Great Hall (Red Keep)
The Great Hall, also called the throne room, is a large hall of the Red Keep in King's Landing.[1][2] The Iron Throne is located in the throne room.[3]
Contents
Layout
The Great Hall is the largest hall in the Seven Kingdoms, aside from the Hall of a Hundred Hearths at Harrenhal.[4][5] The Red Keep's throne room can feast a thousand men, while the Small Hall in the nearby Tower of the Hand, in comparison, can seat two hundred.[1]
The cavernous hall has high, narrow windows and a gallery.[6] Tall oak-and-bronze doors and the Iron Throne are located at opposite ends of the long hall,[6][7] which has a carpet.[8] A table for the small council is located beneath the towering chair.[6] Behind the throne is an exit for the king,[9] with the practice yard nearby.[10] Kingsguard often stand guard at the foot of the Iron Throne, and household guards and gold cloaks can be aligned along the walls.[11][9]
Dragon skulls were displayed on the walls of the throne room during the reign of House Targaryen, but King Robert I Baratheon had them replaced with banners and hunting tapestries after Robert's Rebellion.[12][6]
History
When Grand Maester Myros spoke against the intention of Maegor I Targaryen to wed Tyanna of Pentos, the king beheaded him with Blackfyre in the throne room.[13] Once the Seven Kingdoms began to turn against Maegor the Cruel, he was found dead on the Iron Throne. Some conjectured that Maegor had been assassinated by culprits who had accessed the throne room by a hidden passage.[13]
During the Golden Wedding, King Jaehaerys I Targaryen met with visitors in his solar instead of the great hall.[14] Lord Rogar Baratheon and Queen Alyssa Velaryon, the king's mother, held their wedding feast in the throne room.[14] When Jaehaerys made peace with Rogar after a later quarrel, they celebrated with a feast in the great hall.[15]
After losing two fingers to cuts from the Iron Throne, King Viserys I Targaryen held court in first his solar and then his bedchamber instead of in the throne room.[16]
King Aegon II Targaryen sat the Iron Throne at the start of the Dance of the Dragons,[17] but Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen then claimed it after Aegon fled during the fall of King's Landing.[18] According to Septon Eustace, the armor-clad Rhaenyra was cut by the throne and dripped blood as she left the hall, allegedly a symbol she had been rejected by the Iron Throne.[18]
The Maiden's Day Ball was held in the throne room during the regency of Aegon III.[4]
In the aftermath of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen's abduction of Lyanna Stark, the executions of her father Rickard and brother Brandon lead to Robert's Rebellion. King Aerys II Targaryen had Lord Rickard suspended from the throne room's rafters and burned to death by his pyromancers, and Brandon was strangled while trying to save his father.[19] During the Sack of King's Landing, Ser Jaime Lannister killed Aerys, whom he was sworn to protect,[20] to prevent the Mad King's wildfire plot.[5] When Lord Eddard Stark entered the hall, he found Jaime seated on the Iron Throne and Aerys's body on the floor.[21]
Recent Events
A Game of Thrones
While King Robert I Baratheon is away hunting in the kingswood, Lord Eddard Stark hears petitions from the Iron Throne as Robert's Hand of the King.[6]
Joffrey I Baratheon succeeds to the throne after Robert's death. Queen Cersei Lannister, Robert's widow and Joffrey's mother, has Lord Stark arrested in the throne room.[11]
The hunting tapestries are removed from the throne room's walls. Ser Barristan Selmy is publicly dismissed as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard during Joffrey's first court session.[7]
A Clash of Kings
Tyrion Lannister, acting Hand of the King while his father Lannister is on campaign during the War of the Five Kings, holds court and hears from Ser Cleos Frey and Ser Alliser Thorne.[9]
After the Battle of the Blackwater, Joffrey holds court and grants honors to his supporters.[22]
A Storm of Swords
After Joffrey weds Margaery Tyrell in the Great Sept of Baelor, their wedding feast is held in the throne room. The boy king chokes to death during the celebration, however.[3] Accused of having murdered Joffrey, Tyrion is put on trial in the throne room.[8][23]
A Feast for Crows
Queen Regent Cersei Lannister forbids young King Tommen I Baratheon from sitting on the Iron Throne or attending meetings of the small council.[24] Cersei sits on a seat below the throne while holding court.[25][26]
A Dance with Dragons
Ser Kevan Lannister, now Tommen's Lord Regent, and the small council hold court in the throne room. Lord Mace Tyrell, the new Hand, sits on an oaken throne carved in the shape of a hand.[27]
Quotes
It was never good when the king received you whilst seated on the Iron Throne.[28]
—writings of Gyldayn
The throne room was a sea of jewels, furs, and bright fabrics. Lords and ladies filled the back of the hall and stood beneath the high windows, jostling like fishwives on a dock.[22]
—thoughts of Sansa Stark
Although evenfall was still an hour away, the throne room was already a blaze of light, with torches burning in every sconce. The guests stood along the tables as heralds called out the names and titles of the lords and ladies making their entrance. Pages in the royal livery escorted them down the broad central aisle. The gallery above was packed with musicians; drummers and pipers and fiddlers, strings and horns and skins.[3]
—thoughts of Tyrion Lannister
Only the king or his Hand could sit upon the throne itself. Cersei sat by its foot, in a seat of gilded wood piled with crimson cushions.[24]
—thoughts of Cersei Lannister
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 22, Arya II.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 57, Sansa V.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 60, Tyrion VIII.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Fire & Blood, Under the Regents - War and Peace and Cattle Shows.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 37, Jaime V.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 43, Eddard XI.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 57, Sansa V.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 66, Tyrion IX.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 25, Tyrion VI.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 67, Sansa VI.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 49, Eddard XIV.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 13, Tyrion II.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Fire & Blood, The Sons of the Dragon.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Fire & Blood, The Year of the Three Brides - 49 AC.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, A Time of Testing - The Realm Remade.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, Heirs of the Dragon - A Question of Succession.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - The Blacks and the Greens.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - The Red Dragon and the Gold.
- ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 55, Catelyn VII.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 58, Eddard XV.
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 12, Eddard II.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 65, Sansa VIII.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 70, Tyrion X.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 24, Cersei V.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 32, Cersei VII.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 43, Cersei X.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Epilogue.
- ↑ Fire & Blood, The Long Reign - Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain.