Barristan Selmy

The finest sword of his generation fought against Robert at the Trident, took a grievous wound, and lay dying among the Targaryen host. Robert sent his own maester to save the man's life and afterwards named him Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Grudges, he was fond of saying, were for Targaryens.

It is the single best illustration of what people loved in Robert Baratheon: an enormous, uncalculating generosity toward anyone who had fought him well. He spent the next fifteen years guarded by a man he had every political reason to execute, and the arrangement worked perfectly.