The Suspected Identity Swap of the Twins Aerea and Rhaella

The suspected identity swap of Queen Rhaena’s twin daughters, Aerea and Rhaella, turned a change in their behavior after Jaehaerys’s coronation into a question of royal identity and succession. No one proved that the girls had been exchanged, but the contrast between their former temperaments and their later lives made the suspicion consequential: the child then called Aerea was heir to the Iron Throne until Jaehaerys sired an heir.

The Twins’ Separation

Nine days after Jaehaerys’s coronation, the new king left Oldtown for King’s Landing with most of his court. Queen Rhaena accompanied the party as far as Highgarden, then mounted Dreamfyre and returned to Fair Isle and Lord Farman’s castle above the sea. She left both daughters behind, but they went in different directions: Rhaella, a novice sworn to the Faith, remained at the Starry Sept, while Aerea continued with the king to the Red Keep, where she was to serve as a cupbearer and companion to Princess Alysanne.

The Reversal in Their Natures

Before the coronation, the twins were described as mirror images in appearance but opposites in temperament. Rhaella was bold and willful, while Aerea was shy and fearful. Grand Maester Benifer’s account of Aerea emphasized her fear of horses, dogs, loud-voiced boys, bearded men, dancing, and even dragons.

After the coronation, the reported temperaments seemed reversed. The girl who stayed in Oldtown devoted herself to prayer and study and no longer needed chastisement. The girl who went to King’s Landing was lively, quick-witted, and adventurous, soon spending much of her time among the kennels, stables, and dragon yards. The change in the girls’ behavior—not any proven act of exchange—formed the basis of the suspicion.

Suspicion and Succession

It was widely believed that someone had switched the twins on the occasion of the coronation; the account suggests Queen Rhaena or her mother, Queen Alyssa, as possible agents, without establishing either as responsible. The uncertainty remained part of the story: the girls’ altered dispositions invited the suspicion, but nothing was ever proved.

The possibility carried political weight because, until Jaehaerys had an heir of his body, Princess Aerea was next in line to the Iron Throne. The account carefully qualifies that position: Aerea was the heir, or the girl who then bore that name. The suspected exchange thus left an unresolved distinction between a princess’s identity and the name by which the succession recognized her.