House Stark

Eddard Stark

Ned

Life: no fixed AC year given; a grown man with adolescent children when the story opens
House: Stark

The chronicle need only say that his tenure as Hand of the King did not end in his favor.

Eddard Stark ruled the North the way the North expects to be ruled: gravely, honestly, and by a lord willing to swing the sword himself when a sentence needed carrying out. He came to Winterfell's lordship early and unhappily, in a war that cost him a father, a brother, and a sister, and he spent the rest of his life trying to keep the peace that war had bought at such a price. When an old friend turned king summoned him south to serve as Hand, Ned went out of loyalty and duty rather than ambition — virtues the capital he found there did not share and did not reward. A maester notes, with the weary tone proper to his order, that honesty is a fine quality in a lord of the North and a dangerous one in the Red Keep.

The arc of Eddard Stark

This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.

Ned's investigation into the death of his predecessor as Hand uncovers a secret about the royal succession large enough to unmake a dynasty, and his decision to act on that knowledge honestly, rather than ruthlessly, costs him first his freedom and then, on the steps of the Great Sept of Baelor, his head. His fall from favor and death set the entire War of the Five Kings in motion.

Where the books leave Eddard Stark: executed on the steps of the Great Sept of Baelor on Joffrey Baratheon's order in 298 AC, convicted of treason on testimony he had no real chance to answer

These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.

In the timeline

Theories about Eddard Stark

SourcesAGOT · EddardAGOT · BranTWOIAF · Robert's Rebellion

Is Eddard Stark alive?

No — the chronicle need only say that his tenure as Hand of the King did not end in his favor; the particulars are treated in his veiled record.

Who is Eddard Stark?

The honorable Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North who served briefly, and fatally, as Hand of the King to his old friend Robert Baratheon.