Wedding of Robert I Baratheon and Cersei Lannister
| Note: The title of this article is conjecture and may be subject to change. |
The wedding of Robert I Baratheon and Cersei Lannister was a royal wedding in 284 AC, with the recently-crowned King Robert I Baratheon marrying Cersei Lannister at the Great Sept of Baelor in King's Landing.[1][2]
Contents
History
Prelude
Lord Tywin Lannister, Hand of the King to Aerys II Targaryen, tried to betroth his daughter Cersei to Rhaegar Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone, at the tourney in Lannisport in honor of Viserys Targaryen's birth in 276 AC, but King Aerys refused to marry "his heir to his servant's daughter".[3] Rhaegar instead married Princess Elia Martell of Dorne in 279 AC.[4]
In 282 AC, Rhaegar abducted Lyanna Stark, who was betrothed to Robert Baratheon, Lord of Storm's End. During Robert's Rebellion against House Targaryen, Rhaegar was slain by Robert in the Battle of the Trident.[5] In order to prove his loyalty to Robert,[6] Tywin led the Sack of King's Landing, during which Ser Jaime Lannister of the Kingsguard, his son and Cersei's twin, slew Aerys in the throne room.[7] According to a semi-canon source, Lyanna died at the tower of joy in Dorne.[8]
Robert claimed the Iron Throne and succeeded Aerys as king in 283 AC.[9] Jon Arryn, the new Hand, advised Robert to marry Cersei to bind House Baratheon of King's Landing with powerful House Lannister.[10]
Wedding
According to Maester Yandel, Robert I Baratheon's first act as king was to marry Cersei Lannister.[11] Ser Jaime Lannister, having been pardoned by Robert and allowed to remain in the Kingsguard, served in the honor guard which brought his sister to King's Landing;[12] Robert was unaware the twins had an incestuous relationship.[13][14] Robert replaced the skulls of the Targaryen dragons in the throne room of the Red Keep with banners and tapestries. Hoping to see the skulls when he arrived for the wedding, Tyrion Lannister, Cersei's youngest brother, eventually found them in a cellar beneath the castle.[15]
Cersei and Jaime had sex on the morning of the wedding.[16] Robert and Cersei were wed later in the day in the Great Sept of Baelor.[2] During the changing of the cloaks, Robert draped Cersei with a heavy cloth-of-gold cloak with the stag of House Baratheon depicted with beads of onyx.[17] Thousands cheered at the plaza outside when the couple left the sept, though Cersei noticed that her brother Jaime was unhappy.[2] When Robert and Cersei slept together for the first time the night of the wedding feast, the drunken king whispered Lyanna Stark's name instead of his bride's.[18]
Jaime was champion in the tourney held at the capital for the wedding.[12] Cersei's uncle, Gerion Lannister, gave King Robert a gilded dagger with an ivory grip and a sapphire pommel as a wedding gift.[19] Robert appointed Ser Ilyn Payne, whose tongue had been removed by the late King Aerys II Targaryen, as the King's Justice as his own gift for Tywin.[20]
Aftermath
Two of Robert's Estermont uncles remained at court in King's Landing for half a year following the wedding. Robert insisted on repaying the visit, with Queen Cersei and members of his court accompanying him for a two-week stay at Greenstone. While there, Cersei suspected that Robert was bedding a widowed cousin he used to play with as a child, and the queen had Jaime follow Robert to confirm her suspicions. Cersei and Jaime slept together at Greenstone, and Cersei likes to believe that was the night their eldest child, Prince Joffrey Baratheon, was conceived.[3]
The marriage between Robert and Cersei continued to deteriorate over the years,[21] and Cersei and Jaime continued their clandestine incest.[2] Robert believes himself to be the father of Joffrey and the prince's siblings, Princess Myrcella and Prince Tommen Baratheon.[22]
Recent Events
A Game of Thrones
King Robert I Baratheon tells his childhood friend, Lord Eddard Stark, about his resentment towards Queen Cersei Lannister and his yearning for Ned's late sister, Lyanna.[10][23]
A Feast for Crows
For the wedding of King Tommen I Baratheon and Margaery Tyrell in the royal sept, Cersei, now the Queen Regent, wants Tommen to use the red silk cloak which her father, Lord Tywin, had used when he married her mother, Joanna Lannister. Lady Olenna Tyrell objects, however, and Tommen instead uses the heavy gold-and-black cloak from his parents' wedding.[17]
Cersei recalls her regret that Robert survived the Battle of the Trident instead of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen.[21]
Attendees
King Robert I Baratheon[18]
Queen Cersei Lannister[18]- Lord Tywin Lannister[20]
- Tyrion Lannister[15]
- Gerion Lannister[19]
Ser Jaime Lannister[2]
Ser Ilyn Payne[20]
two uncles of Robert from House Estermont[3]
Quotes
I swear to you, I was never so alive as when I was winning this throne, or so dead as now that I've won it. And Cersei ... I have Jon Arryn to thank for her. I had no wish to marry after Lyanna was taken from me, but Jon said the realm needed an heir. Cersei Lannister would be a good match, he told me, she would bind Lord Tywin to me should Viserys Targaryen ever try to win back his father's throne.[10]
You see what she does to me, Ned. My loving wife. The mother of my children. I should not have hit her. That was not ... that was not kingly. I was always strong ... no one could stand before me, no one. How do you fight someone if you can't hit them? 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 her.[23]
Margaery: But I never knew that King Robert was so accomplished at the joust. Pray tell us, Your Grace, what tourneys did he win? What great knights did he unseat? I know the king should like to hear about his father's victories.
Cersei: Robert won the tourney of the Trident. He overthrew Prince Rhaegar and named me his queen of love and beauty.[3]
Dry those tears, little one. Have you ever seen a lion weep? Your father will find another man for you, a better man than Rhaegar.[3]
If she 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. But then, lions were not good at forgiving.[3]
—thoughts of Cersei Lannister
The day she wed Robert Baratheon, thousands had turned out to cheer for them. All the women wore their best, and half the men had children on their shoulders. When she had emerged from inside the sept, hand in hand with the young king, the crowd sent up a roar so loud it could be heard in Lannisport.[2]
—thoughts of Cersei Lannister
References
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Westerlands: House Lannister Under the Dragons.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 28, Cersei VI.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 24, Cersei V.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 4, Eddard I.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 53, Tyrion VI.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 12, Eddard II.
- ↑ George R. R. Martin's A World of Ice and Fire, Lyanna Stark.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Appendix: Reign of the Kings.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 30, Eddard VII.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Glorious Reign.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 67, Jaime VIII.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 31, Catelyn III.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 11, Jaime II.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 13, Tyrion II.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 54, Cersei I.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 12, Cersei III.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 45, Eddard XII.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 32, Tyrion IV.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 27, Jaime III.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 32, Cersei VII.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 47, Eddard XIII.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 39, Eddard X.