Florence Fossoway
Florence Fossoway, known as the Apple Counter, was a lady of House Tyrell who married Martyn Tyrell, the younger son of the lord of Highgarden.
Her skill with numbers led her to hold, unofficially, one of the most important offices in the realm during the reign of Jaehaerys I Targaryen.
Chapter 1
The wedding and Highgarden's ledgers
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Florence married Martyn Tyrell, the younger son of Lord Bertrand Tyrell, ruler of Highgarden. The match itself drew little attention on its own, but it changed how the household's finances were run: as soon as she married, Florence took charge of Highgarden's account books.
Under her management, the Tyrells' income grew by more than a third, a figure that caught the court's attention and, in time, opened a door far beyond what her rank as a younger son's wife would normally allow.
Chapter 2
The councillor in the shadows
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When King Jaehaerys I Targaryen needed a new Master of Coin, his Hand, Septon Barth, put forward Martyn Tyrell's name. The appointment, though, was less about the husband than about the woman who would sit beside him at every council session: Florence.
There was another calculation behind the choice. Queen Alysanne Targaryen had stayed away from council meetings since her daughter's death, and the king hoped a new lady at court might draw her back.
Martyn held the title and the official seat, but it was Florence who actually ran the royal treasury.
Chapter 3
The Apple Counter
Books only
With Florence overseeing the accounts, the realm enjoyed a period of prosperity that contemporaries compared to the days of the late Rego Draz, whose memory still set the standard for such things.
She was regarded as a capable and clever woman, and her skill with figures was so well known that Septon Barth himself said she had been "counting apples since she learned to walk", which is where her nickname came from.