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During the discussions after King Robert's accident with the boar in Game of Thrones S01E07, I was somewhat given the impression that the Lannisters, or at the very least Cersei, planned for Robert to be too drunk to properly hunt.

So, did she/they actually plan it, or am I mistaken?

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    Good question, particularly as the squire holding the wine was a minor Lannister!
    – Liath
    Jul 19, 2013 at 8:30
  • I find it very convenient that Robert was killed at this point in the story. Maybe I'm just finding holes in the plot, but strong wine got Robert so drunk that he got killed by a wild boar? Doesn't seem a very likely death. Besides it was very lucky that this happened the moment that Cersei needed it to. It couldn't have happened a day before or after, it had to be the day Eddard Stark finds out the truth. Sheer dumb luck that Cersei's plan worked so well
    – user9443
    May 5, 2014 at 23:55
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    Not really coincidental at all. Boars are very dangerous animals, and Robert was planning on hunting them in a very dangerous way: by using a boar spear. If you miss your lunge then chances are good that the charging boar will kill you. So a very drunk Robert out hunting boars will sooner or later get himself killed.
    – System Down
    May 6, 2014 at 17:09
  • To expand on System Down's explanation, if her efforts fail this time, so what? All Robert knows is that he got really drunk. So there is a chance to kill him while making it look relatively accidental, and almost no chance of being caught if he survives. So, yes, definitely am intentional attempt, less certain as to whether they believed with any degree of confidence that it would work on that occasion. It's entirely possible they'd been doing that for several hunts.
    – PoloHoleSet
    Aug 5, 2016 at 15:27

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Yes. In Season 6 Episode 10 Cersei explicitely states it in her conversation with Septa Unella: "I killed my husband, because it felt good to be rid of him."

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I'm not sure if it's as clear in the TV show (it's been a while since I watched season 1), but in the book it's spelled out pretty clearly that Robert was supposed to die on the hunt.

Queen Cersei gives Lancel Lannister (Robert's squire) very strong wine for Robert to drink, with the instruction that Robert should get as drunk as possible and have some kind of accident. Varys later reveals that if the boar hadn't killed him, a stray arrow would have.

Taken from A Wiki of Ice and Fire, which usually has pretty good references to the text but is missing a reference for this particular fact, for some reason.

Incidentally, this wasn't a Lannister plot, it was just Cersei. Cersei feared that her incestuous relationship with Jaime would be revealed when Robert returned, so had him killed to prevent this.

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    In S1E7 "You Win or You Die" Varys points out to Ned that Lancel kept refreshing the king's wine cup during the hunt.
    – System Down
    Jul 18, 2013 at 21:42
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    It is much more subtle in the tv show.
    – Tablemaker
    Jul 19, 2013 at 12:28
  • @TylerShads yeah it is, that's why i was somewhat confused cause it could have been either/or.
    – DForck42
    Jul 19, 2013 at 14:10
  • I'm sure Tywin didn't approve.
    – Martin Schröder
    Jul 20, 2013 at 20:09
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    I guess this makes Cersei also a kingslayer
    – Jay Wick
    Nov 11, 2013 at 4:56
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It was a plot by Cersei Lannister. Varys confirms this when he meets Eddard Stark in his prison cell. He says

“Oh, indeed. Cersei gave him the wineskins, and told him it was Robert’s favorite vintage.” The eunuch shrugged. “A hunter lives a perilous life. If the boar had not done for Robert, it would have been a fall from a horse, the bite of a wood adder, an arrow gone astray . . . the forest is the abbatoir of the gods. It was not wine that killed the king. It was your mercy.”

And as Toryan says it was not a Lanister plot and it was just Cersei. She was aided by Lancel Lannister but Tywin, Jamie or Tyrion had no part in this.

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