Wedding of Renly Baratheon and Margaery Tyrell

From A Wiki of Ice and Fire
Jump to: navigation, search
Renly Baratheon and Margaery Tyrell, by Chillyravenart ©

The wedding of Renly Baratheon and Margaery Tyrell occurs in 299 AC near the beginning of the War of the Five Kings. Lord Renly Baratheon is crowned king with the support of House Tyrell and marries Margaery Tyrell at Highgarden.

Prelude

Renly Baratheon, Lord of Storm's End, and his lover, Ser Loras Tyrell,[1] unsuccessfully plot for Renly's eldest brother, King Robert I Baratheon, to put aside Queen Cersei Lannister and instead wed Loras's sister, Margaery Tyrell.[2][3]

After Robert is mortally wounded by a boar, Renly approaches Lord Eddard Stark, the Hand of the King, and suggests they seize control of the royal children before Cersei can strike.[4] Eddard refuses the offer, however, and Renly flees King's Landing along with Loras. Cersei has Eddard arrested after Robert's death,[5] and King Joffrey I Bratheon eventually has Lord Stark executed at the Great Sept of Baelor.[6]

Renly, Loras, and Loras's kin are among the nobles ordered to swear fealty to Joffrey, Renly's nephew, in King's Landing.[7] Instead of returning to the capital, Renly journeys with Loras to Highgarden, House Tyrell's seat in the Reach, and he is proclaimed king by Lord Mace Tyrell and his sons.[8] Brienne Tarth, who has fallen in love with her liege lord, rides across the Reach to join Renly after learning he has been crowned.[9]

Wedding

Renly marries Margaery at Highgarden, and Brienne cries bitter tears the night of the celebration.[10] Stannis Baratheon, Renly's surviving older brother, does not attend the wedding,[3] and instead eventually announces his own claim to the Iron Throne.[11][12]

Aftermath

Loras Tyrell and Renly Baratheon, by Jroahn ©

During their parley amid Stannis's siege of Storm's End, Renly claims that Margaery was a maid on their wedding day.[3] Renly is assassinated by a shadow during the siege.[13] Loras buries Renly's body in a place near Storm's End.[14]

As part of an alliance between Houses Tyrell and Lannister, the widowed Margaery agrees to marry King Joffrey. Ser Garlan Tyrell publicly states his sister remains a maiden, as Renly went to war before the marriage was consummated.[15] Margaery claims that Renly had been too drunk on wine to bed her.[16]

Instead of wearing a cloak in the colors of House Baratheon as Renly's widow, Margaery wears a maiden's cloak in the colors of House Tyrell when she marries Joffrey. The boy king dies during the royal wedding feast,[17] however, making Margaery twice widowed. Queen Regent Cersei does not believe Mace's claim that Margaery is still a maid[18][19] or Margaery's claim that Renly never touched her.[20]

Margaery next marries Joffrey's younger brother, King Tommen I Baratheon.[19] Taena Merryweather later tells Cersei, Tommen's mother, about the night of Renly and Margaery's wedding. Taena claims that she helped Renly disrobe for the bedding custom, and that Loras had carried his sister to the bedchamber. Taena casts doubt on Margaery's claim, but admits there was no bloody sheet the next morning to prove the bride had lost her maidenhead.[16]

Attendees

Quotes

Renly: What am I to do with this brother of mine, Brienne? He refuses my peach, he refuses my castle, he even shunned my wedding ...

Stannis: We both know your wedding was a mummer's farce. A year ago you were scheming to make the girl one of Robert's whores.
Renly: A year ago I was scheming to make the girl Robert's queen, but what does it matter? The boar got Robert and I got Margaery. You'll be pleased to know she came to me a maid.

Stannis: In your bed she's like to die that way.[3]

—Renly Baratheon and Stannis Baratheon

We should have stayed well out of all this bloody foolishness if you ask me, but once the cow's been milked there's no squirting the cream back up her udder. After Lord Puff Fish put that crown on Renly's head, we were into the pudding up to our knees, so here we are to see things through.[21]

—Olenna Tyrell to Sansa Stark

Mace Tyrell claimed his daughter was still virgin, but Cersei had her doubts. Joffrey had been murdered before he could bed the girl, but she had been wed to Renly first ... A man may prefer the taste of hippocras, yet if you set a tankard of ale before him, he will quaff it quick enough.[18]

—thoughts of Cersei Lannister

Taena: When she wed Lord Renly at Highgarden, I helped disrobe him for the bedding. His lordship was a well-made man, and lusty. I saw the proof when we tumbled him into the wedding bed where his bride awaited him as naked as her name day, blushing prettily beneath the coverlets. Ser Loras had carried her up the steps himself. Margaery may say that the marriage was never consummated, that Lord Renly had drunk too much wine at the wedding feast, but I promise you, the bit between his legs was anything but weary when last I saw it.

Cersei: Did you chance to see the marriage bed the morning after? Did she bleed?

Taena: No sheet was shown, Your Grace.[16]

—Taena Merryweather and Cersei Lannister

References

  1. ↑ So Spake Martin: Union Square Signing, July 14, 2011
  2. ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 32, Arya III.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 A Clash of Kings, Chapter 31, Catelyn III.
  4. ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 47, Eddard XIII.
  5. ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 49, Eddard XIV.
  6. ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 65, Arya V.
  7. ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 57, Sansa V.
  8. ↑ A Game of Thrones, Chapter 69, Tyrion IX.
  9. ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 14, Brienne III.
  10. ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 31, Brienne VI.
  11. ↑ A Clash of Kings, Prologue.
  12. ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 10, Davos I.
  13. ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 33, Catelyn IV.
  14. ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 67, Jaime VIII.
  15. ↑ A Clash of Kings, Chapter 65, Sansa VIII.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 28, Cersei VI.
  17. ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 60, Tyrion VIII.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 3, Cersei I.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 12, Cersei III.
  20. ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 39, Cersei IX.
  21. ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 6, Sansa I.
Retrieved from "https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?title=Wedding_of_Renly_Baratheon_and_Margaery_Tyrell&oldid=330482"