Rhaenyra Targaryen has been declared the official heir to the Iron Throne, but will she rule as queen under the Dragon? While the history of Westeros shown in Game of Thrones might lead one to believe that Cersei Lannister was the first monarch to hold the Iron Throne, this isn’t exactly true. Rhaenyra Targaryen was the first Targaryen woman to be designated the Princess of Dragonstone and heir to the Iron Throne, but it is debatable whether or not she will eventually be regarded as the legitimate Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.
Rhaenyra Targaryen, the sole child and daughter of King Viserys I Targaryen, was chosen as the heir in place of his brother Daemon in the first episode of season one of “House of the Dragon.” The practice of male primogeniture was established at the Great Council of 101 AC when the lords of Westeros chose Viserys as King Jaehaerys Targaryen’s successor over his older cousin Rhaenys. Viserys’ choice was utterly unprecedented. Rhaenyra’s status as the official heir to the Iron Throne may be under her father’s rule, as was feared when King Viserys decided to wed Alicent Hightower and have more children, but as Rhaenys Targaryen warned her in “House of the Dragon” episode 2, “men would sooner put the realm to the torch than see a woman ascend the Iron Throne.”
Rhaenyra Targaryen officially does become queen in “House of the Dragon,” but she’ll have to battle a bloody civil war to take her throne. Rhaenyra battles her way to the Iron Throne as the contested Queen of Westeros during the Dance of the Dragon, a horrific civil war fought against her younger half-brother Aegon II Targaryen. Rhaenyra Targaryen will conquer King’s Landing and sit on the Iron Throne for six months prior to “House of the Dragon’s” conclusion, garnering her the moniker “Half-Year Queen.” However, after Aegon retakes the city, he orders that all records of Rhaenyra’s tenure as queen be destroyed and that she only be referred to as “princess” in court documents. This is why Game of Thrones implies that Westeros has never had a legitimate queen.
How Rhaenyra Became Queen in the “House of the Dragon”
In the first season of House of the Dragon, King Viserys I Targaryen will pass away, and Otto Hightower, Alicent Hightower, and the “green” council (Alicent’s supporters) will plan to install Viserys’ eldest son Aegon II Targaryen on the Iron Throne in his place. The deadly Dance of the Dragon starts when Rhaenyra learns that her brother was formally crowned and that her father passed away, which is why her reign as queen is also in question. While she is still in power on Dragonstone, Rhaenyra’s supporters, the House Targaryen “black” faction, anoint her queen of Westeros. What follows are some of the most disastrous conflicts in Westeros’s history. She doesn’t seize the Iron Throne from her brother, though, for around a year after the Dance of the Dragons starts in House of the Dragon.
Similar to Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones, Rhaenyra takes the Iron Throne. Rhaenyra finally resolves to employ her dragons to occupy King’s Landing by force after the deaths of her two eldest sons. Aegon II and the greens evacuate the capital as the blacks successfully capture King’s Landing in less than a day with the help of Daemon Targaryen on Caraxes, Rhaenyra on Syrax, and Corlys Velaryon’s navy in Blackwater Bay. Rhaenyra’s reign as monarch, however, is not very successful; she leaves King’s Landing after only six months and perishes after being accosted by her brother.
Is Rhaenyra the legitimate head of the Dragon House?
The central issue in the narrative of “House of the Dragon” is undoubted whether Rhaenyra is the legitimate heir to the Iron Throne. Rhaenyra Targaryen would have always been regarded as the legitimate ruler of Westeros following the passing of her father had it not been for the anti-sexist tradition of male primogeniture. However, Westeros had previously established a precedent for the eldest male kid to be favored as the heir over the eldest female child because Rhaenys was rejected as an heir at the Great Council 101 AC. Rhaenyra nonetheless had the strongest claim to the Iron Throne in the “House of the Dragon” because her father had formally designated her as his successor, a decision he upheld even after Alicent Hightower gave birth to sons.
However, Viserys and the Westerosi lords who bowed to Rhaenyra recognized that men would not accept a woman on the throne, according to Rhaenys. There would not have been a considerable disagreement regarding Rhaenyra Targaryen’s legitimacy if Alicent had given Viserys just daughters. Rhaenyra must start a civil war to assert her claim to the “House of the Dragon” because she is a woman challenging a man’s title.