Robert Baratheon

Grandson of Lord Ormund Baratheon and raised as a ward of Jon Arryn, Robert was a laughing, red-faced boy who loved fighting more than books — and the rebellion that made him king began when the Mad King murdered his betrothed's father and brother, and Rhaegar Targaryen carried Lyanna Stark away.

He killed Prince Rhaegar on the Trident with a warhammer blow that opened the dragon prince's breast, took the throne by right of conquest, and was given Tywin Lannister's daughter in place of the one he lost. For seventeen years he hunted, drank and delegated — leaving the running of the Seven Kingdoms to Jon Arryn and then to Ned, while his children's parentage went unexamined and the crown's debts multiplied.

He died as he had lived — sideways. A boar gored him on a hunt made safe by the wine those closest to him poured into him, and his dying command to Ned put the realm's succession into the hands of the one man too honest to hold it. The war of the five kings began the day the crown left his brow.