"What a pair of geniuses, father and son. One madman, one believer in superstition," Gendry concluded. But the coincidences of the past were too great, and he also had to conclude that there might have been a conspiracy.
"The Mad King really was a destabilizing force." Gendry had looked into it. The known facts were that, after losing its dragons, the realm had relied on Alliances and Balancing, marriage ties, and service to keep running. Yet House Targaryen had offended the great lords as early as the People's King's reign. Even the iron triangle of lion, stag, and dragon had offered an opportunity to break the deadlock, while Dorne was too far away. The Mad King was the opportunity the conspirators had long awaited. As he aged, Aerys had grown increasingly prone to jealousy, suspicious and cruel, and extremely volatile.
By the Mad King's reign, the family's numbers had dwindled so much that there were not even enough children for marriage alliances. For a long time, Rhaegar had been the only child. Whichever side he married into would offend another, and there were no other children to forge friendships. Before Viserys, there had been many miscarriages and stillbirths, and by the time Daenerys was born, the realm was already on the brink of collapse.
Duke Rickard in the North, however, had many children, even by House Stark's standards. The Old Wolf also harbored ambitions for his family's future power. His sights were set on the South, so he had arranged the betrothals of Brandon to Catelyn Tully and Lyanna to Robert Baratheon, while sending Eddard to the Eyrie as Jon Arryn's ward. Rickard, the fool, had actually fallen into someone else's trap. His ambitions were too great and too obvious. Those marriage plans had come from his maester, Varys, whose