Aenys I

Aenys I Targaryen was the son of Aegon I Targaryen and Rhaenys Targaryen, and his reign lasted from 37 to 42 AC. The surviving account here chiefly records his marriage, the birth of his daughter Rhaena, and the succession question that followed; it offers little detail about his actions as king. Even in this limited portrait, family alliances and the order of inheritance are already closely intertwined.

Marriage and dynastic background

Aenys was the first of Aegon I’s sons to marry. In 22 AC, when both were fifteen, he wed Alyssa Velaryon, daughter of Aethan Velaryon, Lord of the Tides and the king’s admiral and master of ships. The Velaryons were an ancient family of Valyrian descent, and Aegon I’s own mother had been a Velaryon, so the match was regarded as a marriage between cousins.

The account describes the marriage as happy and fruitful. In the following year Alyssa gave birth to a daughter. Aenys named the child Rhaena in honor of his mother, joining a personal family tribute to the dynastic significance of the new generation.

Rhaena’s birth and the succession question

Rhaena was small at birth, but unlike her father she proved healthy and lively. Her birth was widely celebrated. Aegon I reportedly wept when the infant was first placed in his arms and thereafter doted on her; the chronicle suggests that her name and appearance may have recalled his lost queen, Rhaenys Targaryen.

The birth also unsettled expectations about succession. Aenys was acknowledged as the unquestioned heir to the Iron Throne, but Rhaena’s arrival raised the question of whether Maegor I, then eleven, remained second in line or should fall behind his infant niece. Visenya Targaryen proposed resolving the uncertainty by betrothing Rhaena to Maegor. Aenys and Alyssa opposed the proposed match. When the matter reached the Starry Sept, the High Septon warned Aegon I that the Faith would not look favorably upon such a marriage and proposed his own niece, Ceryse Hightower, as a different bride for Maegor. The surviving passage presents the dispute but does not record its final resolution.

Reign and limits of the account

Aenys’s reign is dated from 37 to 42 AC, but the evidence summarized here does not describe its course or establish particular policies, conflicts, or outcomes during those years. His place in the narrative is instead introduced through the succession he inherited: Aegon I’s son and heir, husband to Alyssa, and father of Rhaena, whose birth immediately made the royal family’s competing claims more complicated.