Joffrey Baratheon



King Joffrey Baratheon is a major character in Game of Thrones. He is played by starring cast member Jack Gleeson and débuts in the first episode of the first season.

Officially, King Joffrey is the oldest son and heir of King Robert Baratheon and Queen Cersei Lannister. In reality, his father is Jaime Lannister, the queen's brother. He has a younger sister, Myrcella, and a younger brother, Tommen (both also the children of Jaime and Cersei). He is usually accompanied by his bodyguard and retainer, the formidable Sandor Clegane, who is better known as the Hound.

Joffrey is noted to be spoiled, arrogant, sadistic, and a coward. How much of this is due to his incestuous birth and how much is due to his mother's indulgent and over-protective behaviour is open to debate.

He is currently betrothed to Sansa Stark.

Season 1
Prince Joffrey accompanies his parents to Winterfell and is betrothed to marry Sansa Stark as part of King Robert's plan to more closely ally House Baratheon to House Stark. Both seem happy with the prospect, and Joffrey is charming and polite towards Sansa. However, he shows no sympathy when Bran falls from a tower and is severely injured, and has to be physically chastised by his uncle Tyrion into paying his respects to Bran's parents.

Whilst on the Kingsroad to King's Landing, Joffrey and Sansa chance upon her sister Arya practicing sword play with a commoner, Mycah. Joffrey sees a chance to have some fun with Mycah and cuts him with his sword, but Arya and her direwolf Nymeria overpower Joffrey, injuring him and throwing his sword in the river. Joffrey begs for his life. Later, he lies about the incident and says he was attacked in an unprovoked manner. King Robert agrees to forget about the incident in return for the death of Nymeria. When she cannot be found, Sansa's direwolf Lady is executed instead.

In King's Landing, Joffrey tells his mother about how he would handle the people of the North. He suggests capturing Winterfell, taxing the people hard and forcing their warriors to join a 'royal army'. Cersei tries to point out this plan is flawed, and would cause far more problems than it would solve, but Joffrey seems unconvinced. Cersei tells her son that, "Anyone who isn't us is an enemy". She also urges Joffrey to give Sansa a present and win back her goodwill.

Eddard Stark discovers that Joffrey isn't King Robert's son and rightful heir, by examining the family history and realizing that black hair is a dominant trait in the Baratheon line. Joffrey's true parentage can be attributed to the incestuous relationship between his mother and his "uncle" Jaime Lannister. Meanwhile, Joffrey wins back Sansa's affection by giving her a pendant.

When King Robert Baratheon dies, Joffrey quickly ascends the Iron Throne. He orders that preperations be made to crown him within the fortnight. However, Eddard Stark refuses to recognise Joffrey's claim to the Iron Throne. He tries to use Robert Baratheon's testament making him Protector of the Realm to enforce his authority, but Cersei destroys the orders. Stark tries to use a previous agreement reached with Lord Petyr Baelish and Commander Janos Slynt of the City Watch to take Cersei and Joffrey prisoner, but both choose to side with Cersei and Joffrey. Eddard is taken into custody and his remaining guards and household are murdered.

Joffrey dismisses Ser Barristan Selmy from the Kingsguard and names Jaime as the new Lord Commander, to Selmy's disgust. Joffrey then listens to Sansa's plea for mercy for her father. He agrees to spare Eddard if he recants his claim that Joffrey has no right to the throne. Sansa is sure he will.

Joffrey is present at Eddard's public confession that Joffrey is the true king. Joffrey, playing to the crowd, reveals that his mother and his betrothed have both urged him to spare Eddard and exile him to the Wall. However, they have the weak hearts and constitutions of women, whilst he will spare no mercy for traitors. He orders Ser Ilyn Payne to bring him Eddard's head. Payne carries out the order, whilst Sansa faints from shock and Cersei - aware this will enflame the war with the Starks out of control - angrily tries to overrule her son and fails.

Days later, Joffrey holds court while Marillion sings a song he wrote about King Robert and Queen Cersei; it is evident Joffrey is displeased by the song and its insults against his parents, and has the minstrel choose between having his fingers or tongue removed. Joffrey then takes Sansa to the wall where there are several heads on long spikes - one is revealed to be Ned's, and another her Septa's. Joffrey forces her to look at the severed heads, and then presses the point that she will still marry him; he also says that he will give her Robb's head on a spike, too, and she retorts, "Or maybe he'll give me yours." Joffrey has Ser Meryn slap Sansa as he claims, "My mother tells me a king should never strike his lady." He turns his back for a brief moment Sansa considers pushing him off the bridge to his death, but she is stopped by the Hound. Sandor gives her a cloth to wipe away her tears and blood, and tells her she will have more need of it in the days ahead.

In the books
In the Song of Ice and Fire novels, Joffrey is twelve years old when the story begins. He is described as a handsome young man, but not especially skilled at arms. His uncle Tyrion occasionally tries to teach him something of politics and learning, but he is uninterested in such matters. He and Robert have a distant relationship, but his mother dotes upon him. Throughout the books, Cersei is willfully blind to Joffrey's insane and homicidal behavior, no matter how ridiculous. Rather than recognize the monster that she has unleashed on the Seven Kingdoms by putting Joffrey on the throne, Cersei embraces the fantasy that he is a great king, or at worst "willful", and chides her younger son Tommen that he should try to be more like Joffrey. Later books also retroactively reveal that Joffrey's siblings Prince Tommen and Princess Myrcella have lived in terror of Joffrey their entire lives.