Elia Martell

Princess Elia Nymeros Martell, also known simply as Elia Martell[5][6][7][8][9] or Elia of Dorne[6][4][1][10] was a Dornish princess from House Martell. She was married to the crown prince, Rhaegar Targaryen, and by him birthed Rhaenys and Aegon.

Elia Martell was said to be beautiful,[11] slender,[3] with black eyes, and a flat chest.[12] She always had a delicate health,[3][6] having been born a month premature,[13] which did not permit her much travel in her youth.[6] According to Barristan Selmy, Elia was a gentle, good, and gracious lady, but he also describes her as frail, due to her delicate health.[14][15] He also says she was kind and clever, with a sweet wit.[16]

History Early years Elia Martell was the fourth child and first daughter born to the future Princess of Dorne, and the second child to live past infancy. She was born a month premature, and her older brother Doran did not expect her to live, when he learned about her birth; she survived, however, though her health was always fragile thereafter.[13] During her youth she was very close to her younger brother, Oberyn,[17] to whom she was only one year apart.[13]

When Elia reached the age of marriage, she and her brother Oberyn, together with their mother and their mother's consort, traveled from Dorne to several potential suitors for both Elia and Oberyn. Amongst the places they visited were Starfall, the Arbor, Oldtown, the Shield Islands, Crakehall, and finally Casterly Rock. Oberyn mocked all Elia's suitors. In Oldtown, Elia met Baelor Hightower, whom she liked most of all her suitors. She had been half in love with him, until he farted in the presence of both her and Oberyn, leading to Oberyn naming him "Baelor Breakwind". Elia could not look at him without laughing afterwards.[6]

Elia's mother had known Lady Joanna Lannister from the time they both served as ladies in waiting to Queen Rhaella Targaryen. Despite having learned of Joanna's death in childbirth, in 273 AC, during their stay at Oldtown, the Martells traveled onwards to Casterly Rock. Oberyn believes that his mother had planned with Joanna to marry either Elia or Oberyn to one of Joanna's twins, Jaime and Cersei, since there had been an empty cabin on their ship, meant for someone of high birth. Waiting until it was decent, Elia's mother eventually broached the subject of marriage to Lord Tywin Lannister, first suggesting a match between Cersei and Oberyn, next a match between Elia and Jaime. Tywin refused both matches brusquely, informing her how Cersei was meant to marry Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, and suggesting the new-born Tyrion Lannister as betrothed to Elia instead, which was taken as an insult.[6][17][18]Elia and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen were betrothed in early 279 AC, and they married a year later, in 280 AC, in a great ceremony at the Great Sept of Baelor in King's Landing.[7] They moved to Dragonstone shortly after their wedding, where later in 280 AC, Rhaegar and Elia's first child was born, Princess Rhaenys. When the baby was presented to Rhaegar's parents at court, Queen Rhaella embraced her granddaughter warmly, but King Aerys II refused to touch or hold the child and complained that she "smells Dornish". Rhaegar and Elia's second child, Prince Aegon, was born near the new year of 282 AC.[7][19]

Their marriage—though not romantic—seemed happy, although Elia's health, which had always been problematic, remained fragile.[14] Elia was bedridden for half a year after giving birth to Rhaenys, and giving birth to Aegon nearly killed her. Following Aegon's birth, the maesters told Rhaegar that Elia would bear no more children.[20]

Elia attended the tourney at Harrenhal in 281 AC, during the year of the false spring, together with her husband, Prince Rhaegar, and her father-in-law, King Aerys II Targaryen. Rhaegar won the tournament, and was to crown the queen of love and beauty. However, he passed over Elia, and crowned Lady Lyanna Stark of Winterfell instead.[14]

At the start of the next year, Rhaegar left Elia and their newborn son Aegon on Dragonstone, and took to the road with several companions. Not long thereafter, Rhaegar disappeared with Lyanna,[19] and this event was one of the events which sparked Robert's Rebellion. According to Rhaegar's younger brother, Prince Viserys, Rhaegar was simply not happy with his marriage. He believes that, if Rhaegar had been happy with Elia, he would not have needed Lyanna.[14] George R.R. Martin has described Elia's relationship to Rhaegar as "complex".[21]

My sister, Elia, she married Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and became the princess she already was. In Dorne, she walked among vipers and none would bite her. In King's Landing, she found herself surrounded by lions. OBERYN MARTELL

Princess Elia Martell was the sister of Doran Martell, the Prince of Dorne and head of House Martell, and Oberyn Martell, the Red Viper. She was married to Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, heir to Aerys II, and bore him two children: Rhaenys and Aegon. She and her children were killed by Gregor Clegane on the orders of Tywin Lannister during the Sack of King's Landing, at the end of Robert's Rebellion.Doran Martell, the Prince of Dorne, had been furious at his younger sister's mistreatment, and thus was slow to lend aid to House Targaryen during Robert's Rebellion. Preparing to battle the rebels, King Aerys II Targaryen threatened Elia's uncle, Prince Lewyn Martell of the Kingsguard, gracelessly reminding him that he held Elia and her young children. Lewyn took control of the ten thousand Dornishmen who had eventually been sent to aid the Targaryens, and accompanied Elia's husband, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, to fight in the Battle of the Trident. Lewyn and Rhaegar both died at the Trident, and Aerys, due to his paranoia, believed that Lewyn must have betrayed Rhaegar during the battle. As a consequence, he kept Elia and both of her children in King's Landing as hostages against possible Dornish betrayal.[22][23]

For most of the rebellion, House Lannister had remained neutral, but after the Battle of the Trident, Lord Tywin Lannister and twelve thousand of his westermen approached the capital. King Aerys opened the gates to them, mistaking them for allied reinforcements. Instead they began the Sack of King's Landing in the name of King Robert.[24] Ser Jaime Lannister later recollected that as he himself was murdering Aerys to prevent the wildfire plot, Ser Gregor Clegane and Ser Amory Lorch were scaling the walls of Maegor's Holdfast, while Lord Eddard Stark was leading his own forces through the city gates.[10] Elia's daughter, Princess Rhaenys, was killed by Amory after breaking the door down; he dragged the screaming toddler from under her father's bed and stabbed her over fifty timesPrincess Elia was the wife of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, who was also her distant cousin.[1] They had two children; a daughter, Rhaenys, and a son, Aegon. She was born into House Martell in Dorne. She was the daughter of the ruling Princess of Dorne, the younger sister of Prince Doran Martell, who eventually inherited Dorne from their mother and became the ruler of Dorne, and the older sister of Prince Oberyn.[2] Her marriage to Prince Rhaegar was arranged by King Aerys II Targaryen and considered an insult by Tywin, Aerys's Hand of the King, who had proposed his daughter Cersei as a bride for the Prince but was rejected. The marriage was one of the reasons Tywin resigned his post as Hand. Like her younger brother, Elia was very popular among the Dornish people.[3]

When she was a child, Elia accompanied her mother and brother Oberyn on a visit to Casterly Rock. While there, Elia and Oberyn were eager to see the monster that had just been born. Cersei finally showed them the baby, but the Martell siblings were somewhat disappointed to see that Tyrion was just a baby, and somewhat disturbed by Cersei's already strong hatred of him.[4]

According to her brother Oberyn, Elia loved her husband Prince Rhaegar dearly. She bore him two children, Rhaenys and Aegon, to whom she was equally devoted; according to Oberyn, Elia took care of them from birth, rather than delegating the task to a wet nurse.[5] Both pregnancies were very difficult, and each nearly killed Elia