Assassination of Balon Greyjoy

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"You're old, brother. You've had your time. Now let another rule."

―Euron Greyjoy and Balon Greyjoy

The Assassination of Balon Greyjoy was an event during the War of the Five Kings.

The assassination of Balon Greyjoy

After Yara Greyjoy informed her father, King Balon Greyjoy, that House Glover had retaken Deepwood Motte and they had no more holdings mainland. Balon stated that he did not care, and Yara declared that the War of the Five Kings is over, with him being the sole survivor of the conflict. Later, during the rainy night, while crossing a rickety wooden bridge, King Balon is confronted by his brother Euron Greyjoy, which ends with Euron throwing his brother off the bridge and into the ocean to drown to death.

Notes

• With the death of King Balon Greyjoy, all five of the titular kings of the War of the Five Kings are dead.

In the books

In the novels, Balon is killed before the other two "usurpers", Robb and Joffrey, against whom Stannis and Melisandre performed the leech ritual, using the blood of Edric Storm, a bastard son of King Robert. While the murders of Robb and Joffrey take place "on-screen" and their murderers are revealed to the readers, Balon's death takes place "off-screen" and its circumstances remain obscure by the point the books reached. The official version is that he was crossing a bridge during a storm and it was broken by the wind; he washed up two days later, all bloated and broken, crabs ate his eyes. There are, however, hints that it is Euron's handiwork:

• The prophecy of an old woman, known as the ghost of High Heart: "I dreamt of a man without a face, waiting on a bridge that swayed and swung. On his shoulder perched a drowned crow with seaweed hanging from his wings" - implying that Euron hired a assassin from the Faceless Men to kill his elder brother.
• Euron, who was exiled several years ago by Balon, returns to the Iron Isles one day after Balon's death. Asha, more intelligent and analytical than most ironborn, suspects Euron of killing her father and confronts him in public. He dismisses her accusation nonchalantly, claiming he was on his ship, whose crew members are - very conveniently - mutes. No one else has dared to accuse Euron of Balon's death, or bothered to investigate it.

Neither Asha nor anyone else declares a vendetta against the unknown murderer.

Of note, it isn't clear whether the leech ritual had any effect at all in respect of the deaths of the three "usurpers": Robb's and Joffrey's murders were obviously not caused by magical means. Perhaps the ritual has effect, though indirect, by providing a twist of fate that ensures the victim's death by some other means, not necessarily magical; or, maybe the ritual was just a sham of Melisandre, who has foreseen the three deaths and performed the ritual to make it look like the future deaths are the result of her witchcraft.

With Balon's death, by the point the books reached Stannis is the only survivor of the five kings, after whom the War of the Five Kings is titled.