Missing Targaryens on Dragonstone

[Vaedys Targaryen]

I've been thinking a lot about the theory that Aegon the Conqueror might've been infertile and that Aenys and Maegor were not his biological children, which lead me to wonder who their fathers might've been. We know that Rhaenys was known to have many "special" male friends and many people believe that one of them, whoever they were, was the father of Aenys.

It is my speculation, that in order to make sure that the child Rhaenys would have would not have their paternity questioned, she would have to be with someone who had Valyrian features. I quickly looked to the Velaryons, because Rhaenys' mother had been a Velaryon and Daemon Velaryon had helped them conquer the Seven Kingdoms and was now serving as Aegon's Master of Ships.

As I looked a little into house Velaryon at this time, I found something rather interesting; as we all know, Valaena's mother was a Targaryen (which may have influenced why Valaena married Aerion in the first place), but we've never been told who she were. I think it' mostly just because we don't particularily care about pre-conquest Targaryens, but then I looked a little bit further; Alyssa Velaryon, who was the wife of Aenys I and mother of Jaehaerys I, also had a Targaryen mother. Alyssa was born in 7 AC, which places her birth after the Conquest, which means that Alyssa's Targaryen mother could've been around the age of Aegon the Conqueror.

This here hints to that Aegon, Visenya and Rhaenys were not the only living Targaryens living on Dragonstone at the time of the Conquering.

I started to look into house Targaryen's family tree to get some information; unfortunately, there were no women that are mentioned, but there were three men who are also on the family tree, but are not written to have any offspring; Aegon the Conqueror's great great uncle, Maegon Targaryen, and two great uncles, Aelyx and Baelon Targaryen. They are on the family tree, but according to the tree, they didn't have any children.

But what if they did? What if they did indeed have children that lived on Dragonstone, but they simply aren't mentioned anywhere, because they didn't partake in the conquering and thusly are not in the history book? That is usually how it goes in history; those who are not important, don't get to be in books.

[Yucef Menaerys]

48 minutes ago, Vaedys Targaryen said:

But what if they did? What if they did indeed have children that lived on Dragonstone, but they simply aren't mentioned anywhere, because they didn't partake in the conquering and thusly are not in the history book? That is usually how it goes in history; those who are not important, don't get to be in books.

I think if those people had existed immediately after the conquest then they definitely would have been mentioned somewhere, what happened to them during the faith militant uprising? why didn't Aegon try to marry his son Aenys to one of them(if there were any females)? What side did they take during the civil war that followed Maegor's ascension? Why didn't Aegon float the idea of naming them as his heirs during the seven year period he was married before having any children? 

[Lord Varys]

4 hours ago, Vaedys Targaryen said:

I've been thinking a lot about the theory that Aegon the Conqueror might've been infertile and that Aenys and Maegor were not his biological children, which lead me to wonder who their fathers might've been. We know that Rhaenys was known to have many "special" male friends and many people believe that one of them, whoever they were, was the father of Aenys.

In Rhaenys' case there are sufficient hints who the sperm-donor for Aenys might have been - one of her many male favorites. In Visenya's case things are more difficult. Since she was reputed to be a sorceress she could have created a male clone of herself or she could have made Aegon's semen (sort of) viable.

4 hours ago, Vaedys Targaryen said:

It is my speculation, that in order to make sure that the child Rhaenys would have would not have their paternity questioned, she would have to be with someone who had Valyrian features. I quickly looked to the Velaryons, because Rhaenys' mother had been a Velaryon and Daemon Velaryon had helped them conquer the Seven Kingdoms and was now serving as Aegon's Master of Ships.

There is no reason for Rhaenys to have searched for a sperm-donor with Valyrian features. A fair-haired man should have been enough. After all, she had Valyrian features herself, and a lot of Valyrian ancestors.

4 hours ago, Vaedys Targaryen said:

As I looked a little into house Velaryon at this time, I found something rather interesting; as we all know, Valaena's mother was a Targaryen (which may have influenced why Valaena married Aerion in the first place), but we've never been told who she were. I think it' mostly just because we don't particularily care about pre-conquest Targaryens, but then I looked a little bit further; Alyssa Velaryon, who was the wife of Aenys I and mother of Jaehaerys I, also had a Targaryen mother. Alyssa was born in 7 AC, which places her birth after the Conquest, which means that Alyssa's Targaryen mother could've been around the age of Aegon the Conqueror.

The thing about Alyssa Velaryon's Targaryen mother is questionable. 'The Sons of the Dragon' only mentions Valaena Velaryon and her and Aenys being cousins through her. But if George has told Ran and Linda more and they put that into the book it is hardly surprising that a female Targaryen cousin of Aegon and his sisters was not mentioned during the Conquest - (royal) women are not exactly the main topic of Yandel in TWoIaF. 

4 hours ago, Vaedys Targaryen said:

This here hints to that Aegon, Visenya and Rhaenys were not the only living Targaryens living on Dragonstone at the time of the Conquering.

That is certainly possible. Lord Aerion would have to be dead by the time of the Conquest since his children were in charge of Dragonstone for quite some time by then but Valaena Velaryon could still have been alive just as some female cousins. Other male Targaryens being still around is also possible but less likely considering that one would expect that those would have commanded some of Aegon's troops, meaning that they would have been mentioned during the complete history of the Conquest we got in TWoIaF. However, certainly could have had some lackwit male cousin or some aging granduncle serving as castellan of Dragonstone in his absence, or something of that sort.

4 hours ago, Vaedys Targaryen said:

I started to look into house Targaryen's family tree to get some information; unfortunately, there were no women that are mentioned, but there were three men who are also on the family tree, but are not written to have any offspring; Aegon the Conqueror's great great uncle, Maegon Targaryen, and two great uncles, Aelyx and Baelon Targaryen. They are on the family tree, but according to the tree, they didn't have any children.

We don't have a family tree of the Targaryens on Dragonstone nor how the succession of the Lords of Dragonstone worked. We only have the names of the rulers of Dragonstone from Aenar to Aegon - Aenar, Gaemon the Glorious (brother-husband of Daenys the Dreamer), Aegon and his sister-wife Elaena), the brothers Maegon and Aerys (unclear whether they ruled jointly or successively), the brothers Aelyx, Baelon, and Daemion (the same), and Daemion's son Aerion, the father of the Conqueror.

We have no idea how many siblings all of those Targaryens had, nor how many children they had. We don't even know whom they married (Gaemon and Aegon excluded, of course). Aenar is said to have brought all his wives, children, siblings, and kin with him to Dragonstone, suggesting that there were more Targaryens on Dragonstone when they settled there than just Aenar and his children.

3 hours ago, Yucef Menaerys said:

I think if those people had existed immediately after the conquest then they definitely would have been mentioned somewhere, what happened to them during the faith militant uprising? why didn't Aegon try to marry his son Aenys to one of them(if there were any females)? What side did they take during the civil war that followed Maegor's ascension? Why didn't Aegon float the idea of naming them as his heirs during the seven year period he was married before having any children? 

The idea clearly is that there weren't any Targaryens left in the 20s AC who had suitable brides for either Aenys or Maegor.

[Vaedys Targaryen]

1 hour ago, Lord Varys said:

There is no reason for Rhaenys to have searched for a sperm-donor with Valyrian features. A fair-haired man should have been enough. After all, she had Valyrian features herself, and a lot of Valyrian ancestors.

I know that, but I am thinking that she must've tried to use one with Valyrian features because the Targaryens of old seemed to have been rather obsessed with "keeping the blood pure" and had previously only had children with Velaryons, another old Valyrian family.

But it is not just because of "blood purity", but also because of features. Sure a fair-haired man might've been enough, but only "might". Even if Rhaenys could've found one with fair-hair and fair eyes, if the father had looked too much unlike Aegon, it could've been a dead giveaway. Rhaenys was an intelligent woman and if Aenys is indeed not Aegon's, then I think she must've thought that the best way to have a child without risking that the child looked too unlike Aegon, but still have the blood of Old Valyria, is to have the father be someone who belongs to a family from Valyria and the Velaryons are perfect for that role, because not only are they from Valyria, but they have also interbred with the Targaryens.

[Lord Varys]

4 hours ago, Vaedys Targaryen said:

I know that, but I am thinking that she must've tried to use one with Valyrian features because the Targaryens of old seemed to have been rather obsessed with "keeping the blood pure" and had previously only had children with Velaryons, another old Valyrian family.

Well, if things went like that we should have gotten rumors that Rhaenys was particularly close with a Velaryon, say, Aethon Velaryon, Alyssa's father, or Ser Corlys Velaryon, the first Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. But we don't get anything of that sort. Just that she had a lot of male favorites from the artisan department.

Keep in mind that just putting an attractive sperm-donor with fair hair would have been much easier than actually beginning some sort of affair with a nobleman, especially a Velaryon. If the guy in question then ended up falling in love with Rhaenys it would be much more difficult to deal with him than a nobody Rhaenys could easily ensure would go away.

4 hours ago, Vaedys Targaryen said:

But it is not just because of "blood purity", but also because of features. Sure a fair-haired man might've been enough, but only "might". Even if Rhaenys could've found one with fair-hair and fair eyes, if the father had looked too much unlike Aegon, it could've been a dead giveaway. Rhaenys was an intelligent woman and if Aenys is indeed not Aegon's, then I think she must've thought that the best way to have a child without risking that the child looked too unlike Aegon, but still have the blood of Old Valyria, is to have the father be someone who belongs to a family from Valyria and the Velaryons are perfect for that role, because not only are they from Valyria, but they have also interbred with the Targaryens.

If Aegon himself was on board with the whole thing then this was a non issue, really. If Aegon the Conqueror had acknowledged a black-haired, green-eyed boy as his son then the Realm would have accepted that, too, especially if little Aenys had become a dragonrider. Keep in mind that Laenor Velaryon also did not complain or publicly accuse his wife of adultery despite the fact that his three sons by Rhaenyra did not look like him at all.

If Aegon was not on board with it then Rhaenys would have been forced to be very careful, also making it less likely she would actually entertain an affair with some nobleman rather than pick some lowborn favorite as the sperm-donor. Such a person is easily silenced forever as Tyrion proves when he has Bronn kill that singer.

But in general you have to keep in mind that the Targaryens were in desperate need of an heir by the time Aenys was born. It was seven years after the Conquest and the siblings were in their mid-thirties already. It is Aenys' bad health and physical weakness as a child that starts those rumors, but most of the Targaryen supporters in the Realm would have thanked the Seven that the Conqueror finally had an heir. Some heir is better than none, and very few people at court would have had a vested interest in actually doubting the paternity of the boy.