Visenya Targaryen

Born around 29 BC, Visenya Targaryen, daughter of Lord Aerion Targaryen and Lady Valaena Velaryon, was the eldest sibling of Aegon I Targaryen and Rhaenys Targaryen. She participated in the Conquest of the Seven Crowns and became its queen. Visenya married her younger brother, Aegon, with whom she had a son, the future Maegor I Targaryen.

She carried the Valyrian steel sword Black Sister and rode the dragon Vhagar.

Visenya Targaryen Personality

Visenya is by all accounts strict, dry and unsympathetic. She has a reputation for being versed in witchcraft and the science of poisons. Contrary to the rumors that have flourished about Rhaenys, Visenya's loyalty to Aegon has never been in dispute. Although they are very different from each other, Visenya and her sister Rhaenys have a mutual respect for each other throughout their lives.

Visenya Targaryen Physical Appearance

Visenya shares with her brother and sister the purple eyes and silver-gold hair that are typical of their family and of the Valyrians. She has the habit of braiding or tying it up. She has a physique that is both severe and sensual, voluptuous and passionate. Visenya is a warrior, with a seductive manner. A woman with a rough and austere beauty, she dresses as much like a lady as a warrior. She is also an excellent fencer. Rumors about her infertility ran until she gave a son to Aegon in the year 12.

Visenya Targaryen History

Before the Conquest

During their youth, Visenya is said to have trained in fencing with her brother. Some say that Visenya and her sister Rhaenys or her brother stayed with the Redwyne. Visenya also visited Lannisport and the Citadel of Villevieille with her brother. Aegon Targaryen married both of his sisters before the Conquest, but he spent only one night with Visenya and ten with his sister Rhaenys.

The Conquest

Visenya accompanies her brother-husband in his Conquest of Westeros. Shortly after their landing, she is sent to obtain the submission of the surrounding lords. A meager resistance at Casterly Hall is quickly quelled by the flames of Vhagar. When the houses of Sombrelyn and Mouton are defeated, Visenya opposes the sacking of Sombreval, the main port of the time, whose trade benefited the whole region. However, the wealth of the city was added to the royal treasury.

After conquering the lords of the mouth of the river Blackwater, Visenya puts a Valyrian steel crown on his brother Aegon's head for the first time in Fort Aegon. Visenya then accompanies the Targaryen fleet and the high admiral Daemon Velaryon to the Arryn Valley. The fleet is defeated at the battle of Goëville, but Visenya destroys the Arryn fleet.

After the fall of the line of Harren Chenu and Harrenhal, Visenya obtains the submission of the peninsula of Claquepince whose lords do not dare to face the dragons. Visenya then reunites with her brother and sister and participates in the battle of the Field of Fire, where she is wounded by an arrow in the shoulder, which heals quickly.

The King of the North, Torrhen Stark, and his Nordians cross the Neck, to march against Aegon and his sister-wives. They go north with their dragons and their whole army. The dragons impress the Nordians, who have heard the stories of the previous battles. While some propose to kill the dragons in their sleep before the battle, the king prefers to submit without fighting, rather than risk the lives of his men and the loss of his house.

The Targaryens split up again and Vhagar and Visenya returned to the Vale of Arryn. Queen Regent Sharra Arryn gathers her army at the Bloody Gate, but thanks to her dragon, Visenya flies to the top of the Eyrie, untroubled by either the armies of the Vale or the garrisons of the forts.

When Queen Sharra returns to her palace, she sees her son, the young king Ronnel, sitting on his enemy's lap and asking to fly to Vhagar with Visenya. Realizing that resistance is futile, the queen regent negotiates her surrender and hands the crowns of House Arryn to Visenya.

The reign of Aegon I

Visenya was fully involved in her brother's government and in the first Dornian war, especially after the death of her sister Rhaenys.

In the year 7, his sister Rhaenys gave birth to the first son of their brother-husband Aegon, Aenys. In the year 10, following a narrowly missed attempt on her brother's life, Visenya pushed him to create a Royal Guard.

She appointed the first royal guards, selecting them on the basis of their loyalty, not their skill in arms. The same year, Rhaenys died. While Aenys is still weak and Visenya still childless, Aegon's advisors begin to think that he should remarry, in order to ensure his descendants.

Rumors and courtiers start to come out from year 11, but Visenya announces to everyone's surprise that she is finally carrying a son, which puts an end to the courtiers' carousing. She gave birth to a boy in the year 12, Aegon's second son, Maegor.

Over the next few years, Visenya and her son remained in Peyredragon, while Aegon and his heir divided their time between Fort Aegon and royal wanderings.

Soon, Maegor is called "Prince of Peyredragon" by the lords and the people. From the year 15, Visenya begins the martial education of Maegor and entrusts him to the master of arms of Peyredragon, the redoubtable ser Gawen Corbray.

In the year 25, for her son's thirteenth birthday, Visenya divests herself of her Valyrian steel sword, Black Sister, which she entrusts to him, six months before his wedding. Visenya wants to betroth her son to the eldest daughter of Aenys, Rhaena.

Her birth in the year 23 had challenged the order of succession to the Iron Throne established until then: indeed, Rhaena's father, Aenys, is unanimously recognized as the legitimate heir of King Aegon I Targaryen, as the first of his sons.

However, it is not clear who is second in the line of succession: Aenys' daughter Rhaena or Aegon's youngest son Maegor? The rules for the devolution of the crown are not yet clearly established at this time, and both Maegor and Rhaena could later claim to succeed Aenys.

Visenya's proposal unites the legitimacy of Rhaena and Maegor, thus avoiding a possible future conflict between them. However, Aenys and his wife are against this union, as well as the Great Septon of Villevieille, and propose that Maegor should instead marry one of his nieces from House Hightower. King Aegon I approves, in order to bring the Targaryens closer to the Hightowers, and Maegor marries Ceryse Hightower in the year 25.

In the year 35, King Aegon I and his court moved to Peyredragon. He orders the destruction of Fort Aegon and asks his Hand, Lord Alyn Castelfoyer and Visenya to oversee the construction of a new castle on Aegon Hill.

Archmaester Gyldayn reports in his chronicles that a rumor spread among the courtiers that Aegon had entrusted this project to his sister-wife to keep her away from Peyredragon, their relationship becoming more and more distant and cold with the years.

The reign of Aenys I

In the year 39, Aegon I died and was succeeded by his eldest son Aenys I. Visenya, now queen dowager, openly criticizes her nephew's accession to the throne, comparing his weakness to the strength of her own son.

Aenys' reign is quickly put to the test: several outbreaks of rebellion break out, without the new king being able to deal with them.

Some lords of the Seven Crowns acted on their own authority, while others acted in concert with Visenya, notably Lord Allard Royce, to whom she sent her son, Maegor.

In the year 39, Maegor declares that his wife is infertile. He decides to take Alys Herpivoie as his second wife, during a Valyrian ceremony presided over by her mother, Visenya, the septon of Peyredragon having refused to celebrate a bigamous union. The scandal of this marriage forced Aenys to exile her half-brother.

Despite the disgrace of his son, Visenya remains with the royal family. In the year 41, King Aenys offends his aunt once again: while his son Maegor has always been considered the prince of Peyredragon, Aenys grants the ancestral fief and the title to his eldest son, Aegon, on his wedding day. Visenya, furious, leaves the banquet without the royal permission, and mounts her dragon Vhagar, which takes her back to Peyredragon.

The reign of Maegor I

Visenya seizes the opportunity of Aenys' death: she does not attend his funeral and rides Vhagar to Pentos, where she finds her exiled son. Maegor returns to the Seven Crowns and usurps the crown from his nephew, Aegon.

Together, they fly to King's Landing, where Visenya challenges anyone who opposes her son's claims to the crown to a legal duel. The Warrior's Sons take up the challenge.

Magnifying Icon.png See detailed article: Judgment of the King's Landing Seven.
All the participants of this duel die, except for Maegor, seriously wounded, who wins this judgment of the Seven.

The Seven have thus designated him as the legitimate king of the Seven Crowns. Visenya orders the remaining Warrior Sons to return peacefully to their septuary and she entrusts Maegor, who has fallen into a coma, to the masters.

For the next twenty-seven days, Visenya organizes the Targaryen loyalists, giving command to the sworn brothers of the Kingsguard. On the twenty-eighth day, she dismissed the mestres and septons who had been working at Maegor's bedside and entrusted him to Tyanna of the Tower, a pentoshi whom Maegor had brought back from exile.

The next day, Maegor I Targaryen is up and about and he slaughters the Sons of the Warrior of King's Landing, setting fire to the Sepulcher of Remembrance. A short time later, she rides to Lamarck, seat of House Velaryon, on the back of Vhagar, her dragon. She convinces the widow of Aenys I, Alyssa Velaryon, not to oppose Maegor.

Visenya is one of her son's main advisors and one of his most important supporters during the War of the Faith: in the year 43, thanks to Vhagar, she burns down the siege of the noble houses of the Conflans, who support the Faith rather than her son.

She then heads to Villevieille, where she must find Maegor, in order to burn down the city and eliminate the rebel Grand Septon once and for all. She arrives at the city at dawn, only to learn that the High Septon died mysteriously during the night. Archmaester Gyldayn reports that Visenya herself is a possible suspect, though there is no evidence to support this.

She then returns to Peyredragon, where she must watch over Aenys I's widow, Alyssa Velaryon, and her younger children: Jaehaerys and Alysanne. After the battle under the Œildieu, she persuades Maegor to spare the lives of some of the rebel lords who followed Prince Aegon Targaryen.

In the year 44, Visenya died. Alyssa Velaryon and her children take the opportunity to flee, taking with them Visenya's Valyrian steel sword, Black Sister. On Maegor's orders, Visenya's body is burned according to the funeral rites inherited from the Valyrians. Her ashes are buried next to those of Aegon I. Maegor loses with her his most loyal ally, which proves detrimental to the rest of his reign.