House Frey of the Crossing

The Freys arrived on the upper Green Fork some six hundred years ago. It took three generations to finish a stone bridge over the river, and only then did they raise a tower on either bank — the two that would give the Twins its name.

From that point on they charged toll to anyone crossing, income that made them rich though never much respected among the great houses of the realm. Even before that, warriors of the family had failed in an attempt to seize Greywater Watch.

When Aegon the Conqueror landed, the Freys sided with him against Harren the Black, the ironborn king who then ruled the Riverlands. After the Burning of Harrenhal they joined the rest of the river lords in swearing fealty to House Tully.

Forty-three years after the conquest, a Lord Frey gambled on royal favor again: he marched alongside Prince Aegon, son of Aenys, when he rose against his uncle, King Maegor I.

A young Forrest Frey earned the nickname 'the Fool Frey' for daring to ask for Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen's hand. Years later, when the Dance of the Dragons broke out, the house did not hesitate: it sided with the Blacks and with Prince Daemon Targaryen.

His men took part in the capture of Stone Hedge, and Lord Forrest himself died fighting the westermen at the Battle of the Lakeshore. His widow, Sabitha, refused to call the war lost and kept Frey support behind the Blacks to the end.

Once the fighting was over, six hundred Frey soldiers joined a knight of House Rowan's march into the Vale of Arryn, backing the cause of Joffrey Arryn.

House Frey's banner flew at the Ashford Tourney, proof that at least one of its members took part in the joust.

Years later, in 212 AC, a Lord Frey married one of his daughters to Lord Ambrose Butterwell. The wedding was only a cover to gather the lords still loyal to the Blackfyres at Whitewalls and proclaim Daemon Blackfyre king. The plot fell apart, and before the Crown's armies could arrive, Lord Frey had already fled the castle.

At the Tourney at Harrenhal, the squire of a knight in Frey service picked a fight with Howland Reed. His master later lost his match against the masked Knight of the Laughing Tree, who demanded as punishment that he teach his squire what honor meant.

By then Lord Walder Frey had long led the house, and his line kept multiplying through wives, sons and grandsons. He once offered Brynden Tully his pick of three daughters to wed, and when Lord Tytos Lannister agreed to marry his son Emmon to his sister Genna, a young Tywin Lannister openly opposed the match.

When war broke out against the Targaryen king, Lord Walder chose not to commit himself. He marched as a Tully vassal to the Battle of the Trident, but arrived so late that no one could say for certain which side he meant to serve.

Ninety years old, Walder Frey was still Lord of the Crossing, ruling with an iron fist a house that no longer fit entirely within the Twins.

When Robb Stark marched south from Winterfell to relieve Riverrun, he had to negotiate passage over the bridge with Walder through his mother, Catelyn. The deal was struck on one condition: Robb would marry one of the Lord of the Crossing's daughters.

The Freys kept backing Robb Stark, and several of Walder's sons and grandsons marched with the different divisions of the northern army. Stevron Frey, the eldest and his heir, fell fighting under Robb's command at the Battle of Oxcross.

When Lord Walder learned that Robb had married Jeyne Westerling instead of one of his daughters, he took it as a personal insult. He pulled back his troops and demanded, besides an apology, that Edmure Tully, already Lord of Riverrun, marry his daughter Roslin. Both conditions were accepted.

Robb rode with his uncle back to the Twins for the wedding. But Walder had long been plotting in secret with Tywin Lannister and Roose Bolton, and the feast was nothing but a trap: Robb and his mother Catelyn died that night along with many men of Winterfell and Riverrun, while others, Edmure among them, were taken prisoner. The Freys thus broke their oath to the Tullys and allied themselves with the Lannisters.

Cleos Frey was killed shortly after by the Bloody Mummers. Petyr and Merrett Frey, in turn, were killed at Oldstones by a Catelyn Tully returned from the dead.

The Iron Throne named Emmon Frey the new Lord of Riverrun, though the castle remained in Brynden Tully's hands. The house's forces, led by Ryman Frey, laid siege to it alongside Daven Lannister's army.

The siege held until Jaime Lannister arrived and convinced Edmure to surrender the castle, though not before the Blackfish slipped away. On the way back to the Twins, the Brotherhood Without Banners killed Ryman.

As part of the Lannister-Frey alliance, Amerei Frey married Lancel Lannister, the new lord of Darry, who would in time give up both her and his lands.

An army led by Hosteen and Aenys Frey escorted Roose Bolton north when he married Walda Frey. There they attended the wedding between Ramsay Bolton and a girl presented as 'Arya Stark.'

Rhaegar, Jared and Symond Frey were sent to White Harbor to negotiate an alliance with House Manderly. On the way back to Winterfell they vanished without a trace, and more than a few began to suspect Wyman Manderly had had them killed.

A string of murders followed at Winterfell, among them that of Little Walder, son of Merrett Frey, which put an end to any pretense of agreement between the Freys and the Manderlys.