reign ends about as quietly as this dynasty's history ever manages.
The arc of Aerys I Targaryen
This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
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.
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Who is Aerys I Targaryen?
A bookish, largely disengaged Targaryen king who came to the throne after a plague killed his father and his brother's heirs, and whose childless marriage passed the crown sideways to his brother Maekar.
Is Aerys I Targaryen alive?
No — the chronicle need only say that his twelve years on the throne ended without an heir of his own body; the particulars are treated in his veiled record.