“If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you can not do that, then perhaps the men does not deserve to die. A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.”

Source: A Wiki of Ice and Fire

Eddard Stark, sometimes called “Ned” (and “The Ned” by members of the Northern mountain clans), was head of House Stark, Lord of Winterfell, Lord Paramount of the North, and Warden of the North. He and Catelyn Tully have five children, and he has a bastard son, Jon Snow. In the TV series he is played by Sean Bean.

Eddard is in his mid-thirties. He has a long face, dark hair, and grey eyes. His closely-trimmed beard is beginning to grey. He is neither as large nor as handsome as his brother Brandon was.

Eddard is known for his sense of honor and justice and his family finds him kind, some consider his reserved personality a sign of coldness and disdain.

History

From the age of eight, Ned was fostered by Lord Jon Arryn at the Eyrie, alongside Robert Baratheon. Ned befriended Robert, and came to consider Lord Arryn a second father. After Ned’s father and brother were executed by the command of King Aerys II, who further demanded that Arryn send him the heads of the his wards. Arryn refused and instead launched a rebellion. With his father and brother dead, Ned, now Lord of Winterfell, rallied the North in rebellion.

At the beginning of the rebellion Eddard had a fisherman try to sneak him from the Vale to White Harbour, so he could raise his forces in the North but due to storms the fisherman died, and his daughter was only able to get him to Sweetsister. Lord Borrell later snuck him into White Harbour. Shortly before the final battles of the rebellion, Ned married Catelyn Tully, who had been betrothed to Ned’s brother Brandon before his death.[5] Ned was present, along with Howland Reed, at a tower on the Dornish border known as the Tower of Joy where his sister Lyanna died, an incident surrounded in mystery that haunted Ned ever after.
Once the conflict had ended and Robert had taken the throne, Ned returned home, bringing with him a bastard son, Jon, about whose origins he refused to speak, even to his own wife; he quickly silenced rumors that the boy’s mother was the Dornish noblewoman Ashara Dayne.[6] Godric Borrell claims that the daughter of the fisherman who sneaked to Sweetsister gave birth to Ned Stark’s bastard called Jon Snow [7] He spent the next fifteen years as Lord of Winterfell, a task he had never expected and did not always feel equal to; he rarely left his lands, and did not involve himself in the complex intrigues of the southern courts.

A Game of Thrones

Neds justice
After Jon Arryn’s death, King Robert asked Eddard to replace him as Hand of the King, the monarch’s closest adviser. Ned would have preferred to decline the request, but went south at his wife’s urging to investigate Arryn’s death. Upon arriving at King’s Landing Eddard was shocked to learn that the crown was heavily indebted due to Robert’s extravagance, and Arryn and the Small Council had done nothing to restrain him. Robert decreed a great tournament was to be held in honor of Eddard’s appointment as Hand of the King, which Ned unsuccessfully tried to stop. The tournament featuring a joust, melee and archery contest the event attracted knights and free riders from all over the Seven Kingdoms.
While making enquires about Jon Arryn’s activities before his death Eddard discovered that Jon spent a great deal of time with Stannis Baratheon and was visiting several of Robert’s bastard children in the city. He also learned from Yoren of the Night’s Watch that his wife Catelyn had abducted Tyrion Lannister.
When Robert Baratheon held a council meeting demanding that the pregnant Daenerys Targaryen be put to death, Ned and Ser Barristan were the only ones to speak out against the move. Robert, driven by his hatred of the Targaryens, insisted on the assassination; Ned resigned his post in protest. Before his planned departure from King’s Landing to return to Winterfell, Ned visited another of Robert’s bastard children, a girl named Barra. Returning from this meeting he was ambushed by Jaime Lannister, who wanted revenge for Catelyn’s kidnapping of his brother Tyrion. Eddard’s leg was badly injured in the melee. While recovering Robert visited his friend, pardoning him and returning him to office as Hand of the King.
Eddard sat on the Iron Throne and heard petitions while Robert was out on a hunt. Three Riverland Lords brought the news that several villages near the border of the Westerlands had been ravaged by Gregor Clegane. Eddard sent Beric Dondarrion, Thoros of Myr and a number of knights to bring Clegane to justice.
While investigating Jon Arryn’s interest in Robert’s bastard children, Ned discovered to his horror that Robert’s three legitimate children were in fact the product of incest between Queen, Cersei and her brother Jaime. Eddard decided to confront Cersei with this knowledge, giving her a chance to flee with her children while she could. Instead, Cersei however used the warning time to orchestrate Robert’s assassination and buy off the City Watch of King’s Landing. As Robert lay on his deathbed, Ned rebuffed both Robert’s younger brother Renly Baratheon’s suggestion that they both imprison Cersei, and Petyr Baelish’s urgings to rule as Regent while Cersei and Jaime’s thirteen-year-old son Joffrey accede to the Iron Throne, instead planning to deliver it to the elder of Robert’s brothers, Stannis. Baelish promised Ned the support of the City Watch, promptly betraying him as soon as Robert died. Cersei had Ned imprisoned for treason, with the City Watch supporting her thanks to Baelish’s treachery.
Varys visited Eddard Stark in the dungeons, informing him that if he confessed to treason, his life would be spared and he would be given the opportunity to join the Night’s Watch. Ned initially refuses but agrees to swallow his honor to save the lives of his daughter Sansa, in Lannister custody. He is taken to the steps of the Great Sept of Baelor, where, unbeknownst to him, Yoren, his daughter Arya Stark and the disguised Ser Barristan Selmy were amongst the crowd. Eddard made a public false confession but the plan went awry when King Joffrey declared that Eddard must be executed, to the evident shock of Cersei, Varys and the High Septon. Ilyn Payne beheaded Eddard Stark with his own greatsword, Ice. Joffrey has Eddard’s head placed on a spike and forces his daughter Sansa to view it.
A Clash of Kings
Tyrion Lannister orders Lord Eddard’s head, along with all the other heads to be removed from the spikes. The bones of Eddard Stark were sent to Riverrun by Tyrion Lannister. Catelyn Tully orders the bones sent North so Ned can be buried in Winterfell’s crypts beside his brother, sister and father. The Ironborn shortly after take Moat Cailin and it is unknown if Eddard’s bones made it past the Moat before its fall to House Greyjoy.

A Dance with Dragons
Bran Stark, while training to become a greenseer, sees a vision of his father in the past through the eyes of the Heart Tree of Winterfell. Through the tree Bran hears his father’s prayers that his wife will forgive him and that Jon and Robb will grow together as brothers.
Barbrey Ryswell, who once aspired to marry Eddard before he was betrothed to Catleyn, mentions to Theon Greyjoy that she blames Eddard for the death of her husband Willam Dustin. She tells Theon that if she ever discovers the location of Eddard’s bones, she will never allow them to be buried in the crypts of Winterfell along his ancestors, in revenge for Eddard’s failure to return her husband’s bones to her.
Many other Northern Houses however remember Eddard Stark with love and respect due to his fair and honorable leadership. Despite Eddard never feeling he was equal to his older brother Brandon, from what readers have learned of Brandon Stark however, Eddard was a much better man and leader then Brandon.