House Frey

"The Freys have held the Crossing for 600 years, and for 600 years they have never failed to exact their toll."

- Catelyn Stark

House Frey of The Twins is a noble house from the Riverlands. They are currently the Great House of the Riverlands, having gained their position for their treachery against their former liege lords, House Tully, who were stripped of all their lands and titles for their rebellion against the Iron Throne. Its current ruler is unknown following the assassination of Walder Frey and at least two of his sons by Arya Stark.

Their castle is known as the Twins, for its two identical keeps on either side of a river linked by a bridge, sometimes called the Stone Bridge. The Twins is one of the primary crossings over the Green Fork of the Trident River, and tolls from bridge crossings have made the Freys quite wealthy fairly quickly, elevating them from obscurity six centuries ago to being one of the most powerful noble Houses in the Riverlands - though they are looked down upon by older aristocratic families.

The Heraldry of House Frey represents their castle-seat of the Twins: it consists of two grey towers linked by a bridge, on a darker grey background, over an escutcheon of blue water. Their words are "We Stand Together," as revealed in the Season 6 episode The Winds of Winter

Background
House Frey was a noble house in the Riverlands that had emerged about six hundred years before the War of the Five Kings. Their seat is at The Twins, a castle consisting of two identical towers and a bridge intersecting the Green Fork of The Trident river. The Freys grew rich from exacting tolls on travelers crossing the Green Fork. For most of their history, the Freys have been vassals of House Tully, the paramount lords of the Trident since the Targaryen conquest. During Robert's Rebellion, Lord Walder Frey was late in marshalling forces to assist the forces of his liege lord Hoster Tully during the Battle of the Trident. For this insolence, Lord Hoster mockingly referred to Lord Frey as the "Late Walder Frey"; much to Walder's chagrin.

Season 1
Catelyn Stark encounters several Frey men at arms at the Inn at the Crossroads. She learns that Lord Walder Frey is turning ninety and is planning to marry an eighth wife. The Freys do not assist her when she arrests Tyrion Lannister. When the North rises in rebellion against the Iron Throne, Lady Stark travels to The Twins to an alliance with the Freys and safe passage across the Crossing. In return, her son the King in the North Robb Stark has to marry a Frey bride and he must take another Frey, Olyvar as his squire. Additionally, Catelyn's younger daughter Arya Stark, once recovered, has to marry Waldron Frey. Despite some misgivings, Robb consents to the agreement and gains the support of the Freys.

Season 2
Against his mother Catelyn's advice, King Robb spurns his oath to marry one of Lord Walder Frey's daughters in order to marry a battlefield medic named Talisa. Catelyn warns that Lord Frey will be displeased but Robb loves Talisa and marries her in secret.

Season 3
After losing the support of the Karstarks, King Robb appeals to Lord Walder Frey for help in taking the Lannister seat of Casterly Rock. Lord Frey sends his sons Lothar and Black Walder to negotiate with the Starks and Tullys. Seeking to mend the strained relationship with his Frey allies, King Robb assents to granting Lord Frey control of Harrenhal and his uncle Edmure Tully marrying Walder's daughter Roslin Frey.

The Freys host King Robb, Lady Stark, Lord Edmure, and the Stark and Tully hosts at The Twins for the wedding of Edmure and Roslin. After the wedding and bedding ceremony, Lord Frey turns on his Stark and Tully hosts and murders Robb, Talisa, and Catelyn. Most of the Stark and Tully forces with the exception of the Boltons are slaughtered during the "Red Wedding"; bringing an end to the Northern rebellion. The Freys also desecrate King Robb's corpse by fixing the head of its direwolf Grey Wind on top of his body and parading it around on a horse. Frey casualties are minimal with Walder's young wife Joyeuse Frey being killed at the hands of Catelyn. While the Freys capture Edmure, Catelyn's uncle Brynden Tully manages to escape.

To reward his role in defeating King Robb, Lord Tywin Lannister, acting on behalf of the Iron Throne, appoints Lord Walder Frey as Lord of Riverrun. The Freys are also given paramountcy over the Trident and become the Crown's main vassals in the Riverlands. Later, Arya and her protector Sandor Clegane kill several Frey men-at-arms who are making jokes about the Red Wedding.

Season 4
To seal the new alliance between Lord Walder Frey and the turncoat Boltons, Lord Roose Bolton marries Fat Walda, one of Walder's grand-daughters. She travels north to the Bolton seat of the Dreadfort. The Freys' actions during the Red Wedding earns them the enmity and disdain of the Riverlands and the North. Since the Freys were granted paramountcy over the Riverlands, the region has disintegrated into a state of lawlessness. None of House Tally's former vassals accept the authority of the Freys. One Riverland farmer opines that Lord Walder Frey has committed sacrilege by breaking guest right.

Season 6
After learning that Walda has given birth to a baby boy, Roose Bolton's bastard Ramsay Bolton murders his father, Walda, and their child; feeding the latter to his dogs.

House Frey's position in the Riverlands is weakened when Lord Brynden Tully (the Blackfish) retakes Riverrun, the seat of House Tully from the Freys. In addition, the Freys face opposition from House Blackwood, House Mallister, and the Brotherhood Without Banners; the latter of whom are raiding the Freys' supply trains and rallying the smallfolk against them. By this time, Lord Walder Frey has taken a ninth wife. Humiliated by these setbacks and unnerved by the widespread mockery and derision which the other houses hold the Freys, Lord Frey demands that his sons Lame Lothar and Black Walder retake Riverrun from the Blackfish. In an attempt to force the Blackfish's capitulation, Walder instructs his sons to present the captive Lord Edmure.

Frey forces under the command of Lame Lothar and Black Walder lay siege to Riverrun. The Freys forced Lord Edmure to wear a noose all day and threaten to kill him if the Blackfish does not surrender. Lord Brynden is not intimidated by their threats, knowing that the Freys do not keep their word. A large Lannister host under Ser Jaime Lannister, the late Lord Twyin's son and a former Kingsguard, arrive to reinforce the Frey forces on behalf of the Iron Throne. Jaime and Bronn are unimpressed by the disorganized state of the Frey forces and order the Freys to dig a trench and position catapults and trebuchets. Jaime also orders Black Walder to bathe and feed Edmure. When Black Walder refuses, Jaime punches him in the head and reminds the Freys that he is in charge of the siege.

Lothar Frey is initially dismissive about Jaime's plan to send Edmure to convince the Tully garrison to lay down their arms. Despite Lothar's skepticism, Edmure succeeds in ordering the Tully forces to surrender and to lower the gates. The Freys and Lannisters then proceed to march into Riverrun and occupy the castle.

Members

 * {Walder Frey}, called "the Late Lord Frey," Lord of the Crossing. Throat sliced open by Arya Stark.
 * Lady {Joyeuse Erenford}, Walder's eighth wife. Killed by Catelyn Stark at the Red Wedding.
 * Lady Kitty Frey

Lord Walder's descendants
During Robert's Rebellion, the jest was made that Lord Walder arrived late to the Battle of the Trident because he was waiting for his army to come of age...given that he had produced most of his soldiers from within his own britches (directly or indirectly through his previous children). Walder devoted the next seventeen years to making this claim a reality.

Lord Walder Frey's important legitimate descendants:


 * Ser Stevron Frey, Walder's eldest son and heir.
 * {Lothar Frey}, called "Lame Lothar," Walder's twelfth son. Steward of the Twins, running the day-to-day operations of his father's castle. Killed and carved into a pie.
 * Roslin Frey, Walder's fifth daughter. Married to Lord Edmure Tully.
 * {Walda Frey}, called "Fat Walda," Lord Walder's granddaughter. Married to Lord Roose Bolton. She and her newborn son were murdered by Ramsay Bolton.

Other trueborn descendants of Lord Walder Frey:


 * Olyvar Frey, Walder's eighteenth son.
 * Waldron Frey, Walder's twenty-second son.
 * Derwa Frey - daughter
 * Waldra Frey - daughter
 * Shirei Frey - youngest trueborn daughter
 * Janeya Frey - granddaughter
 * Neyela Frey - granddaughter
 * Serra Frey - granddaughter
 * Sarra Frey - granddaughter
 * Marianne Frey - granddaughter
 * Freya Frey - granddaughter
 * Merry Frey - granddaughter
 * Walda, Lord Walder's grandniece.
 * Numerous unidentified sons, daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, numbering at least over eight score altogether.

Lord Walder Frey's bastard descendants, by various women:


 * {Walder Rivers}, called "Black Walder," Lord Walder's bastard son. The most prominent of Lord Walder's bastards, Black Walder Rivers has risen to a position of prominence within House Frey and is one of his father's chief enforcers. Killed and carved into a pie.
 * Ser Ryger Rivers, Walder's bastard son by a milkmaid.
 * Numerous unidentified bastard sons, daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, the exact number unknown even to Lord Walder himself.

Freys of unspecified relationship to the main branch:
 * Willem Frey, unspecified relationship to the main branch.

Quotes
"'More Pride than Honor'; those should be the words of House Frey."

- Catelyn Stark

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, House Frey controls the Twins, two castles that hold the Crossing, the only bridge over the Green Fork of the Trident for hundreds of miles in either direction. House Frey is the northern-most house of the Riverlands, not far south of the loose border with the North, and has a history of enmity with House Reed, who control the marshes of the Neck to the north of the Twins.

House Frey was a minor house of no notability until they bridged the Green Fork six centuries ago and defending the bridge with two wooden castles. Charging wayfarers for the use of the Crossing, they grew rich and influential, replacing the castles with strong stone keeps. Their growing wealth and influence saw them gain several vassal houses of their own: House Erenford, House Haigh, and House Charlton. Given the relatively recent rise of their House, the Freys are looked down upon by other noble Houses of the Riverlands as uncouth and honorless.

Their military strength is formidable, allowing them to raise four thousand troops by themselves - almost 10% of the total strength of the Riverlands. The current Lord Frey's father was involved in the scandal of the Whitewalls Tourney, when the Second Blackfyre Rebellion was halted in its tracks, roughly ninety years ago, leading to the current Lord Walder Frey being a cautious man, extremely reluctant to commit himself to any cause until the outcome is certain. During Robert's Rebellion he delayed the arrival of his army at the Battle of the Trident until Robert Baratheon had secured victory. For this, Lord Frey's liege, Hoster Tully, dubbed him "The Late Lord Frey", a nickname which has stuck, to Walder Frey's fury.

Little has been revealed about members of House Frey who are not descendants of Lord Walder himself. It is probable that due to his advanced age of ninety years, Walder may have simply outlived any siblings or cousins he may have had. The one minor reference to Walder's family is in the Tales of Dunk and Egg prequel novellas, which take place almost ninety years before the beginning of A Game of Thrones. Walder himself actually makes a brief appearance in the prequels as a misbehaving toddler - making him one of the only characters who are present in both the main series and the prequel novellas; Maester Aemon is about a decade older than Walder, thus he is also alive during the early prequel novellas, though he does not prominently appear (instead, his younger brother Aegon "Egg" Targaryen is a major character). Walder's father appears in the prequel but is referred to simply as "Lord Frey" without revealing what his name was. However, the prequels also reveal that Walder actually had a sister, who was about a dozen years older than him, who marries Lord Ambrose of House Butterwell, a noble House from the Crownlands. Given that the Butterwells are disgraced during the events of the prequels, it isn't clear if they died out between the prequels and the main series - no current Butterwells have been mentioned in the main series. Given the limited information, it isn't clear if Lord Walder has any surviving nieces, nephews, grand-nephews, or distant cousins from cadet branches of the main Frey line.

Despite their prominence in the storyline, the motto of House Frey has not yet been revealed, even in the first five novels.

The Heraldry of House Frey is somewhat different in the books than it is in the TV series. In the books, it is the two towers and bridge of the Twins colored blue, on a silver-grey background. The TV series made the towers stone grey, and over the same dark grey field as in the books, but now above a blue escutcheon which is drawn to resemble the waves of the Green Fork of the Trident River. The color change may be because after the blue river was added as an escutcheon at the bottom, it would have been visually confusing to have the castle be the same color as the water. Unfortunately, reversing the colors like this makes it vaguely resemble the reversed colors used in heraldry by bastard children (though in such cases, without the ecsutcheon, the entire background field is blue, not just the escutcheon).