Stafford Lannister

Son of Jason Lannister and his second wife, Marla Prester, he was also the brother of Joanna, the wife of his cousin Tywin. As a young man, he was taken prisoner along with two other Lannister relatives by Lady Tarbeck, who was avenging her husband's own capture. He was freed only when Lord Tytos Lannister, his uncle, agreed to release Lord Tarbeck in exchange, a soft resolution his own son Tywin had argued against, having pushed for a far bloodier punishment.

He later married Myranda Lefford, who bore him three children: Daven, Cerenna, and Myrielle.

Years later, after Ser Jaime Lannister's defeat at the Battle of the Camps, Lord Tywin charged him with raising a fresh army near Lannisport. The men he had to work with were green recruits, which stretched the training far longer than planned.

Neither Ser Jaime nor Brynden Tully thought much of his gifts as a commander; both agreed he made a poor general.

With Golden Tooth, the gateway into the Westerlands, held by Lannister men, Stafford grew complacent — he assumed no enemy would reach him on his own ground, so he never bothered posting scouts around Oxcross, where he was drilling his troops.

The Stark army found an unwatched mountain pass and slipped into the west through it. They fell on Stafford's camp at night, without warning, giving him no chance to mount any response: the host was wiped out. Lord Rickard Karstark caught up with him as he ran after his own horse.