Difference between revisions of "Eustace Osgrey"

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==Appearance==
 
==Appearance==
Ser Eustace was tall, broad, and handsome in his youth. As he grew older he remained big-boned, broad-shouldered, barrel-chested, with strong, sharp features. He wore a thick mustache and kept his hair close-cropped. Eustace's hair had turned white as milk, but his mustache and eyebrows were ashy gray. His eyes were a paler gray color, and appeared to be full of sadness.{{Ref|TSS}}
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Ser Eustace was tall, broad, and handsome in his youth. As he grew older, he remained big-boned, broad-shouldered, and barrel-chested, with strong, sharp features. He wore a thick mustache and kept his hair close-cropped. Eustace's hair had turned white as milk, but his mustache and eyebrows were ashy gray. His eyes were a paler gray color, and appeared to be full of sadness.{{Ref|TSS}}
  
 
==History==
 
==History==

Revision as of 03:37, 24 September 2019

House Osgrey.svg
Eustace Osgrey
House Osgrey.svg
Eustace Osgrey.jpg
Eustace Osgrey, art by Mike S Miller

Aliases
  • The Knight of Standfast
  • Ser Useless
Titles
Allegiance House Osgrey
Culture Reach
Born Standfast[1]
Died 211219 AC[2]
Spouses
Issue
Book The Sworn Sword (appears)

Eustace Osgrey was the knight of Standfast during the reign of King Aerys I Targaryen. He had three sons and a daughter.[3]

Appearance

Ser Eustace was tall, broad, and handsome in his youth. As he grew older, he remained big-boned, broad-shouldered, and barrel-chested, with strong, sharp features. He wore a thick mustache and kept his hair close-cropped. Eustace's hair had turned white as milk, but his mustache and eyebrows were ashy gray. His eyes were a paler gray color, and appeared to be full of sadness.[3]

History

Ser Eustace Osgrey had been good friends with his neighbor Lord Wyman Webber before the First Blackfyre Rebellion; though not without some jealousy, as much of the House Webber lands had once belonged to House Osgrey, including the Webbers' castle Coldmoat. Eustace's youngest son Addam served at Coldmoat as Wyman's page and squire, and began a childhood romance with Wyman's daughter Rohanne, who was the same age. However, when Eustace proposed that Addam marry Rohanne, Wyman rejected him -- courteously, but Eustace heard him laughing with Ser Lucas Inchfield as he left. Eustace never returned to Coldmoat during Wyman's lifetime.[3]

First Blackfyre Rebellion

Eustace supported the pretender king Daemon Blackfyre during the First Blackfyre Rebellion, in hopes that he would reverse the losses House Osgrey had suffered under the Targaryens. Eustace also apparently believed the rumors about King Daeron II Targaryen being a bastard, calling him "Daeron the Falseborn" years later, and proclaiming the merit of the "rightful king" Daemon.[3]

In the end the Rebellion failed, and Eustace's three sons, Edwyn, Harrold, and Addam were killed at the Battle of the Redgrass Field. When Eustace returned home, he faced the decision of being executed or giving his young daughter Alysanne over as hostage to the crown.[3]

Aftermath of the Rebellion

Lands of House Osgrey, including the Chequy Water river, were granted to House Webber, which had remained loyal to House Targaryen.[3] Eustace's daughter Alysanne was sent to King's Landing as a hostage. After Eustace brought the bones of their sons home and allowed their daughter Alysanne to be taken away, his wife committed suicide by throwing herself from the top of Standfast tower. Eustace's wife and sons were buried at Standfast, by the blackberry bushes his sons had loved to pick.[3]

Alysanne stayed in King's Landing for the rest of her life, becoming a silent sister. Eustace went to visit her once, but she refused to break her vows of silence to speak with him. Alysanne died during the Great Spring Sickness (in 209 AC or 210 AC), which made Ser Eustace the last of his line.[3]

Conflict with Lady Rohanne Webber

In 209 AC, Dake, a peasant of House Osgrey's villages who had served as a forager for Ser Eustace during the Blackfyre Rebellion, was accused of stealing sheep from the neighboring lands of House Webber. Lady Rohanne Webber sent her knights across the Chequy Water to seize Dake and bring him to Coldmoat for punishment. When Eustace arrived at Coldmoat to demand Dake's release, he learned that he had been sewn into a sack with rocks, which was sunk in the moat of Coldmoat. Eustace then swore a holy vow that he would never return to Coldmoat again, except to take possession of it.[3]

In 211 AC, the aging Eustace took on hedge knights to protect his lands: Ser Bennis of the Brown Shield, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his squire Egg. Duncan and Bennis happened upon the Chequy Water in the process of being dammed by peasants of House Webber. Believing that the men were trespassing on Osgrey lands, Bennis cut one of their faces in an attempt to scare them off. Ser Eustace, fearing that Lady Webber would demand Bennis's life as with Dake's, had Bennis and Duncan raise troops from the peasant villages of House Osgrey and prepare them for a possible war.

However, the meagre amount of men of fighting age were untrained, and no match for the knights of House Webber. Seeing this, Ser Eustace decided to pay a blood price to settle the matter, but as he had sworn to never return to Coldmoat, he sent Ser Duncan to make the offer. However, Lady Rohanne rejected the blood price, demanding that Bennis be brought to her to have his nose slit as a punishment, or that she would come to Standfast by the next day with fire and sword. Her maester also revealed a document to Ser Duncan, sealed by the crown, showing House Webber's possession of the Chequy Water and revealing that Ser Eustace had been a traitorous supporter of the Blackfyres. Duncan also learned that Lady Rohanne blamed Ser Eustace for the death of her first love, Addam.

When Ser Duncan returned to Standfast, he confronted Ser Eustace about his Blackfyre loyalties and about lying to him about the deaths of his sons and the status of the Chequy Water. Duncan planned to leave Standfast the next morning; however, late that night they were awakened by a fire in Wat's Wood. Believing that Lady Rohanne had set the fire, Ser Eustace planned to use his peasant militia to make war on her lands and burn one of the Webber mills. However, Duncan realized that all the peasants would die in the conflict, and sent them home and told Ser Eustace he would represent him at the confrontation with Lady Rohanne.

At the border of their lands, the Chequy Water, Eustace accused Rohanne of setting the fire, while she denied all complicity. Duncan and Rohanne parlayed in the middle of the river; however, she would not accept Duncan cutting his own cheek as payment for Bennis, and demanded an apology for Eustace's slander about the fire. They agreed to a trial by combat, between Ser Duncan and Lady Rohanne's representative Ser Lucas Longinch. Duncan prevailed, but almost drowned in the river in the process.

While Duncan was unconscious, Ser Eustace and Lady Rohanne reconciled, speaking about Addam and visiting his grave at Standfast. When she began to weep, Ser Eustace comforted her. The next day, Ser Eustace married Lady Rohanne, as a resolution to her father's will that she be married within two years of his death or lose her ruling rights to a Webber cousin. Ser Eustace Osgrey became Lord of Coldmoat. He and Rohanne offered to make Ser Duncan their new captain of the guard at Coldmoat, but he refused and left.[3]

Legacy

Not long after, while attending the wedding tourney at Whitewalls, Ser Duncan the Tall thought of Rohanne Webber and Eustace Osgrey, and wondered if they ever thought of him. Upon encountering some other Blackfyre rebels at the tourney, he was also reminded of Ser Eustace.[4]

Some time before 219 AC, Eustace Osgrey died.[2] His second wife Rohanne Webber later married Gerold Lannister.[5]

Family

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unknown
Osgrey
 
Unknown
wife
 
 
 
Osgrey of
Leafy Lake
 
Unknown
wife
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unknown
wife
 
Eustace
 
Rohanne
Webber
 
Daughter(s)
 
Youngest
daughter
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Edwyn
 
Harrold
 
Addam
 
Alysanne
 


Quotes by Eustace

The singers can go on about their hammer and their anvil, ser, but it was the kinslayer who turned the tide with a white arrow and a black spell.[3]

—Ser Eustace Osgrey, to Duncan the Tall, about the Battle of the Redgrass Field

Quotes about Eustace

You'll find Ser Useless in his chambers, brooding on how great he used to be.[3]

—Ser Bennis of the Brown Shield, to Duncan the Tall

References

  1. George R. R. Martin's A World of Ice and Fire, Eustace Osgrey.
  2. 2.0 2.1 See the Eustace Osgrey calculation.
  3. 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 The Sworn Sword.
  4. The Mystery Knight.
  5. The World of Ice & Fire, The Westerlands: House Lannister Under the Dragons.