Includes MAJOR SPOILERS for Fire & Blood and the outcome of House of the Dragon.
Summary
- House Targaryen’s history is intricately linked to many noble houses in Westeros, with their bloodline spreading throughout generations.
- The Dance of the Dragons plays a significant role in determining future Targaryen bloodlines, shaping the characters we know from Game of Thrones.
- Noble houses like Baratheon, Martell, Blackfyre, Plumm, Penrose, and Velaryon have connections to Targaryen blood, adding depth to their stories.
House Targaryen has its roots dug deep in Westeros after only 300 years, with multiple houses during the Game of Thrones era whose lineage has Targaryen blood. Aegon the Conqueror arrived in Westeros and united the Seven Kingdoms under one monarch, laying the foundations for House Targaryen’s history and the feudal society prevalent in the main series. While it was more typical for other noble families to marry daughters into the Targaryen line, as the Arryns or Martells did, some noble lords married Targaryen daughters, adding the Valyrian blood to their line.
With House of the Dragon ongoing, the victors of the Dance of the Dragons play a huge role in what blood is passed down to future generations. Rhaenyra and Daemon’s son, Aegon III, is technically the winner of the Dance, as he’s the best candidate to ascend the throne following the war’s end when Rhaenyra and Aegon II are both killed. Many of the houses with Targaryen blood descend from their line, including some notable Game of Thrones characters outside the obvious suspects like Daenerys and Jon Snow.
There are many houses with rumored Targaryen blood, such as House Tarth and House Hightower, whom readers suspect have some Targaryen ancestry. The histories in George R.R. Martin’s world are never set in stone, and the webs of family trees in Westeros aren’t all made clear to readers. Some readers have even theorized that Tyrion and/or his siblings could’ve been the Mad King’s children and not Tywin’s, which would imply they have Targaryen blood. However, only concrete Targaryen descendants will be included.
6 House Baratheon
Robert Baratheon’s Grandmother Was Rhaelle Targaryen
House Baratheon is one of the most notable Targaryen descendants in Westeros, with close ties to the noble family dating back to Aegon the Conqueror. Lord Orys Baratheon, Aegon’s Hand of the King, is rumored to be his bastard half-brother, which would trace the Targaryen/Baratheon blood back centuries. More concretely and closer to the Game of Thrones timeline, Robert Baratheon’s grandmother was Rhaelle Targaryen, so he and his brothers, Stannis and Renly, have Targaryen blood going back only two generations.
As for Orys Baratheon, he was one of Aegon’s closest allies during the conquest, which is set to be the subject of one of the planned Game of Thrones spinoffs. Before Aegon’s Conquest, the Stormlands were ruled by House Durrandon, but they were made extinct when Orys killed Argilac Durrandon during the war. Orys then married Argilac’s daughter and became the first Lord of Storm’s End, with his line passing down 300 years to the Game of Thrones era. Maybe the TV series will clarify whether he himself was a Targaryen bastard.
King Robert Baratheon undoubtedly has Targaryen blood, adding to the irony of his hatred for the house
Regardless of Orys’ origins, King Robert Baratheon undoubtedly has Targaryen blood, adding to the irony of his hatred for the house. Even after killing Rhaegar and crushing the Targaryen dynasty during his rebellion, Robert still hates the Targaryens until his death, trying to have Daenerys killed in Game of Thrones season 1. The reason Robert Baratheon was selected as king, however, was because of his Targaryen ancestry, not simply due to the fact that he rebelled against the throne and won it.
5 House Martell
House Martell Joined The Realm Through A Marriage Alliance
House Martell and House Targaryen got off to a rocky start, then actually became relatively tight-knit for Westerosi houses closer to the era of Game of Thrones. Prince Rhaegar Targaryen’s wife was Princess Elia Martell of Dorne, and in the HBO adaptation, the Martells eventually side with Daenerys upon her arrival in Westeros. In the books, there is another Aegon Targaryen, known as Young Griff, who’s allegedly Rhaegar and Elia’s son. But the Targaryen ties to House Martell go way further back.
During Aegon’s Conquest, Dorne was the only house to resist Aegon and his dragonriding sisters, even managing to slay his sister Rhaenys (not to be confused with Rhaenys from HOTD) and her dragon Meraxes. This made the Targaryens and Martells enemies for some time, with Aegon taking brutal action against Dorne in response to his sister’s death. Even during the Dance of the Dragons, Dorne still wasn’t a part of the Seven Kingdoms, and they’d had multiple rebellions and sided with the Triarchy during the War of the Stepstones.
Every descendent of House Martell following this point, from Oberyn to Doran to the Sand Snakes, had Targaryen blood
It wasn’t until just over 100 years before Game of Thrones that Dorne finally submitted to House Targaryen and joined the Seven Kingdoms through a marriage alliance. Not only did Dorne send a Princess to be the wife of King Daeron Targaryen, but Daeron sent his sister Daenerys to be the wife of Prince Maron Martell. Every descendent of House Martell following this point, from Oberyn to Doran to the Sand Snakes, had Targaryen blood, and they continued to wed between the two houses over the course of the next century.
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4 House Blackfyre
The Blackfyres Are A Targaryen Branch From A Legitimized Bastard
House Blackfyre is arguably an extinct house during the time period of Game of Thrones that doesn’t play any prevalent role in the TV adaptation. It’s more pressing to book readers, given that the aforementioned Young Griff Aegon is widely rumored to be a Blackfyre. Still, they’re a noble house of Westeros that has direct lineage from House Targaryen and is one of the few houses to form after the arrival of the Targaryens, given that most nobility of Westeros has existed on the continent for thousands of years prior.
House Blackfyre’s origin comes from a Targaryen bastard named Daemon Waters. He was the son of King Aegon IV, one of the dynasty’s worst rulers, who was regarded for his skill as a swordsman. After winning a tournament at the age of 12, Daemon Waters was granted the ancestral Targaryen sword “Blackfyre,” which had been passed down through Targaryen kings since Aegon the Conqueror. Daemon took the name Blackfyre and was later legitimized by Aegon IV before the king’s death. This resulted in multiple sagas of Targaryen conflict.
The Blackfyre sword doesn’t appear in
House of the Dragon.
It is replaced by the dragonbone dagger.
Following Aegon IV’s passing, King Daeron II ascended the Iron Throne as the new Targaryen monarch. He gifted Daemon Blackfyre in the Crownlands to establish a keep for his house. In return, Daemon declared Daeron II to himself to be a bastard and declared that he should be king, given that he held the ancestral Targaryen blade. This resulted in the First Blackfyre Rebellion, of which four more proceeded. Roughly 40 years before Game of Thrones’ events, the male line of House Blackfyre ended, though it’s possible the female line still exists.
3 House Plumm
House Plumm’s Lord Married Rhaenyra’s Granddaughter
House Plumm is a minor noble house of the Westerlands that isn’t too well known. They don’t appear in the Game of Thrones TV series and only have a handful of minor characters mentioned in the book series. Still, roughly 40 years after the events of the Dance of the Dragons, Lord Ossifer Plumm married Princess Elaena Targaryen. Ossifer ended up dying on their wedding night, but Elaena conceived a child, Viserys Plumm, who continued their line into the events of Game of Thrones. There are rumors that Viserys was not Lord Ossifer’s son, but he’s undoubtedly a Targaryen.
2 House Penrose
House Penrose’s Lord Also Married Rhaenyra’s Granddaughter
House Penrose is another minor house of the Stormlands with Targaryen blood. They also don’t appear in Game of Thrones, but their story is worth noting as the lineage also traces back to Princess Elaena, who’s Rhaenyra’s granddaughter. After Lord Ossifer, she married Lord Ronnel Penrose, who sat on her father’s small council as Master of Coin. They had multiple children before his passing. She then remarried to Ser Michael Manwoody, though his line wasn’t the main lineage of his house, and it’s unknown what happened to his children.
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1 House Velaryon
Baela And Alyn’s Marriage Continues The Velaryon Line
House Velaryon is one of the primary noble houses in House of the Dragon, and the Targaryen blood that extends to Game of Thrones can be seen in the prequel series. Of course, House Velaryon isn’t prevalent in the Game of Thrones TV series, but they are present in the books, with Lord Monford Velaryon being one of Stannis Baratheon’s bannermen who dies during the Battle of the Blackwater. The line then continues with his son, Monterys Velaryon. They’re not nearly as powerful as during the Dance of the Dragons, but they’re still a noble house.
Rhaenys Targaryen marries Lord Corlys Velaryon prior to the Dance, though their lineage gets slightly complicated throughout the war. Their son and heir, Laenor Velaryon, is killed, and his legal sons with Rhaenyra Targaryen all die before the war’s end. However, Rhaenys and Corlys’ daughter, Laena Velaryon, has two daughters with Daemon Targaryen, adding even more Targaryen blood to the mix. Rhaena and Baela are prevalent characters throughout these events.
Upon the war’s end, Baela Targaryen ends up marrying her cousin, Alyn of Hull, who was legitimized and became Alyn Velaryon, Lord of the Tides. Their line becomes the primary line of House Velaryon and passes down to the Game of Thrones era. As for Rhaena, she marries into House Hightower, and while it’s possible her blood passes down through generations, the family trees aren’t confirmed. As for House Velaryon, the Game of Thrones timeline descendants have blood from Rhaenys, Daemon, and Baela Targaryen.
Game Of Thrones
Created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Game of Thrones is a TV series based on the book โA Song of Ice of Fireโ by George R. R. Martin. It tells the story of the ongoing battle between the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros – as they fight for control of the coveted Iron Throne. Friction between the houses leads to full-scale war. All while a very ancient evil awakens in the far north. Amidst the war, a neglected military order of misfits, the Night’s Watch, led by House Stark’s Jon Snow, is the first to encounter icy horrors that threaten all realms of men. The series premiered on HBO in the United States on April 17, 2011, and quickly became one of the biggest event series in the “Golden Age” of TV. Winner of 38 Primetime Emmy Awards, Game of Thrones has attracted record viewership on HBO and has a broad, active, international fan base.
- Release Date
- April 11, 2011
- Seasons
- 8