Rhaenyra Targaryen

The only surviving child of Viserys I and Queen Aemma, Rhaenyra was named her father's heir in 105 AC and celebrated at court as the Realm's Delight. She claimed the dragon Syrax as a girl and grew into the most cosseted princess of her generation. She wed Ser Laenor Velaryon and bore him three sons — Jacaerys, Lucerys and Joffrey — whose dark hair invited the oldest whisper in the realm: that they were Harwin Strong's boys, not Velaryons.

When her father died in 129 AC, the Green council crowned her half-brother Aegon before the court could answer. Rhaenyra, on Dragonstone, was crowned by her own supporters and pressed her claim through war. She lost Lucerys and his dragon Arrax over Shipbreaker Bay, took King's Landing through a riot rather than a battle, and watched her faction answer with Blood and Cheese — the murder of her young son Jaehaerys in the royal bedchamber.

Famine, heavy taxes and the storming of the Dragonpit turned the city against her within half a year. She fled to Dragonstone, was betrayed by the men escorting her, and was fed to Sunfyre before her surviving son, the boy Aegon. Her cause outlived her: within the year the boy was crowned Aegon III, and her line sat the Iron Throne for the next century.