Ned's eldest son Robb marches his army south in response to his father's arrest, and in order to relieve the threat on the riverlands. To secure a strategically necessary bridge crossing, Catelyn negotiates a marital alliance between Robb and the notoriously unreliable House Frey. Robb defeats a Lannister army in the Riverlands, capturing Jaime. Tywin sends Tyrion back to King's Landing to act as Hand of the King to Joffrey. When Ned is executed, Robb's followers declare the North's independence from the Seven Kingdoms, proclaimed him king of the north.

Arryn, the principal advisor to King Robert Baratheon, Robert recruits his childhood friend Eddard Ned Stark, now Warden of the North, to replace Arryn as Hand of the King, and to betroth his daughter Sansa to Robert's son Joffrey. Ned accepts the position when he learns that Arryn's widow Lysa believes he was poisoned by Robert's wife Queen Cersei Lannister and her family. Shortly thereafter, Ned's son Bran discovers Cersei having sex with her twin brother Jaime Lannister, who throws Bran from the tower to conceal their affair, leaving him comatose and paralyzing his legs. Ned leaves his castle, Winterfell, and departs for the capital city, King's Landing, bringing along his daughters Sansa and Arya. Upon arriving in King's Landing to take his post as Hand, Ned finds that Robert is an ineffective king whose only interests are hunting, drinking, and womanizing. At Winterfell, an assassin attempts to kill Bran while he is unconscious, and Ned's wife Catelyn travels to King's Landing to bring word to Ned. Catelyn's childhood friend, Petyr Littlefinger Baelish, implicates Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf brother of Cersei and Jaime, in the assassination attempt. On the road back to Winterfell, Catelyn encounters Tyrion by chance, arrests him, and takes him to the Vale, where her sister Lysa Arryn is regent, to stand trial for the attempt on Bran's life. In retaliation for Tyrion's abduction, his father Lord Tywin Lannister sends soldiers to raid the Riverlands, Catelyn's home region. Tyrion regains his freedom by recruiting a mercenary named Bronn to defend him in trial by combat. Ned investigates Jon Arryn's death and eventually discovers that Robert's legal heirs, including Joffrey, are in fact Cersei's children by Jaime, and that Jon Arryn was killed to conceal his discovery of their incest. Ned offers Cersei a chance to flee before he informs Robert, but she uses this chance to arrange Robert's death in a hunting accident and install Joffrey on the throne. Ned prepares to send his daughters away from King's Landing and enlists Littlefinger's help to challenge Joffrey's claim; but Littlefinger betrays him, resulting in Ned's arrest. Arya escapes the castle, but Sansa is taken hostage by the Lannisters. Ned's eldest son Robb marches his army south in response to his father's arrest, and in order to relieve the threat on the riverlands. To secure a strategically necessary bridge crossing, Catelyn negotiates a marital alliance between Robb and the notoriously unreliable House Frey. Robb defeats a Lannister army in the Riverlands, capturing Jaime. Tywin sends Tyrion back to King's Landing to act as Hand of the King to Joffrey. When Ned is executed, Robb's followers declare the North's independence from the Seven Kingdoms, proclaimed him king of the north.