Jon Arryn

Jon Arryn
Biographical information
Born	The Eyrie, the Vale of Arryn
Died	298 AC Red Keep, King's Landing
Political information
House(s)	Arryn
Affiliation(s)	House Targaryen (formerly) House Baratheon of King's Landing
Title(s)	Lord of the Eyrie Defender of the Vale Warden of the East Hand of the King
Personal information
Culture	Valemen
Religion	Faith of the Seven
Father	{Jasper Arryn}[citation needed]
Spouse(s)	{Lysa Tully}
Issue	Robin Arryn
World of Westeros
Series	Game of Thrones
Season(s)	1
Appeared in	"Winter Is Coming" (corpse)
Died in	"Winter Is Coming"
Portrayed by	John Standing

"The seed is strong."

―Jon Arryn's last words.

Lord Jon Arryn was the Defender of the Vale, Warden of the East, and the head of House Arryn. He served as the first Hand of the King to Robert Baratheon until he died under mysterious circumstances.

Biography

Background

Jon Arryn held the realm together for King Robert.

He was the head of House Arryn, one of the Great Houses of Westeros. Jon was the Warden of the East and Defender of the Vale. He was a respected nobleman and fostered both Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon during their adolescence. The Mad King condoned the alleged kidnapping of Eddard's sister, Lyanna, who was also Robert's betrothed, and demanded that Eddard and Robert, still in the Vale, be turned over to the King's justice. Instead, Lord Arryn rebelled, calling his banners to war. House Stark and House Baratheon followed suit. The rebels forged an alliance with House Tully through marriage, with Eddard married to Catelyn Tully and the then-elderly Jon to the young Lysa Tully.

Jon Arryn serving as Hand of the King.

After the rebel victory in the war, Robert acceded to the throne and appointed Jon as his Hand. Jon served the realm well for many years as Hand of the King. Indeed, Jon Arryn was essentially the man really holding the realm together for the next seventeen years, while Robert drank, ate and whored his way through his reign.

Jon Arryn eventually died in King's Landing, sparking King Robert's search for a replacement. Jon is survived by his wife Lysa and their six-year-old son, Robin Arryn. Near the end of his life, Jon was investigating the legitimacy of the children of Queen Consort, Cersei Lannister. He later died from unknown, and unexplained, causes just after discovering the secret that the children were not the seed of Robert Baratheon.

His dying words were to Robert Baratheon, "The seed is strong."

Game of Thrones: Season 1

Silent Sisters perform the funeral ceremony for Jon Arryn.

Jon Arryn's body is laid out in state in the throne room of the Red Keep in King's Landing. Jaime and Cersei discuss Jon's attempts to learn the truth about their incestuous relationship and his failure to do so. Later, news of Jon's death reaches Eddard at Winterfell, who is shocked and upset as he considered Jon a second father. Catelyn then receives a letter from Lysa accusing House Lannister of murdering Jon.

When Eddard attends his first Small Council meeting in King's Landing, he is shocked to learn that the realm is six million gold dragons in debt, and refuses to believe that Arryn would let this happen. Pycelle and Renly explain to Eddard that while Jon gave wise and prudent advice, Robert did not always follow it.

Arryn had asked Pycelle for The Lineages and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms, a book detailing genealogies of the nobility, which notes the hereditary preponderance for black hair in House Baratheon.

Eddard is told that Arryn visited an armorer, Tobho Mott, several times before his death and also talked with his apprentice Gendry, inquiring about his mother. On meeting Gendry, Eddard realizes almost immediately that he is King Robert's bastard son. On the day Arryn died, he met with Mhaegen, a prostitute at Littlefinger's brothel. She showed him her infant daughter, Barra, who was fathered by Robert.

Varys privately warns Eddard that he thinks Arryn was murdered by an unknown party for asking too many questions, using a rare and untraceable poison known as the Tears of Lys.

Game of Thrones: Season 2

Under forceful interrogation by Tyrion, Pycelle confesses that he knew that Arryn had unearthed the truth upon seeing Robert's bastard children that Cersei's three children were not conceived by Robert, but by her twin brother. Pycelle states that Arryn intended to act and reveal his discovery to Robert. When Tyrion accuses Pycelle of having Jon poisoned to keep the truth from getting out, he angrily denies that. Tyrion then points out that Pycelle must have realized that someone had poisoned Arryn (i.e. that he wasn't simply sick), but he let him succumb anyway, so he has Pycelle thrown into the Black Cells.

Game of Thrones: Season 4

After being reunited with Littlefinger, Lysa obsessively declares her love for him, stating the things she has done to demonstrate it, including lacing Jon's wine with Tears of Lys, then sending a letter to Catelyn accusing House Lannister of the assassination.

Game of Thrones: Season 7

Eventually, Littlefinger is forced to answer for his many crimes, including his role in the Assassination of Jon Arryn, when Sansa unexpectedly puts him on trial. Sansa publicly accuses Littlefinger of persuading Lysa (whom Littlefinger also murdered) to poison Jon and write a letter to her sister, falsely accusing the Lannisters of killing her husband, igniting the conflict between the two great houses. Sansa has Arya slit his throat, exacting justice for Jon.

Quotes

Spoken about Jon

Eddard Stark: "I will not believe Jon Arryn allowed Robert to bankrupt the Realm."

Pycelle: "Lord Arryn gave wise and prudent advice. But I fear His Grace doesn't always listen."

— Eddard and Pycelle discuss Jon Arryn's tenure as Hand of the King.

Eddard Stark: "Jon was a man of peace. He was Hand for 17 years – 17 good years. Why kill him?"

Varys: "He started asking questions."

— Eddard discovering there was more to Jon Arryn's death.

Tyrion Lannister: "How many Hands have you betrayed, Pycelle? Eddard Stark, Jon Arryn..."

Pycelle: "Lord Arryn! He knew, he knew the tr-truth abou-about the Queen and he planned to act, to tell King Robert!"

Tyrion Lannister: "So you poisoned him?"

Pycelle: "No! Never!"

Tyrion Lannister: "But you let him die! Made sure he succumbed!"

— Tyrion confronts Pycelle about his role in Jon's death.

"What wife would do the things I've done for you? What wife would trust you the way I've trusted you? When you gave me those drops and told me to pour them into Jon's wine. My husband's wine. And you told me to write a letter to Cat telling her it was the Lannisters..."

―Lysa Arryn to Petyr Baelish, admitting her role in the death of Jon.

Family

Jasper Arryn Deceased

Lady Arryn Deceased

Jon Arryn Deceased

Lysa Arryn née Tully Deceased

Petyr Baelish Deceased

Alys Arryn Deceased

Ronnel Arryn Deceased

Wife Deceased

Robin Arryn

Elbert Arryn Deceased

Behind the scenes

Originally it was intended that Jon Arryn's death in King's Landing would open the series, following the depiction of the book's prologue, and the event would be discussed by Pycelle and Cersei in a new scene not in the books. This scene was not filmed for the pilot in favor of retaining the opening of the novel. Jon Arryn was played in these scenes by John Standing.

In a November 2015 interview, Standing described the death scene he filmed: Jon Arryn is feverish and bedridden (from being poisoned), but with a last desperate burst of strength he drags himself across the floor from his bed to a writing desk, and from the ground he reaches for the pen and ink on it. As he pulls it down his strength fails him, however, and he ends up spilling the ink pot all over himself. In his last seconds of life he feebly attempts to move his hand to write something with the pen - only for Cersei (Lena Headey) to stamp on his fingers to stop him, at which he dies from the poison. Standing said that filming was difficult because he found out the night before that his younger brother had died (though filming had been scheduled for weeks in advance).

In the books

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Jon Arryn is a great lord, wise counselor, and canny tactician. He is loved as a second father by both Eddard and Robert, and commanded great respect in the Vale of Arryn. His nephew and heir Elbert Arryn was among Brandon Stark's companions who were imprisoned and killed by the Mad King, sparking Jon Arryn's decision to join the rebellion. Following the rebellion's end, Jon's first act as Hand was to travel to Dorne and negotiate peace with House Martell who, outraged at the murders of Princess Elia Martell, her son and daughter during the Sack of King's Landing, were willing to continue fighting in Viserys Targaryen's name. Jon brought the bones of Prince Doran's uncle, the Kingsguard knight Lewyn Martell, who'd been slain at the Trident, with him so the Martells could give him a proper burial and convinced the Martells to accept Robert's rule. According to Oberyn Martell, during the negotiations, Doran compelled Jon to divulge the identity of Elia's killer.

Jon Arryn's first wife, Lady Jeyne Royce, died in childbirth, and their daughter was stillborn. His second wife, Rowena, died without issue. Lysa Tully, some forty years his junior, became his third wife as part of an alliance with Lord Hoster Tully of Riverrun. The marriage was loveless and produced only one surviving child, the sickly Robert.

In the books, Eddard discovers that Arryn and Stannis inquired together about Cersei's children and Robert's bastards. In fact it was Stannis who initiated the investigation, while in the TV series he is not mentioned at all in respect of Arryn's actions prior to his death – this was likely changed so that TV-first viewers weren't confused about the actions of yet another unseen character.

When Tyrion confronts Pycelle with his guards, Pycelle admits that Jon Arryn was being treated by Maester Colemon, who gave him purges to get the poison out; that treatment might have cured Arryn. Pycelle, aware that Arryn knew the secret of Cersei's incest, sent the other maester away and just gave Arryn painkillers to ease his passing. In the TV series the emphasis is slightly different: Pycelle presents it as that he simply didn't intervene when he realized Arryn was poisoned, though Tyrion points out that even his inaction when he could have saved Lord Arryn makes him an accomplice to the murder. In the TV series, Tyrion just vaguely asserts that Pycelle must have "made sure he succumbed", but in the book version he goes slightly beyond inaction, deliberately dismissing a maester who might have saved him.

Even in the books, Pycelle does not know who actually poisoned Jon Arryn, but it is convenient for Pycelle that someone else poisoned him before he had to deal with it.

In the book, Lysa blurts out the whole truth about Arryn's death while she is dragging Sansa to the Moon Door. Littlefinger tries in vain to hush Lysa, feeling uncomfortable that she reveals this secret in the presence of Sansa and someone else.

Lysa's reason for poisoning Jon is actually a little less obsessive, but just as selfish: he planned to sent their son to Dragonstone to be fostered by Stannis, in keeping with accepted tradition for noble boys in the Seven Kingdoms, and the fact that Stannis was the only one – aside from Ned – he could trust. This didn't matter at all to Lysa of course, as she could not bear the thought of being separated from her son.

Littlefinger apparently wanted Arryn dead to trick the Starks and Lannisters into fighting each other (aided by the letter he had Lysa write to Catelyn), and also so he could later marry Lysa and take control of the Vale. Thus while the situation was the same in the books, Lysa's motivation and Pycelle's role were a little more complicated.

Appearances

• – Pilot (unreleased) (non-canonical appearance)
• – "Winter Is Coming" (corpse)
• – "Lord Snow" (mentioned)
• – "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things" (mentioned)
• – "The Wolf and the Lion" (mentioned)
• – "A Golden Crown" (mentioned)
• – "You Win or You Die" (mentioned)
• – "Mad King Aerys - House Baratheon" (mentioned)
• – "Mad King Aerys - House Stark" (illustrated)
• – "Robert's Rebellion - House Baratheon" (mentioned)
• – "The Sack of King's Landing - House Baratheon" (illustrated)
• – "The Sack of King's Landing - House Stark" (illustrated)
• – "House Baratheon" (mentioned)
• – "House Arryn" (mentioned)
• – "The Night Lands" (mentioned)
• – "What Is Dead May Never Die" (mentioned)
• – "Greyjoy Rebellion - Stannis Baratheon" (illustrated)
• – "Robert's Rebellion - Stannis Baratheon" (mentioned)
• – "Robert's Rebellion - Margaery Tyrell" (illustrated)
• – "House Tully" (mentioned)
• – "Robert's Rebellion - Petyr Baelish and Varys" (illustrated)
• – "The Vale" (illustrated)
• – "First of His Name" (mentioned)
• – "Mockingbird" (mentioned)
• – "The Mountain and the Viper" (mentioned)
• – "House Baelish" (illustrated)
• – "Poisons" (corpse) (illustrated)
• – "Knights of the Vale" (illustrated)
• – "The Dragon and the Wolf" (mentioned)
• – "The Hand of the King" (illustrated)
• – "The Last Dragons" (illustrated)

External links

• Jon Arryn on A Wiki of Ice and Fire