Robert Baratheon’s Historical Inspirations and the Legacy of Edward IV
Robert Baratheon shares similarities with Edward IV and Henry VIII. Historical parallels explored.
King Robert Baratheon may have been inspired by Edward IV, with an additional shade of his nephew Henry VIII (yes, that quick-tempered Henry VIII, who sent his wives to the scaffold). Incidentally, George R.R. Martin admitted it himself:
If Robert is modelled on anyone, it is more Edward IV of England… though as usual, I rang in some changes.
When we meet Robert Baratheon, we see a fat, massive, bored man who talks loudly, sweats a lot, pinches maids, and makes his wife and brother-in-law uncomfortable. The kind who has no problem kissing the girls who bring the food to the table and who seems somewhat uncomfortable with the crown he wears. By comparison, the queen, Cersei Lannister, doesn’t do much to try to maintain the dignity she needs.
When we first see him, Robert has long since lost the heroic stature he had in the glory days of ousting Aerys Targaryen from the throne and becoming King of the Seven Kingdoms. But if he has lost his heroic stature, Robert remembers with nostalgia the first man he killed in battle.
George R.R. Martin has inspired two fictional characters from the exact historical figure: Robb Stark could be the younger Edward IV, and Robert Baratheon is the older Edward IV. Edward IV was a king with a complex personality. He was a tall, broad-shouldered, outspoken man. He was undoubtedly a charming man and had charisma. He came from high nobility but was not shy about mixing with the commoners. He was respected for his open nature and never being defeated on the battlefield. Edward won over almost everyone he encountered, both men and women. Women were instantly seduced. Men felt they had always been friends of the King.
However, Edward also had a dark side: he liked excess. He made big mistakes from love. He had no problem turning to prostitutes for sex, and he loved food and wine. Despite what contemporaries say about him, he was so prone to excess because of the stress he was constantly under.
He was nearly 41 when he died, and the cause of his death is still unknown. What is known for sure is that he died after a fishing (not hunting!) trip. It could have been a cold, a stroke, a heart attack, or he could have been poisoned. Like Robert Baratheon, Edward made some last-minute changes in his will. One was related to his brother, the future Richard III, taking over the regency.
Edward IV resembled Robert Baratheon in many ways (but not all!). As they grew older, both enjoyed eating, drinking, lovemaking, and hunting. In the latter part of his reign, Edward began to lose control of his excesses, especially after he executed his brother George, Duke of Clarence, on charges of treason (the one we know from William Shakespeare died by drowning in a barrel of wine).
Robert Baratheon and Edward were similar in looks, not just behavior. Both were fat. On the other hand, the bearded Robert Baratheon resembles Edward IV’s nephew, Henry VIII.
Photo Source: Wikipedia Commons
There was some difference in dress, however. While Edward IV was all about opulence and sumptuous clothes, Robert Baratheon paid little attention to dress. Velvet, silk, and damask, beaten with precious stones, were the materials from which King Edward’s clothes were made. In today’s money, the opulence of the King’s clothes would have cost the kingdom somewhere between $17–43 million (£10–30 million) a year. In addition, the King’s clothes were always in fashion.
Back to the similarities between Edward and Robert: both were lazy. Remember the scene where Robert proposes to Ned that he be his Hand?
I’m not trying to honor you. I’m trying to get you to run my kingdom while I eat, drink, and whore my way to an early grave.
Some historians and contemporaries described Edward IV as lazy. However, recent research has shown that Edward was anything but spending hours administering his kingdom and signing and revising documents. Here’s what one chronicler, Crowland, wrote about his King:
“marveled that such a gross man so addicted to conviviality, vanity, drunkenness, extravagance, and passion could have such a wide memory that the names and circumstances of almost all men, scattered across the kingdom, were known to him, just as if they were daily within his sight even if, in the districts where they operated, they were reckoned of somewhat inferior status.”
(Ed West, My Kingdom for a Horse. The War of the Roses, 2018)
By contrast, Robert’s kingdom was left adrift, and he had no interest in minimizing the damage. He was in debt up to his ears to House Lannister, and his behavior was more akin to that of Henry VIII, the King who squandered his father’s inherited wealth in record time. By comparison, Edward IV was a good businessman. He revitalized England’s economy, improved the wool trade, and paid off his inherited debt. When he needed money, he didn’t borrow from his wife’s family (Elizabeth Woodville) because they didn’t have any anyway but turned to London merchants and foreign bankers. And he usually paid his debts. The exception was when he pressured wealthy widows and London merchants to give him gifts of money.
And finally, Edward IV always remembered that he owed his crown to the efforts of Richard Neville, the Kingmaker. But we’ll see that the friend who put him on the throne also took him down at some point. But that’s a story I’ll tell you another time.
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