Sources and method
Every date here was checked against a citable source. Where the books and the shows disagree, both are shown rather than one being quietly picked.
Primary sources
-
Fire & Blood
George R. R. Martin, 2018
The in-world history of the Targaryen kings from Aegon’s Conquest to the regency of Aegon III. The main source for everything on this site between 1 AC and 136 AC.
-
The World of Ice & Fire
Martin, Garcia and Antonsson, 2014
The Targaryen dynasty in summary, plus the Blackfyre rebellions and the reigns between the Dance and Robert’s Rebellion.
-
A Song of Ice and Fire
George R. R. Martin, 1996 onward
The five published novels, including the appendices, which are the authority on the last two generations.
-
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
George R. R. Martin, 2015
The Dunk and Egg novellas, and the main source on Maekar’s sons.
Reference and cross-checking
-
Used to cross-check dates and lineages against cited book passages. Every date here was checked against it.
-
Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon
The HBO adaptations, used where the shows are the only source, and flagged wherever they contradict the books.
Where the books and the shows disagree
Six points that most Targaryen charts silently pick a side on. Here is what each source says and what this chart does.
| Question | In the show | In the books | On this chart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jon Snow’s parents | Rhaegar and Lyanna wed in secret. Jon is trueborn and named Aegon Targaryen. | Jon’s mother is never identified. Eddard Stark is the stated father. R plus L equals J is a theory. | Drawn as Rhaegar and Lyanna’s son with a dashed line marking the dispute. |
| Rhaenyra’s first three sons | Strongly implied to be Harwin Strong’s, never formally stated. | Same. Every source in Fire & Blood points at Harwin without asserting it. | Drawn as Laenor’s sons with a dashed line and a note on every relevant page. |
| Was Rhaenyra a queen | Treated as a queen by her own faction. | The Citadel counts seventeen Targaryen kings and does not number her. | Listed with the monarchs, with her claim marked disputed rather than hidden. |
| Laenor Velaryon’s death | He fakes his death and sails away with Qarl Correy. | Murdered at Spicetown in 120 AC. Correy vanished, and Daemon was suspected. | The book account, with the show version noted. |
| Laena Velaryon’s death | She chooses death by Vhagar’s fire. | Childbed fever on Driftmark, 120 AC. | The book account, with the show version noted. |
| Alicent’s age | A near contemporary and childhood friend of Rhaenyra. | Born 88 AC, nine years older than Rhaenyra, and never her friend. | The book dates, since this chart is built on dates. |
How the chart is built
The 179 people on this site live in a single structured dataset. Positions on the chart are computed once when the site is built, never in your browser, so the page paints instantly and the layout is identical every time. That also means the printable chart and the interactive one are the same drawing.
Generations are recorded by hand rather than derived automatically. Automatic levelling breaks the moment an uncle marries his niece, and in this family that happens repeatedly.
Where the texts give a range instead of a year, the range is kept. Maekar, Aerys I, Aerion, Rhaella and Prince Duncan all have birth years that were never fixed, and printing a confident single date for them would just be inventing one.
Corrections
If something here is wrong, it should be fixed. Send the correction with a source and it will be. Get in touch.
Attribution
This is an independent reference work. House Targaryen, its characters and its histories are the creation of George R. R. Martin, and the television adaptations are the property of HBO and Warner Bros. Discovery. This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any of them.