Game of Thrones Targaryen family tree
By the time Game of Thrones opens, a dynasty of three hundred years is down to two exiled children and a blind maester nobody remembers is a prince.
The Game of Thrones Targaryen family tree
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How three hundred years ended in two
The dynasty did not fall in a single battle. It came apart over three generations. The fire at Summerhall in 259 AC killed a king and his heir in one night while they were trying to wake dragons out of stone. The prince born that same day was Rhaegar.
Aerys II began well and ended his reign burning men alive in his own throne room. When Rhaegar crowned Lyanna Stark queen of love and beauty at Harrenhal in front of his wife Elia Martell, the pieces were already in place. Robert’s Rebellion took two years, and at the end of it the Targaryens held nothing.
The irony sits in the tree above. Robert was himself a Targaryen descendant, through his grandmother Rhaelle. He did not overthrow the family so much as prune it back to his own branch.
The last Targaryens
- Aerys II Began his reign full of promise and ended it burning men alive in his throne room. He is the last Targaryen to sit the Iron Throne.
- Rhaella Targaryen Sister and wife to Aerys II. She bore many children and buried most of them, and died bearing the one who lived longest.
- Rhaegar Targaryen Born the day Summerhall burned. He crowned Lyanna Stark queen of love and beauty in front of his own wife, and the realm went to war over it.
- Viserys III (self-styled) Called himself king from exile and never held a foot of Westeros. He sold his sister to a khal for an army he did not live to use.
- Daenerys Targaryen Born on Dragonstone during the storm that broke her family’s fleet. She walked into a funeral pyre in 298 AC and came out with the first three dragons in a hundred and forty five years.
- Jon Snow Raised at Winterfell as Eddard Stark’s bastard. If Rhaegar and Lyanna were wed, he is the trueborn heir to the Iron Throne and Daenerys is his aunt.
- Aemon Targaryen Maester of the Night’s Watch, 198 to 300 AC Turned down the Iron Throne at the Great Council of 233 AC and served some sixty seven years at Castle Black. He and Jon Snow served together and neither ever knew they were kin.
- Robert Baratheon His claim to the throne ran through his Targaryen grandmother Rhaelle, though he took it with a warhammer rather than a genealogy.
And then there is Jon
The single most searched question about this family tree, answered on its own page with the full chain and both versions of canon.
How Jon and Daenerys are related- Jon’s fatherRhaegar Targaryen
- Jon’s motherLyanna Stark
- Daenerys is hisAunt
- Eddard Stark is hisUncle
- Born283 AC, the Tower of Joy
- Book statusMother never named
Game of Thrones family tree questions
Who was the Mad King?
Aerys II Targaryen, who ruled from 262 to 283 AC. He burned Lord Rickard Stark alive in the throne room, strangled his son Brandon, and hid caches of wildfire under King’s Landing. Jaime Lannister killed him during the Sack.
How many Targaryens were left after Robert’s Rebellion?
Three known: Viserys and Daenerys, smuggled off Dragonstone by Ser Willem Darry, and Maester Aemon at the Wall, whom nobody counted. Jon Snow was alive at Winterfell under a Stark name.
How is Maester Aemon related to Daenerys?
He was her great-great-uncle. Aemon was a son of Maekar I and brother to Aegon V, who was Daenerys’s great-grandfather. Aemon renounced the throne in 233 AC and served some sixty seven years at Castle Black.
Why did Aerys II marry his own sister?
Their father Jaehaerys II arranged it on the strength of a prophecy that the prince that was promised would be born of their line. It was the last sibling marriage in Targaryen history.
What caused Robert’s Rebellion?
Rhaegar left with Lyanna Stark in 282 AC. When Brandon Stark rode to King’s Landing to demand her back, Aerys had him strangled and burned his father alive, then demanded Jon Arryn hand over Robert and Eddard. Arryn called his banners instead.
Is Jon Snow the rightful king?
By show canon, yes. If Rhaegar and Lyanna were wed, Jon is the trueborn son of the king’s eldest son, which places him ahead of Daenerys in the line of succession. He never claimed it.
Did the Targaryen line end with Daenerys?
Not quite. Jon Snow survives the television series and carries Targaryen blood through Rhaegar. In the books, a young man claiming to be Rhaegar’s son Aegon has landed in Westeros with the Golden Company.