Robert I Baratheon
Robert Baratheon | |
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Robert Baratheon by Amok | |
Monarch | |
Reign | 283 AC - 298 AC |
Full name | Robert Baratheon the First of His Name |
Titles |
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Predecessor | Aerys II |
Heir | Joffrey Baratheon |
Successor | Joffrey I |
Personal Information | |
Aliases |
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Born | 263 AC |
Died |
298 AC King's Landing |
Buried |
298 AC Storm's End |
Family | |
Dynasty | House Baratheon of King's Landing |
Queen | Cersei Lannister |
Issue | See Known bastards |
Father | Steffon Baratheon |
Mother | Cassana Estermont |
References | |
Books |
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Played by | Mark Addy |
TV series | Season 1 |
Robert Baratheon is the King of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and the head of House Baratheon of King's Landing. Robert was crowned king after winning the War of the Usurper and taking the crown from Aerys II Targaryen, his first cousin once removed. Robert fought the war to keep the hand of Lyanna Stark, with the aid of her brother, his close friend, Eddard Stark. Due to Lyanna's death, however, Robert married Cersei Lannister to ensure political stability. Robert has three children with Cersei: Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen. In the TV series he is played by Mark Addy.
Contents
Appearance and Personality
- See also this collection of images
A large man, though not particularly intelligent, Robert was once a renowned warrior with a good battlefield voice.[1] In his youth he was described as tall, broad shouldered and muscled like a maiden's fantasy. He kept himself clean shaven. However, after winning the crown he became overweight from excessive feasting and drinking, eventually gaining over eight stone in weight and growing a beard to hide his multiple chins.[2]
Some of his favorite songs are "A Cask of Ale" and "Fifty-Four Tuns".[3] He is known for his charm, outgoing and gregarious personality and remarkable ability to turn enemies into friends.
Robert's lusts became the subject of ribald drinking songs throughout the realm. According to Eddard Stark, Robert would promise a woman the world in the night and forget everything, including her, in the morning.[4]
History
Early Life
Robert was the first son of Lady Cassana and Lord Steffon Baratheon, head of House Baratheon and lord of the Stormlands. He was born and raised in the Baratheon family seat of Storm's End. He was a scant year older than his brother Stannis. Many years later a third Baratheon brother was born, Renly.
When they were still young, Robert and Stannis watched as their parents died in a shipwreck within sight of Storm's End, making Robert the Lord of Storm's End.[5] Lord Robert went to foster with Lord Jon Arryn at the Eyrie in the Vale of Arryn, along with Eddard Stark of Winterfell. They soon became fast friends and Jon Arryn, who had no sons of his own, came to treat them as his own family.[6]
Robert fell in love with Eddard's sister Lyanna,[2] who was promised to him by her father, Lord Rickard Stark.[4] At the time Robert already had a bastard daughter, Mya Stone, which led to Lyanna commenting that Robert would never keep to one bed.[4] Some time after this event Lyanna was apparently kidnapped and taken by Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen.[2] The kidnapping set in motion a chain of events that lead to Robert's Rebellion.
Robert's Rebellion
News of the kidnapping led Lyanna's eldest brother, Brandon, and later her father, Rickard, to King's Landing demanding justice. Both were executed by the Mad King, Aerys II Targaryen, who demanded that Lord Jon Arryn turn over Robert and Eddard as well. Jon rose up in rebellion instead, with Eddard (now Lord of Winterfell) and Robert rallying the North and the Stormlands respectively.[6] Robert, whose descent gave him the best claim to the throne of the three lords, soon became the leader of the revolt, which became known as Robert's Rebellion. At the Battle of Gulltown, Robert slew Marq Grafton.
Robert began gathering his banners at Storm's End, but he was separated from his allies in the North. Moreover, some of his bannermen decided to remain loyal to Iron Throne and began gathering their strength at Summerhall.[7] Robert learned of this plan and defeated them all, winning three battles in a single day. While attempting to link up with the forces from the North, Robert suffered a defeat at the Battle of Ashford and was later trapped in the town of Stoney Sept where he hid in a brothel and bedded nearly every whore while hiding there. [8]
A Targaryen army eventually led by Lord Jon Connington arrived and began to search the town for Robert, who was saved when a rebel force from the North joined him and the Battle of the Bells began. [8] He led the combined forces of Baratheon, Stark, Arryn, and Tully to victory over the royal forces led by Rhaegar at the Battle of the Trident and personally killed the crown prince, securing victory.[2] Before Robert's allies could reach King's Landing, Lord Tywin Lannister had forces from the Westerlands sack the capital, during which the Mad King was killed.
Although he won the rebellion and killed Rhaegar, Robert's hatred of his slain foe had not diminished and when Tywin presented Robert with the mutilated bodies of Rhaegar's wife and two young children, Robert was pleased they were dead. Eddard Stark, on the other hand, was outraged and disgusted by the act, calling it murder, and saying the young prince and princess were no more than babes. Robert's response was:
I see no babes, only dragonspawn.[9]
Even Jon Arryn could not cool the rage and argument that followed between Robert and Eddard. Eddard left the Red Keep in a black rage to relieve Storm's End, where Stannis languished under siege. It took the death of Lyanna and their shared grief to reunite the pair in friendship.[9] Robert was thereafter haunted by her memory and the desire for further vengeance against the slain Rhaegar.[2]
Reign
Robert's claim to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms was based on his grandmother being Rhaelle Targaryen, daughter of King Aegon V, thus giving him a much stronger claim to the throne than the Arryns, Tullys or Starks.
With Aerys and Rhaegar dead and King's Landing fallen, the lords of the Seven Kingdoms swore fealty to Robert and accepted him as king. He pardoned many of his former enemies and won some over as allies. Those opposed to his reign, however, refer to Robert as the Usurper. Robert tasked Stannis with building a new fleet and capturing Dragonstone, the last Targaryen-loyalist stronghold. Although Stannis commanded the assault on Dragonstone, Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen were smuggled from the island beforehand, which angered the new king. Robert named Stannis Lord of Dragonstone and granted the Baratheons' ancestral seat of Storm's End to their young brother, Renly, which Stannis took as a slight.[10]
Dorne never forgot or forgave the fact that Robert condoned the cold-blooded murders of Elia Martell and her children, Rhaenys and Aegon. Lord Jon Arryn managed to negotiate a truce with Dorne and a grudging acceptance of Robert's reign. Robert appointed Jon Arryn as his Hand of the King. Jon Arryn, along with Stannis, held the Seven Kingdoms together while Robert ate, drank, hunted, and whored.
Robert began his reign by marrying Cersei Lannister, Tywin's daughter, in a political marriage intended to bring stability to the kingdom. The marriage was not a happy one. During their wedding night Robert, while drunk, accidentally whispered, "Lyanna", an act that earned him his new wife's hatred. Cersei bore three children: Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen. In his unhappiness Robert took to drink, feasting and sleeping with other women. In this way he had several bastard children.
Six years after taking the crown, Robert and Eddard joined forces again to crush the Greyjoy Rebellion, which cemented Robert's position on the Iron Throne.
Robert subsequently beggared the realm with the expense of his tournaments and feasts, despite the fact Aerys II had left treasure vaults overflowing with gold. Robert's spending eventually left the crown in debt of over six million golden dragons (borrowing heavily from the Lannisters, the Tyrells, the Faith and the Iron Bank of Braavos).
Due to his frequent whoring, Robert also sired many bastards. According to Donal Noye, he changed by becoming a king, and not for the better.[11] Robert Baratheon also learned to close his eyes to anything he did not wish to see, a fact best proven when he was presented with the bodies of Rhaegar's children.
Recent Events
A Game of Thrones
When the Hand of the King, Lord Jon Arryn, dies suddenly, Robert journeys to Winterfell to meet the last person he truly trusts, Lord Eddard Stark, after a long separation. Robert appears to Eddard a broken man, unhealthy and unhappy.[2] Eddard reluctantly takes the position of Hand and comes to King's Landing. He, like Jon, does much of the work as Robert seldom bothers to attend small council meetings. Robert confesses to Ned that he dreams about giving up his crown and journeying to the Free Cities as a sellsword to spend his life warring and whoring, believing that is what he was made for; only the thought of his heir, Joffrey, on the Iron Throne with his mother, Cersei, whispering in his ear keeps Robert from indulging his fantasy.[9]
When Robert calls a meeting to demand the death of the pregnant Daenerys Targaryen, who is in exile, Eddard refuses to be a part of it and resigns his position in protest.[12] After Eddard is injured in an ambush led by Ser Jaime Lannister, Cersei's twin brother, Robert visits his friend and gives him back his badge of office, stating that if Ned refuses to take it, Robert will pin it on Jaime. While Robert is off on one of his hunts, Eddard discovers that Robert's children are Cersei's bastards born of incest with her brother, Jaime.[13]
Acting first, Cersei has Robert's squire, her cousin Lancel Lannister, give Robert a very strong wine, three times as potent as normal, which causes him to become very drunk. When the hunting party finally tracks down a large boar in the kingswood, Robert is so inebriated that he misses his mark and is charged down and mortally gored. According to Varys, if it had not been the boar, it would have been a fall from a horse or an arrow gone astray, as Cersei needed Robert dead before he returned from his hunt.
When Robert returns badly wounded and near death, he has Eddard visit him and make a will, naming him Lord Regent and Protector of the Realm until Joffrey comes of age. Eddard, seeing how much pain Robert is in, does not reveal the secret of Joffrey's parentage, not wanting to add further pain to his dying friend. Instead, when writing the will, Eddard replaces "My son Joffrey" with "my heir";[14] because the king's children are actually Jaime's bastards, Eddard believes Robert's heir should be his middle brother, Stannis. Robert dies a day later. His death tips off a struggle for power that leads to the War of the Five Kings.
Known bastards
Although Robert Baratheon is known to have fathered - according to Maggy the Frog's prophecy - a total of sixteen bastards, only one has been acknowledged. Varys admits to knowing of eight. Five have been seen by POV characters, while two others have been mentioned only in passing. Because of how Eddard words Robert's will, Cersei begins a campaign to kill all of Robert's bastards, but Tyrion stops it after an ugly scene with Barra's mother fighting to protect the baby. They are listed in approximate age order.
- Mya Stone. A bastard daughter born to Robert in the Vale whilst he was Jon Arryn's ward. She served as a guide to and from the Eyrie, and became a favorite companion to Sansa Stark. Eddard Stark remembered that Robert was very fond of her, although like all his bastard children he later abandoned her.
- Bella. An unacknowledged bastard daughter who lived at the brothel called "the Peach" in Stoney Sept. Her mother told her that she was conceived during the Battle of the Bells when a wounded Robert hid there.
- Gendry. An unacknowledged bastard who was born to a worker in an alehouse. When he was old enough, an unknown lord paid his apprentice fee so he could learn to be a blacksmith. Gendry developed a reputation for stubbornness and fashioned a bull's head helmet, causing him to be named the "Bull". Following the death of Robert, Varys arranged for the boy to flee the city with Yoren of the Night's Watch. Gendry knew that Queen Cersei wanted him dead, although he did not know why. He traveled with Arya Stark until the Brotherhood Without Banners captured them and he joined the organization. The Brotherhood later placed him at the Old Crossroads Inn to smith and look after a group of orphans there. When Brienne meets him, she is astonished by how much he looks like Renly, actually addressing him as "Renly" and "my lord".
- Edric Storm. Robert's only acknowledged bastard son, born to Delena Florent.[4] He lived at Storm's End under the protection of Cortnay Penrose, the castellan. Stannis laid siege to the castle with the goal of capturing Edric Storm and using him to prove his claims of Cersei's incestuous affair with her brother. The red witch Melisandre also aimed to use Edric's blood to raise the dragons of Dragonstone. Davos Seaworth smuggled Edric away from Dragonstone before he could be sacrificed.
- Two unnamed twins. Petyr Baelish hints that Robert fathered twins to a serving woman at Casterly Rock who were killed by Queen Cersei's agents.[4]
- Barra. The youngest of Robert's known bastard children, born to a King's Landing prostitute. A baby, she was killed by Allar Deem under Cersei's orders following the death of Robert.
Quotes by Robert
— Robert to Eddard Stark
— Robert to Eddard Stark
Eddard: You’re too fat for your armor, Robert. Robert: Fat? Fat, is it? Is that how you speak to your king? Ah, damn you, Ned, why are you always right?[1]
— Robert to Eddard Stark
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..[1]
— Robert to Eddard Stark
STOP THIS MADNESS, IN THE NAME OF YOUR KING![1]
— Robert to Gregor Clegane and Sandor Clegane
Cersei: I shall wear this as a badge of honor. Robert: Wear it in silence, or I’ll honor you again. [13]
— When Robert slaps Cersei Lannister
Quotes about Robert
The king was a great disappointment to Jon. His father had talked of him often: the peerless Robert Baratheon, demon of the Trident, the fiercest warrior of the realm, a giant among princes. Jon saw only a fat man, red-faced under his beard, sweating through his silks. He walked like a man half in his cups. [15]
— Jon Snow's thoughts
There’s not a man in the Seven Kingdoms who would dare risk your displeasure by hurting you.[1]
— Eddard Stark to Robert
They said Robert Baratheon was strong as a bull and fearless in battle, a man who loved nothing better than war. [16]
Tell me, what right did my brother Robert ever have to the Iron Throne? Oh, there was talk of the blood ties between Baratheon and Targaryen, of weddings a hundred years past, of second sons and elder daughters. No one but the maesters care about any of it. Robert won the throne with his warhammer.[17]
— Renly Baratheon to Catelyn Tully
If he couldn't fuck it, fight it or drink it, it bored him.[18]
Robert ... He is in my dreams as well. Laughing. Drinking. Boasting. Those were the things he was best at. Those, and fighting. I never bested him at anything.[19]
— Stannis Baratheon suggesting to Melisandre that Robert should have been the champion of R'hllor
We all know what my brother would do. Robert would gallop up to the gates of Winterfell alone, break them with his warhammer, and ride through the rubble to slay Roose Bolton with his left hand and the Bastard with his right. I am not Robert. But we will march, and we will free Winterfell … or die in the attempt.[22]
Family Tree
Ormund | Rhaelle Targaryen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Steffon | Cassana Estermont | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Various women | Robert I | Cersei Lannister | Renly I | Margaery Tyrell[23] | Stannis I | Selyse Florent | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Joffrey I | Margaery Tyrell[23] | Tommen I | Myrcella | Shireen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mya Stone | Bella | Gendry | Edric Storm | Barra | Unknown twins | 9 Others | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
References and Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 30, Eddard VII.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 4, Eddard I.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 42, Daenerys IV.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 35, Eddard IX.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Prologue.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 2, Catelyn I.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 55, Jon VII.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 29, Arya V.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 12, Eddard II.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 25, Tyrion VI.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 6, Jon I.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 33, Eddard VIII.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 39, Eddard X.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 47, Eddard XIII.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 5, Jon I.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 27, Daenerys II.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 22, Catelyn II.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 34, Arya VI.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 36, Davos IV.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 37, Jaime V.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 52, Sansa IV.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 42, The King's Prize.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Margaery Tyrell married 1st Renly, 2nd Joffrey, 3rd Tommen
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