Robert Baratheon was a Terrible King | Video Essay

Gotta admit, despite his flaws, his character was a joy to watch in season 1

Robert's biggest mistake was not keeping his best brothers close. As in foster brother Ned and blood brother Stannis. If Robert had named Ned his hand and Stannis his master of laws the three of them would have been an outstanding triumvirate. Ned would've administered the seven kingdoms with the same morality and attentiveness that he ruled the North. And Stannis would've adjudicated the laws of the land with the resolute fidelity for which he is famous. Instead he irrationally blamed Stannis for not capturing Dragonstone in the middle of a thunderstorm, and spent the next decade and a half going out of his way to alienate and humiliate him. And let his relationship with Ned deteriorate in favor of an alliance with the oath breaking, child murdering Lannisters.

Genghis Khan is often attributed the quote “Conquering the world on horseback is easy; it is dismounting and governing that is hard." Whether or not he really said this, it's a quote that fits Robert Baratheon perfectly.

"He spent his time whoring and hunting and drinking... until the last two killed him." Of course Cersei is the only one in the room who knows that it was actually all 3 that killed him....

My personal headcanon is that Robert spared Bealon because he knew that Bealon would probably rebel again in the future which would have given Robert the chance to fight another war in the future

A good contrast with Robert is Aegon III, who suffered crippling depression due to the events of the Dance of Dragons but managed to be a good king

Robert himself said he was a horrible king when he was dying.

He's one of those popular jock types that peak in high school.

I've recently come to the same conclusion about Robert's reign. The War of Five Kings would not have been possible if not for Robert's misrule. His complacency and decadence allowed corruption to fester in every corner of the capital. And allowed schemers like the Lannisters and Little Finger to gain far more influence in court than they should have ever had. He even actively undermined the members of his council who tried to rule justly on his behalf. Stannis warned him of corruption in the Goldcloaks and even proposed measures of reform which Robert acknowledged and wilfully ignored. Ned warned him about the unscrupulous ambition of the Lannisters before and after Robert tied himself to them through marriage, but Robert ignored him because he lusted after Tywin's treasury.

There is no way in hell that Robert spent 6 million gold dragons all by himself in 15 years. Littlefinger was embezzling. The Hand's tourney was the most lavish one he ever held, and it cost roughly 150k dollars. He would have to hold a tourney the size of Ned's every 2 months for like 15 years to accumulate that amount of debt. Most coin typically goes towards war efforts, but Robert had the longest summer in recent history and no wars for 15 years. Littlefinger was overpaying everyone on the crowns dime, overstaffed themselves intentionally to drain the coffers. When he buys and sells things, he over charges for everything he sells, he keeps the profits for himself, and when he buys things, he lowers the amount of profit made on paper, and also pockets the difference. There is actually hints of this during Jamie's time as Lord Commander because he starts going through the crowns financial books and notices these patterns. Littlefinger was intentionally overpaying for everything to accumulate the debt. It goes largely unnoticed because Littlefinger had a habit of making more coins seemingly "pop" into existence but it was always furthering the debt.

I want to say I think the reaso people forgot Robert was such a bad king is because all his successors were sooooo much worse

If we're being fair, Ned Stark wasn't a good ruler either. He had good intentions, but due to sense of honor & goodness being the forefront of his way of thinking, he fell into every trap easily. In all honesty, this is more Jon Aryn's legacy than Robert's - He raised them both, and the result was 1 man was a drunkard and 1 man who was killed by naivety.

"Robert would've laughed. He was a good man...great warrior....and a terrible king. " - Ser Barristan Selmy.

It's still amazing that he was a better king than every person who held Kings Landing after him. Joffrey: plunged the Realm into war, and was a poor Governor. Tommen: gave King's Landing up to religious fanatics. Cersei: nuked a portion of her city and was a poor Governor. Danaerys: burned an entire city to the ground and almost attempted a world genocide. Bran: allowed a crazy dragon lady to burn down a city and is basically an accessory to genocide. Appoints one of the most inept and drunken men as his hand. Appoints another who doesn't understand how loans work as his Master of Coin. Exiles the man who saved the world. Allows one of his kingdoms to secede and is basically sowing seeds for another civil war

It is like the throne slowly killed him. Robert was never meant to be more than a soldier he was a fighter of legendary status but when it came to literary anything else he would leve a lot to be desired especially if it had to do with thinking. He was so occupied banging everything that moved and drinking whatever didn't, that by the end of his reign the Lannisters basically owned him. I have heard some people saying that the best king is someone who doesn't want to be king but if you ask me a negligent king who doesn't care about wearing his crown can cause just as much damage as a tyrannical one who wears it to tightly.

His parents died when he was young. He was "raised" as a ward by a guy who was never ever described as fatherly, he was a mentor. From the talk of Ned it seems they more raised each other when not in lessons from soldiers and maesters and Jon just provided a safe and comfortable place for them to grow in.

Great video but I have to make a small little nitpick. When Rhaegar crowned Lyanna, Robert was the only one laughing. Of course deep down he was angry, but I think it's important to note that he tries to laugh it off. And that shows how he's the kind of person who usually wants to make light of everything and jest

The best way to describe Robert's 15 year rule I think is that it wasn't prosperous because of him, but rather in spite of him Robert was a complicated character, sure, he was basically the fantasy hero who slayed the dragon (Rhaegar) , but failed to get the girl (Lyanna) and the grief ate him alive. But whereas in most stories the "hero" is given the mercy of their story coming to an end, Robert's fall dragged on and was both told and shown to us in detail. And, unfortunately for the 7 Kingdoms, they suffered the long term consequences of Robert's misrule. Littlefinger wouldn't have been able to bloat the Crown's debt as much as he did if Robert had paid attention to his spending or even if he just had someone he trusted double and triple check his books to make sure everything added up. Hell, in the few weeks that Tyrion was Master of Coin, he noticed that Littlefinger kept his book-keeping unneccesarily complicated and was close to figuring out his ponzy scheme. Ned and Stannis could have been effective advisors and helped create a system of government that wasn't so blatantly corrupt even in the event of Robert's death. Instead he alienated both of them, just barely salvaging his friendship with Ned right before the end. Joffrey wouldn't have come out such a sadistic little sh!t if Robert had paid attention to him beyond when he screwed up and taught him anything about the real world, how his brazen cruelty is both wrong and paints a poor image of him. Instead he left him to Cersey who made him a thousand times worse by filling his head with her own insecurities, hoping to sit on the Throne through Joffrey. Once again, a developement Robert would have caught if he just paid any attention. (And that's not even considering the fact that the 3 children aren't even his) Then there's the fact that 7 of the years of Robert's reign were basically an endless spring which, if he cared, would have allowed for unprecedented prosperity and abundance of food. But ,again, he didn't Overall, Robert was a terrible king who frankly just got super lucky that the people actually running his kingdom were either competent and/or wanted to keep him alive for as long as possible for their own gain

He was a great warrior. He knew it. He also knew he was a horrible king, which is why he allow his foster father to rule as hand of the king and then he allow his best friend to do it

According to Lyanna, Robert (21yo single light-hearted, kind man who was mad about her) isn't faithful, but Rhagar (a 27yo married man with two kids) is faithful, Lyanna was a true genius.