Sack of King's Landing

The Sack of King's Landing was the brutal climax of Robert Baratheon's rebellion, in which Lord Tywin Lannister, professing loyalty to the Mad King Aerys II Targaryen, treacherously opened the city gates to his army, resulting in the massacre of the royal family and the fall of the Targaryen dynasty.

Causes and Background

For close to a year, the war had raged across the Seven Kingdoms. Lords great and small had flocked to Robert Baratheon's banners, while others remained loyal to the Targaryens. The mighty Lannisters of Casterly Rock, the Wardens of the West, had remained aloof from the struggle, ignoring calls to arms from both rebels and royalists. Aerys II Targaryen must have thought that his gods had answered his prayers when Lord Tywin Lannister appeared before the gates of King's Landing with an army twelve thousand strong, professing loyalty. So the mad king had ordered his last mad act: he had opened his city to the lions at the gate. The lion of Lannister flew over the ramparts, not the crowned stag, and they had taken the city by treachery.

What Happens

Ned Stark, riding into the throne room after the city fell, found Aerys II dead on the floor, drowned in his own blood. His dragon skulls stared down from the walls. Lannister's men were everywhere. Jaime Lannister wore the white cloak of the Kingsguard over his golden armor. Even his sword was gilded. He was seated on the Iron Throne, high above his knights, wearing a helm fashioned in the shape of a lion's head. When Ned Stark rode the length of the hall in silence, between the long rows of dragon skulls, and stopped in front of the throne, Jaime Lannister laughed and got up. He took off his helm and said, "Have no fear, Stark. I was only keeping it warm for our friend Robert. It's not a very comfortable seat, I'm afraid." The bodies of Rhaegar's wife and children were laid beneath the Iron Throne, wrapped in the crimson cloaks of Lord Tywin's house guard. The little princess had been barefoot, still dressed in her bed gown. The boy had been no more than a babe in arms, yet Lord Tywin's soldiers had torn him from his mother's breast and dashed his head against a wall. Rhaegar's little girl had cried as they dragged her from beneath her bed to face the swords. Ned Stark named that murder; Robert called it war. When Ned protested that the young prince and princess were no more than babes, his new-made king had replied, "I see no babes. Only dragonspawn."

Consequences and Aftermath

The sack ended the Targaryen dynasty's three-hundred-year rule over the Seven Kingdoms. Robert Baratheon ascended the Iron Throne, and the realm entered a new era. The massacre of Rhaegar's children created a lasting stain on the new regime, particularly in Dorne, where Princess Elia Martell's family still brooded on the murder. The event also cemented the enmity between Eddard Stark and the Lannisters; Ned never forgot the sight of the children's bodies, and the memory haunted him for the rest of his life. The sack also revealed the ruthless pragmatism of Lord Tywin Lannister, who had waited to see which side would win before committing his forces, and then secured his place in the new order through a brutal act of treachery. The event also marked the moment when Jaime Lannister earned the name "Kingslayer" for killing the king he had sworn to protect, a title that would shadow him for the rest of his days.