Red Wedding

When the war pushed Robb Stark south across the Trident, the Freys let him cross in exchange for a marriage: the young king would wed one of Lord Walder's daughters or granddaughters. Without that crossing, much of the northern campaign would never have happened.

Robb broke that word when he married Jeyne Westerling, and Lord Walder took the news as an insult he had no intention of swallowing. Rather than break openly with the Starks, he began writing secretly to Tywin Lannister.

Those letters, and others with Roose Bolton and Sybell Spicer, produced a plan: lure Robb to the Twins under the pretext of marrying Edmure Tully to Roslin Frey, on condition that the king himself come to apologize in person.

Robb arrived at the Twins and offered the apology he had been asked for. Catelyn, less trusting than her son, asked for bread and salt to be served at table, the gesture that seals a guest's protection in the North and the Riverlands.

Lord Walder accepted it with all the courtesy of a host who has already forgiven. None of the northmen suspected that, under that same roof, that same night, his sworn word would last less than a song.

Not everyone riding with Robb entered the Twins. Lord Jason Mallister, Galbart Glover, and Lady Maege Mormont had already ridden ahead to Greywater Watch with a small escort, carrying a letter naming Robb's successor and under orders to find Lord Howland Reed.

Ser Brynden Tully stayed behind holding Riverrun, guarding the Riverlands as Warden of the Southern Marches. Perwyn, Olyvar, and Alesander Frey were also absent, said to be too fond of the king to be trusted with what was coming.

Mercenaries and knights dressed as musicians mixed in among the guests while wine flowed without limit among Robb's men. Petyr and Merrett Frey were meant to get the Greatjon drunk, but ended up too drunk themselves to fight; Ser Danwell Frey did the same to Marq Piper.

When the music turned to The Rains of Castamere, the hall and the camp outside erupted together. Ser Walder Rivers led the attack on the northern tents. Inside, Little Jon Umber fell beheaded, Dacey Mormont died from an axe blow by Ryman Frey, and Ser Wendel Manderly took a crossbow bolt through the mouth.

Roose Bolton walked up to Robb, embraced him, and drove a dagger into his heart. The Freys paid for the attack with few losses of their own: barely fifty men in the field, plus Ser Benfrey Frey, mortally wounded, and Ser Tytos Frey, killed by Sandor Clegane.

Once the killing was done, the Freys cut off Robb's head and his direwolf's, sewing the wolf's head onto the dead king's body as a final mockery. Raymund Frey cut Catelyn's throat, and her body was thrown naked into the river.

There is no complete list of everyone who died that night. Among the known names is Lucas Blackwood, killed by Hosteen Frey, and Ser Raynald Westerling, who threw himself into the water already wounded by crossbow bolts before the current carried him off.

The northern rebellion died that same night. Roose Bolton was named Warden of the North, and one of Lord Walder's sons was granted lordship of Riverrun as payment for hosting the slaughter.

The Iron Throne came away with valuable prisoners. Jaime Lannister used Edmure Tully to negotiate an end to the siege of Riverrun, while Ser Walder Rivers forced the surrender of Seagard by threatening to hang a prisoner outside its walls. The Greatjon and Marq Piper were held captive to bind their houses' loyalty, and Hother Umber ended up serving the new Warden of the North.

None of it bought the Freys back their honor. Breaking bread and salt made them the most hated lords in Westeros, despised even by their own allies.

Downstream, the current carried Catelyn's body to the riverbank, where men of the Brotherhood without Banners found her. Lord Beric Dondarrion asked Thoros of Myr to bring her back, and Thoros, worn out from so many resurrections, refused.

It was Beric himself who gave her the kiss of life, and it cost him the last of his many borrowed lives. Catelyn woke with her throat still open and took command of the Brotherhood, set on hunting down Freys, Boltons, and Lannisters wherever she found them.

The Freys themselves were not content with the version already circulating through the realm. Jared Frey spread a different account, in which it was Robb Stark who turned half into a wolf and tore out the throat of Cascabel, a grandson of Lord Walder's.

In that account, only Ser Wendel Manderly, throwing himself in the way, saved Lord Walder from the beast, while the rest of the northmen turned into wolves too and joined the attack. No one outside the Twins took the story seriously, but it spread anyway.