Roose Bolton

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Roose Bolton
Bolton crest.png
Roose Bolton.jpg
Roose Bolton by Amoka©

Alias The Leech Lord
Titles
Allegiance House Bolton
Culture Northmen
Spouses
Books

Played by Michael McElhatton
TV series Season 2 | Season 3

Roose Bolton is the head of House Bolton and Lord of the Dreadfort. He receives regular leechings, which he believes to improve his health, prompting some to call him "The Leech Lord".

Character and Appearance

Roose Bolton - © Sardag

Roose though mild-mannered is cold, patient, calculating, and capable of great cruelty. Possessing a cold cunning, a skill for strategy and a calculating nature. His body is "soft hairless".[2] He is of average size and is "not handsome but not quite plain", with his only noticeable feature being his eerie eyes, which are as pale and strange as two white moons, to Jaime they are paler than stone, darker than milk. [3][4] He has short, strong fingers.[5] His skin is pasty white, most likely due to the leechings.[6] See also this collection of images. His voice is spider soft, he speaks softly never raising his voice, forcing those who listen to do so intently. When Roose Bolton speaks silence often descends.[6]

A collared and chained Theon Greyjoy in his persona of Reek contemplated Roose Bolton:

His face was clean shaved, smooth skinned, ordinary, not handsome but not quite plain. Though Roose had been in battles, he bore no scars. Though well past forty, he was as yet unwrinkled, with scarce a line to tell of the passage of time. His lips were so thin that when he pressed them together they seem to vanish altogether.

There was an agelessness to about him, a stillness; on Roose Bolton’s face, rage and joy looked much the same. All he and Ramsay had in common were their eyes. His eyes are ice. Reek wondered if he ever cried. If so, do the tears feel cold upon his cheeks?

Once, a boy called Theon Greyjoy had enjoyed tweaking Bolton as they sat at council with Robb Stark, mocking his soft voice and making japes about leeches. He must have been mad. This is no man to jape with. You had only to look at Bolton to know that he had more cruelty in his pinky toe than all the Freys combined.

History

Roose Bolton practices the banned and now illegal tradition of the First Night privilege. [7] He is however extremely discreet with his activities in order to avoid the attention and possible ire of House Stark.

Lord Roose fought at the Battle of the Trident during Robert's Rebellion. When Ser Barristan Selmy, seriously wounded, was brought before Robert Baratheon, Roose counselled that they should kill him. Robert ignored Roose and spared Ser Barristan's life, sending his own maester to tend to his wounds.[8]

Just before the War of the Five Kings, Roose's trueborn son Domeric Bolton, the only one who survived the cradle, died of a "bad belly." Having no other trueborn heirs, Roose then brought his bastard son Ramsay Snow to the Dreadfort and made him his unofficial heir.

Recent Events

A Game of Thrones

Bolton answers his liege's call when Robb Stark summons his banners to aid his grandfather Hoster Tully and his father Lord Eddard. Due to his calculating caution, Bolton receives command of the host sent to distract Lord Tywin Lannister, consisting of all the northern foot and some of the horse. He marches through the night and launches a surprise attack in the early morning, but is defeated by Lord Tywin.[9] However, he retreats in good order, reforming the battered remnants of his army on the causeway before Moat Cailin.[10]

A Clash of Kings

Roose Bolton in the TV series.

During the war Roose marries his third wife, Walda Frey, granddaughter of Lord Walder Frey, who has allied his house to Robb's. In an effort to limit Lord Tywin Lannister's options, who marched from Harrenhal in an attempt to meet Robb Stark in the Westerlands, Ser Edmure Tully commands Roose to join up with Ser Helman Tallhart coming down from the Twins and to retake Harrenhal.[11]

Hoping to take Harrenhal without weakening his army, Roose makes a deal with Vargo Hoat, leader of the Brave Companions, unsavory sellswords in the employ of Lord Tywin. The Companions pretend to take a group of Bolton's men prisoner that then seized the castle, taking out the small Lannister garrison left behind and opening the gates to the rest of Bolton's men. This was done with the aid of an incognito Arya Stark and the assassin Jaqen H'ghar. While at Harrenhal, Roose takes Arya as his cupbearer, mistaking her for a commoner.[4] After Winterfell's fall to Theon Greyjoy and Lord Tywin's victory in the Battle of the Blackwater, relations between Vargo Hoat and Roose become strained as Vargo suspects that Roose would turn on Robb Stark to support the Lannisters. In the meantime, Roose's bastard son Ramsay Snow has married and killed Donella Hornwood and taken her lands. Ramsay goes on to betray the other northmen and seize Winterfell from Theon.

A Storm of Swords

After the Brave Companions take Jaime Lannister hostage, Vargo has Jaime's sword-hand cut off to drive a wedge between Roose and Tywin. The ploy did not work however, as Roose receives Jaime's assurance that he would not be held responsible for Jaime's injury. Before leaving, Roose tells Jaime to give his regards to Lord Tywin; Jaime responds that Roose should give his regards to Robb Stark.[12]

Robb summons Roose to aid in retaking the North from the ironborn. However, Roose has decided that the Stark cause is lost and is already plotting with Tywin, Walder Frey, and his acknowledged son Ramsay to bring them down. He sends a full third of the northern infantry (including none of his own troops) to attack Duskendale, knowing they would be massacred by the joint Lannister / Tyrell forces. On the march to the Twins, Roose takes his time when crossing the Trident and allows his rearguard to be ambushed by Gregor Clegane. On the other side, he leaves the Stark loyalists to guard the river, taking only Dreadfort and Karhold men with him; the latter still incensed by Robb's execution of their lord Rickard. [13]

During the Red Wedding, Roose mumbles an excuse to get out of the hall. The bedding and playing of "The Rains of Castamere" is the signal for the Freys to attack their guests. Roose returns into the hall dressed in mail armor. Robb has already been wounded by arrows. Roose approaches him and kills him while saying:

Jaime Lannister sends his regards. [5]

Roose Bolton by Wouter Bruneel.

Outside the castle, the Frey and Bolton soldiers attack their fellow northern / riverland forces and annihilate them. For this service, Tywin gives Roose the title of Warden of the North and raises House Bolton's status to the principal house of the north and one of the ruling families of Westeros. Roose also receives a royal decree of legitimization for his bastard son and heir Ramsay Snow, now Ramsay Bolton.

A Feast for Crows

Lord Roose marches north with his own forces from the Twins, augmented by two thousand Freys under the command of Ser Aenys Frey and Ser Hosteen Frey.[14]

A Dance with Dragons

After Moat Cailin surrenders to Ramsay thanks to a browbeaten Theon Greyjoy, Roose meets his son and introduces him to his bride "Arya Stark" (actually Jeyne Poole). Roose is greatly displeased by his son's actions, stating as much to Theon. Roose thinks that Ramsay is too loud and obnoxious.[3]

Upon arriving at Winterfell, Roose finds the ruined castle now a refuge of more then two dozen squatters. When he tells them he will be merciful if they serve well, they are used for a labour force in rebuilding Winterfell. After the work is completed Roose has them all hanged; true to his word he is merciful and does not flay a one.

At Ramsay's wedding feast, Roose does not eat any of the food or drink served to him unless he sees Wyman Manderly, who brought the food, eat of the same dish.

Despite being named Warden of the North, Roose's support among the northern lords is grudging. The first to declare for him are the Dustins and Ryswells, to whom he is related in the female line. The faction of House Umber led by Hother Whoresbane declares for him since the Greatjon is in Frey captivity, and the Cerwyns, Lockes, and Manderlys send men as well. Arnolf Karstark, the Karhold castellan who publicly declared for Stannis, is secretly in league with Roose and awaits the moment to turn his cloak.

Roose, Ramsay and his army remain at Winterfell awaiting the attack of Stannis Baratheon's host. Several Bolton men are murdered during the wait, and suspicion is cast on several of the present Stark bannermen.[15] In truth, however, Mance Rayder and several wildling spearwives on a mission to free Arya Stark commit the murders.[16] The murders raise tensions within the castle. Tempers flare when Lord Manderly insults one of the dead Freys; a clash ensues that leads to the deaths of several men-at-arms.

The Winds of Winter

After learning that Stannis' army is three days march from Winterfell, Roose sends out the Freys and Manderlys, as well as Ramsay and his men, but keeps much of his own strength behind in Winterfell. According to Theon Greyjoy, Roose is keeping his own men back as a reserve, as he once did in the Riverlands, to weaken potential rivals.[17]

Quotes by Roose

A naked man has few secrets, but a flayed man’s got none.[18]


My lady, has no one told you? Lannisters lie. [19]

- Roose to Brienne


Roose: People fear you.

Ramsay: Good.

Roose: You are mistaken. It is not good. No tales were ever told of me. Do you think I would be sitting here if it were otherwise? Your amusements are your own, I will not chide you on that count, but you must be more discreet. A peaceful land, a quiet people. That has always been my rule. Make it yours[3]

- Roose to Ramsay


Fear is what keeps a man alive in this world of treachery and deceit. [3]


Power tastes best when sweetened by courtesy.[3]


Ramsay: He’s mine. You cannot have him.

Roose: All you have I gave you. You would do well to remember that,

bastard. As for this … Reek … if you have not ruined him beyond redemption, he may yet be of some use to us. Get the keys and remove those chains from him, before you make me rue the day I raped your mother.[3]

- Roose to Ramsay

Quotes about Roose

That man scares me. [20]

- Robb Stark


Bolton's silence was a hundred times more threatening than Vargo Hoat's slobbering malevolence[12]

- Jaime Lannister


This is a cold man. [13]

- Catelyn Stark


The son is just the shadow of the father. [3]

- Reek


Roose has no feelings, you see. Those leeches that he loves so well sucked all the passions out of him years ago. He does not love, he does not hate, he does not grieve. This is a game to him, mildly diverting. Some men hunt, some hawk, some tumble dice. Roose plays with men. You and me, these Freys, Lord Manderly, his plump new wife, even his bastard, we are but his playthings. [21]

- Barbrey Dustin

Family

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unknown
first wife
 
 
"Fat" Walda
Frey
 
Roose
 
Bethany
Ryswell
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Miller's wife
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unborn
child
 
Sons
 
Domeric
 
Donella
Hornwood
 
Ramsay
Snow
 
"Arya Stark"
 
 
 


References and Notes

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