Rhaegar Targaryen

Rhaegar Targaryen, the eldest son of King Aerys II Targaryen and heir to the Iron Throne, was the last dragon of his line, a prince whose actions set the Seven Kingdoms ablaze. His abduction of Lyanna Stark, the betrothed of Robert Baratheon, ignited Robert's Rebellion, a war that culminated in his death on the Trident and the near-extinction of his house. Yet Rhaegar's legacy—through his sister Daenerys, the secrets surrounding his children, and the unresolved questions of his motives—continues to haunt the realm long after his fall.

Identity and Background

Rhaegar Targaryen was the crown prince of the Seven Kingdoms, the son of King Aerys II Targaryen and Queen Rhaella. He was described as a fierce warrior, the last of the dragons, and was known for his melancholy and scholarly nature before he took up arms. He wore gleaming black plate armor with the three-headed dragon of his house wrought in rubies on the breast, and a plume of scarlet silk streamed behind him when he rode. At the tourney at Harrenhal, in the year of the false spring, Rhaegar unhorsed Brandon Stark, Bronze Yohn Royce, Ser Arthur Dayne, and Ser Barristan Selmy to claim the champion's crown. Instead of laying the laurel of the queen of beauty in the lap of his own wife, the Dornish princess Elia Martell, he rode past her and placed it in Lyanna Stark's lap, a crown of winter roses, blue as frost. This act was the public beginning of the scandal that would lead to war.

The Rebellion and the Trident

Rhaegar's abduction of Lyanna Stark—whether by force or by her consent remains a matter of bitter dispute—led Robert Baratheon, Lyanna's betrothed, to raise his banners in rebellion. The war culminated at the ford of the Trident, where Robert and Rhaegar met in single combat. Robert, wielding his great warhammer, struck Rhaegar a crushing blow that stove in the dragon on his breastplate and the chest beneath it. Rhaegar fell dead in the stream, and men of both armies scrabbled in the swirling waters for the rubies knocked free of his armor. Robert later admitted that in his dreams, he killed Rhaegar every night, and that a thousand deaths would still be less than he deserved. Ned Stark, who arrived on the scene after the battle, found Rhaegar dead in the stream.

The Tower of Joy and the Promise

After the Trident, Ned Stark rode south to find his sister Lyanna. He found her in a tower in the red mountains of Dorne, guarded by three knights of the Kingsguard: Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning; Ser Oswell Whent; and Ser Gerold Hightower, the White Bull. They had not been at the Trident, nor at the fall of King's Landing, because they were following Rhaegar's orders. Ned and six companions confronted them, and only Ned and Howland Reed survived the fight. Inside the tower, Ned found Lyanna in a bed of blood, dying. She made him promise something—the exact words are never revealed—and then she died. Ned remembered her crying, "Promise me, Ned," in a room that smelled of blood and roses. The fever had taken her strength and her voice had been faint as a whisper, but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister's eyes. Ned remembered the way she had smiled then, how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black. The promise Ned made to Lyanna has been a source of speculation and mystery, shaping his actions and his silence for the rest of his life.

Legacy and Memory

Rhaegar's legacy is a complex and contested one. To Robert Baratheon, he was a rapist and a kidnapper, the man who stole his beloved Lyanna. To Daenerys Targaryen, who never knew him, he was a fierce warrior and the last dragon, a brother whose name she gave to her unborn son, Rhaego. To the realm, he was the prince who died for the woman he loved, a figure of tragedy and romance. The songs say he died on the Trident, but his influence did not end there. The secret of his children—the true parentage of Jon Snow, who is revealed in later books to be the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna—remains one of the central mysteries of the story. In Daenerys's fever dreams, she saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor, fire glimmering through the narrow eye slit of his helm. When she lifted his visor, the face within was her own, suggesting that she is the one who must carry on his legacy. Rhaegar's death, and the war it caused, set the stage for the events of the series, and his shadow looms over the narrative long after his fall.