Red Wedding

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Red wedding artistic depiction by FatherStone ©

The Red Wedding was a massacre that took place at the Twins in 299 AC during the War of the Five Kings, in which "the king in the north" Robb Stark, his mother Catelyn Stark, and most of his 3,500 banner-men were slaughtered. The event was orchestrated by the turncloak Lord Walder Frey and Tywin Lannister as revenge for Robb Stark's breaking of a marriage pact.

Background

During the War of the Five Kings, the Freys initially rose in rebellion against the Iron Throne for the King in the North, securing an invaluable strategic position for the northmen. The rebellion was contingent on Robb Stark betrothal to one of Lord Frey's daughters. However, Robb Stark broke his promise when he marries Jeyne Westerling, a slight that Lord Walder Frey was unlikely to overlook. After learning of the broken pact, Lord Walder Frey secretly began conversing with Tywin Lannister for terms to bring House Frey back into the Iron Throne's supporters. Tywin developed a devious ploy, in which Lord Frey lured Robb to the Twins, under the pretense of an invite to another marriage developed to allegedly forgive Robb's broken vow. The marriage, between Edmure Tully and his daughter Roslin Frey, was a invite with which Robb could not decline after already giving slight to his allies once.

Wedding Night

By using sellswords and knights at the feast disguised as musicians, and getting his men too drunk to fight, Lord Frey was able to coordinate a massacre with little loss to his own men. The two twin castles, and the outlying camps, were all signaled when the band began playing a per-determined song. Few of the northmen had a chance to react, and most were butchered on the spot.

Aftermath

Though no definitive count is known, most of the northmen were dead while House Frey lost only approximately fifty men in the camps, as well as Ser Garse Goodbrook and Ser Tytos Frey[1] Additionally the Frey cut off Robb's and replaced it with the head of Grey Wind's onto his body, his direwolf. Lady Catelyn Stark had her throat slit and was thrown into the river

Legacy

The Red Wedding brought to an end the Northern rebellion, and Roose Bolton was made the Warden of the North which brought great benefits for House Frey. However the it also destroyed what honor was left in the house as they had violated one of the oldest and most sacred traditions of old, the Guest right. This led to vile and disgust towards the house by most Westerosi, including their own allies. Additionally, though no other House has dreamed to repeat the breaking of the right, it has left a more lasting stain on the ancient Guest right, with safety and security in a strange castle no longer being considered guaranteed.

Frey Version

Jared Frey claims the Red Wedding was Robb Stark’s work. He changed into a wolf beast before the eyes of the Freys and tore out the throat of Jinglebell, a harmless simpleton,and would have slain Lord Walder Frey, if Ser Wendel Manderly had not put himself in the way. Not only Robb Stark changed into a wolf so did the other Northmen. The Frey's had to put them down, before the wargs slew them all.[2]

Influences

George R.R. Martin has revealed that the inspiration for the Red Wedding came from the Black Dinner.[3]


References and Notes

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Strongholds of A Song of Ice and Fire. The list of authors can be seen in the page history of Strongholds of A Song of Ice and Fire. As with A Wiki of Ice and Fire, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.