Queen Alyssa Velaryon

Queen Alyssa Velaryon was a Velaryon princess who became the wife of Aenys I Targaryen and the mother of a generation of Targaryen heirs. Her marriage connected two Valyrian-descended families, while her children’s births shaped expectations about the succession. Her life ended at Storm’s End in 54 AC, during a pregnancy at the age of forty-six; the child survived, but Alyssa did not. The consequences of her death were personal and political, reaching from the birthing chamber into the conflict between her children and Rogar Baratheon.

Identity and Royal Marriage

Alyssa was the maiden daughter of Aethan Velaryon, Lord of the Tides and King Aegon I Targaryen’s lord admiral and master of ships. In 22 AC, at fifteen, she married Aenys I Targaryen, who was also fifteen. Her silvery hair and purple eyes reflected the Valyrian ancestry shared by the Velaryons and Targaryens. Since Aegon I Targaryen’s mother had also been a Velaryon, contemporaries regarded the match as a marriage between cousins as well as a union between two powerful families.

The marriage was described as happy and fruitful. Its importance extended beyond the household: Alyssa’s children became central to the royal succession, and their births gave the dynasty a growing line of descendants. In the wider setting of the Targaryens’ close-kin marriage customs, her union with Aenys joined Valyrian lineage without reproducing the marriage between brother and sister that had characterized the king’s own marriages.

Children and the Succession

Alyssa’s first child with Aenys was Rhaena Targaryen, born in 23 AC. Like her father, Rhaena was small at birth, but she grew into a healthy child. Aenys named her for his dead mother, Rhaenys Targaryen, and Aegon I Targaryen reportedly doted on his granddaughter, whose name recalled the queen he had lost. Rhaena’s birth brought joy to the court, but also raised a question of succession: whether Maegor Targaryen remained ahead of the infant in the line to the throne. The proposed betrothal of Rhaena to Maegor was opposed by Alyssa and Aenys, and the High Septon warned that the Faith would not approve such a match.

Alyssa gave birth to a son, Aegon Targaryen, in 26 AC. His birth strengthened the expectation that Aenys would be followed by his own son, although disagreement over Maegor’s place in the succession continued. In 29 AC, Alyssa bore another son, Viserys Targaryen, son of Aenys; in 34 AC came Jaehaerys I Targaryen, her fourth child and third son; and in 36 AC she gave birth to Alysanne Targaryen. These births expanded the family whose members would later occupy the Iron Throne and define the dynasty’s future.

Rhaena’s relationship with the new baby Alysanne was especially close in her early years: Grand Maester Gawen observed that the elder girl delighted in her sister as though she were her mother. That detail gives the royal family’s succession story a domestic dimension. Alyssa’s children were not only possible heirs and rival claimants; they also grew up as siblings, with attachments that endured alongside the political significance imposed on their births.

Pregnancy and Death at Storm’s End

In 54 AC, when Alyssa was forty-six, a raven from Storm’s End announced that she was pregnant again. Grand Maester Benifer welcomed the news as a second miracle, but Septon Barth cautioned that she had never fully recovered from the birth of Boremund Baratheon and might not have the strength to carry another child to term. Rogar, by contrast, took confidence from the fact that she had already given birth seven times and expected no difficulty with an eighth. Their differing responses framed the pregnancy as both a family hope and a serious risk.

Jaehaerys I Targaryen and Alysanne Targaryen hurried to Storm’s End when they learned their mother was near death. They found her in the stronghold’s great drum tower, attended by a maester, a midwife, and three bedmaids. Rogar waited outside her chamber in despair. When the maester explained that Alyssa and the unborn child could not both be saved, Jaehaerys insisted that Rogar make the choice as her husband. Rogar chose the child.

Accounts differed over whether Alyssa woke before the operation. Some said that she saw her children and consented to the attempt to save the baby; others said she died without waking. They agreed on Alysanne’s presence: she held her mother’s hand throughout, until the newborn’s first cry. The child was not the son Rogar had hoped for, but a girl so small and weak that those attending doubted she would live. Rogar named her Jocelyn Baratheon, and she survived.

Aftermath and Narrative Significance

Rhaena Targaryen arrived at Storm’s End after Alyssa’s death, riding Dreamfyre. Although Jaehaerys told her she need not look upon their mother’s body, Rhaena insisted on seeing what had been done. She then kissed her brother and embraced her younger sister, but refused the midwife’s offer to hold the newborn. Instead, she went to find Rogar, whom she blamed for Alyssa’s death. Their confrontation made private grief public: Rhaena accused him, while Rogar denied that he had caused what had happened and invoked the will of the gods.

Alyssa’s story is therefore told through the consequences of marriage and motherhood as well as through her own brief appearances. Her marriage to Aenys produced children whose births complicated and strengthened claims to the throne; her later pregnancy ended in a choice that saved Jocelyn at the cost of Alyssa’s life. At Storm’s End, the surviving family members responded differently to that loss: Alysanne stayed at her mother’s side, Jaehaerys forced Rogar to face the decision, and Rhaena arrived too late and turned her grief into accusation. Alyssa’s death left not only a child but a lasting rupture among those who remained.