Aerys ("Mad King") Targaryen II

• General Notes
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    Aerys Targaryen (also called "Aerys the Mad," "the Mad King," and "King Scab") was the last member of House Targaryen to sit the Iron Throne, ruling from 262 to 283 AL. He showed great promise at the start of his reign, but grew increasingly unstable. His behavior led some of the noble houses to revolt against the Targaryen dynasty. This revolt, known as the War of the Usurper, or Robert's Rebellion, led to the death of Aerys and most of House Targaryen.
    
    Aerys's reign began in 262 AL, when he was 19. Following ancient Targaryen practice, Aerys had married his sister Rhaella. They had three children: sons Rhaegar and Viserys, and daughter Daenerys, who was born during the last stage of the War of the Usurper. Supported by his able councillors, foremost among them the King's Hand, Tywin Lannister, Aerys gave the realm many years of peace and prosperity, and "left the treasury flowing with gold.”
    
    During his reign, Lord Denys Darklyn of Duskendale, under the influence of his Myrish wife Lady Serala, stopped paying taxes to the Iron Throne. Aerys was determined to sort this matter out himself (no doubt because of his jealousy over Tywin Lannister's political cunning). Aerys went to Duskendale with only a single Kingsguard knight, Gwayne Gaunt, for protection.
    
    At Duskendale, Gaunt was slain and Aerys was held captive for half a year in what became known as the Defiance of Duskendale.  Lord Tywin Lannister had the town surrounded by land and sea, but he could not launch a siege because Denys threatened to kill King Aerys at the first sign of an assault.  Aerys was eventually rescued by Ser Barristan Selmy, after which King Aerys had Lord Denys, his wife, and the entire Darklyn line wiped out --- along with the entire Hollard house who served Lord Denys, save for the babe Dontos Hollard, who was only spared as a favour to Ser Barristan.
    
    Aerys was pleasant to his friends but very harsh to those he thought his enemies. He was always a bit insane, but he could be charming and generous, so his early lapses into madness were forgiven and overlooked. Over time though (especially after the Defiance of Duskendale), the lapses of madness grew more and more frequent. He cut himself so often on the Iron Throne that men took to calling him King Scab.
    
    Like many Targaryens, Aerys was obsessed with fire, notably the magical and highly flammable substance called wildfire, which he fancied to have put in jars shaped like fruit.  According to Jaime Lannister, Aerys would have bathed in wildfire if he dared. He took a great interest in the work of the Alchemists' Guild and had an inordinate amount of wildfire made during his reign. He had many enemies burned alive, including Lord Rickard Stark, father of Eddard Stark, and Lord Qarlton Chelsted, who Aerys had named his Hand after Lord Jon Connington was exiled.
    
    After the rebel victory at the Battle of the Bells, Aerys had his pyromancers create a huge reserve of wildfire and store it in secret around the city of King's Landing.  Aerys planned to burn the entire city down (and kill all of its half million inhabitants) rather than surrender the city intact. According to Jaime Lannister, Aerys in his madness did not believe the wildfire would kill him, but rather that it would transform him into a dragon so he could destroy his enemies.
    
    After the defeat of the royalist forces at the Battle of the Trident, Aerys sent Queen Rhaella and Prince Viserys to Dragonstone. However, he kept Princess Elia and her children at the Red Keep, in the belief that he could ensure Dornish loyalty if he did so. When Aerys admitted Lannister forces into the city, he ordered his pyromancers to begin to ignite the caches of wildfire and destroy the city.  However, before those orders could be carried out, Jaime Lannister intercepted Lord Rossart and killed him before he could give the orders to another.  Jaime then assassinated King Aerys himself, earning him the nickname, "Kingslayer".