Eddard I Baelish

King **Eddard Baelish**, the First of his Name, was King of Westeros from 331 AC to his death in 358 AC. He was the second King from the Baelish dynasty, which had been established by his father Petyr I Baelish. His reign was largely shaped by neglect of his kingly duties, leaving the governance of the Realm to his Small Council.

## History

### Early Life

From early on, Prince Eddard, named after his maternal grandfather, was raised under the tutelage of Ser Richard Shett, the Master of Arms for the Red Keep towards the latter half of King Petyr’s rule. Richard Shett played a huge role in forming the skill at arms that Eddard would be famous for. Richard did not have to teach much though, Eddard proved to be a natural swordsman and jouster. Richard had encouraged the young squire to begin participating in tournaments. No one could say that young Eddard was winning the tournaments simply because he was the crown prince. This martial training was what later would increase the prestige of the new Royal House, only to be undone by the corruption in King's Landing.

### The Dornish Affair

Having seemingly inherited both the looks and demeanor of his late grand-uncle, Brandon Stark, Eddard I spent more of his youth galavanting and chasing after women than he did in his studies; the most infamous of such paramours was the sister to Prince Vorian Martell of Dorne, Princess Qyra, whom he met in 326 AC.

Forced to fight for her affection, Prince Eddard would kill his first men at her behalf one night, in what bards later referred to as “The Drahar’s Demise.” Gorys Drahar, heir to the exiled Drahar family, had courted Qyra in hopes that Dorne would prove a new home for his family following their fleeing of Myr in the wake of the formation of the Triarchy; Prince Eddard had simply liked the look of her. Both would come to rue the day they had met her.

The two would duel at the capital’s tourney grounds one summer night, with only the moon, the princess, and a handful of retainers of each combatant to bear witness. Though the Essosi wielded Viridian, the greatsword of Valyrian Steel, he was woefully outpaced by the Crown Prince; according to all accounts, the duel lasted under a minute, ending when Eddard pierced the Drahar’s throat with his own weapon.

Detractors would later claim that Eddard had slain Gorys in cold blood, intentionally striking him in the throat as to prevent the man from forfeiting; any attempts to bring the Crown Prince to trial would quickly prove fruitless as all possible witnesses disappeared, and the Drahar family left the capital never to be seen again.

### The Bastard That Never Was

Far from a private individual, Prince Eddard did little to hide his affair with the Princess of Dorne; such would prove the couple’s undoing when in 329 AC, three years after their affair had begun, Qyra told her handmaids that she believed herself pregnant with the Heir to the Iron Throne’s child.

As if a divine force had brought down retribution, a torrent of rumors about Qyra’s infidelity began; extramarital affairs were not frowned upon in Dorne, but gossip would claim the Princess had engaged in such perverse acts that would disgust even the lustiest of the Rhoynish. From handmaidens to horses, anonymous accusations that Qyra had slept with any and all that would approach her - including one such Gorys Drahar, whom the rumor mill alleged had given the Princess a pox that caused her body to welt and sting like a nettle.

In a moon’s time, Prince Eddard would no longer be seen with his most favourite paramour; in three moon’s time, Qyra would be found crumpled against the walls of Sunspear, having seemingly committed suicide by throwing herself from the walls. Thus would end the tale of Princess Qyra Martell, and the bastard that never was.

### Eddard I's Reign

Upon his coronation in 331 AC, King Eddard sought to mend relations with House Martell, who had stood at odds with the Iron Throne since the Princess’ suspicious death a decade prior. When Lord Edmure Tully died in 338 AC, after serving as Hand throughout the entire reign of Petyr I and well into Eddard's, as a sign of good faith, the King placed the necklace of the Hand upon Prince Vorian Martell, whom he had called to court a year prior as Master of Laws, after Lord Olyvar Rosby's death of a sickness in 337 AC; in hindsight, most maesters and informed members of the royal court would agree that such a decision was the worst King Eddard I made for the entirety of his reign.

Whether seeking vengeance for his slain sister or simply wishing to enrich himself, Vorian began a campaign of corruption on that very day. When Myrio of Pentos, the Old King's Master of Whisperers, retired in 343 AC to open a brothel of his own, he was replaced by Qoren Qorgyle, a countryman and friend of the Hand, who thus gained all the more influence over the already weak King. A year later, Russell Merryweather retired to Longtable to see to his own lands, and as the other members of the council had already come to see their interests in the trade through the Narrow Sea between Sunspear and Gulltown secured, his replacement was another man from that network, Lord Malentine Rykker of Duskendale.

The most prominent of the Prince’s misdeeds was done in 340 AC: now well aware of King Eddard I Baelish's disinterest in ruling, Prince Vorian maneuvered the king and his council towards deciding to build a new fleet, and subsequently sending it to Dorne - all of this in service to the Prince's ambitious plan to conquer the Stepstones and enrich his own house on the taxes he could levy on passing ships, which would eventually lead to the events of the Hand's War later that decade. In the course of that conflict, King Eddard appointed Lord Gyles Redwyne as his new Hand, and Lord Monterys Velaryon as his Master of Ships, after their predecessors had fallen into disgrace even in the eyes of the Absent King. However, King Eddard remained oblivious to the deceptions and embezzlements by the other members of his council.

Though he would spend the last years of his rule attempting to escape his moniker “the Absent”, King Eddard I would never fully repair what had been broken under his reign: the coffers, still empty from the time of Prince Vorian, would never return to their previous status, and what improvements Eddard’s kingdom made towards more efficient taxation and agricultural discoveries (such as the Maidenshair Decree of 353, which led to an attempted conservation of the popular aphrodisiac as to secure the gravely needed funds acquired from it’s export to Essos for future generations) would soon thereafter enter the hands of those moneylenders that the Crown was still indebted to.

### Death

King Eddard I Baelish died in 358 AC from stress. His son, Petyr II, would succeed him, and proved to be an entirely different man from his father: having seen the effect of drink, whoring, wroth, and excess firsthand, he was a steadfast follower of the Seven-Who-Are-One, and was referred to as “the Pious.”