Robert Baratheon won the Iron Throne on a battlefield rather than through any birthright, leading a rebellion sparked by a stolen bride and fought, by his own reckoning, chiefly with a hammer and a grudge. He proved a superb war-leader and, by nearly every account including his own, an indifferent king, preferring the hunt and the tourney and his cups to the tedious business of actually governing a realm he had bled to win. Seventeen years on the throne left him deep in debt to the family he trusted least, married to a wife he never loved, and visibly relieved whenever an old friend arrived to shoulder the crown's actual work for him. A maester observes that few rebels have won a throne so decisively and then done so little, once seated on it, to deserve keeping it.
Robert Baratheon
King Robert
- Life
- no fixed AC year given; in his late thirties, by internal description, when the story opens
- House
- Baratheon
- Titles
- King of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men
- Allegiance
- House Baratheon
- Seat
- The Red Keep, King's Landing; Storm's End (birth seat)
- Culture
- Stormlands
- Religion
- The Faith of the Seven, nominally
- Weapon
- A war hammer
- Notable for
- Leading the rebellion that toppled the Targaryen dynasty at the Battle of the Trident
The chronicle need only say that his reign proved shorter than his rebellion.
Where they appear
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.
Key events
- before Robert's RebellionBorn and raised at Storm's End, fostered partly at the Eyrie alongside Ned Stark.
- 282-283 ACLeads Robert's Rebellion against the Targaryen dynasty after his betrothed is taken from him.
- 283 ACKills Prince Rhaegar Targaryen in single combat at the Battle of the Trident.
- 283 ACCrowned king after the Sack of King's Landing.
- 283-284 ACMarries Cersei Lannister to cement his new dynasty's alliances.
- 298 ACNames his old friend Eddard Stark his Hand of the King.
- 298 ACDies of wounds taken while hunting.
Reading the character
Robert's brief appearance sets up one of the series' foundational ironies: the man who won a kingdom through decisive, effective violence proves almost entirely unsuited to the patient, administrative work of holding it, and spends his reign delegating that job to men he alternately resents and depends on.
His marriage and household, seen mostly in retrospect through other characters, also quietly establish the buried secret the first book's plot turns on, making Robert less a king in his own right on the page than the trigger for the crisis everyone else has to survive.
The arc of Robert Baratheon
This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
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
Explore further
House
Battles fought
Is Robert Baratheon alive?
No — the chronicle need only say that his reign proved shorter than his rebellion; the particulars belong to Eddard Stark's own veiled record.
Who is Robert Baratheon?
The rebel lord who toppled the Targaryen dynasty at the Trident and ruled the Seven Kingdoms afterward with considerably less enthusiasm than he'd fought for them.