House Redwyne of the Arbor

Tradition traces the house back to Gilbert of the Vines, one of the sons legend gives to Garth Greenhand. He is said to have shown the islanders how to coax a sweet wine from the fat, glossy grapes that ripened there on their own.

For generations the Redwynes called themselves kings and ruled the Arbor as a realm apart, until the last of that line vanished at sea without a trace. It was then that his kinsman Meryn III Gardener, king of the Reach, took the island and folded it into his realm.

Ryam Redwyne rose to wear the white of the Kingsguard and ended up leading it, serving as Lord Commander through the reign of Jaehaerys I Targaryen.

That same king also set him at the head of government as Hand, a post Redwyne filled badly and briefly, giving it up in under a year.

When the realm split in two during the Dance of the Dragons, the lord of the Arbor threw his fleet and his name behind Aegon II, not Queen Rhaenyra.

Years after the civil war ended, with young Aegon III on the throne and his wife Jaehaera dead, Lady Samantha Tarly wrote proposing candidates for a new royal marriage. Among the names she offered, alongside those of other great Reach houses, were maidens of House Redwyne.

When war broke out against House Targaryen, Lord Paxter Redwyne did not break with Highgarden: he stood with the Tyrells, and so with King Aerys II.

That loyalty carried a naval price. The Arbor's fleet sailed to Storm's End and stayed there, blockading by sea the stronghold where Stannis Baratheon held out under siege.

In exile, Viserys Targaryen counted the Redwynes among the houses he believed would rally to him if he ever set foot in Westeros again.

In King's Landing, during the Tourney of the Hand, the house's grape cluster flew among the banners of the competing knights. Far away in the market of Vaes Dothrak, a wine merchant offered Daenerys Targaryen a cup marked with that same sigil; the wine was poisoned.

By then Paxter Redwyne was lord of the Arbor and one of Highgarden's great bannermen, but when Mace Tyrell chose to back Renly Baratheon's claim, Redwyne held back. His twin sons, Hobber and Horas, were still held in King's Landing since Robert I's death, and that alone was reason enough not to risk it.

After Renly's death, the deals struck between the Tyrells and the Iron Throne returned Hobber and Horas to their family, and with them the Arbor's fleet returned to the Crown's side.

That fleet was present when Stannis Baratheon brought his own armada to King's Landing's gates, in the battle fought over the waters of the Blackwater.

Lord Redwyne and his sons did not go back to the Arbor: they stayed in King's Landing with Lord Tyrell for the royal wedding.

While the court celebrated, the fleet the Redwynes commanded from the island was already preparing for something else entirely: closing in on Dragonstone by sea.

With Tommen I now crowned, Lord Redwyne held a seat on his first small council, until his fleet finally reached the capital and Cersei Lannister gave him a double order: take Dragonstone and cut off the sea route to Storm's End.

The assault dragged on longer than planned, and in that time the ironborn seized the chance to take the Shield Islands, so close to the Arbor. Only once Loras Tyrell took Dragonstone did Lord Redwyne turn his ships around and head home.

Hobber and Horas, meanwhile, stayed behind in King's Landing, serving at Queen Margaery's court. Cersei had them arrested on suspicion of having slept with her, though what she actually wanted was for the inquiry to clear them.