HOUSE FREY

House Frey of the Twins is a former Great House of the Riverlands, having gained their position for their treachery against their former liege lords, House Tully, during the Red Wedding massacre, who were stripped of all their lands and titles for their rebellion against the Iron Throne. Their ancestral seat is known as the Twins for its two identical keeps on both sides of a river linked by a bridge, sometimes called the Stone Bridge.

At the start of the War of the Five Kings, when the North rises in rebellion against the Iron Throne, Catelyn Stark travels to the Twins to request an alliance with Lord Walder Frey as well as safe passage across the bridge over the Trident River. He accepts, but in return, the King in the North, Robb Stark, has to marry a Frey bride. Despite some misgivings, Robb consents to the agreement and gains the support of the Freys. Against the advice of his mother Catelyn, Robb spurns his oath to marry one of the Frey’s in order to marry Talisa Maegyr, a foreign girl with no noble ties to Westeros. King Robb later appeals to Lord Frey for assistance in taking Casterly Rock, the seat of House Lannister. Lord Frey sends his sons, Lothar Frey and Black Walder, to negotiate with the Starks and Tullys. Seeking to mend their strained relationship, Robb assents to granting Lord Frey control of Harrenhal and his uncle Edmure Tully marrying Walder's daughter Roslin Frey. The Freys then host Robb, Catelyn, Edmure, and the Stark and Tully hosts at the Twins for the wedding of Edmure and Roslin. After the wedding and bedding ceremony, Lord Frey turns on his guests and murders Robb, Catelyn and the pregnant Talisa, and has Edmure imprisoned. Most of the Stark and Tully forces with the exception of the Boltons, who assisted in the attack, are slaughtered during the "Red Wedding," bringing an end to the Northern rebellion. To reward his role in defeating Robb, Lord Tywin Lannister, appoints Walder Frey as Lord of Riverrun.

The rebellion has destroyed what honor is left in the house, as they have violated one of the oldest and most sacred traditions: the guest right. This leads to antipathy and disgust towards the house by most Westerosi, even by their own allies. Moreover, the name Frey has become a synonym for dishonor and treachery. Since the Freys were granted paramountcy over the Riverlands, the region has disintegrated into a state of lawlessness. Some time later, House Frey's position in the Riverlands is further weakened when Brynden Tully retakes Riverrun from the Freys, however, with the aid of House Lannister, Lord Walder has it recaptured. Following the feast, Lord Frey’s victory is cut brief when the disguised Stark girl, Arya Stark, informs Walder of the death of his sons and then slits his throat in the same way that her mother Catelyn was killed. The current head of the house is unknown following the assassinations of Lord Frey and two of his sons. This is made more complex by the subsequent assassination of all male Freys soon afterwards. Following the Battle of King’s Landing and the defeat of Queen Cersei Lannister, Edmure Tully took back his title of Lord of the Riverlands and House Tully became the Great House of the Riverlands once again.

House Frey’s heraldry represents their castle-seat of the Twins: it consists of two grey towers linked by a bridge, on a darker grey background, over an escutcheon of blue water. Their house words are: “We Stand Together.”

BACKGROUND

House Frey emerged about six hundred years before the War of the Five Kings, making it one of the younger noble houses in Westeros. During the Targaryen Conquest, House Frey aided Aegon the Conqueror and rebelled against Harren the Black of Harrenhal, the King of the Isles and the Rivers. Afterward, the Freys joined the other river lords in swearing fealty to House Tully, the new Lords Paramount of the Trident for House Targaryen. Little has been revealed about members of House Frey who are not descendants of Lord Walder himself. It is probable that due to his advanced age, Walder may have simply outlived any siblings or cousins he may have had. The Twins is one of the primary crossings over the Green Fork of the Trident River, and tolls from bridge crossings have made the Freys quite wealthy fairly quickly, elevating them from obscurity six centuries ago to being one of the most powerful noble houses in the Riverlands - though they are looked down upon by older aristocratic families. The construction of the Twins took the Freys three centuries, and ever since they have grown wealthy by charging the travelers crossing the Twins. Due to their wealth from river tolls, the Freys command one of the larger armies among the houses of the Riverlands, between 3,000-4,000 infantry levies and some cavalry. They are not renowned as particularly experienced warriors or intelligent commanders, however, given that during his long life Lord Walder made sure to keep his armies out of actual fighting whenever possible.

During Robert's Rebellion, Lord Walder Frey was late in marshaling forces to assist the Tullys during the Battle of the Trident. For this insolence, Lord Hoster Tully mockingly referred to Lord Walder Frey as the "Late Walder Frey," much to Walder's chagrin. The jest was made that Lord Walder arrived late to the Battle of the Trident because he was waiting for his army to come of age, given that he had produced most of his soldiers from within his own britches, directly or indirectly through his previous children. Walder devoted the next seventeen years to making this claim a reality.

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*REPRESENTED IN THE SERIES*