Rhaenyra Targaryen and Laena Velaryon

Rhaenyra Targaryen and Laena Velaryon shared a close relationship that connected the royal family and House Velaryon through kinship, friendship, and their children’s betrothals. The account distinguishes Laena from Rhaenyra’s disliked stepmother, Alicent Hightower: Rhaenyra was fond of Laena, and remained beside her during the final days of her life in 120 AC.

Kinship and Family Alliance

The two women’s bond is presented within a dynastic network already shaped by marriage. Laena was the daughter of Corlys Velaryon, while Rhaenyra was married to Laena’s brother, Laenor Velaryon; the chronicle accordingly describes Laena as Rhaenyra’s good-sister. Laena’s marriage to Daemon Targaryen further connected the households. With Driftmark and Dragonstone close to one another, the families visited often, making their relationship part of everyday life as well as royal politics.

In 118 AC, with King Viserys’s blessing, Rhaenyra announced the betrothal of her two eldest sons to Laena and Daemon’s daughters. Jacaerys, then four, was promised to Baela, and three-year-old Lucerys to Rhaena, who were both two. These matches joined the next generation of the two families and reinforced a connection that was already personal. The arrangement also reflected the wider dynastic use of marriage to bind powerful houses together, but in this case the children’s betrothals arose within a circle of relatives who were already close.

Companionship and Shared Dragons

Rhaenyra and Laena’s friendship is conveyed through repeated visits and shared activity rather than formal declarations. Daemon and Laena often visited Rhaenyra, and she visited them in turn. The women flew together on their dragons, and Rhaenyra’s dragon, Syrax, produced several clutches of eggs. Their closeness thus appears in recurring family gatherings and in a shared participation in the dragonriding culture that distinguished their household.

That companionship also continued through Laena’s pregnancy. When Laena was expecting another child in 119 AC, Rhaenyra flew to Driftmark to attend her during the birth. Her presence was more than a courtesy between noblewomen: it carried their established intimacy into a moment of family vulnerability, and placed Rhaenyra at the center of the tragedy that followed.

Laena’s Final Illness

On the third day of 120 AC, after a long labor, Laena gave birth to a son who died within the hour. Laena’s strength was already diminished, and she soon developed childbed fever. As her condition worsened, Daemon went to Dragonstone for Rhaenyra’s older and more experienced maester, Gerardys, but he arrived too late to save her. Laena died after three days of delirium, at twenty-seven.

The account says that during her final hour Laena tried to reach Vhagar, hoping to fly once more, but collapsed on the tower steps. Daemon carried her back to her bed. Rhaenyra then kept vigil with him over Laena’s body and comforted him in his grief. The scene gives their relationship its clearest expression: Rhaenyra’s loyalty to Laena remained present even after Laena could no longer respond, and her care extended to Daemon as he mourned his wife.

Significance of the Relationship

The relationship links private affection with the political and familial structures of the Targaryen and Velaryon houses. The children’s betrothals made their closeness consequential for the next generation, while their visits and shared flights keep the connection from reading as merely strategic. Laena’s death abruptly changes that intimate household circle: Rhaenyra loses a beloved good-sister, and Daemon loses his wife. Her vigil marks the bond not as a passing alliance, but as a source of companionship and support at the moment of loss.