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| “ | The traitors want my city... but I'll give them naught but ashes. Let him be king over charred bones and cooked meat. Let him be the king of ashes. | „ |
| ~ Aerys II to the pyromancer Lord Rossart. |
| “ | Burn them all! | „ |
| ~ Aerys' most famous quote in the TV series, also his last words. |
King Aerys II Targaryen, also known as the Mad King, Aerys the Mad, and King Scab, is one of the overarching antagonists of the A Song of Ice And Fire novel series and one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside The Night King) of its television adaptation Game of Thrones.
He was the seventeenth and final Targaryen king to sit on the Iron Throne, ruling from 262 AC to 283 AC. He was the only son of King Jaehaerys II Targaryen and Queen Shaera Targaryen. He was married to his sister, Queen Rhaella Targaryen, and had 8 children with her: Prince Rhaegar, Princess Shaena, Prince Daeron, an unknown stillborn child, Prince Aegon, Prince Jaehaerys, Prince Viserys, and Princess Daenerys. However, only Rhaegar, Viserys, and Daenerys lived long enough.
Aerys II originally showed great promise at the start of his reign, bringing peace and prosperity to the Seven Kingdoms, but later descended into madness, which then included paranoia, following the brief uprising known as the Defiance of Duskendale. Ever since the incident, his paranoia and cruelty have grown out of control. Because of his madness, Aerys II infamously became known as one of the worst and most hated Targaryen kings to sit on the Iron Throne.
The Mad King is effectively the catalyst for most of the events that take place after his death, since Robert Baratheon's rebellion effectively provoked the sack of King's Landing, the death of Eddard Stark's brother and father, the ousting of his own family (which provoked Daenerys Targaryen's experiences throughout the series), and many other incidents. Aerys met his end when he was killed by one of his own Kingsguard, Jaime Lannister, who was thereafter known and reviled as a Kingslayer, a nickname first given by King Robert.
He was portrayed by David Rintoul.
Character and Appearance[]
| “ | Aerys was mad and cruel, no one has ever denied that. | „ |
| ~ Brienne of Tarth about the Mad King. |
Before his descent into insanity, in his youth, Aerys was charming, handsome, generous, and resolute, albeit somewhat quick to anger. He was also rather vain, making him vulnerable to flattery. Despite being greatly ambitious, he also had a rather short attention span, conceiving of many potentially great works during his reign but failing to see any of them through to the end. These ambitions alone, including a marble replica of King's Landing and the subjugation of Braavos (to name a few), were extravagant and somewhat ludicrous. As he grew older, he became increasingly jealous, temperamental, paranoid, cruel, and prone to furious outbursts, all of which were greatly exacerbated by his descent into madness after the defiance of Duskendale. He had the silver-gold hair and deep purple eyes common among the Targaryens.
After his descent into insanity, he forbade the presence of any sharp objects in his presence other than the swords of his Kingsguard, even refusing to cut his hair and fingernails. By the end of his life, his hair had grown to his waist, and his beard was long, tangled, and unwashed. His fingernails grew to nine inches long, and his talons cracked and turned yellow. He ate very little for fear of being poisoned, making him gaunt and malnourished. His arms and legs were constantly covered by cuts from the Iron Throne at various stages of freshness. Despite being only 39 at the time of his death, he looked much older.
Aerys was widely famous for his intense obsession with and effective love for fire, especially wildfire. Jaime Lannister remarks that he adored watching people burn and scream and had people who threatened or so much as unnerved him burned alive right in front of him for entertainment. Wildfire was his signature weapon, as he had his pyromancer place caches of wildfire in highly populated places in King's Landing during his final stand. Aerys was ruthless in this, not caring whether the wildfire explosions killed his subjects, his enemies, or even his allies. Aerys was completely insane when it came to fire, as shown by his megalomaniacal belief that, after he intentionally perished in the impeding destruction of King's Landing, he would be resurrected as a mighty and powerful dragon to incinerate his enemies and rise anew. He was so unstable that, even after being fatally stabbed in the back, he continuously screamed, "Burn them all!" which Jaime remarked that he had been saying for hours.
Aerys may have been intelligent and charming to begin, but he lacked a considerable amount of common sense as a result of his madness. He demanded that Jaime Lannister kill his father Tywin, believing that Jaime would undoubtedly prioritize his loyalty to Aerys over his loyalty to his own family. He also took the advice of sycophants incredibly easily, ignoring the sound advice of Lord Varys and others not to so much as let Tywin through the gates of the city, instead bowing to the cunning advice of Pycelle, who had turned into a supporter of House Lannister and wanted Tywin to sit on the Iron Throne because Tywin had been able to keep the King's peace for 20 years.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Prince Aerys was born to Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen, the second son of King Aegon V Targaryen. In his childhood, he befriended Tywin Lannister, who, at the time, served as a page in the court of his grandfather, as well as his cousin Steffon Baratheon. The three would become inseparable, later fighting together in the War of the Ninepenny Kings, where Aerys served as a squire and earned his knighthood. In his youth, Aerys was forced to marry his sister Rhaella Targaryen at the behest of his father, who was motivated by a prophecy that foretold that the "Prince That Was Promised" would be born from Aerys and Rhaella's line. There was no fondness between the siblings, and the two were already enamored with others when they were forced to marry, and the couple had an unhappy marriage.
The couple would produce their first son, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, on the day of the Tragedy at Summerhall, which resulted in the deaths of King Aegon, his former heir Prince Duncan the Small, and Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Duncan the Tall. Aerys' father, Jaehaerys, ascended the throne, but, due to being frail and sickly, he ruled for only three years before his death, and the crown was passed to Aerys. Thus, he became Aerys of House Targaryen, the Second of his Name. Upon his coronation, he declared that it was his wish to become the greatest king in Westeros history, causing some of his friends to suggest that he would one day become known as Aerys the Great or Aerys the Wise.
Aerys' reign began strongly; under the rule of his father and grandfather, the court had become conservative and stuffy, and it was filled with old men. Aerys brought sweeping changes and replaced many of the elderly statesmen with new, younger ones. He named Tywin Lannister, the young Lord of Casterly Rock, as his Hand of the King after being impressed by Tywin's ruthless handling of a rebellion caused by Houses Reyne and Tarbeck. While Tywin wasn't well-loved, he, as Hand of the King, proved to be really capable and brilliant, and soon enough, his effectiveness became widely popular and well respected, and it was rumored that it was he who truly ruled over the realm, which caused Aerys to be filled with jealousy as he came to regret his decision to make Tywin his Hand.
This would cause tensions between the two. It worsened as Aerys had been enamored with Tywin's wife, Lady Joanna Lannister, and during her and Tywin's wedding feast that night, Aerys had gotten drunk and made lewd jokes, lamenting the abolition of the lord's right to first night, and took "liberties" during the bedding ceremony, which Tywin did not forget.
King Aerys and Rhaella bore four more children, though their lives sadly proved short: their second child, Princess Shaena, was stillborn while her father and half of his court were in the Westerlands; the second-born son, Prince Daeron, lived only half a year; in 270 AC, another unknown stillborn followed; and Aegon was born two months premature and lived only half a year. Originally, Aerys was full of compassion, as he would comfort his wife, but it eventually turned into suspicion. He decided that Queen Rhaella had been unfaithful and that none of her stillbirths, miscarriages, or dead princes had been his, as the gods would not want a bastard child to sit on the throne. Because of this delusional belief, he had his wife confined to Maegor's Holdfast and ordered that two septa's would sleep beside her to ensure that Rhaella would stay faithful.
Tensions began to rise in Aerys' and Tywin's relationship, and their friendship began to crumble. Whenever a problem would arise, Tywin would propose a solution, and Aerys, originally heeding, would disagree and do the opposite of the solutions. When trade began to decrease and a delegation of merchants began protesting before the iron throne, King Aerys lied to them and said that Tywin was responsible. The king managed to restore the port fees to their previous levels, earning him more popularity, while Tywin earned nothing but scorn as a result of Aerys' actions. The Hand'sm any appointments were objected to by Aerys, who fills important offices with men of his choosing. When Tywin made the suggestion that his own brother, Ser Tygett Lannister, be the Master-at-Arms of the Red Keep, Aerys instead chose Ser Willem Darry.
By now, he had become aware of tales that Tywin was the true ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, which greatly angered King Aerys. When the head of Tywin's household guard, Ser Ilyn Payne, was overheard making such a remark, the king had his tongue removed with hot pincers. Aerys became determined to disprove the tales and rumors, humble Tywin, and put him back in his place. In 272 AC, the latter hosted a tourney in celebration of the tenth year of Aerys' reign.
When Prince Jaehaerys was born, King Aerys was overjoyed until the child died later in the same year of his birth, bringing despair to the king. In a black rage, Aerys decided that Jaehaerys's death was the fault of his wet nurse. As a result, he had a woman beheaded, but it did not take long for King Aerys to decide that Jaehaerys had been poisoned and that the poisoner had been Aerys' mistress, the daughter of a household knight. Consequently, the girl and her family were tortured to death until they finally admitted to the murder, though their confessions differed greatly. This act led to Aerys fasting for a fortnight, making a walk of repentance, and praying with the High Septon before announcing that he would foreswear all of his mistresses.
When Prince Viserys was born, Tywin held a tourney in the baby's honor, where he proposed a marriage between his daughter Cersei and Aerys' heir Rhaegar. The king, however, refused the offer, saying that Tywin was a capable servant, but a servant nonetheless, and no servant's daughter was fit to marry a prince of the royal blood. Aerys left the tourney in a chilly atmosphere, and Tywin would not forget this insult. Aerys would search for a worthy match for Rhaegar, even sending his cousin; Lord Steffon Baratheon, and his wife Cassana on a quest to Essos to find Rhaegar a worthy match in the Free Cities, a quest that was not only fruitless but resulted in Steffon and Cassana's deaths in a shipwreck at the bay of Storm's End.
The Defiance of Duskendale and Descent Into Madness[]
When Lord Denys Darklyn of Duskendale decided to withhold port taxes from the crown in an act of defiance, Aerys took it upon himself to solve the matter personally, to prove his competence and independence from his Hand. Aerys brought only a small force and one Kinsguard, however, which proved a fatal mistake since, upon being sentenced to death by the king, Lord Darklyn panicked and took him hostage. Lord Tywin assembled an army to lay siege to Duskendale, and Lord Darklyn kept him at bay by threatening to kill the king if he advanced. This created a stalemate that lasted for six months as Aerys sat in the dungeons of Duskendale. Eventually, Ser Barristan the Bold of the Kingsguard volunteered to stage a daring rescue, successfully infiltrated Duskendale, and rescued the king. Lord Darklyn surrendered immediately and begged for his life, but Aerys, mad with rage, ordered not only him killed but every single member of House Darklyn and House Hollard, who had sided with the Darklyns. Every member of those houses was gruesomely tortured until they were burned alive, with only the child Dontos Hollard escaping the king's wrath at the personal request of Barristan.
His time in the dungeons had irreparably shattered Aerys' sanity and begun a descent into madness. He refused to leave the Red Keep for years afterwards, and he saw treachery everywhere. He grew to mistrust his wife, heir, and especially his Hand, whom he believed had left him to rot in the dungeons. Hearing of the skills of a eunuch by the name of Varys, an information broker in Essos, Aerys appointed him his Master of Whispers, believing that only a foreigner with no previous loyalties or entanglements in Westeros could be trusted.
Aerys grew increasingly brutal and capricious and developed a fascination with fire, especially wildfire, a highly flammable substance created by the Alchemists' Guild and said to resemble dragonfire. Aerys began using wildfire to execute traitors by burning them alive. These executions aroused him and led to him claiming his marriage rights from his wife every time he witnessed one, despite the fact that the two had slept in separate chambers and avoided each other for years.
Aerys' already strained relationship with Tywin also deteriorated rapidly. Despite Aerys' glib refusal at Lannisport, Tywin had continued to hold out hope for a match between Cersei and Rhaegar. Aerys dashed those hopes when he wed Rhaegar to Princess Elia Martell of Dorne, a descendant of Aegon IV Targaryen. The final straw came when Aerys appointed Tywin's son and heir, Ser Jaime Lannister, to the Kingsguard at Jaime's request. In one move, Aerys had robbed Tywin of his heir and taken a hostage to ensure Tywin's good behavior. Tywin furiously found a thin pretext to resign his position and returned to Casterly Rock. He would be succeeded by a long line of Hands, the first of whom was Owen Merryweather, whose only discernible talent as Hand was his ability to flatter the king and throw feasts in his honor.
Tourney at Harrenhal[]
Aerys would leave the Red Keep for the first time in years to attend the great Tourney at Harrenhal. He did so at the urging of his Master of Whispers, Varys, who warned Aerys that his son Rhaegar might use the tourney as an opportunity to recruit lords with the intent of taking the Iron Throne for himself. When the Mad King arrived with his Kingsguard, all the guests were horrified by what he had become; as Aerys hadn't taken care of his appearance, he now has long yellow fingernails, as they had grown to 9 inches in length as he refused to have them groomed due to his strong fear of blades. Both his hair and beard were not matted and hadn't been washed in a long time. Aerys also appeared to now be thin and gaunt, as he hadn't eaten much due to his fear and paranoia of poison. To make things worse, he no longer appears to be sane in his behavior, as he would go from mirth to melancholy at a snap of his fingers. The guests grew tired of his bouts of hysterical laughter, long silences, sudden rages, and constant weeping. Rhaegar won the tourney, and shocked the realm when he named Lyanna Stark the Queen of Love and Beauty in place of his own wife, Ellia Martell.
Robert's Rebellion[]
Shortly after the tourney, Rhaegar presumably kidnapped Lyanna. Her brother, Brandon Stark, the heir to Winterfell, rode to the Red Keep with Ethan Glover, Kyle Royce, Elbert Arryn, and Jeffory Mallister to confront Rhaegar, to which Lord Hoster Tully called it a rash action due to the fact it was not wise to shout death threats against the crown prince. Furthermore, Rhaegar himself was not at the Red Keep at the time, and to the group's misfortune, the Mad King had them all arrested for conspiring to kill the crown prince and demanded that their fathers attend court to answer for their crimes. When they did, Aerys had them arrested as well.
King Aerys and a disturbed Jaime watching as Rickard Stark burns to death while Brandon Stark chokes himself to death while trying to rescue his father.
As was his right, Lord Rickard demanded a trial by combat, as he expected to fight a Kingsguard. The Mad King granted Rickard's request, but he chose fire as House Targaryen. Protected by Ser Gerold Hightower and Ser Jaime Lannister of the Kingsguard, King Aerys had Lord Rickard suspended in the throne room of the Red Keep. Wisdom Rossart and another pyromancer then lit a fire beneath him while he was dressed in his steel armor. Brandon, with a Tyroshi noose around his neck and a sword just out of his reach, was made to watch his father be burned alive. Trying to reach the sword to save his dying father, Brandon ended up strangling himself to death.
Aerys' paranoia was not yet sated, however, and he demanded the heads of Eddard Stark, now Lord of Winterfell, and Robert Baratheon, the Lord of Storm's End and Lyanna's betrothed. The two were being fostered by Lord Jon Arryn of the Vale, uncle to the late Elbert Arryn. Jon refused the king's request and instead called his banners and rose in rebellion, as did Eddard, Robert, and Hoster Tully of the Riverlands (whose 12-years-old daughter Catelyn had been betrothed to Brandon but now married Eddard), all of whom rallied behind Robert's claim to the Iron Throne, based on the royal blood of his grandmother, Rhaelle Targaryen, Aerys' own aunt.
After Owen Merryweather failed to quell the unrest, he was replaced by Lord Jon Connington, Rhaegar's close friend, who vowed to bring the king's head. Robert defeated Connington, however, and Aerys exiled him for his failure and appointed Lord Qarlton Chelsted in his place. Aerys repeatedly requested that Tywin Lannister rally the Westerlands and come to his aid, but Tywin met both the requests of the king and the rebels with silence. Fearful that the rebels might take King's Landing, King Aerys commissioned a great reserve of wildfire, which he placed in caches and had secretly spread out in key locations in the city. If the rebels were poised to take the city, he would detonate the caches, destroying the city and killing every single person in it. Lord Chelsted learned of the plot and confronted Aerys. When the king could not be dissuaded, Chelsted resigned and threw his chain of office at the king's feet in disgust. For his insolence, the Mad King had him dipped in Wildfire and then set him alight, leaving him to die a burning death. Aerys then appointed the head of the Alchemists' Guild, Rossart, as his final Hand.
Crown Prince Rhaegar had sat out most of the war in the Tower of Joy, his refuge in Dorne, but finally bestirred himself and assembled a host of loyalist forces to crush the rebellion. He fought Robert at the Battle of the Trident and was killed by Robert's own warhammer, which struck Rhaegar in the chest, sending the rubies from the prince's armor into the river. The bulk of House Tyrell's forces were not able to join with Rhaegar's army, as they were preoccupied with sieging Storm's End, the ancestral seat of House Baratheon, which was being held by Robert's younger brother, Stannis, who refused to yield to the loyalist forces and give himself and his younger Renly as captives. After Rhaegar's death, Aerys sent away his second son, Prince Viserys, and his newly pregnant wife to Dragonstone, but kept Rhaegar's wife and children, Princess Ellia Martell, Princess Rhaenys, and the new Crown Prince Aegon, at the Red Keep to ensure the loyalty of House Martell and Dorne, for he believed that Dorne had betrayed Rhaegar on the Trident.
Sack of King's Landing and Aerys' Death[]
Before the rebels could reach King's Landing, a force of 12,000 Lannister troops led by Tywin Lannister had arrived at the city gates earlier, and Tywin requested that they be allowed to enter so that they could defend the capital. Varys advised Aerys to keep the gates closed, but the sycophant Grand Maester Pycelle counseled that the Lannisters could be trusted. Aerys chose to listen to Pycelle, believing that his old friend had come to his aid at last. Listening to Pycelle, the Mad King had the gates opened. What ensued after that was Tywin betraying his former friend and ordering his army to sack King's Landing. Realizing the end had come and that all was lost, Aerys summoned Rossart and the last remaining Kingsguard in the Red Keep, Jaime Lannister.
He orders Rossart to detonate the wildfire caches, and then has Jaime kill his father and bring back his head. Jaime would later suggest that Aerys, in his madness, believed that the wildfire inferno would transform him into a dragon, giving him the power to crush his enemies. Faced with an impossible dilemma of loyalties, Jaime killed Rossart to stop him from carrying out the king's command. However, when he realized that Aerys would give the order to another pyromancer, despite Rossart's death, Jaime returned to the Red Keep to kill the king.
Jaime Lannister killing King Aerys II to prevent the Wildfire Plot from coming to fruition.
In the throne room, the Mad King, upon noticing Jaime's golden sword, which is stained with blood, asks him if it is Tywin's, and he makes Jaime resume the objective of bringing him his father's head. When Jaime revealed that the blood on his sword is Rossart's, this frightened Aerys into running to the iron throne, but Jaime hauled him off the steps before killing the Mad King by slashing his throat. With Aerys' death, this ended the reign of the Targaryen Dynasty, which ruled for nearly 300 years, and King's Landing and its population were saved from complete destruction.
Ned Stark finding the Mad King's corpse.
Shortly after, Tywin's men, who are led by Ser Elys Westerling and Lord Roland Crakehall, burst into the throne room in time to see that Jaime had killed Aerys. After ordering them to advise all that the Mad King is dead and to spare anyone who has surrendered, Jaime then sits on the iron throne to await anyone who could claim it. When Eddard Stark arrived, he found Jaime on the throne with Aerys' corpse slumped below it. Consequently, because he killed King Aerys, Jaime not only broke his oath as a Kingsguard but also became a "Kingslayer," which tarnished his reputation, causing him to be reviled across the realm. Nevertheless, despite this, he was controversially pardoned by the newly-crowned King Robert I Baratheon, who ignored Ned Stark's insistence to strip Jaime off his white cloak.
Legacy[]
Because of his reputation of having terrorized the realm, and much like Maegor I Targaryen, Aerys II is infamously remembered by many in Westeros, even by his enemies, as mad and cruel, as well as a proverbial tyrannical king to all of the Seven Kingdoms; at anytime, when a monarch proved to be rogue, brutish, and tyrannical, it would originally be whispered that they would become the next Maegor the Cruel, but this stopped in the last generation after Aerys II was killed during Robert's Rebellion, and the proverb was switched into currently saying "he would be the next Mad King." During the reign of King Joffrey I Baratheon, his uncle Tyrion Lannister remarked that his nephew was on his way into becoming "Aerys III".
Though Aerys was widely despised by many Westerosi, however, the smallfolk are most likely to remember him positively while House Darry continued to remain highly loyal to House Targaryen even though their liege lords, House Tully, had sided with the rebels. Because of they had fought on the side of the Targaryens in support of King Aerys during Robert's Rebellion, this cost the Darrys half of their lands, most of their wealth and nearly all of their power. During King Robert I Baratheon and his party's journey to Winterfell, Jaime and his brother Tyrion discovered that House Darry is amongst one of the few surviving Targaryen loyalists, after the two found Targaryen banners and tapestries the Darrys had hidden in their castle.
While growing up in exile, Prince Viserys and Princess Daenerys believed that the tales of their father's insanity were merely spread just to justify Robert's claim to the iron throne, mainly due to their late mother, Queen Rhaella, lying to Viserys. As he grew up never knowing of his father's madness, Viserys harbored a strong hatred for not only Robert, whom he referred to as the Usurper, but also Jaime, due to having killed Aerys. Viserys swore that once he retakes Westeros, he will kill both Robert and Jaime in single combat, but Daenerys would note that her brother never owned his own sword, as the one he uses is mostly borrowed, and he was never trained for combat.
Much later, though Ser Barristan Selmy tries to tell Daenerys of how her father lost sanity as the years go by in his reign, however, she was disinterested in learning of the truth, or possibly not even wanting to accept the fact, but she nevertheless tells him that she would want to tell learn of it one day, when she is ready to, and requests Ser Barristan that he'd tell everything about her father, including everything good and bad about him.
Notable Victims[]
- Lord Denys Darklyn - Ordered; beheaded along with the rest of his family.
- Lady Serala of Myr - Ordered; burned alive after her tongue and female body parts were torn out first.
- Elbert Arryn, Jeffory Mallister, and Kyle Royce - Ordered; executed.
- Lord Rickard Stark - Ordered; burned alive in his armor with wildfire by Lord Rossart.
- Brandon Stark - Ordered under the pretext of trial by combat; forced to strangle himself while attempting to get to his own sword so he could save his father.
- Lord Qarlton Chelsted - Ordered; executed with wildfire by Lord Rossart for “bad counsel”, meaning opposing the wildfire plot, and for resigning his position of Hand.
Books only:[]
- Aerys II's last mistress - Ordered; tortured to death along with all her kin.
- Ser Jon Hollard - Ordered; executed along with his wife and son.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- It is confirmed that Aerys II is based on King Henry VI of England, who became an insane ruler and was overthrown by King Edward IV, the counterpart of Robert Baratheon. Though Henry was not tyrannical, he was notoriously weak and too mild to control the nobility. Aerys II may also be inspired by Henry VI's maternal grandfather, Charles VI "the Mad" of France, who had insane habits and was once almost killed in a fire that killed several men.
- He may have also been inspired by late billionaire, Howard Hughes. Both were extremely rich and respected men but during their final years they were so paranoid to the point they became extremely thin and disheveled and only trusted their closest servants.
- In the TV series canon, Jaehaerys II was removed, making Aerys II the son of Aegon V. While no official explanation was given, it was likely done to simplify Maester Aemon's connection to the rest of the Targaryen family. If Duncan Targaryen still exists, it could explain why Aerys was so unprepared to rule, as he would be a second son.
- In the 2012 Game of Thrones video game, it is revealed Aerys II has a bastard, Jeyne Greystone, having raped her mother, a maid.
