Portrayed by Joe Dempsie

Status: Alive

Age: 23 (in his final season)

Date of Birth : 282 AC

Origin: Flea Bottom

Episode Appearances: 24

First Seen: ‘Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things’

Last Seen: ‘The Iron Throne’

BACKGROUND

Gendry Baratheon, known simply as Gendry, is an unacknowledged bastard son of King Robert Baratheon. Though having grown up in the capital Gendry is unaware of his lineage.

He did not receive either the bastard surnames used in the Crownlands (Waters) or the Stormlands (Storm) because, like the rest of his half-siblings, he has never been openly acknowledged by King Robert or any of his representatives. All major religions in the Seven Kingdoms - the Faith of the Seven, followers of the Old Gods of the Forest, and followers of the Drowned God - attach very negative social stigmas to bastardy. Bastards are not allowed to inherit their father's lands or titles, and have no claims to the privileges of their father's noble house. It is up to their father, if he knows they exist, on how to raise or treat them. At best, a lord will acknowledge his bastard children but send them away to one of his distant castles to be raised away from his lawful family. At worst, they are unacknowledged and ignored by their father and left completely in the hands of their mothers. Some may fare better and be discreetly sent funds to ensure their well-being.

Gendry has spent his whole life in the capital city of King's Landing. His mother was a tavern wench that King Robert had sex with once, and apparently Robert never even knew of his existence. Gendry grew up in the slums of the poorest district in the capital, Flea Bottom, where he survived on bowls of brown stew that contained meat which was allegedly chicken. Like most of the other patrons, however, he knew full well that it wasn't. Gendry's mother died when he was very young. When he was old enough, an unknown lord paid for his apprentice fee so that he could learn to be a blacksmith. Gendry then took up work as an apprentice blacksmith under Tobho Mott, forging high-end armor and weapons for the crown as well as local noble houses. Gendry became very skilled in his own right, and the heavy manual labor built him up into a strong young man - ironically, swinging a heavy blacksmith's hammer much as King Robert once swung a war hammer.