Joffrey Baratheon

Joffrey Baratheon inherited a crown from a father he barely resembled and a cruelty that owed nothing to either of the houses he claimed, and the Seven Kingdoms spent his brief reign discovering exactly how badly a realm can be governed by a boy who has never once been told no. He collected humiliations the way other princes collect swords, dispensing them freely to prisoners, subjects, and betrothed alike, and mistook the crown's power for a permission slip rather than a responsibility. Councilors older and shrewder than Joffrey found him nearly impossible to steer, since a king convinced of his own cleverness rarely takes advice from men he considers beneath him. A maester records, without much effort to disguise his relief, that the realm mourned this king rather less than protocol strictly required.