Difference between revisions of "House Blackwood"

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Revision as of 01:40, 8 September 2015

House Blackwood of Raventree Hall
House Blackwood.png
Coat of arms A flock of ravens surrounding a black shield charged with a dead weirwood, on a scarlet field
(Gules, on an escutcheon sable a dead weirwood tree proper, all within an orle of ravens volant sable)
Seat Raventree Hall
Head Lord Tytos Blackwood
Region Riverlands
Title Lord of Raventree
Heir Brynden Blackwood
Overlord House Baelish of Harrenhal
Founded Age of Heroes

House Blackwood of Raventree Hall is an old house from Raventree Hall in the riverlands, one of the main families sworn to House Tully. They once ruled the riverlands as kings during the Age of Heroes.[1] They blazon their arms with a flock of ravens on scarlet surrounding a dead weirwood upon a black escutcheon.[2] Their words have not yet been revealed by George R. R. Martin.[3]

Raventree is located in Blackwood Vale north of Riverrun and the Red Fork.[4] Some Blackwoods are buried in the village Cairns, while others are buried beneath the dead weirwood of Raventree.[5]

History

Age of Heroes

The Blackwoods are an ancient house descended of the First Men. Family traditions state they ruled most of the wolfswood before being driven from the North by the Kings of Winter, which Maester Barneby's runic translations support.[6]

The Blackwoods have an old and bitter feud against their neighbor in the riverlands, the Brackens, coming from the Age of Heroes when both houses ruled as kings. According to the Blackwoods, the Brackens were petty lords and horse breeders who hired swords to usurp the Blackwood kings. The Blackwoods believe this occurred five hundred years before the arrival of the Andals, but the True History states it was one thousand years before the Andals.[5]

Andal Riverlands

The Blackwoods and Brackens allied together against the Andal invasion, but they were defeated in the Battle of the Bitter River.[7] The feud was aided by House Bracken's conversion to the Faith of the Seven after the Andal invasion.[8] In contrast, the Blackwoods kept the religion of the old gods, being one of the few houses south of the Neck to do so. The Blackwoods accuse the Brackens of having poisoned the weirwood of Raventree Hall.[5] The Teats, Battle Valley, and the village of Blackbuckle are part of the disputed land. There have been numerous peaces between the Blackwoods and Brackens, many sealed by marriage, but the feud always restarts.[5] Benedict Rivers was a bastard born from both houses who eventually became King Benedict I Justman, with House Justman ruling the riverlands for about three centuries. There were Blackwoods among the many petty kings who disputed the riverlands in the tumultuous century after King Bernarr II Justman's death.[7]

With the support of the Storm King Arlan III Durrandon, Lord Roderick Blackwood rebelled against Humfrey I Teague, King of the Rivers and the Hills. Roderick was killed in the Battle of Six Kings, ending Arlan's attempt to restore the riverlands to the Blackwoods. After the river lords rejected the possibility of being ruled by Roderick's daughter, Shiera Blackwood, Arlan added the riverlands to the realm of the Storm Kings.

When the Kings of the Iron Islands from House Hoare invaded the riverlands three centuries later, Lady Agnes Blackwood led the rivermen's resistance. She was betrayed by Lord Lothar Bracken, however, and then slain by King Harwyn Hoare. The ironborn then conquered the riverlands from the Storm King, Arrec Durrandon.[7]

Targaryen Era

House Blackwood aided Aegon the Conquerer during his War of Conquest and rebelled against Harwyn's grandson, King Harren the Black of Harrenhal.[9] The Blackwoods and Brackens had been weakened by a private war a decade before the rebellion, however, and Aegon granted the new title of Lord Paramount of the Trident to Lord Edmyn Tully of Riverrun.[7]

Lord Blackwood supported the claim of Laenor Velaryon in the Great Council of 101, but the council ultimately chose Viserys Targaryen as the heir of Jaehaerys I Targaryen.[10] A Blackwood fought a duel with a Bracken over Rhaenyra Targaryen in 112 AC, but the princess eventually wed Ser Laenor.[11] The Blackwoods supported the blacks of Rhaenyra during the Dance of the Dragons. Lord Benjicot Blackwood and Red Robb Rivers, the Bowman of Raventree, participated in the Battle by the Lakeshore. Lord Ben had one of his best archers, Billy Burley, mercy kill the dragon Tessarion after the Second Battle of Tumbleton.[12] After the civil war ended, "Black Aly" Blackwood, Bloody Ben's aunt, married Lord Cregan Stark in return for allowing King Aegon II Targaryen's pardon of Lord Corlys Velaryon to stand.[13]

Lady Melissa Blackwood was the sixth mistress of King Aegon IV Targaryen and the mother of three Great Bastards, Mya, Gwenys, and Brynden Rivers, the last of whom became known as Lord Bloodraven.[14]

Ser Otho Bracken, the Brute of Bracken, slew Lord Quentyn Blackwood in a tourney at King's Landing three years before the tourney at Ashford Meadow, reinvigorating the old feud.[15] Bennifer, Robert, Roland, and Roger Blackwood participated at Ashford. Ser Steffon Fossoway considered convincing Otho or the Blackwoods fighting for Dunk at the trial of seven, but decided it would be impossible to make them fight on the same side.[15] When Lord Bracken lay dying, Septon Sefton explained that Otho would inherit and the Blackwoods would not suffer him, meaning war. The then-Hand of the King, Lord Bloodraven, was half-Blackwood, so he was unlikely to stop it.[16] When Lord Bloodraven marched on Whitewalls to quash the Second Blackfyre Rebellion, among the river lords who came in support was Lord Blackwood. Ser Eustace Osgrey boasted that in the past members of important families married Osgreys, citing Blackwoods as one of the examples.[16] The queen consort of King Aegon V Targaryen was "Black Betha" Blackwood.[17]

Lords Blackwood and Bracken came to Riverrun when Lysa Tully was young to put their feud before Lord Hoster Tully's judgment.[18]

Recent Events

A Game of Thrones

After Ser Jaime Lannister defeats the river lords and captures Ser Edmure Tully, Lord Tytos Blackwood leads the survivors back to Riverrun. The duty of defending the castle during the siege falls to him.. With Tytos absent, Raventree Hall surrenders to the Lannisters.[19] Lord Tytos is named among the nobles Joffrey insists must swear their loyalty or be declared traitors.[20] When Robb Stark attacks the Lannister camps outside Riverrun, Tytos leads the sortie that attacks their rear and frees Edmure. Lord Blackwood and his feathered cloak are seen by Catelyn Tully in the godswood of Riverrun, praying with her son to the old gods after their victory. At the war council at Riverrun, Tytos urges to continue fighting the Lannisters and march against Lord Tywin Lannister at Harrenhal. He joins the other river lords in declaring Robb to be King in the North.[21]

A Clash of Kings

During the War of the Five Kings, Tytos sweeps the Lannister forces from the lands of House Blackwood, but the invaders leave Blackwood Vale a scorched desert.[22] Maester Luwin suggests that the widowed Donella Hornwood marry a Blackwood.[23] Tytos's second-eldest son, Lucas Blackwood, is one of the highborn companions of Catelyn in the delegation to King Renly Baratheon's camp.[24]

A Storm of Swords

Ser Garth Greenfield is held captive at Raventree Hall.[25] Lord Tytos is among the seven nobles who launch Lord Hoster Tully's funeral boat.[26] Lucas Blackwood, Tytos's second eldest son, is slain by Ser Hosteen Frey at the Red Wedding.[27] After the Brackens surrender to the Iron Throne and are welcomed back to the king's peace, they attacked the Blackwoods, who refuse to yield along with Brynden Tully and Jason Mallister. Jonos Bracken besieges Raventree.[28]

A Feast for Crows

Dead soldiers bearing the colors of House Blackwood have washed up on the Quiet Isle. According to the Elder Brother, they are buried next to their Bracken enemies.[29]

A Dance with Dragons

With the surrender of Riverrun, Raventree remains the last Stark loyalist stronghold. Jaime Lannister successfully negotiates the surrender of Raventree with Tytos Blackwood and takes Hoster Blackwood as a hostage. Jonos Bracken desires to gain the east bank of the Widow's Wash, from Crossbow Ridge to Rutting Meadow, Grindcorn Mill, Lord's Mill, Muddy Hall, the Ravishment, Battle Valley, Oldforge, Buckle, Blackbuckle, Cairns, Claypool, Mudgrave, Waspwood, Lorgen's Wood, Greenhill, the Teats, and Honeytree. However, Tytos only agrees to transfer Woodhedge, Crossbow Ridge, Buckle, Lord's Mill, and Honeytree.[5]

House Blackwood at the end of the third century

The known Blackwoods during the timespan of the events described on A Song of Ice and Fire are:

With unspecified familiar relationship to the main branch of the house there is also:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Lord
Blackwood
 
Unknown
Blackwood
 
Unknown
wife
 
Daughter
 
Unknown
husband
 
Daughter
 
Unknown
husband
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Tytos
 
Unknown
wife
 
Son
 
Son
 
Daughter
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Brynden
 
Lucas
 
Hoster
 
Edmund
 
Alyn
 
Bethany
 
Robert
 


Historical Members

Quotes

We've had a hundred peaces with the Brackens, many sealed with marriages. There's Blackwood blood in every Bracken, and Bracken blood in every Blackwood. The Old King's Peace lasted half a century. But then some fresh quarrel broke out, and the old wounds opened and began to bleed again. That's how it always happens, my father says. So long as men remember the wrongs done to their forebears, no peace will ever last. So we go on century after century, with us hating the Brackens and them hating us. My father says there will never be an end to it.[5]

- Hoster Blackwood to Jaime Lannister

References and Notes

  1. George R. R. Martin's A World of Ice and Fire, Riverlands.
  2. The Citadel. Heraldry: Houses in the Riverlands
  3. So Spake Martin: Canadian Signing Tour (Toronto), January 09, 2006
  4. George R. R. Martin's A World of Ice and Fire, map of Westeros.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 48, Jaime I.
  6. The World of Ice & Fire.
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 The World of Ice & Fire, The Riverlands.
  8. So Spake Martin: Blackwood-Bracken Feud and Coinage, August 13, 2003
  9. So Spake Martin: Chicon 7 Reading, September 02, 2012
  10. The World of Ice & Fire, Jaehaerys I.
  11. 11.0 11.1 The Rogue Prince.
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 The Princess and the Queen.
  13. 13.0 13.1 The World of Ice & Fire, Aegon III.
  14. The World of Ice & Fire, Aegon IV.
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 The Hedge Knight.
  16. 16.0 16.1 The Sworn Sword.
  17. The World of Ice & Fire, Aegon V.
  18. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 80, Sansa VII.
  19. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 56, Tyrion VII.
  20. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 57, Sansa V.
  21. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 71, Catelyn XI.
  22. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 7, Catelyn I.
  23. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 16, Bran II.
  24. A Clash of Kings, Chapter 22, Catelyn II.
  25. A Storm of Swords, Appendix.
  26. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 35, Catelyn IV.
  27. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 51, Catelyn VII.
  28. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 74, Arya XIII.
  29. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 31, Brienne VI.
  30. 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 The World of Ice & Fire, The nine mistresses of Aegon IV, the Unworthy.
  31. 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.3 The Hedge Knight, Graphic Novel.
  32. The World of Ice & Fire, Appendix: Stark Lineage.
  33. The World of Ice & Fire, Appendix: Targaryen Lineage.