content: '''Robert Baratheon''' is a fictional character in the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series of epic fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin, and its television adaptation ''Game of Thrones''.
  Introduced in 1996's ''A Game of Thrones'', Robert Baratheon is the eldest son and heir of Lord Steffon Baratheon and Lady Cassana Estermont of Storm's End, the lord paramount of the Stormlands, one of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, and brother to Stannis and Renly. After his betrothed Lyanna Stark was kidnapped by Rhaegar Targaryen, Robert, along with the aid of her brother and his close friend, Eddard Stark, and their foster guardian Jon Arryn, initiated a bloody rebellion against the "Mad King" Aerys II Targaryen.  After crushing the Targaryen dynasty and winning the war, Robert took the Iron Throne and established the Baratheon dynasty as its first king.  However, due to Lyanna's untimely death during the war, Robert instead married Tywin Lannister's daughter Cersei to ensure political stability. Although Robert's rule has been relatively peaceful, he proves to be an ineffective ruler and is unhappy in both his marriage to Cersei and his responsibilities as king, instead living a life of infidelity and wanton excess. He has fathered many bastards, unaware that his three children by Cersei were in fact fathered by her twin brother Jaime Lannister as products of incest.
  Although Robert is killed in the first novel, the legacy of his rebellion and rule continues to have great impact on the contemporary events of Westeros. His death creates a power vacuum in which both of his brothers, Cersei's eldest son Joffrey, and several other claimants fight for control of the Seven Kingdoms, known as the War of Five Kings.
  Robert is portrayed by English actor Mark Addy in the HBO television adaptation.