Aerys II Targaryen


 * For his great-uncle, see "King Aerys I Targaryen."

"Burn them all!"

- The Mad King's final order.

King Aerys II Targaryen, popularly called "the Mad King", was the last member of House Targaryen to rule from the Iron Throne. He was formally styled as Aerys of the House Targaryen, the Second of His Name, King of the Andals and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm. Although his rule began benevolently, he succumbed to madness and was eventually deposed by Lord Robert Baratheon in a civil war. Aerys was infamously murdered by a member of his own Kingsguard, Ser Jaime Lannister, during Lord Tywin Lannister's Sack of King's Landing. This act earned Ser Jaime the nickname "Kingslayer" for slaying the king that he was sworn to protect as a member of the Kingsguard.

Aerys's two surviving children, Viserys and Daenerys, were smuggled across the Narrow Sea to the Free Cities of Essos, while his last living grandson, Jon Snow, was raised as his maternal uncle Eddard Stark's bastard son to protect him from Robert's wrath. Viserys and Daenerys are intent on one day returning to Westeros to reclaim what they regard as their birthright.

Background
Aerys fought for his father, Aegon V Targaryen, in the War of the Ninepenny Kings. He took on the tradition of Targaryen inbreeding in order to keep bloodlines pure. After his father and brother died at the tragedy of Summerhall, he became Aerys Targaryen, the Second of His Name. He later became spiteful of the power of others, especially that of his Hand of the King, Tywin Lannister (who had once been one of his closest friends). He later became paranoid of his own family members and his Small Council. Popularly remembered as "the Mad King", his reign became increasingly erratic and murderous.

Despite the fact that nobody expected Aerys to turn up, he suddenly arrived at The Great Tourney at Harrenhal. During this tourney, Aerys knighted Ser Jaime Lannister and admitted him to the Kingsguard, but not for his valor and honor. Instead, he wanted to spite his Hand of the King, Tywin Lannister. His eldest son, Rhaegar Targaryen, competed in the tourney, and after winning, he shunned his own wife, Elia Martell, and laid his winning roses in the lap of Lyanna Stark of Winterfell.

A final round of blood-letting began when Rhaegar, allegedly kidnapped Lyanna, prompting many houses in the realm to rebel. Brandon Stark protested the abduction of his sister and demanded justice. Aerys had him arrested for treason and then offered to ransom him to his father. However, when Rickard Stark rode to King's Landing as he was bid to ransom Brandon, Aerys had him arrested too, and then brutally executed both father and son.

In response, the noble houses of Stark, Tully, Arryn, and Baratheon raised the flags of rebellion and destroyed the royalist armies in several major engagements, culminating in the Battle of the Trident where Prince Rhaegar died at the hands of Lyanna's betrothed Robert Baratheon, the leader of the rebels.

King Aerys was betrayed by his former friend and King's Hand, Lord Tywin Lannister, who led an army under the false pretense of defending the capital at King's Landing. When Aerys opened the gates, Tywin proceeded to brutally sack the city. Meanwhile, Jaime, stabbed Aerys in the back and then cut his throat.

Aerys's death brought an end to the Targaryen dynasty, which had ruled the Seven Kingdoms for three centuries. He was replaced on the Iron Throne by Robert Baratheon. However, the Targaryen bloodline survived through his grandson, Jon Snow, who was passed off as a bastard of Winterfell by his maternal uncle Eddard Stark, and his two youngest children, Viserys and Daenerys, who were spirited away to the Free Cities.

Season 1
As they travel to King's Landing, King Robert talks about having Aerys's daughter Daenerys assassinated after hearing of her marriage to Khal Drogo. When Eddard protests, Robert reminds him of what Aerys did to his family. Later at the Crossroads Inn, Sandor Clegane tells Sansa Stark about how Ser Ilyn Payne hasn't had much to say since Aerys had Ser Ilyn's tongue torn out.

When Eddard arrives in the Great Hall of the Red Keep, he is confronted by Ser Jaime Lannister, who expresses his bitterness at Eddard for judging him over his killing of Aerys, especially after he killed Eddard's father and brother. Eddard counters that Jaime wasn't motivated by justice when he killed Aerys, and that he had served him loyally when serving was safe.

Ser Barristan Selmy of the Kingsguard recounts to King Robert I Baratheon how Aerys ordered him to destroy the Kingswood Brotherhood. Selmy himself killed their leader, Simon Toyne. Bored and attempting to mock Ser Jaime, King Robert realizes that he never asked Jaime what King Aerys Targaryen's last words were, then taunts Jaime for killing a defenseless old man he had sworn to protect. Jaime tersely responds that the last thing the Mad King said was the same thing he'd been raving for hours, since the sack of the capital by the rebels began: "Burn them all!" This silences Robert's levity.

Aemon, the maester sworn to Castle Black, the main fortress of the Night's Watch, reveals to Jon Snow that he is the uncle of King Aerys and, because of his oath to the Night's Watch, he could not interfere during the rebellion. Aemon warns Jon that he must live with whatever decision he makes for the rest of his life, and urges him to not abandon the Night's Watch after hearing of Eddard Stark's unjust imprisonment.

Grand Maester Pycelle recalls that King Aerys was initially a good man. He then laments that he saw Aerys melt away before his eyes, as madness increasingly gripped his mind over the years and a once charming man was consumed by dreams of fire and blood.

Season 2
When Tyrion Lannister publicly reprimands his nephew King Joffrey for his treatment of Sansa Stark, Joffrey retorts that he is king and he can do as he likes. Tyrion replies that Aerys did as he liked and his actions ultimately led to his downfall. When Catelyn Stark confronts Jaime Lannister about his various crimes, including his regicide of Aerys, he sarcastically replies, "And what a king he was." Wisdom Hallyne of the Alchemists' Guild mentions Aerys as a fervent supporter of the guild. Aerys became obsessed with wildfire in his later years. He reminds Bronn that he would not have dared to insult the guild while Aerys was alive.

Season 3
When held by Roose Bolton, Jaime Lannister reveals the true story of the Mad King's death to Brienne of Tarth:

As the Targaryens were losing the war, Aerys had his pyromancers place caches of wildfire all over King's Landing: under the Great Sept of Baelor, under the slums of Flea Bottom, under houses, stables, taverns, and even under the Red Keep itself. After Robert's victory at the Trident he marched on the capital city, but Jaime's father Tywin arrived there first, leading the entire Lannister army, and promising to defend the city. Jaime warned Aerys that his father was never a man to choose the losing side, that this must be a trick and he should surrender the city while he still could, but the Mad King refused to listen. Nor did Aerys listen to Varys when he gave the same warning that Tywin couldn't be trusted - but he did listen to Grand Maester Pycelle, who convinced Aerys the Lannisters were there to help.

Aerys opened the city gates, and the Lannisters proceeded to sack the city. Jaime again begged Aerys to surrender, but the Mad King ordered Jaime to bring him Tywin's head, and his pyromancer (Wisdom Rossart) to set the city ablaze with the hidden wildfire, burning its five hundred thousand inhabitants to death, rather than lose the city to the rebels. "Burn them all," Aerys said, "Burn them in their homes. Burn them in their beds." Jaime makes it plain to Brienne that was his breaking point and asks her what she would do if her precious Renly commanded her to kill her own father and then stand by and do nothing as he murdered thousands of innocent people; she can only sit in shocked silence. Jaime goes on to say that he killed the pyromancer first, then drove his sword into Aerys's back as the Mad King tried to run for his life. Even as he was dying, the Mad King kept raving, "Burn them all...Burn them all..." Shaken at the memory, Jaime speculates that King Aerys didn't believe he would die in the blaze, and that in his lunacy, the Mad King believed he would be reborn as a dragon in the fire, granting him the power to burn his enemies to ashes. Jaime then finished Aerys off by slitting his throat in order to make sure he died, concluding that Eddard Stark found him at that point.

Season 5
In Meereen, Ser Barristan Selmy grows increasingly concerned about the actions taken by Aerys's daughter Daenerys, who had earlier brutally executed 163 slavers after conquering Meereen. He discusses his experience while serving as a Kingsguard to her father. Despite Barristan's deep loyalty to the Targaryen dynasty, he reveals to Daenerys that her enemies did not lie when they called her father the "Mad King". Barristan recalls how Aerys set towns and castles aflame, murdered sons in front of their fathers, and burned men alive with wildfire, laughing all the while. These brutal actions lead to a revolt that toppled the Targaryen dynasty. Daenerys insists she is not like her father, which Barristan agreed. Still, he states that like Daenerys, her father had ordered these brutalities because he too felt he was dispensing "justice" and it made him feel powerful and right, until the very end.

Season 6
While still looking into the past and fleeing from the White Walkers, Bran Stark sees the Mad King's final hours as king in the waning days of Robert's Rebellion. This vision reveals wildfire being placed around King's Landing, and Ser Jaime Lannister killing Aerys as he continuously screams, "Burn them all!" The wildfire caches placed beneath the Great Sept of Baelor on Aerys's orders are later used by Cersei Lannister to destroy the Great Sept, killing many of her enemies in King's Landing as well as hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent people with one swift stroke.

Season 7
Varys notes to Daenerys that her father was cruel and mad, and that Robert Baratheon was a vast improvement. Later, Olenna Tyrell explains how her father wasn't peaceful in the least, but Daenerys should be more Targaryen.

After receiving a letter from Daenerys, Jon debates whether to meet her at Dragonstone, but Sansa reminds him of his role in the death of their grandfather.

Cersei then hosts many Reachmen nobles at court, giving various hints that Daenerys will bring on the same tyranny as her father, as well as having a touch of the Targaryen madness.

Jon Snow brings up the fact that he shouldn't claim fealty to Daenerys, based on what her father did to his uncle and grandfather. Daenerys, though, makes a point to apologize on behalf of her house for the crimes of her father.

After the execution of Randyll and Dickon Tarly following the Battle on the Goldroad, Varys compares Daenerys to Aerys, as he did the same with Rickard and Brandon Stark. Varys then implores Tyrion to make her listen, fearing that this will make her be viewed in a similar vision to her father.

Personality
Of all the Kings to sit on the Iron Throne, none induced a level of tyranny, madness and especially cruelty as Aerys Targaryen did during his rule. Dubbed the Mad King, Aerys seemingly began as a benevolent ruler until he was overwhelmed by the so-called "Targaryen madness" brought on by an incestuous bloodline. As a result, he began displaying traits of intense psychopathy, insanity and sadistic intentions, exacerbated by hallucinations, schizophrenia and paranoia regarding his own claim to the Throne, to the point where he burnt anyone he believed was against him, until half of the people whom he ruled were already against him.

Like many Targaryens, such as his son Viserys, Aerys was obsessed with the self-conception that he was a dragon in human skin. In regards to this, he killed his victims in a similar manner that which a dragon would; burning them alive. Jaime Lannister once observed that he loved watching them char until their skin blackened, indicating he may have suffered from pyromanica and this combined with sadism and hopeless delusions, spurred his already oppressive reign into complete tyranny. In a final bid where it appeared Robert Baratheon would take King's Landing, Aerys planted wildfire throughout the city, even the Red Keep where Aerys himself was staying. Not for one second, however, did he believe that it would result in his death, like his uncle Prince Aerion Targaryen, who killed himself by drinking wildfire. Instead, he thought he would be reborn as a dragon through a baptism by fire and burn his enemies in retribution.

Aerys's perceived lack of sanity and rational thinking seemingly caused his own death. Instead of listening to Varys or Jaime who warned him that Tywin Lannister possessed an ulterior motive when promising to defend his city for him, he only listened to the extremely sycophantic Grand Maester Pycelle who told him only what he wanted to hear. When he saw that Tywin tricked him, he foolishly ordered Jaime to execute his own father, confident that he would do so as no Kingsguard had ever disobeyed him before. Just before his death, however, Aerys showed shock and fear for the first time under his rule as Jaime approached him after killing his pyromancer. He even attempted to flee, proving that even he feared what all other tyrants cannot control nor escape: death.

Appearances

 * - Bran's vision

Behind the scenes
According to the TV series official pronunciation guide developed for the cast and crew, "Aerys Targaryen" is pronounced "AIR-eez Tar-GAIR-ee-in".

George R. R. Martin revealed that an actor had been cast as King Aerys II during Season 1 for filming a flashback scene of Rickard Stark and Brandon Stark's executions, but the scene was cut for time and pacing. Liam Burke was the actor in question.

David Rintoul played Aerys in the brief flashback in "Blood of My Blood". Unlike in the books, Aerys is portrayed as having little to no facial hair towards the end of his life.

Quotes
"Burn them all! BURN THEM ALL!"
 * Spoken by Aerys

- The Mad King's final words


 * Spoken about Aerys

"Aerys Targaryen. Of all the thousand thousand maladies the Gods visit on us, madness is the worst. He was a good man. Such a charmer. To watch him melt away before my eyes, consumed by dreams of fire and blood."

- Pycelle remembers Aerys II Targaryen

"And what a king he was! Here's to Aerys Targaryen, the second of his name, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, Protector of the Realm, and to the sword I shoved in his back!"

- Jaime to Catelyn Stark

"Once again, I came to the king, begging him to surrender. He told me to... bring him my father's head. Then he... turned to his pyromancer. 'Burn them all,' he said. 'Burn them in their homes. Burn them in their beds.' Tell me, if your precious Renly commanded you to kill your own father and stand by while thousands of men, women, and children burned alive, would you have done it? Would you have kept your oath then? First, I killed the pyromancer. And then when the king turned to flee, I drove my sword into his back. 'Burn them all,' he kept saying. 'Burn them all.' I don't think he expected to die. He... he meant to... burn with the rest of us and rise again, reborn as a dragon to turn his enemies to ash. I slit his throat to make sure that didn't happen."

- Jaime explains his reasons for killing the Mad King to Brienne of Tarth.

"I know what my father was. What he did. I know the Mad King earned his name."

- Daenerys to Tyrion

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Aerys II's reign began with great promise. Taking the throne at only the age of 20, Aerys installed a number of younger, vigorous and capable men in positions of power, while his own son Rhaegar showed promise of being a great king in his turn. Aerys, impressed by the young Ser Tywin Lannister's ruthlessness and effectiveness in crushing the Reyne Rebellion, made Tywin, then heir to Casterly Rock, his Hand of the King. Tywin served very effectively as Hand for twenty years, during which the Seven Kingdoms prospered.

Under Aerys's reign, the office of his Hand passed through five times, all of them suffered an unpleasant fate: However, Aerys, who occasionally showed signs of a terrible temper, became erratic following the brief uprising known as the Defiance of Duskendale, when he was held prisoner for several months by a rebellious lord before finally being rescued by Barristan Selmy. Aerys's fury on that occasion was terrible: all of those involved in the incident were killed, several by being burned alive. After that, his rage could no longer be held in check.
 * {Tywin Lannister} - killed by his son Tyrion
 * Owen Merryweather - exiled
 * Jon Connington - exiled
 * {Qarlton Chelsted} - executed by burning
 * {Rossart} - killed by Jaime Lannister

Aerys's relationship with Tywin Lannister began to deteriorate in these later years, as Aerys grew ever more paranoid about Tywin's ambition. When Ser Ilyn Payne, captain of the guards for Tywin Lannister, made a joke that Tywin as Hand was the real ruler of Westeros, Aerys had his tongue cut out for the insult. Tywin could neither protest nor stop the punishment. The strains on their relationship were exacerbated by Aerys' well known lust for Tywin's wife Joanna Lannister, which the former crudely expressed during her bedding. His marriage with his own sister-wife, Queen Rhaella, which had never been happy (they were forced to marry against their will) became violent and abusive towards the end.

During Aerys's reign period there were various rumors about him and Joanna: that Aerys took Joanna's maidenhead on the night of his father Jaehaerys's coronation, and that Joanna was one of Aerys's many mistresses, which was the reason for her abrupt dismissal by the queen. Pycelle insisted those rumors were baseless. There were, however, occasions of improper behavior of Aerys toward Joanna: when she returned to the court with her six-year old twins, drunken Aerys asked her if nursing her children had ruined her breasts, humiliating her and Tywin. When she died giving birth to Tyrion, the king commented that was done by the gods to teach Tywin some humility at last.

Over the years Aerys became increasingly gripped by madness, experiencing vivid hallucinations and delusional paranoia. Aerys became obsessed with fire, frequently burning his perceived enemies alive. Eventually, he was having women and babies roasted on spits in the throne room because the voices in his head told him they were plotting his ruin. Aerys would often become sexually aroused after burning someone to death, at which he would savagely rape his wife Queen Rhaella (his daughter Daenerys was the product of one such attack, quite possibly the same day he killed Rickard and Brandon Stark). Attempts to restrain Aerys's delusional behavior only fueled his paranoia that all were against him.

Aerys's growing madness took a drastic toll on his physical appearance. Fearful of allowing blades in his presence (save those of his sworn Kingsguard), Aerys ceased to have his hair or nails cut for years. By the time of the rebellion, his fingernails had grown nearly a foot long, and his long, filthy, tangled hair and beard hung below his shoulders. Increasingly paranoid that someone would attempt to poison him, he ate so rarely that he became extremely gaunt. Combined with the stress from his madness, by the time of the rebellion, when Aerys was only forty years old, he looked as old and haggard as a man twice his age. Due to his insane meanderings, he accidentally cut his hands and thighs so many times on the Iron Throne that they were practically covered in scabs, leading some to refer to him as "King Scab" behind his back.

Tywin had long hoped that Aerys would reward his service with a royal wedding, between his daughter Cersei and Prince Rhaegar. However, Tywin was infuriated when Aerys snubbed him by saying that Tywin was a mere servant of the crown, and no servant's daughter was fit to marry a prince of royal blood, and agreed to a marriage between Rhaegar and Elia Martell of Dorne instead. The last straw came when Aerys appointed Tywin's eldest son and heir Jaime Lannister to his Kingsguard. Normally this was the highest honor a knight could achieve, and Jaime himself was eager to accept, but it meant that Jaime had to forsake all claims as Tywin's heir (leaving his stunted and hated younger son Tyrion as his heir). Privately, Aerys had truly agreed to promote Jaime to the Kingsguard to keep him around the royal court at all times, essentially as an unwitting hostage in case Tywin ever decided to turn on him. Outraged by the continual insults he endured from Aerys, Tywin resigned as Hand of the King on some thin pretext; the Hands that followed were a succession of Aerys's cronies, who he later turned on for various failures, exiling or executing them depending on his whims.

After he burned several prominent lords alive and sanctioned his son's kidnap of Lyanna Stark, half of the realm rose in revolt against Aerys in Robert's Rebellion. Many who fought on the Targaryen side in the war weren't even fighting for the insane Aerys so much as for his promising son, Crown Prince Rhaegar. Indeed, one of the main reasons so many put up with Aerys's insanity for as long as they did was because they hoped they could simply wait out the few remaining years in Aerys's reign until Rhaegar took the throne, instead of having to face the serious moral dilemma of breaking their oaths against the currently ruling king. Robert Baratheon's victory over Rhaegar at the Battle of the Trident was therefore a double-blow to the Targaryen side: not only had the main royal army been defeated and scattered, but with Rhaegar dead, lords who had been on the fence decided to openly side with the rebels rather than fight for Aerys. Chief among these was Tywin Lannister himself, who had stayed out of the war until that point, who marched the 10,000 strong Lannister army to the gates of King's Landing, and once let inside, promptly began to sack the capital city.

Aerys's manner of death is slightly different from book to series. In the TV series, it is mentioned several times that Jaime stabbed him in the back, whereas in the book he slit Aerys's throat at the foot of the Iron Throne. It is never mentioned that Aerys ever said the words "Burn them all". However, the Season 3 episode "Kissed by Fire" brought Aerys's death closer in line to the books, when Jaime recounts to Brienne of Tarth that he stabbed Aerys in the back when he tried to run, and then Jaime proceeded to slit his throat to make sure he was dead.

Another change is that Eddard Stark was not the first to find that Jaime killed Aerys: before Jaime could leave and let some braggart take the credit/blame, Elys Westerling and Lord Roland Crakehall entered and saw him standing over Aerys's body. Crakehall was not surprised, figuring (incorrectly) that Jaime killed the king so the Lannisters could seize the throne. He asked Jaime, "Shall I proclaim a new king as well?" Jaime knew what he meant: either Tywin, or Robert Baratheon, or one of the surviving Targaryens. He considered for a moment to name either the boy Viserys or baby Aegon. But when he glanced down again at Aerys's body, he thought "his blood is in both of them". "Proclaim who you bloody well like" he told Crakehall. Then he climbed the Iron Throne and seated himself with his sword across his knees, to see who would come to claim the kingdom. As it happened, it had been Eddard Stark.

In a minor change from the books, Aerys II is said to be the son of King Aegon V Targaryen, rather than his grandson. His father, Jaehaerys II, appears to have been eliminated from the roll of kings. The reason for this appears to be to simplify the relationship between Maester Aemon - Aegon V's older brother - and the other Targaryens (by making Aemon Daenerys's great-uncle, rather than great-great-uncle).

Unlike in the show, Daenerys is never told the whole ugly truth about her father: what Ser Barristan Selmy tells her in the novels is a very "sugarcoated" version, sticking to positive facts, belittling greatly the negative facts, and entirely omitting the countless atrocities the Mad King committed (mainly the repeated brutal raping of the queen, the murder of every member of House Darklyn and House Hollard after the Defiance of Duskendale and the execution of Rickard and Brandon Stark). The worst thing Selmy ever tells Daenerys about her father is that he lusted after Tywin's wife and acted indecently at her bedding.