King Robert Baratheon I

• Individual Picture Notes
  • Mark Addy as King Robert Baratheon in HBO Game of Thrones

• General Notes
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    Robert Baratheon has been king of Westeros for 15 years. During his youth he was a formidable warrior, but after he was crowned King, he ate and drank heavily, eventually growing into a very large fat man with a long beard.
    
    When Robert was young, he was fostered at the Eyrie along with Eddard Stark of the North. The two became close, both to each other and also to their foster father, Lord Jon Arryn. At some point, Robert's parents were lost to a shipwreck, making him lord of the Stormlands. He also became betrothed to Ned's sister Lyanna Stark, whom he loved deeply albeit from a distance.
    
    When Rhaegar Targaryen seemingly kidnapped Lyanna, Robert was enraged by the abduction, and by the thought of Rhaegar raping her. Brandon Stark, Lyanna's brother, became even more enraged and rode straight to King's Landing, where he was captured and executed by Aerys Targaryen.
    
    Eventually Aerys ordered Jon Arryn to present him with the heads of Robert and Eddard Stark.  Instead, Jon Arryn rose in rebellion against Aerys, and the three lords called their banners and began Robert's Rebellion, known as "The War of the Usurper."  Though he won his war and killed Rhaegar personally on the Trident, Robert did not get Lyanna back, as she died under unknown circumstances. Robert was thereafter haunted by her memory and bore an irrational hatred against Targaryens in general, and Rhaegar in particular.
    
    In the aftermath of the war, Robert assumed the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms.  In lieu of Lyanna, he married Cersei Lannister to cement her family's loyalty to his rule, and Cersei was named Queen.  Robert and Cersei's relationship is a cold and unloving one, but she has given Robert three children -- by an incestuous relationship with her brother, Jaime.  Robert remains a lusty man and a notorious whoremonger who has a dozen or more bastards to his discredit.  He also remains a boisterous lover of drink, generous to a fault, and entirely unsuited to ruling the Seven Kingdoms.
    
    Robert named Jon Arryn his Hand of the King and left much of the governance of the realm in Arryn's hands. Fond of feasts, celebrations, and tourneys, Robert has squandered the vast treasury of the Iron Throne left by King Aerys -- he has put the crown heavily in debt. He is killed by a wild boar while hunting, leaving the realm divided, leading to the War of the Five Kings.
    

Wife's Pictures

• Picture Notes
  • Lena Headey as Queen Cersei Lannister in HBO Game of Thrones