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In Chapter 45 of AGOT Eddard Stark had this conversation with Cersei, while Robert was away from King's Landing on a hunt:

“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.”

But later on, he has this conversation with Varys:

Varys “If there was one soul in King’s Landing who was truly desperate to keep Robert Baratheon alive, it was me.” He sighed. “For fifteen years I protected him from his enemies, but I could not protect him from his friends. What strange fit of madness led you to tell the queen that you had learned the truth of Joffrey’s birth?”

Ned “The madness of mercy,” Ned admitted.

Varys“Oh, indeed. Cersei gave him the wineskins, and told him it was Robert’s favorite vintage.” The eunuch shrugged. “A hunter lives a perilous life. If the boar had not done for Robert, it would have been a fall from a horse, the bite of a wood adder, an arrow gone astray … the forest is the abbatoir of the gods. It was not wine that killed the king. It was your mercy.”

We find out later that

Lancel Lannister, King Robert's squire, gave him the wineskins

But how could the queen have given this order when the King - and presumably his squire - were already away from the city on the hunt?

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    I always assumed she'd done so BEFORE they left.
    – PiousVenom
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 14:24
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    I had assumed it was a standing order, every time Robert hunted, <spoiler> would occur, in hopes that eventually <the result> would occur. I knew of no cause for the order, so I'd assumed it had been a standing order for years before the book began.
    – Mooing Duck
    Commented Jun 9, 2014 at 17:01

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There's always the possibility I suppose of her sending a rider with the wineskins and a message for Lancel.

However, I believe Cersei (or her father) had already decided that Robert should die before he went on the hunt, and before Ned made his revelation. Ned Stark was already proving to be a troublesome thorn on the Lannister side. The Starks held Tyrion captive, and had Jaime on the run. I'm fairly certain they knew he was retracing Jon Arryn's steps when it came to the incest investigation. Assassinating Ned would invite too many questions (he wasn't old like Jon Arryn) so the only way to neutralize him would be to remove the ultimate source of his authority: King Robert. Joffrey Baratheon was old enough (but not too old) to be an effective puppet ruler, and he was a Lannister in heart if not in name. Once he was installed, the could simply dismiss Ned and replace him with Tywin without much in the way of political repercussions.

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  • ... and then later on Varys just lied about the "mercy" to manipulate Ned?
    – Justin Ethier
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 17:10
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    @JustinEthier - Perhaps. Or maybe he simply did not know about the plot. I've always believed that Varys' reputation far exceeded his actual abilities, a fact that serves him quite well.
    – System Down
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 17:17
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    @Justin Ethier - Not lied; just an instruction that his mercy was ill advised and no good deed goes unpunished. Eddard's integrity was his doom.
    – Ihor Sypko
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 19:06
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    Yes. IIRC both Varys and Baelish tell Ned that there were plots on the king's life before (the tourney melee Robert almost entered) and would have been more. Ned's actions just made them more urgent.
    – Dronz
    Commented Nov 2, 2015 at 20:49
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Probably she just sent a messenger to issue orders to Lancel, or perhaps a raven. There isn't a problem if you allow for a 3rd party carrying the message (though it would probably have to be encoded). The medieval hunts portrayed in the series could last weeks so they would need to have a way to regularly make contact with the hunting party anyway

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    Ravens are not able to communicate with people in the field, they only fly to a well-known place such as a castle. Good point about weeks-long hunting parties, though.
    – Justin Ethier
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 14:13
  • @JustinEthier Yes but possibly there is an established hunting lodge or something. Or just a nearby castle.
    – Lawton
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 14:17
  • And ravens can't carry wineskins either.
    – System Down
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 14:34
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    @SystemDown: "Wait a minute -- supposing two swallows^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H ravens carried it together?"
    – Keith Thompson
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 20:38

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