The powerful House Tyrell continued to support the King, but House Lannister and House Martell both dragged their feet due to insults against their houses by the King. Her second brother, Eddard, joined his boyhood friend Robert Baratheon and Jon Arryn, with whom they had been fostered as children, in declaring war against the Targaryens, securing the allegiances of House Tully and House Arryn through a network of dynastic marriages (Lord Eddard to Catelyn Tully and Lord Jon Arryn to Lysa Tully). The Mad King, Aerys II Targaryen, had Lyanna's father and eldest brother executed when they demanded her safe return. Prince Rhaegar Targaryen kidnapped Lyanna Stark, arousing the ire of her family and of her betrothed, Lord Robert Baratheon. In Westeros the seasons last for years, sometimes decades, at a time.įifteen years prior to the novel, the Seven Kingdoms were torn apart by a civil war, known alternately as 'Robert's Rebellion' and the 'War of the Usurper'.

A Game of Thrones is set in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, a land reminiscent of medieval Europe.