House Lothston

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House Lothston of Harrenhal
House Lothston.svg
Coat of arms A black bat on per bend silver and gold
(Per bend argent and or, a bat sable)
Seat Harrenhal
Head Extinct
Region The riverlands
Title Lord of Harrenhal
Overlord House Tully
Founder Lord Lucas Lothston (House Lothston of Harrenhal)
Founded 151 AC (House Lothston of Harrenhal)
Died out 221233 AC[N 1]

House Lothston of Harrenhal is an extinct house from Harrenhal in the riverlands. Their arms were a black bat on a field divided bendwise, silver and gold.[1][2] They held Harrenhal until three or four generations before A Song of Ice and Fire and were a powerful house which once loomed large in the histories of the Seven Kingdoms.[3]

History

Knights

Ser Guy Lothston was slain defending Maegor I Targaryen during the king's Trial of Seven in 42 AC.[4]

Ser Lucas Lothston was the grandson of a hedge knight. After the secret siege and the failed plot against King Aegon III Targaryen in 135 AC, the patient Lucas was named master-at-arms of the Red Keep by Lord Torrhen Manderly to replace Ser Gareth Long.[5]

Lords of Harrenhal

After Falena Stokeworth was found in bed with Prince Aegon Targaryen in 149 AC, his father, Prince Viserys, desired to remove Falena from court at King's Landing. Viserys married her to Ser Lucas Lothston and convinced King Aegon III to gift his master-at-arms with Harrenhal in 151 AC, as the previous holders of the castle, House Strong, had died out as a result of the Dance of the Dragons.[6][7] House Lothston became the sixth noble house to rule as Lords of Harrenhal.

Lord Lucas was briefly Hand of the King for Aegon IV Targaryen in 178 AC. Jeyne Lothston, the daughter of Lucas and Falena, became the eighth of Aegon's mistresses, but she was sent away from court when she caught the pox from the king. Lucas was sent away as well, having been removed as Hand.[6]

The Bastard of Harrenhal was defeated by Ser Arlan of Pennytree in the melee at a tourney held at King's Landing in 193 AC.[8]

The Lothstons of Harrenhal had a bad reputation; Lord Lucas Lothston and his son Manfryd, for example, were renowned for their black deeds.[2] According to Ser Eustace Osgrey, Manfred Lothston betrayed Daemon Blackfyre in the First Blackfyre Rebellion.[9] Lady Danelle Lothston, called Mad Danelle, was said to send giant bats out to capture children for her cookpots, to have bathed in blood and feasted on flesh.[10] When Lord Bloodraven marched on the wedding tourney at Whitewalls to quash the Second Blackfyre Rebellion in 212 AC, among the river lords who came in support was Lady Danelle.[11]

The downfall of House Lothston came when Danelle turned to the black arts, causing chaos.[7] The last Lothston was killed with the help of an ancestor of Ser Illifer the Penniless in unknown circumstances.[2] After the line ended during the reign of King Maekar I Targaryen, the lordship of Harrenhal was given to House Whent, knights who had first served the Lothstons but then helped to defeat the mad family.[7] Ben Blackthumb worked as a boy for Lord Lothston and later for the grandfather and father of Lady Shella Whent.[12]

Recent Events

A Storm of Swords

Ser Jaime Lannister uses a shield found in the armory of Harrenhal with the arms of House Lothston on his ride back to King's Landing. He remembers the stories of Lady Danelle Lothston, who bathed in tubs of blood and presided over feasts of human flesh.[1]

A Feast for Crows

Jaime gives the heavy oaken shield to Brienne of Tarth when she departs King's Landing to find Sansa Stark.[2] When she gets to Duskendale a captain at the gate tells her that the black bat arms are of ill repute. Brienne has it re-painted by the captain's sister, who is not pleased to see the black bat either, as she is reminded of her mother's frightening tale about Mad Danelle.[13]

Lord Petyr Baelish uses the extinction of House Lothston as an example of the fate of those who claim to own Harrenhal.[14]

A Dance with Dragons

Jon Lothston serves with the Golden Company in Essos. He may or not be genuinely of House Lothston, as in the free companies a man can call himself whatever he chooses.[3]

House Lothston at the end of the third century

The known Lothstons during the timespan of the events described in A Song of Ice and Fire are:

Historical Members

Quotes

You bear a liar's shield, to which you have no right. My grandfather's grandfather helped kill the last o' Lothston. None since has dared to show that bat, black as the deeds of them that bore it.[2]

The black bat of Lothston. Those are arms of ill repute.[13]

Duskendale captain regarding Brienne of Tarth's shield

Notes

  1. Danelle Lothston turned to the black arts during the reign of Maekar I Targaryen, causing chaos and the downfall of the Lothston line (The World of Ice & Fire, The Riverlands: House Tully). Maekar reigned from 221 to 233 AC (A Game of Thrones, Appendix).

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 44, Jaime VI.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 4, Brienne I.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 24, The Lost Lord.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Fire & Blood, The Sons of the Dragon.
  5. Fire & Blood, The Lysene Spring and the End of Regency.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aegon IV.
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 The World of Ice & Fire, The Riverlands: House Tully.
  8. 8.0 8.1 The Hedge Knight.
  9. 9.0 9.1 The Sworn Sword.
  10. 10.0 10.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 27, Jaime III.
  11. 11.0 11.1 The Mystery Knight.
  12. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 47, Arya IX.
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 9, Brienne II.
  14. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 23, Alayne I.
  15. Fire & Blood, Under the Regents - War and Peace and Cattle Shows.