Criston Cole

No one in Blackhaven would have bet on him. He was the son of a steward in service to Lord Dondarrion, with no lands or name to open doors — only dark hair, green eyes, and the morningstar he carried at his belt.

That weapon was enough. At a tourney held in Maidenpool to celebrate King Viserys I's ascension, he unhorsed Prince Daemon Targaryen and both Cargyll twins of the Kingsguard, falling only to Lord Lymond Mallister. He gave the laurel of victory to Princess Rhaenyra, and that alone turned the whole court's head.

The king took it as a sign and put him at his daughter's side: from then on, Criston was Rhaenyra's sworn shield. In 105 AC, at twenty-three, he joined the Kingsguard, taking the place left empty by the death of Ser Ryam Redwyne.

Six years later, a tourney in King's Landing marked the fifth anniversary of Viserys and Queen Alicent Hightower's marriage. Cole again wore Rhaenyra's favor and unhorsed several of the queen's champions, including two of her cousins and her own younger brother, Ser Gwayne Hightower. A year after that, when Lord Commander Harrold Westerling died, it was Criston who inherited command of the White Cloaks.

The next year brought rumors of a different kind. Cole and Rhaenyra were said to be lovers, though the accounts disagree on what happened: Septon Eustace claims Criston came to her chamber to confess his love and offer to flee together to the Free Cities, and that she refused him, reminding him a Targaryen wasn't meant to be a landless swordsman's wife. Mushroom, the court fool, tells it differently — that it was Rhaenyra who sought to lose her maidenhead to the man she loved before marrying her cousin Laenor, and that Ser Criston turned her away at the White Sword Tower.

Whichever version is true, something broke between them that night. Rhaenyra took Ser Harwin Strong as her new shield and left for Driftmark with him, leaving behind the man who had guarded her so devotedly.

The following year Criston attended Rhaenyra's wedding to Laenor Velaryon, seven days of feasting and jousting. This time he fought wearing Queen Alicent's favor, and in one clash left Harwin with a shattered collarbone and elbow. His morningstar also struck the helm of Ser Joffrey Lonmouth, Laenor's favorite, who died of the blow six days later.

King Viserys, furious that his own man had bloodied his daughter's wedding, considered sending him to the Wall. Queen Alicent saved him, using her influence to keep him at court, and in return Criston became her sworn shield and, later, master-at-arms to Prince Aemond, whom he trained to fight with a sword despite the boy having only one eye.

King Viserys I died in 129 AC. Ser Criston and Queen Alicent gathered the small council without announcing the king's death, and there Cole flatly opposed the crown passing to Rhaenyra or her husband Daemon, pressing the rumor that the sons she'd had with Laenor Velaryon weren't truly his.

The chronicles disagree on what happened next to Lord Lyman Beesbury, the one councilor who spoke for Rhaenyra in that room: Septon Eustace says Criston cut his throat then and there; Mushroom says he threw him from a window. Neither man was present to see it.

Cole then went to Prince Aegon, Aemond's elder brother, and talked him into claiming the Iron Throne. The accounts of where he found him differ too, one far less flattering than the other, but the outcome was the same: Aegon agreed.

The coronation was held at the Dragonpit, and it was Ser Criston who set the crown forged for Aegon the Conqueror on the new king's head. From then on he was known as the Kingmaker.

Rhaenyra, at Dragonstone when word of the coronation reached her, refused to bow to her half-brother, and the Dance of the Dragons began. Many lords in the realm knew Viserys had wanted her to inherit, and rallied to her side. When Aegon saw the Blacks gathering strength and allies, he lost patience with Ser Otto Hightower, his own grandfather, and stripped him of the Hand's office to give it to Criston.

Blood and Cheese murdered young Prince Jaehaerys soon after, and the new Hand answered with a plan of his own: he sent Ser Arryk Cargyll to Dragonstone disguised as his twin brother Erryk, who served Rhaenyra there. The deception failed in the worst way possible — the brothers recognized each other face to face and killed one another.

Criston took an army and marched on Rosby and Stokeworth, forcing their levies to join his cause, then pushed on to sack Duskendale.

The next test was Rook's Rest. Cole had laid a trap: King Aegon on Sunfyre and Prince Aemond on Vhagar would fall on Princess Rhaenys when she arrived riding Meleys. Rhaenys and her dragon died in the fighting, though Aegon came out of it crippled. Criston and Aemond finished off the castle's garrison afterward and carried Lord Staunton's head to King's Landing. When Aegon's wounds forced him from power and Aemond became Protector of the Realm, Criston kept the Hand's office.

In 130 AC, word came that the Lannisters had lost the Battle of the Lakeshore, and Criston marched to join Lord Ormund Hightower's army. Along the way he defeated Ser Oswald Wode and Lords Darry and Roote, but when they finally reached Harrenhal they found the castle empty — the Blacks were already gone.

Aemond wanted to call it a victory, until he learned Daemon Targaryen had flown Caraxes to help take King's Landing. Humfrey's Lannister forces, meanwhile, were destroyed by the riverlords and the Winter Wolves. Criston urged Aemond to fall back south and join Ormund Hightower and Prince Daeron, but the prince refused, choosing instead to burn the Riverlands from atop Vhagar.

The riverlanders gave Criston's army no peace as it marched south. Young Benjicot Blackwood was among them, and an ambush at Crossed Elms left a dozen Green soldiers dead.

What was left of Cole's host reached a ridge between God's Eye and the Blackwater and found a Black army of several thousand waiting. Criston offered to surrender if his men's lives were spared; he was refused. Before the fighting even began, arrows from the Archer of Raventree Hall brought him down. His head ended up on a spear, carried to the first Battle of Tumbleton.

Why he crowned Aegon, he never explained, at least not in any account that survives. Some call it ambition; others say he couldn't stomach Rhaenyra's sons — branded bastards by the Greens — inheriting the throne; still others point to a sincere belief in the old Andal custom that a son inherits before a daughter. The most repeated version, though no one can prove it, is that he acted out of a spurned lover's spite.