ASOIAF Character Analysis of Rhaenys Targaryen

For my fourth character analysis, I'll take another suggestion. I'll be covering Aegon's sister-wife Rhaenys Targaryen. There is alot of information in regards to Rhaenys, so I'll copy what the wiki has then add a few of my thoughts to specific areas. For anyone who is reading these and enjoying, please feel free to leave me a comment with a suggestion for a character to cover if you have a specific one. I've tried avoiding the main timeline but if I get the suggestion, I'll cover them too. Everyone's input is encouraged.

***Image from http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Rhaenys_Targaryen

Queen Rhaenys Targaryen was the youngest sister of King Aegon I Targaryen, the first Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. Both she and her older sister Visenya were married to Aegon, and it was said that she was Aegon's favorite. Through her son with Aegon, Aenys I, the line of the dragonkings continued, with fifteen of the sixteen Targaryen kings being direct descendants of Rhaenys and Aegon. She was a dragonrider who rode the dragon Meraxes.

Rhaenys was a beautiful woman with silver-gold hair, which she kept long and wore loose, and a slender body. She was kindhearted, graceful, playful, curious, impulsive, and given to flights of fancy, with a mischievous aspect to her personality. She loved music, dancing, and poetry. She loved flying even more; It was said that she spent more time flying on her dragon than her siblings did combined.

Rhaenys was born on the island Dragonstone to Lord Aerion Targaryen and his wife, Lady Valaena Velaryon. She had two older siblings Visenya and Aegon. Although according to Valyrian marriage customs Rhaenys's brother Aegon was expected to marry his eldest sister, Visenya, he took both his sisters to wife. People claimed that he had wed Visenya out of duty, and Rhaenys out of desire. Prior to her wedding, Rhaenys became a dragonrider, having bonded with the dragon Meraxes.

AEGON'S CONQUEST

When her brother Aegon began his conquestof the Seven Kingdoms, Rhaenys sailed with him from Dragonstone. She and Visenya were sent to secure the submission of the castles nearby. Rhaenys flew on Meraxes to Rosby, which yielded peacefully to her. After having conquered a dozen houses, Aegon was crowned king. Rhaenys, now queen, hailed him as, "Aegon, First of his Name, King of All Westeros, and Shield of His People" after Visenya placed a Valyrian steel circlet on Aegon's head. Within days of Aegon's coronation, the Targaryen armies were sent out again. Rhaenys, upon Meraxes, accompanied Orys Baratheon and the greater part of the Targaryen host on their way to Storm's End in the stormlands. As they were crossing the Wendwater, the Targaryen host came under attack by the forces of Lords Errol, Fell, and Buckler, all bannermen to Storm's End. More than a thousand men were cut down before the attackers faded back into the trees. Rhaenys answered the attack by unleashing Meraxes upon them. As a wall of fire swept through the woods, the trees turned into torches. Lord Errol died, but Lords Fell and Buckler survived to send word to Storm's End. King Argilac Durrandon, having heard of the death of Harren Hoare in the burning of Harrenhal, decided to march from Storm's End to meet the Targaryen host on the field, refusing to burn in his castle as Harren had. Rhaenys, on Meraxes, witnessed how he departed from Storm's End, and returned to the Targaryen host with a report on Argilac's numbers and dispositions.

At the start of the battle, known as the Last Storm, a fierce storm began. The Durrandon host charge trice during the battle. The third time, they were able to break through the Baratheon center, but next found themselves face to face with Rhaenys and Meraxes. The knights of Argilac's personal guard, and Dickon Morrigen and the Bastard of Blackhaven, commanding the vanguard, were engulfed in dragonflame. The warhorses fled in terror, and chaos ensued. Argilac was met in battle by Orys Baratheon, and was slain by him in single combat. With the Storm King dead, Rhaenys accompanied the host to Storm's End, and flew upon Meraxes into the castle to parley with Argilac's daughter and heir, Argella. Although Argella refused to surrender the castle, the garrison eventually yielded both Argella and Storm's End to Orys.

Rhaenys met Visenya, Aegon, and the Targaryen host at the Stoney Sept, from where they raced south to face the combined hosts of the Reach and the westerlands, under the command of Loren I Lannister, King of the Rock, and Mern IX Gardener, King of the Reach. Rhaenys and her siblings fought from dragonback, setting the dry grasses and stands of wheat on the battlefield afire. With more than four thousand men dead from the fire, and tens of thousands wounded by the flames, the battle became known as the Field of Fire. King Mern IX died in battle, and King Loren I fled, giving the Targaryens the victory.

Following Loren's surrender, the three Targaryen siblings parted ways once more, but met soon again at the banks of the Trident, where they awaited the host of King Torrhen Stark. After Torrhen bend the knee, Rhaenys parted from her siblings and traveled to Dorne. She flew over the Red Mountains of Dorne, ignoring the Dornish spearmen at the Prince's Pass, and landed at Vaith. She found the castle empty and abandoned, while only women, children, and old men remained in the town located next to the castle. Rhaenys next flew to Godsgrace, the seat of House
Allyrion, and the Planky Town, but there too, the men and lords were away. Rhaenys eventually arrived at Sunspear, where only the eighty-year-old Meria Martell, Princess of Dorne, remained. Meria told Rhaenys to inform Aegon that Dorne would neither fight nor kneel, and would have no king. Rhaenys warned Meria that the Targaryens would return, and departed Sunspear, leaving Dorne the only unconquered Kingdom.

AEGON'S REIGN

Image from http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Rhaenys_Targaryen

Following Aegon's coronation at Oldtown by the High Septon, Rhaenys, Aegon, and Visenya took residence at the Aegonfort in King's Landing. Aegon often left the day-to-day governance of the realm in the charge of Rhaenys and Visenya, and his councillors. She was responsible for the rule of six, established by Rhaenys while Aegon was on a progress. This law declared that only six blows were allowed to be struck by a husband to his wife as punishment for her infidelity; one blow for each of the Seven, save the Stranger. As the cause of her rule had been a husband who had struck his unfaithful wife a hundred times, causing her death, the queen declared that the man had struck his wife unlawfully ninety-four of those times, and the dead woman's brothers were allowed to punish the husband equally. In addition, Rhaenys urged Aegon to make it unlawful for the ironborn to steal women throughout the Seven Kingdoms.

During the early years of her brother's reign, Rhaenys often aided Aegon in his efforts to win the respect of his vassals and the smallfolk. The smallfolk were a special concern for Rhaenys. She was fond of singers and bards as well. She also arranged marriages between far-flung houses. Among these marriages was the marriage of the daughter of Lord Torrhen Stark to Ronnel Arryn, the Lord of the Eyrie. However, letters can be found at the Citadel which suggest that Torrhen only agreed to this match after much protest, and that his sons, who did not agree with the Targaryen rule, had refused to attend the wedding.

It was said at court that Aegon spent ten nights with Rhaenys for every night he spent with Visenya. On the nights that Aegon was not with her, Rhaenys surrounded herself with comely young men. It was rumored that she also entertained some in her bedchambers. Rhaenys gave birth to Aegon's eldest son, Aenys, in 7 AC. However, Aenys was weak and sickly as a young child; He cried often and refused to nurse from wet nurses, nursing only at his mother's breast. This caused rumors that he had not been fathered by Aegon, but possibly by one of the singers and mummers Rhaenys associated with. The rumors would persist until after Rhaenys's death.

FIRST DORNISH WAR

In 4 AC, Aegon I began a new campaign against Dorne. Rhaenys led the first assault on Dorne, seizing castles and burning Planky Town while approaching Sunspear. However, the Dornish lords once again refused to give open battle, and abandoned their seats. When Rhaenys and Aegon eventually reached Sunspear, Princess Meria Martell, as well as most others, had fled. Rhaenys and Aegon gathered the few courtiers and functionaries who had remained behind and, declaring themselves victorious, proclaimed that Dorne fell under the rule of the Iron Throne. Rhaenys and Aegon returned to King's Landing, leaving Lord Rosby as Sunspear's castellan while giving Lord Harlan Tyrell the charge of a host to fight the last revolts. However, they had barely reached the capital when the Dornish revolted with extreme rapidity, leading to the deaths of both Lord Rosby, by the hand of Princess Meria herself, and Lord Tyrell, who vanished in 5 AC with his army while marching to Sunspear to retake the castle. Entire garrisons were put to the sword, and the knights in charge were slowly tortured to death.

The next few years of the war became more and more violent. The Targaryens returned to Dorne to unleash their dragons, and the Dornish responded with fire of their own. In 10 AC, at Hellholt a bolt from a scorpion pierced Meraxes through the eye. The dragon fell from the sky with Rhaenys on its back, destroying half the castle. It is not certain whether Rhaenys outlived Meraxes. There are those who say that Rhaenys lost her seat and fell to her death, while others claim that Rhaenys was crushed to death beneath Meraxes in the castle yard. A few accounts claim that Rhaenys survived the fall and died a slow death, being tortured by the Ullers. Due to the uncertainty about Rhaenys's exact death, history records that she died in 10 AC at Hellholt in Dorne. Her body was never returned to King's Landing.

RHAENYS LEGACY

Rhaenys's son Aenys was three years old when she died. Always weak and sickly, the death of his mother shattered the boy, and there were doubts as to whether he would live. He even went back to crawling around as if he were a baby. However, when Aenys was given the hatchling dragon Quicksilver, his condition quickly improved, and "as the dragon grew, so too did Aenys". Additionally, bonding with the dragon ended the rumors that he had not been fathered by Aegon.

The two years that followed Rhaenys's death were later dubbed the years of the Dragon's Wroth. Grief-stricken at the death of their sister, Aegon and Visenya set every castle, keep, and holdfast in Dorne ablaze at least once, with the exception of Sunspear and it's shadow city, and placed bounties on the heads of the Dornish lords. The war would last until 13 AC.

Although a grand sept had already been constructed on Visenya's Hill in King's Landing, the Sept of Remembrance was later built on the Hill of Rhaenys as a memorial to the queen.

Wiki of Ice and Fire

As we are told, the lovely Rhaenys was Aegon's youngest sister and second bride. She was his passion, where as Visenya sad his duty. She was a beauty to behold, and because of this beauty many forget she was a force to be reckoned with.

Unlike Aegon and Visenya, conquering was not her focus. She loved music dance, and the arts supporting many and more. Above all else, she loved to fly. She spent more time than Aegon and Visenya combined on dragonback, and she was even rumored to have said, she was going to fly west and discover the lands there.

Master say she was not much if a fighter, but to an extent I have to disagree. She loved the arts, but when she climbed on top of Meraxes she was as feared as either of her siblings. We see at the battle known as The Last Storm, Rhaenys was capable of slaughter as well as Visenya. Aegon sent her on many campaigns so she had to be well versed in battle at the least. You don't have to enjoy battle to be good at it.

Now we get to the Dornish Wars. There are conflicting accounts at what happened at Hellholt. Rhaenys is said to have died in 10 AC. My personal opinion is that Rhaenys was injured, probably severely. It took some time to nurse her back to health, probably close to three years. Then in 13 AC when Nymor's people showed up, they brought a letter with them. I believe this letter was written by Rhaenys.

I think Rhaenys tells Aegon something about how she had not always been faithful. There are accounts of her fidelity in question. She tells him that her dragon died and she almost died with Meraxes. The dragon got a scorpion bolt through the eye. Then something about how the Dornish have spent three years nursing her back to health, Nymor in particular. I'm thinking that Meria wanted to torture Rhaenys, and may have done it for a time but Nymor came between and a love blossomed. That's why peace was able to be had after Meria died. I bet she mentions something about how she wasn't really a true warrior. Now that Meraxes is dead her only true weapon is gone and her true love, flying, can never be had again. She didn't have a Valyrian steel blade so even in that area she was lacking. She then probably said how she would just be jealous and bitter that both Aegon and Visenya would have their dragons while she had to watch on. Finally she probably closed with how she loved Aegon but her time was at an end. Let her die in Dorne for the kingdom he fought to unite. With her death she gets to contribute to their goal of uniting the Seven Kingdoms.

I bet it went something like this

My Dearest Aegon,

I write you to let you know that I live. Much time has passed are there are thing you must know. Meraxes was killed in Hellholt, a scorpion bolt through her eye brought her down. But if not for her I would have died as well, for the bolt would have struck me. Last thing I remembered was the impact with the castle, again thanks be to Meraxes. No way I should have survived. For close to a year I didn't wake. Nymor himself, would pour small amounts of water, and cover my lips in honey to keep me alive. When I finally did wake I was in the hands of Meria the Toad.
The tortures she put me through were unspeakable, and again I would have died, if not for Nymor. Every lash he cleaned, every burn he healed and so much more. When she died I was released from the cells that held me.
Then Nymor tells me he is sending an envoy to you to sue for peace. He told me to gather my things, I would be going home. It is then I knew, I loved Nymor and I would never be returning to your side. Brother you have our sweet sister Visenya and she will give you everything I could have ever given you. She will be faithful to you and only you where I was not. She will give you sons to rule after you are gone. She will give you wise council.
You know my passion for flying. With Meraxes gone, I'll never get to experience to world from above the clouds. I would watch you and Visenya continue your conquest and grow bitter. Soon becoming hatred from the jealousy I would hold. If not for you and your Dornish War, my beloved Meraxes would still live.
So please Aegon, sweet Brother, f9r all the love you bear me, let me die in Dorne. Let my death be the key to the united realms you have been fighting for. This is the only way to finally end the war so you can rule like you were meant to do. Know that I am happy and have found peace and love. Know that you did the right thing by leaving me dead. Use this to accomplish all your goals.

With all my love,
Rhaenys

So yeah that's what I think it sounded like. So strong like that anyways. This was the main thing about Rhaenys I wanted to cover so I hope you all enjoyed.

Thank you for your time

-Bran the Builder