Ceryse Hightower

Ceryse was born in the year 2 after the Conquest, the daughter of Lord Manfred Hightower, Lord of the Hightower, and grew up alongside her siblings Martyn and Morgan.

In 23 AC, when Queen Visenya proposed betrothing her son Maegor to the newborn princess Rhaena, daughter of the heir apparent Aenys, the High Septon rejected the match and put forward two alternatives instead: his own niece and Ceryse, Lord Manfred's daughter.

Two years later, Prince Maegor — only thirteen — and Ceryse, twenty-three, were married at the Starry Sept, with the High Septon himself presiding over the ceremony; the prince claimed to have consummated the marriage as many as a dozen times that same night.

By 39 AC Ceryse still had not borne Maegor a child; the prince declared her unable to give him an heir and secretly took Lady Alys Harroway as his wife. Lord Manfred was among those who opposed the new match, and King Aenys warned his brother that if he did not return to Ceryse and set Alys aside, he would face five years of exile.

The following year Maegor and Alys left for exile in Pentos, leaving Ceryse behind in King's Landing. Aenys named Septon Murmison, said to heal simply by laying on his hands, as Hand of the King, and had him place his hands on Ceryse's belly each night in hopes she might become fertile and Maegor would return to her.

Tired of the ritual, Ceryse went back to live in Oldtown, with her father.

In 42 AC Maegor became King of the Seven Kingdoms and made Tyanna of Pentos his third wife. From Oldtown, Ceryse kept insisting she was the only true queen, and Grand Maester Myros reminded the king of it himself, moments before his execution, with the words: 'Your only lawful wife awaits you at the Hightower.'

The following year the king visited Oldtown and was hosted by Lord Martyn Hightower, Ceryse's brother, for close to half a year. During that time he reconciled with her and restored her privileges as queen, while she in turn accepted the king's other wives. A feast was held at the Hightower to mark the occasion, along with a second bedding ceremony, and not long after, the queen returned to court, once more in King's Landing.

Not long after the Red Keep was finished, in the year 45 AC, a sudden illness took Ceryse's life.

Rumor had it that a sharp remark of Ceryse's had angered the king, and that Maegor ordered Ser Owen Bush to cut out her tongue; the knife, so the story went, slipped and opened her throat instead. The tale was widely accepted at the time, though today it is considered nothing more than slander against the king.