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At a council of Robb's bannermen, some were undecided about whether they should support the rival claims to the throne by Robert's younger brothers, Stannis Baratheon or even Renly Baratheon. Joffrey had brashly intended to shock the North into submission by executing Ned Stark, but instead, this drove the Northern lords to their decision that they would never submit to Joffrey, no matter the odds against them. Outraged by the imprisonment and then wanton execution of Robb's father Eddard by Robert's successor Joffrey Baratheon, the noble lords of the North openly rebelled against the Iron Throne. " There sits the only king I mean to bend my knee to: the King in the North!" ―Lord Greatjon Umber, indicating King Robb Stark ĭuring the opening stages of the War of the Five Kings, Lord Robb Stark was proclaimed as the new King in the North by his bannermen, the first in 300 years. The Starks were actually the primary wounded party of the events leading up to the rebellion: Lyanna Stark was allegedly kidnapped by Rhaegar Targaryen, while her father Rickard and brother Brandon were brutally murdered on trumped-up charges of treason by King Aerys.Īfter the war, House Stark continued to faithfully serve the crown, as King Robert of House Baratheon was one of their closest friends, although they rarely attended court in King's Landing. Three centuries later, House Stark was amongst the rebel Houses during Robert's Rebellion, in which the Targaryen dynasty was deposed and Robert crowned as the new king. The Starks thus retained their ancient positions and traditions, including their duties policing the Night's Watch. They held the titles of Lord Paramount of the North, Lord of Winterfell, and Warden of the North. In return for Torrhen's submission, Aegon allowed House Stark to continue ruling the North as they had for thousands of years, but as vassals of the Iron Throne. Seeing that the war was already lost and that the Northern armies had no hope of driving back Aegon's armies and his dragons, Torrhen wisely chose to spare his people by bending the knee, although it earned him the derisive nickname "the king who knelt". In this capacity, they executed deserters, intervened in disputes amongst commanders, and even on some occasions dealt with threats that somehow slipped past the Wall.ĭuring the War of Conquest, by the time King Torrhen Stark gathered his armies to challenge the invaders, Aegon the Conqueror had already won the decisive Field of Fire and conquered most of southern Westeros. This also meant that the Faith of the Seven practiced by the Andals gained little foothold in the North, where the Kings of Winter continued their worship of the Old Gods of the Forest.Īlthough all the kings of Westeros sent men to join the Night's Watch, the Kings in the North, due to their proximity to the Wall, had the duty of policing the Watch when needed. As a result, the North remained the only independent kingdom of the First Men, with little to no ethnic imprint by the Andals. The Kings in the North were successfully able to fend off the Andals from invading, holding the line of the Neck at the choke point of Moat Cailin. According to the legends, he led the forces of the North in the War for the Dawn against the White Walkers and built the Wall to guard against their return, and also began construction of Winterfell. According to legend, the first King in the North was Brandon Stark, better known as Bran the Builder, who lived eight thousand years ago. When the Andals arrived, the Stark Kings in the North were already ruling at Winterfell. House Stark ruled as Kings in the North stretching back into the mists of time, before written history began six thousand years ago, when the Andals invaded all of southern Westeros. The ancient crown of the King in the North History of the title The Ancient Kings of Winter