How long did the targaryens rule

He conquered every kingdom, save Dorne , which eventually bowed to Targaryen rule a century later. He had the swords of his enemies melted down by the fiery breath of his dragon, Balerion the Black Dread, and forged into the Iron Throne.

The capital city of King's Landing was built on the eastern coast, where Aegon and his sisters first came ashore. And Aegon ordered the construction of a royal castle on its highest hill, the Red Keep. For three hundred years the Targaryen dynasty stood strong, in the face of rebellion, civil war, and plague. But the line of dragon kings was broken when my father, Aerys Targaryen, the Second of His Name , was overthrown in rebellion. My father was betrayed and slaughtered by Ser Jaime Lannister , a member of his own Kingsguard.

His son and heir, my brother Rhaegar , perished on the field of battle at the hands of Robert Baratheon , who claimed the Iron Throne for himself. And so today, the only surviving members of the storied Targaryen dynasty are myself, Prince Viserys, rightful King of the Andals and ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, and my sister, Daenerys.

We were spirited to the Free Cities of the east by loyalists. Here, we have lived in exile ever since, dreaming of a day when we will cross the Narrow Sea and take back my father's throne. Game of Thrones Wiki. He then took the stormlands with the help of Orys Baratheon, then made Baratheon lord of the conquered region. Seeing the way the conquest was going, the western kings of Westeros banded together to meet Aegon's threat. The Host of the Two Kings, comprised of House Lannister and House Gardener's forces, seemed to stand a good chance of overwhelming Aegon's comparatively small army.

When the battle began to turn against the Targaryens, however, Aegon did something unprecedented: He unleashed the might of all three Targaryen dragons at once.

The Gardener line was ended as they burned alive, but much of House Lannister was able to escape the battle, which became known as the Field of Fire. Lord Loren Lannister was captured by Aegon the next day, to whom he finally admitted defeat. For his submission, Aegon named him Warden of the West. Aegon's power spread across the continent. The Tyrells yielded Highgarden, which they were overseeing for the now extinct House Gardener. For submitting, they were given control of the verdant region known as the Reach.

Westeros' largest and most inhospitable kingdom, the North, might have proved more difficult for the Targaryens to overtake — but King Torrhen Stark , well aware of the dragonlord's might, chose to submit to Aegon without a fight.

Though he had an impressive army on his side, the Field of Fire had made it clear that this did not ensure victory against Aegon and his sisters' dragons. Lord Stark was named Warden of the North. Dorne , the southernmost region of Westeros, did not fight the Targaryens. Their noble families hid in the dunes and mountains of their lands at the dragons' approach, offering a warning to the invading Rhaenys Targaryen via their elderly princess, Meria Martell, who stayed behind: "You may burn us, my lady, but you will not bend us, break us, or make us bow.

This is Dorne. You are not wanted here. Return at your peril. Aegon proceeded to Oldtown, where he was met with immediate surrender. The first century of Targaryen rule was not without conflict. Aegon began the first major war of his reign four years after his coronation, when he set out to conquer Dorne.

But the Dornish people disappeared into the dunes every time the Targaryens rode in on their dragons. Nearly all of Dorne's castles were burned at one point, but their inhabitants survived. The Targaryens initially installed their own vassals in the empty castles, only to have all of their representatives be run out or murdered by the returning Dornishmen. Dorne led a few advances into Aegon's territory, burning southern towns before retreating.

The greatest loss suffered by the Targaryens came when Dornish soldiers killed Meraxes, Rhaenys' dragon, whose plummet from the sky resulted in his mistress' death as well. The grieving Targaryens responded by burning castles in Dorne indiscriminately, to little effect. The war came to an end when a Dornish emissary traveled to King's Landing, carrying a letter from the Prince of Dorne and the skull of Meraxes.

Aegon's advisors viewed the skull as an insult and urged him to counter with more bloodshed. However, Aegon opted to end the war after reading the letter. The note from the Dornish prince was burned immediately, and no one beyond the sender and Aegon ever learned of its contents.

Aegon died 37 years after his conquest, leading to a variety of uprisings in the following decades. A priest-king of the Iron Islands then attempted to raise the Ironborn against the throne. Lord Greyjoy, loyal to the Targaryens, quickly ended this revolt. The mountainous Vale was next to attempt a rebellion, which Maegor Targaryen ended with the threat of his dragon, Balerion.

An outlaw claiming to be a descendant of Harren the Black seized Harrenhal, managing to outlast every other attempt at rebellion. He too, however, ultimately fell. By the time Aegon was born, the region was used to invasion—while Valyria flourished and fell, Westeros was invaded and populated by the First Men, and then invaded and populated again, by the Andals.

Seven Kingdoms had formed under seven noble houses, each ruling its own region and occasionally warring with each other over boundaries and land.

So Aegon took his sister-wives and dragons to the shore of Westeros. He crowned himself king in the city of Oldtown, and sent a message to each ruler of the seven kingdoms: submit to him, or burn. Although the Targaryens ostensibly converted to the Andal religion of the Faith, they still practiced the Valyrian tradition of incestuous marriage, which they believed would keep the last blood of Valyria pure. This led to a revolt by the Church and the peasantry of Westeros, which formed the Faith Militant, a militaristic and zealous arm of the Faith.

Viserys himself was seen as a wise ruler, but the selection of his heir caused great tumult within the Targaryen family: He wanted his daughter, Rhaenyra, to rule after his death. Although the Blackfyres failed to establish one of their own on the Iron Throne, their ongoing rebellions weakened House Targaryen even further, with a rapid succession of Kings threatening to destabilize Westeros. He came to distrust his court, Tywin in particular—their childhood friendship had long since soured as Aerys sank further into paranoia—and he became fascinated with trying to bring back dragons from extinction, thinking himself the greatest Targaryen king since Aegon the Conqueror.

With each enemy he defeated, Aegon took their swords and used them to make the Iron Throne, a reminder they had all sworn their loyalty to him after being defeated. Interestingly, the Targaryen family — who were originally from Valyria - was just one of many dragon rider families from the advanced civilization. They were the only family with dragons to have survived because they left Valyria shortly before the Doom which claimed every other family and living creature in the region.

The family departed Valyria supposedly because they foresaw the Doom that was to befall the great empire. The Targaryens ruled Westeros successfully for years in total before the events of Game of Thrones. Sadly, the Targaryen reign came unstuck at the end during the rule of the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen David Rintoul , who grew increasingly paranoid about his enemies.