Introduction

The Mad King Play has stirred the online fandom into a frenzy. Was Rhaegar a truly bad dude, or was he a tragic hero?

A lot of the discourse feels weirdly emotional. And it seems that a startling amount of "fans" haven’t actually read George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. So, I composed Rhaegar’s life in chronological order based on direct quotes from the books. I bolded certain areas that I think are important to his biography, thematics, symbolism, and foreshadowing. I also included quotes from adjacent characters where I deemed them crucial to Rhaegar’s story, especially those centered around Lyanna Stark. Be warned, this is long. But for fans of ASOIAF, it should be enjoyable.

1 Birth & Early Life

“There was a melancholy to Prince Rhaegar, a sense… of doom. He was born in grief, my queen, and that shadow hung over him all his days," [said Barristand Selmy}. Viserys had spoken of Rhaegar’s birth only once. Perhaps the tale saddened him too much. “It was the shadow of Summerhall that haunted him, was it not?” [asked Dany]. “Yes,” [replied Barristan Selmy (Arstan Whitebeard)].” 
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 42 (Daenerys IV).

“The smoke was from the fire that devoured Summerhall on the day of his birth, the salt from the tears shed for those who died.”
A Feast for Crows, (Chapter 35) Samwell IV, spoken by Maester Aemon

“As a young boy, the Prince of Dragonstone was bookish to a fault. He was reading so early that men said Queen Rhaella must have swallowed some books and a candle whilst he was in her womb. Rhaegar took no interest in the play of other children. The maesters were awed by his wits, but his father’s knights would jest sourly that Baelor the Blessed had been born again. Until one day Prince Rhaegar found something in his scrolls that changed him. No one knows what it might have been, only that the boy suddenly appeared early one morning in the yard as the knights were donning their steel. He walked up to Ser Willem Darry, the master-at-arms, and said, 'I will require a sword and armor. It seems I must be a warrior.'
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 8 (Daenerys I), Barristan Selmy (Arstan Whitebeard) narrating.* 

2 Young Adulthood

“Prince Rhaegar’s prowess was unquestioned, but he seldom entered the lists. He never loved the song of swords the way that Robert did, or Jaime Lannister. It was something he had to do, a task the world had set him. He did it well, for he did everything well. That was his nature. But he took no joy in it. Men said that he loved his harp much better than his lance… When he was young, His Grace rode brilliantly in a tourney at Storm’s End, defeating Lord Steffon Baratheon, Lord Jason Mallister, the Red Viper of Dorne, and a mystery knight who proved to be the infamous Simon Toyne, chief of the kingswood outlaws. He broke twelve lances against Ser Arthur Dayne that day. [But he was not champion that day], Your Grace. That honor went to another knight of the Kingsguard, who unhorsed Prince Rhaegar in the final tilt.” 
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 42 (Daenerys IV), Barristan Selmy (Arstan Whitebeard) narrating. 

“...And yet, Summerhall was the place the prince loved best. He would go there from time to time, with only his harp for company. Even the knights of the Kingsguard did not attend him there. He liked to sleep in the ruined hall, beneath the moon and stars, and whenever he came back he would bring a song. When you heard him play his high harp with the silver strings and sing of twilights and tears and the death of kings, you could not but feel that he was singing of himself and those he loved,” [said Barristan Selmy]. 

“What of the Usurper? Did he play sad songs as well?” [asked Dany]. Barristan chuckled. “Robert? Robert liked songs that made him laugh, the bawdier the better. He only sang when he was drunk... Robert was much—” As one, her dragons lifted their heads and roared.
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 42 (Daenerys IV)

It was said that no man ever knew Prince Rhaegar, truly. I had the privilege of seeing him in tourney, though, and often heard him play his harp with its silver strings… Myles Mooton was Prince Rhaegar’s squire, and Richard Lonmouth after him. When they won their spurs, he knighted them himself, and they remained his close companions. Young Lord Connington was dear to the prince as well, but his oldest friend was Arthur Dayne.”
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 42 (Daenerys IV), Barristan Selmy narrating. 

“I know little of Rhaegar. Only the tales Viserys told, and he was a little boy when our brother died. What was he truly like?” 
The old man considered a moment. “Able. That above all. Determined, deliberate, dutiful, single-minded.”
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 42 (Daenerys IV)

“My brother Rhaegar was a fierce warrior... Ser Jorah says that he was the last of the dragons.”
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 46 (Daenerys V)

[Once] Rhaegar was returning from Dorne, and he and his escort had lingered [at Griffin’s Roost] a fortnight. He was so young then... At the welcoming feast, the prince had taken up his silver stringed harp and played for them. A song of love and doom, Jon Connington recalled, and every woman in the hall was weeping when he put down the harp… “Your father’s lands are beautiful,” Prince Rhaegar had said... He'd... replied, “One day they will all be mine.” As if that could impress a prince who was heir to the entire realm, from the Arbor to the Wall.
A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 61 (The Griffin Reborn)

Many a night Cersei had watched Prince Rhaegar in the hall, playing his silver-stringed harp with those long, elegant fingers of his. Had any man ever been so beautiful? He was more than a man, though. His blood was the blood of old Valyria, the blood of dragons and gods. When she was just a little girl, her father had promised her that she would marry Rhaegar…

She was ten when she finally saw her prince in the flesh, at the tourney her lord father had thrown to welcome King Aerys to the west. …The cheers of the smallfolk had echoed.. They cheered Father twice as loudly as they cheered the king... but only half as loudly as they cheered Prince Rhaegar. Seventeen and new to knighthood [in AC 276], Rhaegar Targaryen had worn black plate over golden ringmail when he cantered onto the lists... Two of her uncles fell before his lance, along with a dozen of her father’s finest jousters... By night the prince played his silver harp and made her weep. When she had been presented to him, Cersei had almost drowned in the depths of his sad purple eyes. He has been wounded, she recalled thinking, but I will mend his hurt when we are wed. Next to Rhaegar, even her beautiful Jaime had seemed no more than a callow boy…

Her laughter died at tourney’s end. There had been… only cold silences and chilly looks between the king and her father. Later... the girl had gone to her aunt in tears, not understanding. “Your father proposed the match,” Lady Genna told her, “but Aerys refused to hear of it. ‘You are my most able servant, Tywin,’ the king said, ‘but a man does not marry his heir to his servant’s daughter.’ …Your father will find another man for you, a better man than Rhaegar.” ...Father found no better man. Instead he gave me Robert.
A Feast for Crows, Chapter 24 (Cersei V)

The old king, Aerys II Targaryen... sent... [Steffon Baratheon] to seek a bride for Prince Rhaegar, who had no sisters to wed [in 278 AC]... [Returning] home from his fruitless mission [to Volantis]... The storm came up suddenly... The lord’s two-masted galley Windproud broke up within sight of his castle. From its parapets his two eldest sons [Robert and Stannis] had watched as their father’s ship was smashed against the rocks and swallowed by the waters...
A Clash of Kings, Prologue

"If I had been born more timely... Rhaegar would have married me instead of Elia, and it would all have come out different. If Rhaegar had been happy in his wife, he would not have needed the Stark girl."
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 43 (Daenerys IV). 

“Her duty.” The word felt cold upon [Dany’s] tongue. “You saw my brother Rhaegar wed. Tell me, did he wed for love or duty?” 
The old knight hesitated. “Princess Elia was a good woman, Your Grace. She was kind and clever, with a gentle heart and a sweet wit. I know the prince was very fond of her.”
A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 23 (Daenerys IV)

“[Tywin] had summoned Cersei to court when she was twelve, hoping to make her a royal marriage… no doubt he was waiting for Prince Viserys to mature, or perhaps for Rhaegar’s wife to die in childbed. Elia of Dorne was never the healthiest of women.
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 11 (Jaime II)

Jon Connington remembered Prince Rhaegar’s wedding all too well. Elia was never worthy of him. She was frail and sickly from the first, and childbirth only left her weaker.
A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 61 (The Griffin Reborn)

[In the House of the Undying], Dany moved on... The man had her brother’s hair, but he was taller, and his eyes were a dark indigo rather than lilac. “Aegon,” he said to a woman nursing a newborn babe in a great wood bed. “What better name for a king?”

“Will you make a song for him?” the woman [confirmed by Martin to be Elia] asked. “He has a song,” the man replied. “He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.” He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany’s, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door. “There must be one more,” he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. “The dragon has three heads.” He went to the window seat, picked up a harp, and ran his fingers lightly over its silvery strings. Sweet sadness filled the room as man and wife and babe faded like the morning mist…
A Clash of Kings, Chapter 48 (Danaerys IV)

“He shared my belief when he was young, but later he became persuaded that it was his own son who fulfilled the prophecy, for a comet had been seen above King’s Landing on the night Aegon was conceived, and Rhaegar was certain the bleeding star had to be a comet.” 
A Feast for Crows, (Chapter 35) Samwell IV, spoken by Maester Aemon

After the birth of Princess Rhaenys, her mother had been bedridden for half a year, and Prince Aegon’s birth had almost been the death of her. She would bear no more children, the maesters told Prince Rhaegar afterward.
A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 61 (The Griffin Reborn), narrated by Jon Connington

“Prince Rhaegar had two children,” Ser Barristan told him. “Rhaenys was a little girl, Aegon a babe in arms.”
A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 67, (The Kingbreaker)

3 Lyanna’s Character Buildup

“Ah, Arya. You have a wildness in you, child. ‘The wolf blood,’ my father used to call it. Lyanna had a touch of it, and my brother Brandon more than a touch... Lyanna might have carried a sword, if my lord father had allowed it. You remind me of her sometimes. You even look like her… She was… beautiful and willful, and dead before her time.”
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 22 (Arya II)

Two children danced across the godswood [at Winterfell]... as they dueled with broken branches. The girl was the older and taller of the two... If the girl was Arya, the boy was Bran himself, and he had never worn his hair so long. And Arya never beat me playing swords, the way that girl is beating him. She slashed the boy across his thigh, so hard that his leg went out from under him and he fell into the pool and began to splash and shout. “You be quiet, stupid... It’s just water. Do you want Old Nan to hear and run tell Father?”
A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 34 (Bran III)

“You never knew Lyanna as I did, Robert,” Ned told him. “You saw her beauty, but not the iron underneath...”
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 30 (Eddard VII)

“You ride like a northman, milady,” Harwin said when he’d drawn them to a halt. “Your aunt was the same. Lady Lyanna.”
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 17 (Arya III)

Not even Lord Rickard’s daughter [Lyanna] could outrace him, and that one was half a horse herself.
A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 32 (Reek III)

Brandon was fostered at Barrowton... but he spent most of his time riding the Rills. He loved to ride. His little sister took after him in that. A pair of centaurs, those two.
A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 41, The (Turncloack)

“Robert will never keep to one bed,” Lyanna had told him at Winterfell... when their father had promised her hand to the young Lord of Storm’s End. “I hear he has gotten a child on some girl in the Vale... Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man’s nature.”
Chapter 35 (Eddard IX), A Game of Thrones.

“Why would Jon Arryn take a sudden interest in [King Robert’s] baseborn children? …For the first time in years, he found himself remembering Rhaegar Targaryen. He wondered if Rhaegar had frequented brothels; somehow he thought not.”
Chapter 35 (Eddard IX), A Game of Thrones.

Robert was betrothed to marry [Lyanna]... [continued later]
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 53 (Bran VI)

4 Lead up to Harrenhal

Barristan Selmy had known many kings... Aegon the Unlikely... Aegon’s son Jaehaerys... Jaehaerys’s son Aerys... If he had not gone into Duskendale to rescue Aerys from Lord Darklyn’s dungeons, the king might well have died there as Tywin Lannister sacked the town. Then Prince Rhaegar would have ascended the Iron Throne... who would have been a finer king than any of them. 
A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 55 (The Queensguard)

Rhaegar... had never trusted him as he had trusted Arthur Dayne. Harrenhal was proof of that. The year of the false spring... Old Lord Whent had announced the tourney shortly after a visit from his brother, Ser Oswell Whent of the Kingsguard. With Varys whispering in his ear, King Aerys became convinced that his son was conspiring to depose him, that Whent’s tourney was but a ploy to give Rhaegar a pretext for meeting with as many great lords as could be brought together. Aerys had not set foot outside the Red Keep since Duskendale, yet suddenly he announced that he would accompany Prince Rhaegar to Harrenhal, and everything had gone awry from there.
A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 67, (The Kingbreaker), narrated by Barristan Selmy

“There was one knight [from the Neck],” said Meera, “in the year of the false spring. The Knight of the Laughing Tree… Once... a curious [crannogman, after an adventure to the Isle of Faces]... saw the distant towers of a castle rising beside the lake… “Harrenhal!” Bran knew at once...

Meera smiled. “...A great tourney was about to commence, and champions from all over the land had come to contest it. The king himself was there, with his son the dragon prince. [Many lords and ladies there were, and...] One was the wife of the dragon prince [Elia] who’d brought a dozen lady companions to attend her. The knights all begged them for favors to tie about their lances.” “This isn’t going to be one of those love stories, is it?” Bran asked suspiciously...
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 24 (Bran II)

“...The little crannogman was walking across the field... when he was set upon by three squires… and knocked... to the ground, cursing him for a frogeater... But then they heard a roar. ‘That’s my father’s man you’re kicking,’ howled the she-wolf… The she-wolf laid into the squires with a tourney sword, scattering them all. The crannogman was bruised and bloodied, so she took him back to her lair... There he met her pack brothers: the wild wolf [Brandon] who led them, the quiet wolf beside [Ned] him, and the pup [Benjen] who was youngest of the four. 

“That evening there was to be a feast... to mark the opening of the tourney… Under Harren’s roof he ate and drank with the wolves... The dragon prince sang a song so sad it made the wolf maid sniffle, but when her pup brother teased her for crying she poured wine over his head… The storm lord [Robert] drank down the knight of skulls and kisses in a wine-cup war... a maid with laughing purple eyes [Ashara Dayne] danced with a white sword, a red snake, and the lord of griffins, and lastly with the quiet wolf…. but only after the wild wolf spoke to her on [his] behalf... The little crannogman [& Lyanna] spied the three squires who’d attacked him. One served a pitchfork knight, one a porcupine, while the last attended a knight with two towers on his surcoat… but... he feared he would only make a fool of himself and shame his people... before he slept he knelt on the lakeshore, looking across the water to where the Isle of Faces would be, and said a prayer to the old gods of north and Neck…”
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 24 (Bran II)

5 The Tourney at Harrenhal

“[Rhaegar] won the greatest tourney of them all… the tourney Lord Whent staged at Harrenhal beside the Gods Eye, in the year of the false spring... Besides the jousting, there was a mêlée in the old style fought between seven teams of knights, as well as archery and axe-throwing, a horse race, a tournament of singers, a mummer show, and many feasts and frolics. Lord Whent was as open handed as he was rich. The lavish purses he proclaimed drew hundreds of challengers. Even your royal father came to Harrenhal, when he had not left the Red Keep for long years. The greatest lords and mightiest champions of the Seven Kingdoms rode in that tourney, and the Prince of Dragonstone bested them all.”
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 43 (Daenerys IV), narrated by Barristan Selmy (Artsan Whitebeard)

“That second day… a mystery knight appeared in the lists... short of stature, and clad in ill-fitting armor made up of bits and pieces. The device upon his shield... a white weirwood with a laughing red face… You know the three he challenged… The porcupine knight fell first, then the pitchfork knight, and lastly the knight of the two towers… When his fallen foes sought to ransom horse and armor, the Knight of the Laughing Tree spoke in a booming voice through his helm, saying, ‘Teach your squires honor, that shall be ransom enough.’
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 24 (Bran II), narrated by Meera 

Jousting was three-quarters horsemanship, Jaime had always believed.
A Feast for Crows, Chapter 16 (Jaime II)

“You ride like a northman, milady,” Harwin said when he’d drawn them to a halt. “Your aunt was the same. Lady Lyanna.”
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 17 (Arya III)

“...The next morning... The Knight of the Laughing Tree had vanished. The king... sent his son the dragon prince to seek the man, but all they ever found was his painted shield, hanging abandoned in a tree. It was the dragon prince who won that tourney in the end.”
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 24 (Bran II)

…When the jousting began, the day belonged to Rhaegar Targaryen. The crown prince wore the armor he would die in: gleaming black plate with the three-headed dragon of his House wrought in rubies on the breast. A plume of scarlet silk streamed behind him when he rode, and it seemed no lance could touch him. Brandon fell to him, and Bronze Yohn Royce, and even the splendid Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. Robert had been jesting with Jon and old Lord Hunter as the prince circled the field after unhorsing Ser Barristan in the final tilt to claim the champion’s crown. Ned remembered the moment when all the smiles died, when Prince Rhaegar Targaryen urged his horse past his own wife, the Dornish princess Elia Martell, to lay the queen of beauty’s laurel in Lyanna’s lap. He could see it still: a crown of winter roses, blue as frost.
Chapter 4 (Eddard I), A Game of Thrones. 

 “But that was the tourney when he crowned Lyanna Stark as queen of love and beauty!” said Dany. “Princess Elia was there, his wife, and yet my brother gave the crown to the Stark girl, and later stole her away from her betrothed. How could he do that? Did the Dornish woman treat him so ill?
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 43 (Daenerys IV). 

6 Robert’s Rebellion

The following paragraph is from A World of Ice and Fire. Could not find better material, sorry.
The False Spring of 281 AC lasted less than two turns. As the year drew to a close, winter returned to Westeros with a vengeance. On the last day of the year, snow began to fall upon King's Landing, and a crust of ice formed atop the Blackwater Rush. The snowfall continued off and on for the best part of a fortnight, by which time the Blackwater was hard frozen, and icicles draped the roofs and gutters of every tower in the city… Prince Rhaegar was not in the city to observe them, however. Nor could he be found in Dragonstone with Princess Elia and their young son, Aegon. With the coming of the new year, the crown prince had taken to the road with half a dozen of his closest friends and confidants, on a journey that would ultimately lead him back to the riverlands… Not ten leagues from Harrenhal, Rhaegar fell upon Lyanna Stark of Winterfell, and carried her off, lighting a fire that would consume his house and kin and all those he loved—and half the realm besides.
A World of Ice and Fire (The Fall of the Dragons: The Year of the False Spring) 

[Note 1 - what are Rhaegar and Lyanna both doing out during Winter far from home? And what are the odds of coincidentally running into each other?]

Lyanna had only been sixteen, a child-woman of surpassing loveliness. Ned had loved her with all his heart. Robert had loved her even more. She was to have been his bride.
A Game of Thrones (Eddard I), A Game of Thrones

Robert was betrothed to marry [Lyanna], but Prince Rhaegar carried her off and raped her,” Bran explained… [continued later]
Chapter 53 (Bran VI), A Game of Thrones.

“And Rhaegar . . . how many times do you think he raped your sister? How many hundreds of times?” [Robert’s] voice had grown so loud that his horse whinnied nervously beneath him.
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 12 (Eddard II)

“[Brandon Stark] was on his way to Riverrun [to marry Catelyn Tully] when… he heard about Lyanna, and went to King’s Landing instead... He rode into the Red Keep with a few companions, shouting for Prince Rhaegar to come out and die. But Rhaegar wasn’t there. Aerys sent his guards to arrest them all… Aerys accused them of treason and summoned their fathers to court... When they came, he had them murdered... There were trials... Lord Rickard demanded trial by combat... Stark armored himself as for battle... Instead they... suspended him from the rafters while two of Aerys’s pyromancers kindled a blaze beneath him... Brandon was brought in... around his neck was a wet leathern cord... The pyromancers roasted Lord Rickard slowly... unless his son could free him. Brandon tried, but the more he struggled, the tighter the cord constricted around his throat. In the end he strangled himself. As for Lord Rickard... [he cooked.]
Clash of Kings, Chapter 55 (Catelyn VII) 

In his youth, Ned had fostered at the Eyrie, and the childless Lord Arryn had become a second father to him and his fellow ward, Robert Baratheon. When the Mad King Aerys Targaryen had demanded their heads [next], the Lord of the Eyrie had raised his moon-and-falcon banners in revolt rather than give up those he had pledged to protect.
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 2 (Catelyn I)

“...Gulltown stayed loyal to the throne, though. To get home and call his banners, Stark had to cross the mountains to the Fingers and find a fisherman to carry him across the Bite... his daughter got Stark to the Sisters... He left her with a bag of silver and a bastard in her belly. Jon Snow, she named him… By then we knew that Jon Arryn had taken Gulltown, though. Robert was the first man to gain the wall, and slew Marq Grafton with his own hand. ‘This Baratheon is fearless,’ I said. ‘He fights the way a king should fight.’ Our maester chuckled at me and told us that Prince Rhaegar was certain to defeat this rebel. That was when Stark said, ‘In this world only winter is certain..."
A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 9 (Davos I), spoken by Lord Godric Borrell

The war had raged for close to a year. Lords great and small had flocked to Robert’s banners; others had remained loyal to Targaryen. The mighty Lannisters of Casterly Rock, the Wardens of the West, had remained aloof from the struggle, ignoring calls to arms from both rebels and royalists.
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 12 (Eddard II)

Jon Connington had been Prince Rhaegar’s friend. When Merryweather failed so dismally to contain Robert’s Rebellion and Prince Rhaegar could not be found, Aerys had turned to the next best thing, and raised Connington to the Handship.
A Feast for Crows, Chapter 27 (Jaime III)

The Battle of the Bells… [Jon Connington] had lost it all at Stoney Sept in his arrogance. Robert Baratheon had been hiding somewhere in the town, wounded and alone. Jon Connington had known that... Robert’s head upon a spear would have put an end to the rebellion... So he swept down on Stoney Sept, closed off the town, and began a search... Yet whilst the search dragged on, Eddard Stark and Hoster Tully came down upon the town with a rebel army. Bells and battle followed, and Robert emerged from his brothel with a blade in hand, and almost slew Jon on the steps of the old sept... Myles Toyne [told him] “Lord Tywin would not have bothered with a search. He would have burned that town and every living creature in it…”
...So Robert escaped me…
A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 61 (The Griffin Reborn)

After the Battle of the Bells… Aerys Targaryen had stripped [Jon Connington] of his titles and sent him into exile in a mad fit of ingratitude and suspicion.
A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 61 (The Griffin Reborn)

“After dancing griffins [Jon Connington] lost the Battle of the Bells, Aerys exiled him… He had finally realized that Robert was no mere outlaw lord to be crushed at whim, but the greatest threat House Targaryen had faced since Daemon Blackfyre. 
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 37 (Jaime V)

The Mad King... had chopped Lord Jon after the Battle of the Bells... The cousin, though—Red Ronnet’s father—had joined the rebellion and been rewarded with Griffin’s Roost after the Trident.
A Feast for Crows, Chapter 27 (Jaime III)

Ser Kevan had expected that afterwards Aerys would have no choice but to summon Tywin once more… but the Mad King had turned to the Lords Chelsted and Rossart instead, and paid for it with life and crown. 
A Dance with Dragons (Epilogue)

[After the Battle of the Bells], the king reminded Lewyn Martell gracelessly that he held Elia and sent him to take command of the ten thousand Dornishmen coming up the kingsroad. Jon Darry and Barristan Selmy rode to Stoney Sept to rally what they could of griffins’ men.
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 37 (Jaime V)

Prince Rhaegar returned from the south and persuaded his father to swallow his pride and summon my father [Tywin Lannister]. But no raven returned from Casterly Rock, and that made the king even more afraid. He saw traitors everywhere, and Varys was always there to point out any he might have missed. So His Grace commanded his alchemists to place caches of wildfire all over King's Landing… [while] Rhaegar was busy marshaling an army.
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 37 (Jaime V)

“Not every man is what he seems, and a prince especially has good cause to be wary … but go too far down that road, and the mistrust can poison you, make you sour and fearful.” King Aerys was one such. By the end, even Rhaegar saw that plain enough.
Dance with Dragons, Chapter 24 (The Lost Lord), narrated by Jon Connington

The day had been windy when [Jaime Lannister] said farewell to Rhaegar, in the yard of the Red Keep. The prince had donned his night-black armor, with the three-headed dragon picked out in rubies on his breastplate. “Your Grace,” Jaime had pleaded, “let Darry stay to guard the king this once, or Ser Barristan. Their cloaks are as white as mine.”
Prince Rhaegar shook his head. “My royal sire fears your father more than he does our cousin Robert. He wants you close, so Lord Tywin cannot harm him. I dare not take that crutch away from him at such an hour.” Jaime’s anger had risen up in his throat. “I am not a crutch. I am a knight of the Kingsguard.”

“Then guard the king,” Ser Jon Darry snapped at him. “When you donned that cloak, you promised to obey.” 

Rhaegar had put his hand on Jaime’s shoulder. “When this battle’s done I mean to call a council. Changes will be made. I meant to do it long ago, but... well, it does no good to speak of roads not taken. We shall talk when I return.” [Note 2 - reference to the secret meeting that was to occur at Harrenhal if Aerys II hadn’t shown up?] Those were the last words Rhaegar Targaryen ever spoke to him. Outside the gates an army had assembled, whilst another descended on the Trident. So the Prince of Dragonstone mounted up and donned his tall black helm, and rode forth to his doom.
A Feast for Crow, Chapter 8 (Jaime I)

7 The Trident

The Darrys and Rygers and Mootons... fought with Rhaegar Targaryen on the trident. 
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 29 (Catelyn V)

Ser Raymun lived under the king’s peace, but his family had fought beneath Rhaegar’s dragon banners at the Trident, and his three older brothers had died there.
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 17 (Eddard III)

Your brother Rhaegar brought as many men to the Trident,” Ser Jorah admitted, “but of that number, no more than a tenth were knights. The rest were archers, freeriders, and foot soldiers armed with spears and pikes.”
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 36 (Daenerys IV)

Ser Barristan of House Selmy… Wounded by arrow, spear, and sword at the Battle of the Trident whilst fighting beside his Sworn Brothers and Rhaegar Prince of Dragonstone. 
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 67 (Jaime VIII)

In the Battle of the Trident. I fought for Prince Rhaegar, though he never knew my name... The singers would have us believe it was all Rhaegar and Robert struggling in the stream for a woman both of them claimed to love, but I assure you, other men were fighting too, and I was one.
A Feast for Crows, Chapter 37 (Brienne VI)

They had come together at the ford of the Trident while the battle crashed around them, Robert with his warhammer and his great antlered helm, the Targaryen prince armored all in black. On his breastplate was the three-headed dragon of his House, wrought all in rubies that flashed like fire in the sunlight. The waters of the Trident ran red around the hooves of their destriers as they circled and clashed, again and again, until at last a crushing blow from Robert’s hammer stove in the dragon and the chest beneath it. 
Chapter 4 (Eddard I), A Game of Thrones.

Rubies flew like drops of blood from the chest of a dying prince, and he sank to his knees in the water and with his last breath murmured a woman’s name…
A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 23 (Daenerys IV)

When Ned had finally come on the scene, Rhaegar lay dead in the stream, while men of both armies scrabbled in the swirling waters for rubies knocked free of his armor.
Chapter 4 (Eddard I), A Game of Thrones.

Rhaegar [battled] the Usurper in the bloody waters of the Trident and [died] for the woman he loved.
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 4 (Daenerys I)

“You took a wound from Rhaegar,” Ned reminded him. “So when the Targaryen host broke and ran, you gave the pursuit into my hands.”
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 12 (Eddard II)

Rhaegar lost on the Trident. He lost the battle, he lost the war, he lost the kingdom, and he lost his life. His blood swirled downriver with the rubies from his breastplate, and Robert the Usurper rode over his corpse to steal the Iron Throne. Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably. And Rhaegar died.
A Storm of Swords, Chapter 23 (Daenerys II)

“I’m not,” Arya said, trying to brush a tangle out of Nymeria’s matted grey fur. “Mycah and I are going to ride upstream and look for rubies at the ford.” “Rubies,” Sansa said, lost. “What rubies?” Arya gave her a look like she was so stupid. “Rhaegar’s rubies. This is where King Robert killed him and won the crown.”
Chapter 15 (Sansa I), A Game of Thrones. 

If [Cersei Lannister] had only married Rhaegar as the gods intended, he would never have looked twice at the wolf girl. Rhaegar would be our king today and I would be his queen, the mother of his sons. She had never forgiven Robert for killing him.
A Feast for Crows, Chapter 24 (Cersei V)

Aerys Targaryen must have thought that his gods had answered his prayers when Lord Tywin Lannister appeared before the gates of King’s Landing with an army twelve thousand strong, professing loyalty. So the mad king had ordered his last mad act. He had opened his city to the lions at the gate.
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 12 (Eddard II)

That took Tyrion by surprise... “So the Sack of King’s Landing was your work as well?”
“For the realm! Once Rhaegar died, the war was done. Aerys was mad, Viserys too young, Prince Aegon a babe at the breast, but the realm needed a king... I prayed it should be your good father, but Robert was too strong, and Lord Stark moved too swiftly...”
A Clash of Kings, Chapter 25 (Tyrion VI)

“Prince Rhaegar had two children,” Ser Barristan told him. “Rhaenys was a little girl, Aegon a babe in arms. When Tywin Lannister took King’s Landing, his men killed both of them. He served the bloody bodies up in crimson cloaks, a gift for the new king.”
A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 67, (The Kingbreaker)

Robert's hatred of the Targaryens was a madness in him. [Ned] remembered the angry words they had exchanged when Tywin Lannister had presented Robert with the corpses of Rhaegar's wife and children as a token of fealty. Ned had named that murder; Robert called it war. When he had protested that the young prince and princess were no more than babes, his new-made king had replied, "I see no babes. Only dragonspawn." Not even Jon Arryn had been able to calm that storm. Eddard Stark had ridden out that very day in a cold rage, to fight the last battles of the war alone in the south.
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 12 (Eddard II)

“Robert fought a war to win her back. He killed Rhaegar on the Trident with his hammer… but Lyanna died [during the Rebellion] and [Robert] never got her back at all.”
Chapter 53 (Bran VI), A Game of Thrones

8 Tower of Joy

[Ned] dreamt an old dream, of three knights in white cloaks, and a tower long fallen, and Lyanna in her bed of blood… It was said that Rhaegar had named that place the tower of joy, but for Ned it was a bitter memory.
Chapter 39 (Eddard X), A Game of Thrones.

“And Rhaegar . . . how many times do you think he raped your sister [on the road and at the Tower of Joy]? How many hundreds of times?” His voice had grown so loud that his horse whinnied nervously beneath him. [King Robert] jerked the reins hard, quieting the animal, and pointed an angry finger at Ned [continued later].
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 12 (Eddard II)

In the dream [Ned’s] friends rode with him, as they had in life… They were seven, facing three. In the dream as it had been in life. Yet these were no ordinary three. They waited before the round tower, the red mountains of Dorne at their backs, their white cloaks blowing in the wind. And these were no shadows; their faces burned clear, even now. Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, had a sad smile on his lips... Ser Oswell Whent was on one knee, sharpening his blade with a whetstone… Between them stood fierce old Ser Gerold Hightower, the White Bull, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.

[Ned told them,] “I looked for you on the trident [and you were not there]… when King’s Landing fell, Ser Jaime slew your king... and I wondered where you were.… I came down to Storm’s End to lift the siege, and the Lords Tyrell Redwyne dipped their banners, and all their knights bent the knee to pledge us fealty. I was certain you would be among them.”

“Our knees do not bend easily,” said Ser Arthur Dayne… Ser Gerold pointed out, “The Kingsguard does not flee.”

“Then or now,” said Ser Arthur. He donned his helm. “We swore a vow,” explained old Ser Gerold. Ned’s wraiths moved up beside him, with shadow swords in hand. They were seven against three. 

“And now it begins,” said Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. He unsheathed Dawn and held it with both hands. The blade was pale as milkglass, alive with light.

“No,” Ned said with sadness in his voice. “Now it ends.” As they came together in a rush of steel and shadow, he could hear Lyanna screaming. “Eddard!” she called. A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky, as blue as the eyes of death. “Lord Eddard,” Lyanna called again. “I promise,” he whispered. “Lya, I promise . . .
Chapter 39 (Eddard X), A Game of Thrones.

They had been seven against three [outside the Tower of Joy], yet only two had lived to ride away; Eddard Stark himself and the little crannogman, Howland Reed. He did not think it omened well that he should dream that dream again after so many years.
Chapter 39 (Eddard X), A Game of Thrones.

I was with her when she died,” Ned reminded the king. “She wanted to come home, to rest beside Brandon and Father.” He could hear her still at times. Promise me, she had cried, in a room that smelled of blood and roses. Promise me, Ned... the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black. After that he remembered nothing... Ned could recall none of it. “I bring her flowers when I can,” he said. “Lyanna was... fond of flowers.” Ned had pulled the tower down afterward, and used its bloody stones to build eight cairns upon the ridge.
Chapter 4 (Eddard I), A Game of Thrones.

[Note 3 - notice the flower theme throughout all of Rhaegar and Lyanna’s interactions.]

Confused, [King Robert] shook his head. “Rhaegar... Rhaegar won, damn him. I killed him, Ned, I drove the spike right through that black armor into his black heart, and he died at my feet. They made up songs about it. Yet somehow he still won. He has Lyanna now, and I have [Cersei].” The king drained his cup.
Chapter 39 (Eddard X), A Game of Thrones.

9 Epilogue

[Ned] was walking through the crypts beneath Winterfell, as he had walked a thousand times before. The Kings of Winter watched him pass with eyes of ice, and the direwolves at their feet turned their great stone heads and snarled. Last of all, he came to the tomb where his father slept, with Brandon and Lyanna beside him. “Promise me, Ned,” Lyanna’s statue whispered. She wore a garland of pale blue roses…
A Game of Thrones, Chapter X (Eddard XIII)

[Years later], a blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness.
A Clash of Kings, Chapter 48 (Danaerys IV)

Conclusion

Well, that was a fun dive. I told myself many years ago I would not do another re-read until Winds of Winter was released. Sadly, I’m still telling myself that. But, this was a fun walk down memory lane. Some takeaways:

1. Rhaegar is certainly mentioned and discussed frequently enough for us to get a pretty clear picture of who he was.
2. I had forgotten how needlessly wordy and windy the text is of Feast and Dance; it’s no wonder we don’t have Winds.
3. We don’t need a Robert’s Rebellion book. The events of Roberts Rebellion are slowly being told throughout the main ASOIAF series. Brilliant, actually.

Rhaegar continues shaping the lives of many main characters. And of course, he continues to be an excellent plot device for, juxtaposition, parallelism, and foreshadowing.

> “...wake the dragon… the dragon…” and saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm. “The last dragon,” Ser Jorah’s voice whispered faintly. “The last, the last.” Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own.
A Game of Thrones, Chapter 68 (Daenerys IX)

If somehow you made it this far, thanks for reading the book-canon Life of Rhaegar Targaryen, The Last Dragon, as of the end of Book 5. The Targaryen ghost haunting all our beloved characters.