Betrayal and slaughter in the throne room

Eddard Stark, newly named Lord Protector of the Realm by the dying King Robert Baratheon, limped into the throne room on the morning after the king's death, supported by Petyr Baelish. His shattered leg throbbed beneath its plaster cast, but he carried Robert's sealed letter as his warrant. Before him, Joffrey Baratheon sat atop the Iron Throne in a cloth-of-gold doublet and a red satin cape, flanked by five knights of the Kingsguard in full enameled armor and twenty Lannister guardsmen in crimson cloaks and lion-crested helms. Behind the throne, Sandor Clegane stood in his snarling dog's-head helm. Yet the hall also held the gold-cloaked ranks of the City Watch, two thousand strong, lining the walls in front of Robert's hunting tapestries. Janos Slynt, their commander, wore ornate black-and-gold plate and carried a high-crested helm under one arm. Ned believed the Watch outnumbered the Lannisters five to one, and he had paid six thousand gold dragons—a third for the commander, a third for the officers, a third for the men—to secure their loyalty. He was wrong.

The Reading of the Will and the Queen's Defiance

When Joffrey commanded the council to arrange his coronation and accept oaths of fealty, Ned produced Robert's letter. Varys carried it to Cersei Lannister, who glanced at the words—"Protector of the Realm"—and ripped the parchment in half, then into quarters, letting the pieces flutter to the floor. "Those were the king's words," Ser Barristan Selmy said, shocked. Cersei replied that they had a new king now, and offered Ned a choice: bend the knee and swear fealty to her son, and be allowed to step down as Hand and live out his days in the north. Ned refused. "Your son has no claim to the throne he sits," he declared. "Lord Stannis is Robert's true heir." Joffrey screamed "Liar!" and his face reddened. Cersei called for Ser Barristan to seize the traitor, but the Lord Commander hesitated, and in an instant he was surrounded by Stark guardsmen with bare steel in their fists. "And now the treason moves from words to deeds," Cersei said. With an ominous rasp, the Hound drew his longsword, and the knights of the Kingsguard and the twenty Lannister guardsmen moved to support him. Joffrey screamed from the throne, "Kill him! Kill all of them, I command it!"

The Betrayal of the Gold Cloaks

Ned called out to Janos Slynt: "Commander, take the queen and her children into custody. Do them no harm, but escort them back to the royal apartments and keep them there, under guard." Slynt donned his helm and shouted, "Men of the Watch!" A hundred gold cloaks leveled their spears and closed—but not on the Lannisters. With a single sharp thrust, the nearest gold cloak drove his spear into Tomard's back. The point burst through his ribs, piercing leather and mail, and Fat Tom was dead before his sword hit the floor. Janos Slynt himself slashed open Varly's throat. Cayn whirled, steel flashing, driving back the nearest spearman with a flurry of blows, but the Hound was on him. Sandor Clegane's first cut took off Cayn's sword hand at the wrist; his second drove him to his knees and opened him from shoulder to breastbone. As his men died around him, Littlefinger slid Ned's own dagger from its sheath and shoved it up under his chin. "I did warn you not to trust me, you know," he said with an apologetic smile.

Aftermath and the Fall of Stark Power

The slaughter was swift and complete. Tomard, Varly, and Cayn lay dead on the marble floor. Ned's remaining guardsmen were overwhelmed. The gold cloaks, bought with Lannister gold and commanded by a man raised to lordship for his treachery, had never been his. Eddard Stark was taken alive, his shattered leg a blaze of agony, and thrown into a dungeon cell beneath the Red Keep. The Lannisters now held the capital, the king, and the Hand of the King. The Stark cause in King's Landing was broken. Sansa Stark, who had watched from the gallery, was confined to Maegor's Holdfast. Arya Stark escaped the castle through a sewer tunnel, but her father's fate was sealed. The betrayal in the throne room did not merely end a single confrontation; it dismantled the last obstacle to Lannister rule, set the stage for Ned's public execution on the steps of the Great Sept of Baelor, and plunged the Seven Kingdoms into the war that would come to be called the War of the Five Kings.