History
Aenys was born on Dragonstone as the son of Aegon the Conquerer and Queen Rhaenys Targaryen. Aenys loved court life just as Rhaenys had, and he was a great patron of the arts.
Aenys was married to Alyssa Velaryon in 22 AC. Their marriage was a political match, and together they had six children; three sons (Aegon, Viserys and Jaehaerys) and three daughters (Rhaena, Alysanne and Vaella).
Reign
Aenys was regarded as a weakling. His ascension to the throne, upon the death of his father Aegon, led to the many uprisings by lords who considered him weak. Aenys proved to be weak and indecisive during these crisis's and was unable to effectively take action against them. Much of the responsibility fell to others.
The first of these challenges was by a bandit outlaw known as Red Harren who claimed to be a grandson of Harren the Black. The last of the four rebels to be killed, Harren was eventually cornered by Aenys's Hand of the King, Lord Alyn Stokeworth. Harren killed Alyn in the fighting, but was in turn killed by Alyn's squire.
On the Iron Islands, a man who claimed to be King Lodos reborn was dispatched by Goren Greyjoy. Goren sent the pickled head of the would-be king in a jar to King Aenys. In gratitude, Aenys granted Goren a boon. This would proof a regrettable decision, as Lord Goren used the boon to oust the Faith of the Seven from the Iron islands, to the dismay of the rest of the realm and to the anger of the Faith of the Seven.
The Vulture King rose in the Dornish marshes, and gathered many followers. The Martells mostly ignored the Vulture King, and while Princess Deria Martell assured King Aenys that they were doing everything they could to put the rebellion down, in the end it came down to the Marcher lords to resolve the situation. The Vulture King eventually had thirty thousand followers, at which point he decided to split his host. Former Hand of the King, Lord Orys Baratheon, and the Marcher lords, amongst whom Savage Sam Tarly, took part in the chase which became known as the Vulture Hunt.
In the Vale, Jonos Arryn rose against his own brother, Lord Ronnel Arryn. Lord Royce gathered forces and penned Jonos up in the Eyrie, which cause the death of Ronnel, and his children. In the end, it was Prince Maegor Targaryen who flew up to the Eyrie on Balerion, and at Maegor's hand, Jonos and all his followers died by the noose.
Aenys gifted Maegor with the sword Blackfyre, traditionally held by kings, and admitted to all those assembled that he was not nearly the warrior his brother was.
A new crisis arose in 39 AC, when Prince Maegor took a second wife, while his first wife was still alive. This angered the Faith of the Seven and the High Septon (who was the uncle of Maegors first wife). Aenys tried to placate the faith by stripping Maegor of his office and sending him into exile to Pentos. A renowned Septon known as Murmison was appointed new Hand of the King by Aenys as a way to try and appease the Faith of the Seven, though this could not completely fix matters.
Aenys further enraged the faith in 41 AC, when he wed his daughter, Princess Rhaena, to his son and heir, Prince Aegon. Aenys received a denunciation from the faith, adressed to "King Abomination". The pious lords of the realm, and even the smallfolk who had once loved Aenys, turned against him. Murmison was expelled from the faith for performing the wedding of Aegon to Rhaena and was torn apart by smallfolk in a litter, two weeks after he performed the ceremony. Thus the Faith Militant uprising began.
The Warrior's Sons fortified the Sept of Remembrance on Rhaeny's Hill. Some Poor Fellows attempted to murder the King and his family, scaling the walls of the castle, and slipping to the royal apartments. It was only thanks to Ser Raymont Baratheon, a knight of the Kingsguard that the royal family survived. In the face of this, Aenys abandoned the city with his family and fled to the safety of Dragonstone, where Dowager Queen Visenya Targaryen counseled him to bring "Fire and Blood" to the Starry Sept and Sept of Remembrance. Aenys, incapable of making a firm decision, fell ill. By late 41 AC, most of the realm had turned against him. Thousands of poor fellows prowled the roads threatening and slaying any of the King's supporters and dozens of Lords took up arms against the Iron Throne.
According to Grand Maester Gawen, Aenys, despite being only thirty-five years old, looked like a man of sixty. Dowager Queen Visenya took over his care and Aenys briefly improved. He suffered a collapse upon learning that his eldest son and daughter were besieged at Crakehall during their yearly progress.
Aenys died in 42 AC, after only ruling for five years, at the age of thirty-five. Despite having three sons of his own, he was succeeded by his notoriously brutal half-brother, Maegor I Targaryen, who was still in exile at the time of Aenys' death.
The circumstances of Aenys's death are under much speculation. Some say he died from stress, others that he was killed by Dowager Queen Visenya Targaryen, so she could place her son Maegor on the Iron Throne. Visenya was known as many things, but a woman of pity is not one of them, so many asked why she tended to the care of the nephew she despised.
The Iron Throne, due to Visenya's actions after Aenys' death, passed to Aenys's half-brother Maegor instead of Aenys's eldest son Aegon. In the turmoil that followed Aenys's death and his half-brother's coronation, two of Aenys's sons (Aegon and Viserys) would be killed during their uncle's brutal reign.