Warning: The following contains spoilers for Game of Thrones season 7
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Robert's Rebellion was based on a lie. As the seventh season of Game of Thrones has made clear, the alleged abduction of Lyanna Stark was actually an elopement and lawful marriage. Like with Helen of Troy, however, that elopement launched a thousand battles and forever altered the landscape of the Seven Kingdoms.
Though King Aerys deserved his title as the Mad King, it seems that his son, Rhaegar Targaryen, should bear a portion of the responsibility for driving Westeros into civil war. The call of his heart drove him to pursue an extramarital relationship that would bore a hole in the peace of Westeros. Had he stayed loyal to his first wife, Elia Martell, and their children, it's unlikely any conflict would have ever materialized.
As for Rhaegar's father, Aerys wasn't always a bloodlust-filled lunatic. He was once an ambitious, sane, and competent ruler. With the help of Tywin Lannister as his Hand of the King, he did a remarkable job of keeping the Seven Kingdoms safe and prosperous. Though he grew peeved when Tywin seemed to receive all the credit for his success, Aerys allowed the Lannister leader to continue his work uninterrupted (though on occasion he would drunkenly insult Tywin's wife, Joanna).
The Mad King's descent began after he was kidnapped by Lord Denys Darklyn of Duskendale. Though he was held captive for just six months before Ser Barristan Selmy saved him, the seeds of paranoia were firmly planted in Aerys' mind as he wondered how his own men could let him rot in another man's prison for half a year. The Mad King slowly lost trust in everyone and became a hermit, sealing himself in the Red Keep for months on end.
Only for the famed Tourney at Harrenhal did Aerys finally venture out. Like the Olympics of the Seven Kingdoms, this ballyhooed jousting event attracted all the big names in Westeros. Though it should have been a show of sportsmanship and honor, the Tourney set in motion the events that would lead to Robert's Rebellion.
With his proud father looking on, Rhaegar Targaryen was pronounced the champion jouster at Harrenhal. As the tradition allowed, the victor would then declare his œQueen of Love and Beauty before the crowd. Though the winner would usually nominate his spouse, Rhaegar Targaryen ignored his wife, Elia Martell, and instead gave the beautiful Lyanna Stark œa crown of winter roses, blue as frost." As Ned Stark remembers in A Song of Ice and Fire, this was œthe moment when all the smiles died" amid the concerned crowd.
It was an unexpected move from Prince Rhaegar, whose silvery hair and good looks made him a heartthrob to every woman in his wake. Though they cheered him on in his victory, they quickly grew silent at his show of affection for the woman who wasn't his wife. None of this was lost on Robert Baratheon, who was set to make Lyanna his bride.
Naming Lyanna Stark the Queen of Love and Beauty would spell death for Rhaegar, and war for the Seven Kingdoms. Not long after the tourney, word spread that Rhaegar had kidnapped Lyanna and disappeared with her. This enraged the leaders at Winterfell and spurred Lyanna's brother, Brandon Stark, to ride to King's Landing and demand Rhaegar be held responsible for his wanton actions.
In his mounting madness, Aerys grew offended by Brandon's audacity and ordered that he and his men be imprisoned. While he left the Stark son in jail, Aerys ordered Rickard Stark to come to the Red Keep and pay a ransom for his treasonous son. Though Lord Rickard obliged, Aerys labeled him a seditious leader upon his arrival at King's Landing.
Rickard insisted on a trial by combat, and while Aerys agreed, he tricked the Stark lord and had him hoisted over a fire and burned in his armor. While this happened, Aerys then had Brandon brought in from his jail cell and into the Red Keep where he saw his father getting roasted alive. As Brandon was tied to a medieval hanging device, the Mad King placed a sword not far from his captive and offered an ultimatum: free yourself from the noose, and you may save your father. Though Brandon valiantly risked his life, he ultimately suffocated himself before he could keep his father from succumbing to the flames.
The Mad King had now earned his name, but he didn't stop there. Knowing his actions would infuriate the houses in the north, Aerys also demanded the heads of Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon. When word of the deaths of Rickard and Brandon reached Winterfell, the Starks, Baratheons, and Arryns allied themselves to depose the lunatic at King's Landing. As far as Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark were concerned, this was full-blown military payback for the alleged abduction of Lyanna, the unjust murders of the Stark leaders, and the disgrace sitting on the Iron Throne.
The rebellion had begun. From Summerhall to Storm's End and the Battle of the Bells, civil war flooded the land of Westeros. The hostilities came to a head at the Battle of the Trident, where Rhaegar finally appeared in his ruby-studded armor. Though the Targaryen confidently waded into war, Robert Baratheon dealt a killing blow to Rhaegar with a quick swing of his warhammer. The Targaryen prince was dead, and Robert won his vengeance over Lyanna's captor.
Back at King's Landing, Aerys made a crucial error by allowing Tywin through the gates. Though Aerys hoped for backup, the Lannister army betrayed him and ransacked King's Landing, driving Aerys to order his pyromancer to œburn them all with wildfire. The Mad King also ordered Jaime Lannister (the youngest member of the Kingsguard) to kill his father, but Jaime disobeyed the orders and instead assassinated Aerys himself.
During the hostile takeover of King's Landing, no Targaryen survived the mayhem. Gregor Clegane (aka The Mountain) took it upon himself to stamp out Rhaegar's successors by slaughtering his children in front of Elia Martell's own eyes, then raping and murdering her immediately after.
While the fighting at King's Landing had ceased, Ned Stark, Howland Reed and his band of men went to the Tower of Joy in the Red Mountains of Dorne. There, Ned encountered the remaining men of the Kingsguard and their terrifying leader, Ser Arthur Dayne, the best swordsman in all of the Seven Kingdoms. Though Dayne declared that Rhaegar had ordered him to defend Lyanna Stark at the Tower of Joy, Ned and Howland saw them as traitors and cut them down.
Ned failed to understand that Rhaegar's orders were benevolent. He loved Lyanna, he married her, and he gave her a son: Aegon Targaryen, or as we've called him all these years, Jon Snow. Robert's Rebellion was ultimately founded on the assumption that Rhaegar kidnapped and assaulted Lyanna, when in reality, he had legally annulled his first marriage with Elia Martell. Considering he already had produced multiple children with her, however, œannulment apparently has a different meaning in Westeros than our own world.
Whether he intentionally perpetuated the rumor or accepted it as a result of his wounded pride, Robert Baratheon's famous rebellion was built on a lie. Lyanna was never taken from her future husband. She simply left him to be with another man. Rhaegar, whom even George R. R. Martin describes as œa love-struck prince, was equally besotted with Lyanna. The pair eloped, were married in the woods, and began the story we now know as A Song of Ice and Fire.