Jump to content

King Aerys and Elia Martell


Recommended Posts

I'm just starting this topic as a query more so than a statement..:ph34r:

But is there any evidence to show, in any of the books, that perhaps Aerys is the father of Ella's children Rhaenys and Aegon? I mean it looks like Rhaegar didn't have much love for Ella (As it was an organised marriage for political reasons) in his actions with Lyanna and hence would it really bother him if his father was having an affair with Elia..or even if their marriage was set up so as the Mad King could have the Dorne princess?!

This would then make Aegon a bastard son of Aerys (Assuming Aegon is real) and hence have little to no claim to the throne, putting Jon in firm contention as the rightful heir..assuming R+L=J!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aerys' disdain for Rhaenys doesn't prove anything, but it does suggest he didn't think much of her or Elia for that matter. When presented with his first grandchild, he apparently complained that she "smelled Dornish" - a display of xenophobia which argues against Aerys (lecherous though he was) having an affair with the Dornish princess. 

Also, it's hard to gauge the genuine levels of affection between Rhaegar and Elia (the HotU flashback is the only scene of them we're privy to - they seem nice enough to one another in it, but it isn't much evidence) but it's suggested that Rhaegar's affair with Lyanna had as much to do with the fact that Elia could not survive another pregnancy ("the dragon must have three heads") as anything else. Granted, this doesn't prove they had an ideal marriage but it does notably contrast with one unhappy and unfaithful couple in the series: Aegon IV and Naerys. When told another pregnancy might kill his wife, Aegon continued to sleep with her (as well as having affairs) with no concern for her safety. Weird as it seems, Rhaegar's affair might have been borne partially out of concern for Elia's life.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aerys is crazy and horny, but I doubt he would be this low to rape his own daughter-in-law.

Plus no matter how Rhaegar disliked or ignored Elia, I bet no man can stand that his own father raped his own wife and gave him two bastard son/brother and daughter/sister. This is just too horrible. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We really don't know enough about Rhaegar and Elia to understand what their relationship was like. I hope for Elia that she didn't love him, because otherwise his disappearing act with Lyanna is even more of a slap in her face, but we really don't know

As to Aerys... he seems to have been a racist to the Dornish, so I don't really see it. And even if he wasn't, I kinda doubt Lewyn Martell would stand by and watch as Elia was raped by the king. The Westerosi have no concept of marital rape, sure, but Elia wasn't married to the king, so that would have been recognized as rape at least by the Dornish, I think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, purple-eyes said:

Plus no matter how Rhaegar disliked or ignored Elia, I bet no man can stand that his own father raped his own wife and gave him two bastard son/brother and daughter/sister. This is just too horrible. 

 

Sadly, such incidents are not unheard of in history. Rumors about Edward Seymour's wife, for example.

However, I don't think Elia's kids were bastards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am also wondering that since Aerys disliked Dornish people this much, why would he arrange marriage between rhaegar and Elia?

He should know that if rhaegar marrries a Dornish wife, then there is a decent chance they will have a child with dornish look like Baelor, right?

And all children will have half Martell blood.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, purple-eyes said:

I am also wondering that since Aerys disliked Dornish people this much, why would he arrange marriage between rhaegar and Elia?

He should know that if rhaegar marrries a Dornish wife, then there is a decent chance they will have a child with dornish look like Baelor, right?

And all children will have half Martell blood.

 

 

This is something I've been curious about too. The only explanation I can devise is to chalk it up to Aerys' capriciousness and mood swings. He first attempts to go above and beyond the Westerosi Great Houses in his efforts to find Rhaegar a bride; deriding the Lannisters as servants and ordering Steffon to find Rhaegar a bride of "pure Valyrian blood." When no 'Valyrian' bride is forthcoming, he settles on the Dornish, since they're 'royalty' of sorts (retaining the princely style, having Targaryen blood through Daeron II's sister Daenerys) and, therefore, better/above the likes of the Lannisters. But once he sours on Rhaegar, he asserts this anti-Dornish racism (not too far beneath the surface of many other Westerosi nobles as we see with the Tyrells and co's reaction to Oberyn) as a means of showing his displeasure. He had visited Dorne before (and promised to "make the deserts bloom") so presumably he didn't have any lifelong hatred of the Dornish - I think they just became the subject of his derision and mistrust through circumstance (being close to Rhaegar).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, The Prince of Magpies said:

This is something I've been curious about too. The only explanation I can devise is to chalk it up to Aerys' capriciousness and mood swings. He first attempts to go above and beyond the Westerosi Great Houses in his efforts to find Rhaegar a bride; deriding the Lannisters as servants and ordering Steffon to find Rhaegar a bride of "pure Valyrian blood." When no 'Valyrian' bride is forthcoming, he settles on the Dornish, since they're 'royalty' of sorts (retaining the princely style, having Targaryen blood through Daeron II's sister Daenerys) and, therefore, better/above the likes of the Lannisters. But once he sours on Rhaegar, he asserts this anti-Dornish racism (not too far beneath the surface of many other Westerosi nobles as we see with the Tyrells and co's reaction to Oberyn) as a means of showing his displeasure. He had visited Dorne before (and promised to "make the deserts bloom") so presumably he didn't have any lifelong hatred of the Dornish - I think they just became the subject of his derision and mistrust through circumstance (being close to Rhaegar).

This makes sense.

Maybe he did this to despise Rhaegar. Not because he despised Martell (at least not that much).

I also noticed that Rhaegar moved to DS right after he married to Elia.

So maybe Aerys also thought Rhaegar was supported by his marriage with house martell so he wanted to be far away from him and do something secretly to depose him.

Or, maybe, he was worried that Aerys may turn his bride into his whore?!

So he had to move Elia to DS and stay away from the court to make sure his children is his?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Yoren "The Wanderly Crow" said:

I'm just starting this topic as a query more so than a statement..:ph34r:

But is there any evidence to show, in any of the books, that perhaps Aerys is the father of Ella's children Rhaenys and Aegon? I mean it looks like Rhaegar didn't have much love for Ella (As it was an organised marriage for political reasons) in his actions with Lyanna and hence would it really bother him if his father was having an affair with Elia..or even if their marriage was set up so as the Mad King could have the Dorne princess?!

This would then make Aegon a bastard son of Aerys (Assuming Aegon is real) and hence have little to no claim to the throne, putting Jon in firm contention as the rightful heir..assuming R+L=J!

Hey, OP,

There is a possible supporting proof for this.

Rhaegar lived in KL before marriage. But after his wedding, he moved to DS with Elia.

There is a chance that maybe he was worried that Aerys may have some interest in his wife, so that he has to stay away from him to make sure Elia's children would be his own.

And there was a theory that Darkstar is the bastard of Aerys and Elia's mother.

Elia's mother also served as Rhaella's ladies and we know Aerys turned many Rhaella's ladies into his whores. 

I am not saying Elia's mother is one of them, but it is hard to say. Maybe Aerys indeed had some interest in Dornish wife.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, purple-eyes said:

I am also wondering that since Aerys disliked Dornish people this much, why would he arrange marriage between rhaegar and Elia?

He should know that if rhaegar marrries a Dornish wife, then there is a decent chance they will have a child with dornish look like Baelor, right?

And all children will have half Martell blood.

 

 

The reason Aerys chose Elia Martell as Rhaegar's wife was to shame Tywin. 

During their childhoods, Elia and Oberyn were brought to Casterly Rock anticipating a betrothal to one or both Lannister twins. Tywin refused both Martells saying that his daughter would be Queen. Given that he was a childhood friend to Aerys and his Hand, it made sense that Cersei would be chosen to be Rhaegar's future wife. But in Aerys' paranoia he grew to distrust and despise Tywin and as the ultimate slap in the face, chose the spurned suitor of Tywin's children to be the wife of his own son and heir to the Iron Throne.

 

hatred of lannisters > hatred of Martells 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting stuff...thanks for the opinions!

I think we all want Rhaegar and Elia's marriage to have been loving and his elopement with Lyanna due to necessity rather than lust for an affair..but at the end of the day, he is the mad kings son so i think what ever story unfolds here, it will be unpredictable! 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...