The Secret Scandal Behind The Lineage of House Targaryen
Aegon I Targaryen—the man who famously conquered Westeros with dragonfire—was known for strength, power, and determination. Yet beneath the mighty conqueror’s mythos lies an intriguing possibility: Was the founder of the Targaryen dynasty infertile?
Aegon’s Suspect Lineage: A Lack of Direct Evidence
Let’s first address a crucial detail: Aegon I, despite having two sisters as wives, fathered only two recognized offspring—Aenys and Maegor. Interestingly, neither son convincingly shared their father’s famed characteristics. Aenys was a weak child that grew to be a notoriously weak and indecisive man. In that he hardly resembled the legendary Conqueror.
Meanwhile, Maegor, a warrior from birth, carried he temperament of Visenya rather than Aegon himself.
He may have been physically impressive, but he was quick to rage and had a cruel streak. He didn’t really know how to make friends. Which is a fatal shortcoming if you want to rule at an empire/king of kings level. Maegor famously failed to sire living heirs despite claiming numerous wives, suggesting potential fertility issues in the family.
Queen Rhaenys: The Social Butterfly
Rhaenys Targaryen, beloved sister-wife of Aegon, was known for her charm, wit, and warmth. She was a sharp contrast to her more austere sister Visenya. According to Archmaester Gyldayn in Fire & Blood, Rhaenys delighted in court life. Surrounding herself with singers, poets, knights, and mummers whenever she was able. She was a noted patron of the arts and performances, often enjoying long hours of music, pageantry, and courtly entertainment. Even in wartime, Rhaenys is recorded as the more approachable royal, often mingling with the people during the Targaryens’ progresses.
Her court was described as vibrant and full of life—yet beneath this cultural energy simmered rumors. Rhaenys was said to have a “fondness for handsome men.” A detail that appears in both The World of Ice and Fire and in court gossip recounted by later chroniclers. Though Aegon was known to divide his time between his two queens, he spent more nights with Rhaenys. This may suggest preference in personal affection—or an effort to produce heirs. Regardless, the gossip was persistent: that Rhaenys’s entertainers may have played more than just music. The identity of Aenys’s true father was openly questioned in whispers, especially given Aenys’s frail constitution and soft-spoken demeanor—traits vastly unlike Aegon’s stoic and martial persona.
Queen Visenya: The Queen of Iron
Rhaenys’s death in Dorne in 10 AC deeply affected her son Aenys, whose health visibly declined, leading many to fear for his life. By that time, Aegon’s marriage to his elder sister Visenya had lasted over a decade without producing a child, prompting whispers that she might be barren. Some even urged Aegon to take another wife to secure the succession. Though many eligible women were paraded before him, Aegon offered no public stance. Then, in 11 AC, Visenya suddenly announced she was expecting. The following year, she gave birth on Dragonstone to Maegor, Aegon’s second son.
But what if the truth was the reverse? In the culture of Westeros (much like IRL in that period), blame for infertility typically fell on the woman. But what if Aegon was the one who was barren all along? If so, Visenya’s sudden pregnancy—conveniently after the Realm had begun to consider new brides—may not have been the work of nature.
Perhaps, sensing herself being pushed aside from power, Visenya turned to darker means. Desperate to retain her place, she may have used black magic to conceive a child by unnatural means. But magic is a cruel and unpredictable ally. The result was Maegor: a monstrous, brutal king whose own attempts to produce heirs ended in horror, stillbirths, and lots and lots of blood. A line born of shadow may carry that shadow forward.
Infertility and Succession: Historical Parallels
History and medical literature support the plausibility of male infertility, even among strong, seemingly healthy individuals. Prominent medieval European nobles, such as Louis XVI of France and Henry VIII of England, faced similar reproductive challenges. Challenges that profoundly affected dynastic politics. Like these historical figures, Aegon’s limited offspring—despite multiple marriages and opportunities—strongly suggests possible infertility.
The Mystery of Aenys: A Trueborn Son or a Clever Cover?
Aenys I Targaryen’s personality stood in glaring contrast to the image of his supposed father. Aegon was a conqueror in every sense; calm, confident, and imposing. Aenys, by contrast, was described by Maester Gyldayn as overly eager to please, slow to act, and haunted by health issues from a young age. These discrepancies raised eyebrows even in his own time. Rumors swirled the courts that Aenys might not be Aegon’s son at all, but rather the child of one of Rhaenys’s handsome ‘favorites’.
The timing of his birth also invited scrutiny. Rhaenys had spent years enjoying courtly company before finally bearing a child. Even Aegon’s own decision to gift the infant Aenys a dragon hatchling—Quicksilver—was interpreted by some as a public effort to silence whispers of illegitimacy.
In Valyrian tradition, the bonding between dragon and rider was seen as spiritual confirmation of Valyrian blood, yet not all were convinced. The rumors endured, and even after Aenys’s ascension to the throne, doubts about his parentage persisted. His weak rule only deepened suspicions.
Maegor’s Fertility Issues: Supporting Evidence
Maegor, Aegon’s first child fathered on Visenya, provides further circumstantial evidence for the theory of first-line Targaryen male infertility. Despite marrying multiple women—including three simultaneously—Maegor failed to produce a single surviving heir. His brides suffered miscarriages, stillbirths, and in one case, a monstrous birth that claimed the lives of both mother and child. Maegor’s inability to found a bloodline was so notorious that even his staunchest supporters grew uneasy.
Many in Westeros whispered of a curse or divine punishment, but from a practical standpoint, the issue could simply point to a genetic weakness—perhaps inherited from Aegon himself. If Aegon was infertile or had limited fertility, it would explain both his own sparse progeny and Maegor’s tragic failures. Combined with the doubts surrounding Aenys’s parentage, Maegor’s sterility only strengthens the argument that neither child naturally inherited their father’s seed—or that Aegon had difficulty producing viable heirs at all.
Political Convenience and Secrecy
For Aegon and House Targaryen, acknowledging a problem as destabilizing as infertility would have been political suicide. The newly forged realm was held together by fire and fear. It could not afford to question the legitimacy of its royal bloodline. The optics of infertility—especially in a patriarchal society like Westeros—would be bad. They would undermine not just Aegon’s strength as a man, but corrode the entire manifest of his right to rule. In this, all of Westeros would stand united against him. A bridge too far.
Thus, even if Aenys were not his trueborn son, it would have been far wiser for Aegon to publicly acknowledge him. So long as the child carried Valyrian features, was matrilineally Targaryen and could bond with a dragon. Visenya, with her own ambitions for her line, remained silent as well. And so a potential scandal—whether whispered or real—was quietly buried beneath the sheen of royal ceremony. This would not be the first or last time a dynasty maintained power by embracing a convenient fiction.
Solid Sources and Scholarly Perspectives
George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood doesn’t shy away from presenting conflicting accounts, which reflects the unreliability and bias of historical record—especially when dealing with royal families. Archmaester Gyldayn frequently notes that contemporaries whispered about Aenys’s paternity, and he details the suspicions surrounding Maegor’s childlessness. The structure of Fire & Blood itself—delivering events through conflicting maesters and septons—suggests that Martin intended these ambiguities to remain open to interpretation.
Parallels can also be drawn from real history. Monarchs such as Henry VIII, despite displaying outward masculinity, faced reproductive struggles that changed the course of nations. In the medieval world, when virility was power, rulers went to great lengths to conceal such shortcomings. Likewise, Targaryen chroniclers—writing decades or centuries later—may have deliberately omitted or downplayed damning truths to protect the myth of Aegon the Conqueror.
All these elements—the rumors, the historical inconsistencies, the peculiar timing, and the known medical complications—align to form a compelling theory: the bloodline of House Targaryen may not be as dragon-pure as we were led to believe. Then again, it is not known how much Valyrian or Targaryen blood specifically is required to bond with, and ride the dragons bred by the ancient Valyrian House.
Conclusion: A Scandal Hidden by Fire and Blood
Though absolute proof remains elusive, the evidence strongly supports the intriguing possibility that Aegon I Targaryen, the legendary conqueror himself, might not have fathered the dynasty that bears his name. More likely, it was the vibrant and sociable Queen Rhaenys that secretly sired the entire line of monarchs to sit the Iron Throne until Robert’s Rebellion. If true, there is little doubt she did so with her many handsome admirers. Men of whom it is (lightly put) doubtful they were of blood of the dragon.
My Take
The truth, hidden by generations of secrecy and myth, might fundamentally alter the understanding of Westerosi history and the legacy of House Targaryen itself. But “blood purity” being out the window (or at least in the way we think of it) by day one is totally the type of narrative irony George R. R. Martin loves to write. To me, this theory definitely rings true.
There has to be Targaryen blood involved, I’m sure. It was their house that bred the beasts for war in Valyria. Though even with a single line (Rhaenys) as progenitor of the dynasty, and three-quarters Targaryen in blood (her mother was Velaryon through her father) the blood that did pass down could be strong enough for the many to be compatible with Targaryen dragon DNA.
What do you guys think? If you have thoughts on this feel free to share them in the comments below!
