Bitterbridge

For a long time, the castle and town that stand beside the Mander were known as the Stone Bridge, after the crossing that spans the river there. The name that stuck instead came later, once the Faith Militant's rebellion brought a battle so bloody that the Mander ran red for twenty leagues downstream.

The castle standing there today is nothing to boast about in size — small, built of stone, with walls that aren't especially tall. What tricks the eye is the ground around it, so flat and low that it makes the stronghold look higher than it actually is.

Legend has it that once King Jaehaerys I Targaryen came of age, one of his first acts was to remove the hot-tempered septon Mattheus from court. Mattheus set out for Oldtown in a gilded wagon, attended by a dozen servants and six armed men.

Not far from Bitterbridge, Mattheus's road crossed that of another septon, Barth, who rode alone on a plain donkey. The contrast between the two of them — one man's luxury, the other's poverty — is what has survived of that meeting.

In the year 54 AC, King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne flew toward Oldtown on dragonback to attend the election of a new High Septon. Along the way they stopped for the night at Bitterbridge and at Highgarden, pausing to talk with the local lords.

After Aegon II Targaryen's coronation, his Hand, Ser Otto Hightower, sent ravens to some fifty castles asking for support in the coming war; Bitterbridge was one of them.

The town ended up tied to the other side, though: for his part in the Battle of the Gullet, Prince Daemon Targaryen raised Ulf the White to Lord of Bitterbridge.

When King's Landing fell, Ser Rickard Thorne set out for Oldtown with Prince Maelor Targaryen in tow. They stopped for the night at an inn in Bitterbridge, the Hogshead, and there a crowd recognized them; the boy died at their hands.

Lady Caswell tried to win over Lord Ormund Hightower — who was marching on the capital at the head of a great host — by putting into his hands the dragon egg that had belonged to the dead prince.

It did no good: the town was sacked and burned, and Lady Caswell herself, after begging for her children's lives, ended up hanging from the castle walls. Whatever troops Bitterbridge could muster also fought in the Battle of Ladera.

During the war among the claimants to the Iron Throne, Renly Baratheon's army — vast, flying the banners of a dozen houses — camped beside Bitterbridge's walls. It was there that Catelyn Tully arrived to speak with him, sent as her son's envoy.