Garth X Gardener

Garth X Gardener
Monarch
Full name	Garth of House Gardener, the Tenth of His Name
Title	King of the Reach
Successor	Mern VI Gardener
Personal Information
Alias	Garth Greybeard
Died	In unknown (aged 96), at Highgarden
Family
Dynasty	House Gardener
Issue	Two daughters
References
Book	The World of Ice & Fire (mentioned)

Garth X Gardener, called Garth Greybeard, was a King of the Reach and head of House Gardener. During his long reign House Gardener reached the nadir of its power.^[1]

History

He came into the crown at the age of seven and died at ninety-six, reigning longer than his forebear Garth VII Gardener. Though vigorous in his youth, Garth X was neither wise nor clever. Vain and frivolous, he surrounded himself with fools and flatterers and lost his wits entirely in old age. During the long years of his senility, he became the tool of first one faction and then another as those around him vied for wealth and power. Garth sired no sons and only daughters; one of whom had married Lord Manderly and another to Lord Peake and each lord was determined that his wife should succeed Garth Greybeard. The rivalry between them was marked by betrayal, conspiracy, and murder, finally escalating into open war with other lords joining the cause on both sides.^[1]

With the Kingdom of the Reach in chaos and the king too feeble to grasp what was occurring, much less stop it, the Storm King and the King of the Rock seized the opportunity and took large swathes of territory, whilst Dornish raids grew bolder and more frequent. One Dornish king besieged Oldtown, whilst another crossed the Mander and sacked Highgarden. The Oakenseat was chopped into pieces and burned, whilst the senile King Garth X was found tied to his bed, whimpering and covered in his own filth. The Dornish cut his throat - in an act of mercy one of them would later say - then put Highgarden to the torch after stripping it of all its wealth.^[1]

Almost a decade of anarchy followed, until Ser Osmund Tyrell, the High Steward of Highgarden, made common cause with the other lords of the Reach and defeated both the Peakes and Manderlys, reclaimed the ruined seat of the Gardeners, and placed a second cousin of the late and unlamented Garth Greybeard on its new throne who ascended as King Mern VI Gardener.^[1]