11. Encompassing several tyrannical and maladjusted royal youths, King Joffrey Baratheon is a composite character most resembling Edward of Lancaster and the Roman Emperor Caligula
Becoming the eighteenth inhabitant of the Iron Throne following the death of his supposed father, Robert, Joffrey Baratheon inherited the crown at the age of sixteen. Already displaying immense arrogance and sadistic qualities prior to becoming king, the short-lived ruler of the Seven Kingdoms delighted in displays of cruelty and torment. From physically and psychologically torturing his betrothed, Sansa Stark, to the violent murders of whores, as well as the mutilations and executions of his people for the slightest offenses, Joffrey was an ineffective ruler who was assassinated after less than four years in power.
Retaining notable parallels to Martin’s fictional creation, Edward of Lancaster, the son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou – although Edward, like Joffrey, suffered rumors of illegitimate birth – the young prince was possessed of a tyrannical streak. Obsessed with beheading and torturing people, the would-be king was stabbed to death by Edward IV before he could claim his father’s crown. Warranting comparison also, the Roman Emperor Caligula likewise inherited his throne at a young age, was reputedly an avowed sadist and vicious ruler who grew to be hated by his own people, and whom, after only three years in power, was murdered in an attempt to restore order to the realm.