Robert Arryn to be Warded: Who Killed Jon Arryn?

In the mystery Who Killed Jon Arryn? there is a clue related to a discrepancy in stories related to where Robert Arryn was to be warded: with Tywin or with Stannis.

First, we're introduced to the idea Robert Arryn is to be warded with Tywin Lannister at Casterly Rock and that this is Lysa's motive for fleeing to the Eyrie.

3 AGOT Catelyn I: News of Jon Arryn's death from King Robert's own pen. "he said Lord Arryn was taken quickly. Even Maester Pycelle was helpless, but he brought the milk of the poppy, so Jon did not linger long in pain." 26 Lysa and her son are well and have retired to the Eyrie. Ned would have Catelyn go to her, but Robert is already enroute.

5 AGOT Eddard I: Talk of how Lysa left King's Landing in the night to take her son to the Eyrie to prevent his being taken to Casterly Rock as ward/hostage by the Lannisters. Robert, aggrieved, thinks it was his idea: "Lord Tywin had never taken a ward before. Lysa ought to have been honored. The Lannisters are a great and noble House. She refused to even hear of it. Then she left in the dead of night, without so much as a by-your-leave. Cersei was furious."45 Ward of Tywin

Robert says of Jon Arryn "I have never seen a man sicken so quickly. We gave a tournament on my son's name day. If you had seen Jon then, you would have sworn he would live forever. A fortnight later he was dead. The sickness was like a fire in his gut. It burned right through him." 44 He continues to say Lysa is not well. "I think losing Jon has driven the woman mad, Ned. She has taken the boy back to the Eyrie. Against my wishes. I had hoped to foster him with Tywin Lannister at Casterly Rock. Jon had no brothers, no other sons. Was I supposed to leave him to be raised by women?" 45  Ward of Tywin

Ned offers to ward Robert Arryn, his nephew, at Winterfell, but King Robert balks, saying it would offend Tywin.

7 AGOT Catelyn II: Maester Lewin brings a letter to Catelyn from Lysa, one delivered in the false bottom of a Myrish lens box he found on his desk. It's written in the secret language the sisters used as little girls. Cate;yn reads it, burns it, and tells them it's a warning. "Lysa says Jon Arryn was murdered. By the Lannisers. The queen." 62 Catelyn presses Ned to accept the Hand position so as to investigate in King's Landing and learn the truth and protect his friend and king.

9 AGOT Bran II: Bran overhears Jame and Cersei argue about whether Lysa might have been told by Jon Arryn and told Robert.

Jaime: "If she knew anything, she would have gone to Robert before she fled King's Landing."

Cersei: "When he had already agreed to foster that weakling son of hers at Casterly Rock. I think not. She knew the boy's life would be hostage to her silence. She may grow bolder now that he's safe atop the Eyrie." 83

Next, we're introduced to the idea Jon Arryn meant to have his son warded with Stannis on Dragonstone. It seems he meant to counter the Lannister attempt to take his son hostage.

21 AGOT Eddard IV: "I told Petyr our suspicions about Jon Arryn's death," Catelyn said "He has promised to help you find the truth." 200 At the end of the chapter Ned says "Remember why I came here, my love. If I find proof that the Lannisters murdered Jon Arryn...when I know the truth, I must go to Robert" 202 This is what Littlefinger advises as well.

26 AGOT Eddard V: The chapter opens with Ned questioning Pycelle about Jon Arryn's illness, the possibility of poison. It's how Ned learns of the book of lineages and Jon Arryn's last words. We also learn Cersei's alibi. She was enroute to Casterly Rock with the children and her father who had come to attend Joffrey's name day tourney.

28 AGOT Eddard VI: Jory spoke to Littlefinger's informants. A pot boy who was promoted to cordwainer said Jon Arryn had quarreled with the king and was sending his son to be fostered with Stannis on Dragonstone. "The pot boy, now a cordwainer, had never exchanged so much as a word with Lord Jon, but he was full of oddments of kitchen gossip: the lord had been quarreling with the king, the lord only picked at his food, the lord was sending his boy to be fostered on Dragonstone." 275 Ward of Stannis

"Why did Stannis leave? Had he played some part in Jon Arryn's murder? Or was he afraid?" 276

31 AGOT Eddard VII: Varys says Jon Arryn was poisoned using the tears of Lys, implying it was by Lord Arryn's own squire, Ser Hugh, at Cersei's behest." 323

34 AGOT Eddard VIII: Varys suggests they poison Daenerys with the tears of Lys. This is after the conversation Arya overhears where Illyrio suggests Varys kill Ned. "If one Hand can die, why not a second? You have danced the dance before, my friend" 344 It's made to sound like Varys poisoned Jon Arryn and points at Cersei to deflect from his own guilt.

36 AGOT Eddard IX: Grand Maester Pycelle administers milk of the poppy to injured Ned, ominous because it is what he did to end Jon Arryn's life once all hope was lost. Ned had been asking Littlefinger, before Jaime attacked, why Jon Arryn would take a sudden interst in Robert's bastards and how that got him killed.

39 AGOT Tyrion V: Lysa publicly accuses Tyrion of murderin Jon Arryn. 412 Tyrion wonders if it was possible Cersei and Jaime conspired to kill the Hand. 415

41 AGOT Catelyn VII: Maester Colemon tells Catelyn Jon Arryn intended to ward with Stannis.

"He was planning to send the boy to Dragonstone for fostering, you know..."

"You are mistaken, Maester," Catelyn said. "It was Casterly Rock, not Dragonstone, and those arrangements were made after the Hand's death, without my sister's consent."

The maester's head jerked so vigorously at the end of his absurdly long neck that he looked half a puppet himself. "No, begging your forgiveness, my lady, but it was Lord Jon who--" Ward of Stannis Confirmed

46 AGOT Eddard XII: When Sansa's observation joffrey is nothing like Robert "the simple truth of it had twisted inside him, cold as death. This as the swordthat killed Jon Arryn, Ned thought then, and it will kill Robert as well, a slower death but full as certain. Shattered legs may heal in time, but some betrayals fester and poison the soul" 481 When Ned figures it out, that Joffrey isn't Robert's son, he comes to a variety of other conclusions left unclear.

"I know the truth Jon Arryn died for" Ned tells Cersei. 485

"Do you?" The queen watched his face, wary as a cat, Is that why you called me here, Lord Stark? To pose me riddles? Or is it your intent to seize me, as your wife seized my brother?" 485

56 AGOT Catelyn VIII: "...her parting from the Eyrie had not been pleasant. She had offered to take Lord Robert with her, to foster him at Winterfell for a few years. The company of other boys would do him good, she had dared to suggest. Lysa's rage had been frightening to behold. "Sister or no," she had replied, "if you try to steal my son, you will leave by the Moon Door," After that there was no more to be said. No Warding!

60 AGOT Catelyn IX: Walder Frey tells story of tourney at King's Landing where he asked Arryns to foster two of his grandsons and offers to foster Robert Arryn at the Twins. 648 Lysa responded so badly that the request was misunderstood. No Warding!

Catelyn frowned, disquieted, "I had understod that Lys'as boy ws to be fostered with Lord Tywin at Casterly Rock"

"No, it was Lord Stannis," Walder Frey said irritably. "Do you think I can't tell Lord Stannis from Lord Tywin?"

"Jon Arryn was going to foster his son with Lord Stannis, you're quite certain of that?"

"Yes, yes, yes," the old man said. "Only he died, so what does it matter?" 649 Ward of Stannis Confirmed

A Clash of Kings

74 ACOK 1 Prologue: Stannis says of Robert Arryn: "The boy is weak and sickly...Even his father saw how it was, when he asked me to foster him on Dragonstone...that damnable Lannister woman had Lord Arryn poisoned before it could be done, and now Lysa hides him in the Eyrie. She'll never part with the boy, I promise you that." 17  Ward of Stannis Confirmed

77 ACOK 4 Tyrion I: "Littlefinger laughed 'You're a braver man than me, Lannister You do know the fate of our last towh Hands?" 56 It seems Littlefinger is taking credit for Jon Arryn's and Ned Stark's deaths, warning Tyrion away from moving into the Tower of the Hand. Later, Tyrion asks Cersei who murdered Jon Arryn.

"The grieving widow in the Eyrie seems to think it was me. Where did she come by that notion, I wonder?"

"I'm sure I don't know. That fool Eddard Stark accused me of the same thing. He hinted Lord Arryn suspected..." 61

91 ACOK 18 Tyrion IV: Tyrion asks Litlefinger to treat with Lysa. "If I gave her Jon Arryn's true kliller, she might think more kindly of me." 273

99 ACOK 26 Tyrion VI: Pycelle confesses to sending Colemon away because he was purging Jon Arryn. However, he says Varys is convined Ser hugh administered the poison, explaining wy he was knighted in such haste. Pycelle then administered a datal dose of milk of the poppy because all hope was gone, as he says in A Game of Thrones. Here, he excludes that detail in his pg 4110412 confession. It's clear Pycelle killed Jon Arryn and that he did so because he believeed Cersei had had him poisoned becauseJon arryn knew about the cuckolding and was going to tell Robert.

A Storm of Swords

146 ASOS 3 Catelyn I: The story of Hoster's forcing an abortion on Lysa, ruining her childbearing future, sets up for reveals related to Lysa's devotion to Littlefinger. Theres the implication Lysa became pregnant by Littlefinger in hopes her father would allow them to wed and that she'd tolerated being called Cat by him towards this purpose.

212 ASOS 69 Sansa VI: After the wedding at the Fingers, Lysa tells Sansa Littlefinger was her first kiss and that she recommended him to Jon Arryn who brought him to King's Landing. "That was hard, to see him every day and still be wed to that old, cold man." 943 That, and the fervor with which she greeted her husband to be, suggested they'd been lovers. Littlefinger has even spoken of bedding Lysa on several occassions: saying it would be neccessary in order to secure an engagement between Myrcella and Sweetrobin, saying it will be neccessary (and repulsive) in order to wed her and bring the Vale back to the crown. He's bargaining. Lysa's repeating that she wants "us to make another child" 938 implies Robert Arryn may be Littlefinger's. It would seem to suggest Jon Arryn was impotent. There is more support to suggest Robert Arryn is indeed the son of Jon Arryn and only sickly because of dmage to Lys'as reporductive system related to Hoster forcing her to take tansy to abort the child by Littlefinger she conceived so as to press for marriage, then.

Lysa says "a man will tell you poison is dishonorable, but a woman's honor is different. The Mother shaped us to protect our children, and our only dishonor is in failure." 944

220 ASOS 77 Jon XI: Stannis tells Jon Snow that Cersei Lannister murdered King Robert Baratheon, Ned Stark and Jon Arryn. 1057

224 ASOS 81 Sansa VII: On page 1110, Lysa reveals she gave her virginity to Littlefinger and he thoughtshe was Catelyn. "We made a baby together, a precious little baby. When they stole him from me, I made a promise to myself that I would never let it happen again. Jon wishes to send my sweet Robert to Dragonstone, and that sort of king would have given him to Cersei Lannister, but I never let them... no more than I'll let you steal my Petyr Littlefinger." 1111 Lysa says Littlefinger was sent back to the Fingers because of her pregnancy and not because of the duel with Brandon Stark.

Later, hysterically upset that Littlefinger kissed Sansa, Lysa says "You told me to put the tears in Jon's wine, and I did. For Robert and for us! And I wrote to Catelyn and told her the Lannisters had killed my lord husband, just as you said." 1114