What was Ned’s purpose with Jon?

[Dorian Martell's son]

14 hours ago, Vaedys Targaryen said:

Kept his promise to Lyanna to keep Jon safe. 

/thread

[Wolf's Bane]

4 hours ago, Alyssa of House Arryn said:

Maybe he expected Jon to be the founder of some new, minor house in the North, like Jon Water's son founded House Longwaters and Daemon Waters founded House Blackfyre.

A bastard founding a house?  I suppose if Eddard loved him enough, yeah, he might break custom to do this and risk the irritation of his bannermen.  Jon is the love child of he and Ashara so maybe this is not out of the question.  

16 hours ago, Angel Eyes said:

So Ned brought Jon to Winterfell as an infant and raised him amongst his children. What did Ned want Jon to do with his life? Join the Night’s Watch? Rule a small holdfast? Marry a lady of a minor house? He could have set Jon up with Mya Stone, Robert did say he was interested in joining Houses Stark and Baratheon, and it’s much more suitable than Sansa and Joffrey. 

Maybe he did want Jon to join the Night’s Watch, he wasn’t particularly resistant to Catelyn kicking Jon out of the house.

It is doubtful whether Eddard had planned that far ahead.  The boy is his love child.  It mattered not to Eddard that the boy is illegitimate.  He is the child with the woman he dearly loved.  

[Alyssa of House Arryn]

26 minutes ago, Wolf's Bane said:

A bastard founding a house?  I suppose if Eddard loved him enough, yeah, he might break custom to do this and risk the irritation of his bannermen.  Jon is the love child of he and Ashara so maybe this is not out of the question.  

Well, when Daemon founded House Blackfyre, he was still a bastard (legitimization came two years later).

[Alyssa of House Arryn]

26 minutes ago, Wolf's Bane said:

A bastard founding a house?  I suppose if Eddard loved him enough, yeah, he might break custom to do this and risk the irritation of his bannermen.  Jon is the love child of he and Ashara so maybe this is not out of the question.  

Well, when Daemon founded House Blackfyre, he was still a bastard (legitimization came two years later).

[Wolf's Bane]

Just now, Alyssa of House Arryn said:

Well, when Daemon founded House Blackfyre, he was still a bastard (legitimization came two years later).

I will have to look this up but off the top of my head, that was done by King Aegon IV.  A reigning king can make the bastard legitimate.  Eddard Stark does not have this authority.  He would have to beg a favor from Robert.  Legitimizing bastards is probably not seen too kindly and done rarely.

[Alyssa of House Arryn]

2 minutes ago, Wolf's Bane said:

I will have to look this up but off the top of my head, that was done by King Aegon IV.  A reigning king can make the bastard legitimate.  Eddard Stark does not have this authority.  He would have to beg a favor from Robert.  Legitimizing bastards is probably not seen too kindly and done rarely.

182 AC: Aegon IV acknowledges Daemon as his, and gives him Blackfyre. Daemon thereafter changes name to "Blackfyre".

184 AC: Aegon IV legitimizes Daemon, giving him a place in succession (right after Daeron and Daeron's sons) and the right to call himself Targaryen (Daemon still chooses to go by Blackfyre).

 

I am not talking about Jon becoming legitimate, just Jon founding a minor house, perhaps with the coat of arms of House Stark in reverse.

[wia]

11 minutes ago, Wolf's Bane said:

I will have to look this up but off the top of my head, that was done by King Aegon IV.  A reigning king can make the bastard legitimate.  Eddard Stark does not have this authority.  He would have to beg a favor from Robert.  Legitimizing bastards is probably not seen too kindly and done rarely.

I don't think that a legitimization is required for founding a house. 
https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Benedict_I_Justman

Legitimization means the right to inherit, founding a new house does not. If low-born people can become landed knights and even lords, why can't bastards.

[Rufus Snow]

46 minutes ago, Wolf's Bane said:

I will have to look this up but off the top of my head, that was done by King Aegon IV.  A reigning king can make the bastard legitimate.  Eddard Stark does not have this authority.  He would have to beg a favor from Robert.  Legitimizing bastards is probably not seen too kindly and done rarely.

Offspring of bastards do not inherit their bastardy, that is no barrier to a bastard founding a house. The barrier lies in them being granted lands. That could be done either by the monarch or a Lord Paramount (assuming true feudal customs - so Ned could grant lands for Jon to hold in fee, for instance).

I think maybe Jon should marry a Baratheon, so they could combine arms for the new House Yellowsnow

[Lollygag]

I agree with those who bring up that Ned had to be careful should Jon have a Targ-looking kid if he’s still a secret. Ned would have to arrange a marriage for Jon to allow for such coloring to be explained by the mother’s side.

I think that Ned was hoping to be able to reveal Jon to Robert after time had passed and he had cooled off. Being able to safely reveal Jon to Robert would tie up things so nicely for Ned and it would work as Jon was Lyanna's kid and because of their friendship. It only needed time. Catelyn could then safely be told and she'd understand, and Jon would fit in better with the class in which he was raised. An intermarriage between Robert's and Jon's lines would help override any claim Viserys or Dany could make. It would require certain things of the Starks and Jon like abdicating not only for himself but all descendants, staying in the North to avoid stoking any paranoia or conspiracy theories, more.  But when Robert visited with still rabid hatred, that was all out.

I suspect this might be a big factor in why no marriages were planned for the kids. If Jon is revealed, then the marriages of the other Stark kids take on a different color. If Jon is Ned’s bastard, then the other Stark kids marrying into other powerful high-born families just looks normal. But if Jon is a revealed Targ abdicated though he may be, then powerful marriages for the other Stark kids who were raised with Jon and were close to him begins to look like power-plays to support eventually putting Jon on the throne with strategic alliances. It would create problems if Robert or the Lannisters possess any paranoia still. Jon as a revealed Targ would stir up interest in some southern houses seeking marriages with Jon and the other Starks kids, possibly for this purpose, or just as a way to hedge their bets as some families are wont to do.

[Angel Eyes]

Also about bastards rising high, don’t forget William the Conqueror, also known as William the Bastard.

[Rondo]

22 hours ago, Angel Eyes said:

So Ned brought Jon to Winterfell as an infant and raised him amongst his children. What did Ned want Jon to do with his life? Join the Night’s Watch? Rule a small holdfast? Marry a lady of a minor house? He could have set Jon up with Mya Stone, Robert did say he was interested in joining Houses Stark and Baratheon, and it’s much more suitable than Sansa and Joffrey. 

Maybe he did want Jon to join the Night’s Watch, he wasn’t particularly resistant to Catelyn kicking Jon out of the house.

Look, if a trueborn like Benjen can join the watch why not a bastard?  Waymar Royce is the son of a nobleman too.  

Ned raised Jon with his half-siblings.  Rather unusual but Ned is a responsible man who wanted to give his bastard the best start in life.  You know who else is caring with their bastards?  The much maligned Lord Walder Frey.

[LindsayLohan]

Jon was aware of Ned's plan to re-acquire the New Gift and raise new petty lords upon its lands.  Many of his bannermen may have seen opportunity for second sons, and Ned would not have taken too much shit if he slid Jon in among an Umber and Manderly, that sort of thing.

[Ralphis Baratheon]

Other than keeping Jon safe with his secret I don't think Ned was planning very far ahead. Ned hadn't even found Robb a bride yet, I doubt he was putting much thought into Jon's long term future until Bobby B showed up and named him his Hand to take him to KL and Jon knew it was time to leave for the Watch and Ned supported it. Had Jon ever fathered a bastard with Targ looks Ned always had the build in excuse that Ashara Dayne was his mother, something he never denied or confirmed. Had Jon's hair been silver or eyes purple he would have used the Ashara Dayne card to keep Lyanna's promise.

[Corvo the Crow]

Keep him alive.

 

All of Ned's action is to prevent the death of children.

 

what drives him is not honor like Jon(at the start that is) nor is it duty like Stannis. It is protecting the children. 

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"Whereas Daenerys is a fourteen-year-old girl." Ned knew he was pushing this well past the point of wisdom, yet he could not keep silent. "Robert, I ask you, what did we rise against Aerys Targaryen for, if not to put an end to the murder of children?"

 

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Yet last night he had dreamt of Rhaegar's children. Lord Tywin had laid the bodies beneath the Iron Throne, wrapped in the crimson cloaks of his house guard. That was clever of him; the blood did not show so badly against the red cloth. The little princess had been barefoot, still dressed in her bed gown, and the boy … the boy …

Ned could not let that happen again. The realm could not withstand a second mad king, another dance of blood and vengeance. He must find some way to save the children.

 

 

 

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To her credit, Cersei did not look away. "He saw us. You love your children do you not?"

Robert had asked him the very same question, the morning of the melee. He gave her the same answer. "With all my heart."

"No less do I love mine."

Ned thought, If it came to that, the life of some child I did not know, against Robb and Sansa and Arya and Bran and Rickon, what would I do? Even more so, what would Catelyn do, if it were Jon's life, against the children of her body? He did not know. He prayed he never would.

 

Quote

"Honor," she spat. "How dare you play the noble lord with me! What do you take me for? You've a bastard of your own, I've seen him. Who was the mother, I wonder? Some Dornish peasant you raped while her holdfast burned? A whore? Or was it the grieving sister, the Lady Ashara? She threw herself into the sea, I'm told. Why was that? For the brother you slew, or the child you stole? Tell me, my honorable Lord Eddard, how are you any different from Robert, or me, or Jaime?"

"For a start," said Ned, "I do not kill children. You would do well to listen, my lady. I shall say this only once. When the king returns from his hunt, I intend to lay the truth before him. You must be gone by then. You and your children, all three, and not to Casterly Rock. If I were you, I should take ship for the Free Cities, or even farther, to the Summer Isles or the Port of Ibben. As far as the winds blow."

 

 

Whatever he saw as the best way for keeping Jon alive, he would do that.