Small Update: The Children of Robert Baratheon (Spoilers Extended)
About a year ago I made a post trying to find the identity of the 8 bastards of Robert Baratheon that Varys knows about.
Since the post, I've come across a few notes, and thoughts so I thought it would be fun to update.
#Background
Robert had 16 bastards according to Maggy the Frog's prophecy
Anger flashed across the child's face. "If she tries I will have my brother kill her." Even then she would not stop, willful child as she was. She still had one more question due her, one more glimpse into her life to come. "Will the king and I have children?" she asked. "Oh, aye. Six-and-ten for him, and three for you." That made no sense to Cersei. Her thumb was throbbing where she'd cut it, and her blood was dripping on the carpet. How could that be? she wanted to ask, but she was done with her questions. -AFFC, Cersei VIII
Varys knows of 8 of these 16
"He fathered eight, to the best of my knowing," Varys said as he wrestled with the saddle. "Their mothers were copper and honey, chestnut and butter, yet the babes were all black as ravens . . . and as ill-omened, it would seem. So when Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen slid out between your sister's thighs, each as golden as the sun, the truth was not hard to glimpse." -ACOK, Tyrion III
#The Reader's Knowledge
So far the reader has encountered/heard about 7 of the bastards.
Gendry
The master called over a tall lad about Robb's age, his arms and chest corded with muscle. "This is Lord Stark, the new Hand of the King," he told him as the boy looked at Ned through sullen blue eyes and pushed back sweat-soaked hair with his fingers. Thick hair, shaggy and unkempt and black as ink. The shadow of a new beard darkened his jaw. "This is Gendry. Strong for his age, and he works hard. Show the Hand that helmet you made, lad." Almost shyly, the boy led them to his bench, and a steel helm shaped like a bull's head, with two great curving horns. -AGOT, Eddard VI
Barra
The girl had been so young Ned had not dared to ask her age. No doubt she'd been a virgin; the better brothels could always find a virgin, if the purse was fat enough. She had light red hair and a powdering of freckles across the bridge of her nose, and when she slipped free a breast to give her nipple to the babe, he saw that her bosom was freckled as well. "I named her Barra," she said as the child nursed. "She looks so like him, does she not, milord? She has his nose, and his hair …"
"She does." Eddard Stark had touched the baby's fine, dark hair. It flowed through his fingers like black silk. Robert's firstborn had had the same fine hair, he seemed to recall. -AGOT, Eddard IX
Mya Stone
Ned remembered Robert's first child as well, a daughter born in the Vale when Robert was scarcely more than a boy himself. A sweet little girl; the young lord of Storm's End had doted on her. He used to make daily visits to play with the babe, long after he had lost interest in the mother. Ned was often dragged along for company, whether he willed it or not. The girl would be seventeen or eighteen now, he realized; older than Robert had been when he fathered her. A strange thought. -AGOT, Eddard VII
and:
When Alayne returned to the winch room, she found Mya Stone waiting impatiently with Lothor Brune and Mord. She must have come up in the bucket to see what was taking us so long. Slim and sinewy, Mya looked as tough as the old riding leathers she wore beneath her silvery ringmail shirt. Her hair was black as a raven's wing, so short and shaggy that Alayne suspected that she cut it with a dagger. Mya's eyes were her best feature, big and blue. She could be pretty, if she would dress up like a girl. Alayne found herself wondering whether Ser Lothor liked her best in her iron and leather, or dreamed of her gowned in lace and silk. Mya liked to say that her father had been a goat and her mother an owl, but Alayne had gotten the true story from Maddy. Yes, she thought, looking at her now, those are his eyes, and she has his hair too, the thick black hair he shared with Renly. -AFFC, Alayne II
Edric Storm
"There's proof of a sort at Storm's End. Robert's bastard. The one he fathered on my wedding night, in the very bed they'd made up for me and my bride. Delena was a Florent, and a maiden when he took her, so Robert acknowledged the babe. Edric Storm, they call him. He is said to be the very image of my brother. If men were to see him, and then look again at Joffrey and Tommen, they could not help but wonder, I would think." -ACOK, Davos I
and:
"Of course you are." Davos had known that almost at once. The lad had the prominent ears of a Florent, but the hair, the eyes, the jaw, the cheekbones, those were all Baratheon. -ASOS, Davos II
Bella
Some might argued its not confirmed. Its close enough imo.
"Well, I might be." When the girl shrugged, her gown slipped off one shoulder. "They say King Robert fucked my mother when he hid here, back before the battle. Not that he didn't have all the other girls too, but Leslyn says he liked my ma the best."
The girl did have hair like the old king's, Arya thought; a great thick mop of it, as black as coal. That doesn't mean anything, though. Gendry has the same kind of hair too. Lots of people have black hair.
"I'm named Bella," the girl told Gendry. "For the battle. I bet I could ring your bell, too. You want to?" -ASOS, Arya V
Twins at Casterly Rock
"Does it matter? If you bed enough women, some will give you presents, and His Grace has never been shy on that count. I know he's acknowledged that boy at Storm's End, the one he fathered the night Lord Stannis wed. He could hardly do otherwise. The mother was a Florent, niece to the Lady Selyse, one of her bedmaids. Renly says that Robert carried the girl upstairs during the feast, and broke in the wedding bed while Stannis and his bride were still dancing. Lord Stannis seemed to think that was a blot on the honor of his wife's House, so when the boy was born, he shipped him off to Renly." He gave Ned a sideways glance. "I've also heard whispers that Robert got a pair of twins on a serving wench at Casterly Rock, three years ago when he went west for Lord Tywin's tourney. Cersei had the babes killed, and sold the mother to a passing slaver. Too much an affront to Lannister pride, that close to home." -AGOT, Eddard IX
#Thoughts/Theories
While it can't be 100% confirmed that 7 the reader knows about that Varys knows about as well, but I think that all of them are quite likely options for Varys to know about. But the question is raised, who else does Varys know about?
Back in that original post of mine some of the following ideas were mentioned:
- Taena Merryweather's son Russell (Her husband seems uninterested in her and she seems to not want to bring him around Cersei and its also possible she slept with robert to get her husband's lands back)
The horn-of-plenty Hand. Jaime remembered Owen Merryweather well enough; an amiable man, but ineffectual. "As I recall, he did so well that Aerys exiled him and seized his lands."
"Robert gave them back. Some, at least. Taena would be pleased if Orton could recover the rest."
and:
But it was no good. She could not feel it, whatever Robert felt on the nights he took her. There was no pleasure in it, not for her. For Taena, yes. Her nipples were two black diamonds, her sex slick and steamy. Robert would have loved you, for an hour. The queen slid a finger into that Myrish swamp, then another, moving them in and out, but once he spent himself inside you, he would have been hard-pressed to recall your name.
and:
Not so Orton Merryweather, whose round face remained blotched and pale from broth to cheese. He drank heavily and kept stealing glances at the singer.
and:
Of late she had shared the queen's bed more often than Lord Merryweather's. Orton did not seem to mind . . . or if he did, he knew better than to say so.
"Robert gave them back. Some, at least. Taena would be pleased if Orton could recover the rest."
- Bastard via his cousin on Greenstone aka Greenshit
There had been a female cousin too, a chunky little widow with breasts as big as melons whose husband and father had both died at Storm's End during the siege. "Her father was good to me," Robert told her, "and she and I would play together when the two of us were small." It did not take him long to start playing with her again. As soon as Cersei closed her eyes, the king would steal off to console the poor lonely creature. One night she had Jaime follow him, to confirm her suspicions. When her brother returned he asked her if she wanted Robert dead. "No," she had replied, "I want him horned." She liked to think that was the night when Joffrey was conceived. -AFFC, Cersei V
- The Wall (Characters such as Satin/Grenn)
#Update
Since this post I've came across/come up with the following:
Grenn is a Possible Bastard of Robert Baratheon (not a very serious theory but some of the parallels are super cool, but Grenn's beard is described as brown at one point so that probably disqualifies him)
Satin
Satin has dark eyes:
The boy claimed to be eighteen, older than Jon, but he was green as summer grass for all that. Satin, they called him, even in the wool and mail and boiled leather of the Night's Watch; the name he'd gotten in the brothel where he'd been born and raised. He was pretty as a girl with his dark eyes, soft skin, and raven's ringlets. Half a year at Castle Black had toughened up his hands, however, and Noye said he was passable with a crossbow. Whether he had the courage to face what was coming, though .
Greenstone/Estermont has fallen to fAegon and the Golden Company and they have taken hostages
If Robert had a bastard with his cousin on Estermont (and she had the child), we have a possible chance to see him in the Jon Con/Arianne chapers.
Later that day, garbed and gloved once more, Connington made an inspection of the castle and sent word to Homeless Harry Strickland and his captains to join him for a war council. Nine of them assembled in the solar: Connington and Strickland, Haldon Halfmaester, Black Balaq, Ser Franklyn Flowers, Malo Jayn, Ser Brendel Byrne, Dick Cole, and Lymond Pease. The Halfmaester had good tidings. "Word's reached the camp from Marq Mandrake. The Volantenes put him ashore on what turned out to be Estermont, with close to five hundred men. He's taken Greenstone."
"I expect they did," said Jon Connington, "but what messages would they have carried? At best, some garbled account of raiders from the sea." Even before they had sailed from Volon Therys, he had instructed his captains to show no banners during these first attacks—not Prince Aegon's three-headed dragon, nor his own griffins, nor the skulls and golden battle standards of the company. Let the Lannisters suspect Stannis Baratheon, pirates from the Stepstones, outlaws out of the woods, or whoever else they cared to blame. If the reports that reached King's Landing were confused and contradictory, so much the better. The slower the Iron Throne was to react, the longer they would have to gather their strength and bring allies to the cause. There should be ships on Estermont. It is an island. Haldon, send word to Mandrake to leave a garrison behind and bring the rest of his men over to Cape Wrath, along with any noble captives."
"As you command, my lord. House Estermont has blood ties to both kings, as it happens. Good hostages."
"Good ransoms," said Homeless Harry, happily. -ADWD, The Griffin Reborn
So in the upcoming TWOW Jon Connington/Arianne chapters we could see a captive who looks like Robert it would be interesting. Especially since it was with his cousin. Since this child would likely have been conceived around the same time as Joffrey (unless he made return trips), this child would be around 14 years old right now.
Let me know any thoughts you may have on the above or any additional characters. Keep in mind that every one of them has dark hair:
Varys said as he wrestled with the saddle. "Their mothers were copper and honey, chestnut and butter, yet the babes were all black as ravens . . . -ACOK, Tyrion III
And every one except Bella is confirmed to have blue eyes by the main text (the semi-canon app does confirm I believe).
It helps somewhat when looking to start with trips Robert made during different time periods (for instance celebrating the victory on Pyke, etc.)
TLDR: A few extra notes on Robert Baratheon's children. The Golden Company is taking hostages in a potential location of one them and we could see one even if it has no ties to the plot.
Posted Sep 3, 2020, 2:24 PM UTC · edited