King in the North

King in the North,^[1][a] colloquially known as theKing of Winter,^[3] is the title given to the ruler of theNorth during its time as an independent kingdom, before and after the coming of theTargaryens.House Stark rules the North as its monarchs as they have been for thousands of years beforeAegon's Conquest.

History[]

The ancient Kings of Winter[]

House Stark ruled as Kings in the North stretching back into the mists of time, before written history began six thousand years ago, when theAndalsinvaded all of southernWesteros. When the Andals arrived, the Stark Kings in the North were already ruling atWinterfell. According to legend, the first King in the North wasBran the Builder, who lived eight thousand years ago. According to the legends, he led the forces of the North in theWar for the Dawn against theWhite Walkers and built theWall to guard against their return, and also began construction of Winterfell. The Kings in the North were successfully able to fend off the Andals from invading, holding the line of theNeck at the choke point ofMoat Cailin. As a result, the North remained the only independent kingdom of theFirst Men, with little to no ethnic imprint by the Andals. This also meant that theFaith of the Seven practiced by the Andals gained little foothold in the North, where the Kings of Winter continued their worship of theOld Gods.

Although all the kings of Westeros sent men to join theNight's Watch, the Kings in the North, due to their proximity to the Wall, had the duty of policing the Watch when needed. In this capacity, theyexecuteddeserters, intervened in disputes amongst commanders, and even on some occasions dealt with threats that somehow slipped past the Wall.

The Targaryen Conquest[]

DuringAegon's Conquest, by the time KingTorrhen Stark gathered his armies to challenge the invaders,Aegon the Conqueror had already won the decisiveField of Fire and conquered most of southern Westeros. Seeing that the war was already lost and that the Northern armies had no hope of driving back Aegon's armies and hisdragons, Torrhen wisely chose to spare his people bybending the knee, although it earned him the derisive nickname "the king who knelt". 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 theIron Throne. They held the titles ofLord of Winterfell andWarden of the North. The Starks thus retained their ancient positions and traditions, including their duties policing the Night's Watch.^[4][5][6][7]

Three centuries later, House Stark was amongst the rebelhouses duringRobert's Rebellion, in which the Targaryen dynasty was deposed andRobert crowned as the newking. The Starks were actually the primary wounded party of the events leading up to the rebellion:Lyanna Stark was allegedlykidnapped byRhaegar Targaryen, while her fatherRickard and brotherBrandon were brutallymurdered on trumped-up charges oftreason byKing Aerys.

After the war, House Stark continued to faithfully serve the crown, asKing Robert ofHouse Baratheon was one of their closest friends, although they rarely attended court inKing's Landing.

The new Kings in the North[]

During the opening stages of theWar of the Five Kings, LordRobb Stark was proclaimed as the new King in the North by his bannermen, the first in 300 years. Outraged by the imprisonment and then wantonexecution of Robb's fatherEddard by Robert's successorJoffrey Baratheon, the noble lords of the North openly rebelled against theIron Throne. 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. 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 evenRenly Baratheon.

Greatjon Umber, who was tired of being ruled by southern lords thousands of miles away, pointed out that it was the Dragon-Kings of House Targaryen that the North had submitted to, but now they were dead. Robert Baratheon had been their ally, but now he was dead too, and his younger brothers meant nothing to him. Meanwhile, the truth of Joffrey's origins are being circulated, as Joffrey,Myrcella, andTommen are not Robert's children nor of Baratheon blood, but the illegitimate offspring ofCersei andJaime Lannister with no claim to the Baratheon line. At the council, Lord Umber declared that there is only one king he would ever serve, the King in the North.Rickard Karstark,Maege Mormont,Galbart Glover, andJonos Bracken, a local riverlord, were among those who swore fealty to Robb, as didTheon Greyjoy. The call was then taken up by all of Robb's bannermen, chanting "the King in the North!"^[8] Soon after being declared King in the North by acclamation of his bannermen, King Robb sent a formal declaration of independence to the QueenRegent,Cersei Lannister, proclaiming that "from this time until the end of time we are a free and independent kingdom."^[9]

Robb was declared king by not just the northern lords, but also several of the lords of theRiverlands, as theStarks had come to relieve the Riverlands from an invasion by theLannisters. Also, Robb's mother isCatelyn Tully, daughter ofHoster Tully, the lord ofRiverrun, and thus Robb is by rights a blood relation ofHouse Tully, theliege lords of the Riverlands. Therefore, King Robb's claimed kingdom includes both the North and the Riverlands. However, in practice, during the course of the War of the Five Kings, Robb's forces only maintain firm control of the Riverlands north of theTrident, particularly around the regional capital of Riverrun. All of the Riverlands south of here, between theRed Fork of the Trident and theGods Eye, are a warzone betweenLannister and Stark forces.

The "Kingdom of the North" came to a temporary end after theRed Wedding whenRoose Bolton, who conspired withHouse Frey and House Lannister, initiated a massacre of the northern army and personally stabbed Robb Stark through the heart.^[10] After that, he became the new Warden of the North as a reward byTywin Lannister.^[11]

However, the "Kingdom of the North" was reestablished after a short few years underBolton rule, when the Starks led byJon Snow andSansa Stark later gathered an army of Northern Houses still loyal to House Stark, theFree Folk, and theKnights of the Vale and retook Winterfell from the Boltons.^[12] With the Boltons defeated, Jon Snow was proclaimed the new King in the North, reasserting the North's independence from the Iron Throne, this time allied with theVale of Arryn - whoseruler,Robin Arryn, is also a grandson of Hoster Tully - instead of the Riverlands, which had recently been completely dominated by the Lannisters and Freys due to their victory at thesecond siege of Riverrun. However,Walder Frey and all of his sons were secretlymassacred shortly afterward byArya Stark in retaliation for their roles in the Red Wedding, severely weakening the Freys' hold on the Riverlands.^[13]

In order to gain her full support in theGreat War, Jonbent the knee to QueenDaenerys Targaryen, renouncing his title as king and reintegrating the North and the Vale into the Seven Kingdoms once they defeat theWhite Walkers, andHouse Targaryen reascends to theIron Throne. However,Bran Stark andSamwell Tarly, with the help ofGilly, have discovered that "Jon" is in fact the legitimate son ofRhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, with his real name being Aegon Targaryen. Being the son of Rhaegar puts him ahead of Daenerys in the line of succession to the Iron Throne.^[14]

After thedeath ofDaenerys Targaryen,Sansa Stark declared independence from the Iron Throne and thus the "Kingdom in the North" was reestablished once again. While her brotherBran Stark ruled theSix Kingdoms, Sansa became the new Queen in the North.^[15]

List of Kings and Queens in the North[]

Ancient Kings in the North[]

• Brandon the Builder
• Brandon Stark, also known as "Brandon the Breaker"
• Dorren Stark
• Rodrik Stark
• Jon Stark
• Rickard Stark, also known as "The Laughing Wolf"
• Theon Stark, also known as "The Hungry Wolf"
• Torrhen Stark, also known as "The King Who Knelt"

New Kings in the North (298 AC–present)[]

• 298–300 AC:Robb Stark, also known as "The Young Wolf" and "The King Who Lost the North"
• 303–304 AC:Jon Snow, also known as "The White Wolf"
• 305 AC–Present:Sansa Stark

In the books[]

In theA Song of Ice and Fire novels, the monarchs of the Stark proto-kingdom centered around Winterfell itself called themselves the "Kings of Winter", back when the North was divided into over a dozen petty kingdoms. Gradually, the Kings of Winter extended their hegemony over these other petty kingdoms, eliminating them or absorbing them through marriage, and uniting them from time to time in alliance to throw back wildling invasions, etc. Their greatest rivals were theRed Kings of House Bolton, whose kingdom was centered around theDreadfort on the eastern shore. The Starks finally subdued the Boltons and unified the North just around the time that thecoming of the Andals began, about 6,000 years ago. As a sign of their new control over the entire region, they gradually shifted from calling themselves "Kings of Winter" to calling themselves "Kings in the North" around this time (the phrasing is always "King in the North",never "King of the North"). They were still sometimes also colloquially called the "Kings of Winter" up until the Targaryen Conquest.

According to myth, the first King of Winter was Bran the Builder, the great lord who builtWinterfell, theWall, and founded theNight's Watch following the defeat of theWhite Walkers at the Battle for the Dawn. The King in the North held all the lands of the North south to theNeck, where the ancient fortress ofMoat Cailin threw back every invasion attempt by the southern kingdoms and, later, theAndals.

Before Robb Stark, the last King in the North was Torrhen Stark. During the invasion of Aegon the Conqueror, Torrhen led a great host to the banks of the Red Fork of theTrident, meaning to give battle, but after hearing tales of the Field of Fire and upon seeing the size of Aegon's host and the presence of hisdragons, Torrhen realized his cause was hopeless. Instead, he knelt and swore fealty to Aegon. Aegon acknowledged him and House Stark as the rulers of the North in the name of the Iron Throne.

Many kings are mentioned in the final chapter of "A Clash of Kings", among them: Edwyn the Spring King, Brandon the Burner, Brandon the Shipwright, Benjen the Bitter, Benjen the Sweet, and Theon Stark.

They had a crown that was lost to Aegon the Conqueror. In "A Clash of Kings", Robb Stark has a new one made, matching the old one to a very precise description: an open circlet of bronze with no gemstones, topped by a row of nine black iron spikes shaped like longswords. The crown was made of only simple iron and bronze because they are the metals of war.

As of the latest published book, "A Dance With Dragons", Jon Snow's chapters end in themutiny against him atCastle Black and as such, it is currently unknown if he will become the King in the North in future books. While it is revealed that Jon is Robb's chosen successor (prior tohis death, Robb signed a royal decree that made Jon his heir), Jon remains unaware of this position and his fate after the mutiny is uncertain.

References[]

Notes[]

External links[]

• King in the North onA Wiki of Ice and Fire

v • d • e
Head	Sansa Stark	Heir	Arya Stark
Seat	Winterfell	Region	North
Titles	King in the North ·Lord of Winterfell ·Warden of the North(under the Iron Throne)
Ancestors	Brandon the Builder ·Brandon the Breaker ·Dorren Stark ·Jon Stark ·Rickard Stark ·Rodrik Stark ·Karlon Stark ·Theon Stark ·Osric Stark ·Torrhen Stark ·Brandon Snow ·Rickon Stark ·Cregan Stark ·Joren Stark
Members	Bran I, the Broken ·Jon Snow
Deceased	Rickard Stark ·Brandon Stark ·Lyanna Stark ·Eddard Stark ·Robb Stark ·Talisa Stark ·Catelyn Stark ·Rickon Stark ·Benjen Stark
Household	{Maester Luwin} · {Ser Rodrik Cassel} · {Jory Cassel} · {Vayon Poole} ·Jeyne Poole · {Septa Mordane} · {Old Nan} · {Hodor} ·Farlen ·Mikken · {Osha} · {Jojen Reed} ·Maester Wolkan