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Rickard Stark

Southern alliances: foresight or ambition

Contains spoilers through A Dance with Dragons. Television events and unfinished preview chapters are outside this collection.

The character in context

Rickard Stark is Lord of Winterfell and father to Brandon, Eddard, Lyanna and Benjen. He arranges Brandon's match with Catelyn and accepts Lyanna's betrothal to Robert. Barbrey Dustin later attributes these southern alliances to Rickard's ambition and his maester's influence, but her account is a resentful judgment rather than neutral proof. After Brandon is arrested, Rickard answers the summons to King's Landing and demands trial by combat, only for Aerys to name fire as his champion and burn him alive. The deaths of father and son drive the crown toward its next fatal demand.

A reading path

These are editorial starting points, not a complete appearance list or a claim that the character narrates every chapter.

  1. 1. The crypt turns a father into memory

    A Game of Thrones, Chapter 4, Eddard I

  2. 2. Jaime recalls the trial he watched

    A Storm of Swords, Chapter 31, Jaime IV

  3. 3. Barbrey explains alliances through old wounds

    A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 37, The Prince of Winterfell

Sources and chapter references

Our original summaries use named novel chapters and the A Wiki of Ice and Fire reference index. The links lead to that secondary index, not the full novel text. Coverage is selective, not exhaustive line-by-line verification.

  1. 1. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 4, Eddard I — A Wiki of Ice and Fire reference index
  2. 2. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 31, Jaime IV — A Wiki of Ice and Fire reference index
  3. 3. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 37, The Prince of Winterfell — A Wiki of Ice and Fire reference index
Data methods, coverage and corrections