[House Tyrell — Houses]
While Tyrion prepares the capital for the imminent attack of Stannis, Tywin abandons Harrenhal and marches the Lannister troops to the city. The Lannisters, reinforced by the Tyrell troops, defeat Stannis at the Battle of the Blackwater . Tywin is formally appointed Hand of the King. The Lannisters form an alliance with House Tyrell.
Cersei attempts to undermine House Tyrell , but her plan backfires and she is apprehended by the Faith. Kevan takes overthe city as Hand of the King and Protector of the Realm . Cersei reluctantly performs the humiliating walk of atonement .
A vast Lannister army of 10,000 men abandons Casterly Rock at Cersei's orders, and seizes Highgarden , thus eliminating House Tyrell and its forces. However, much of the Lannister army is later annihilated in a surprise ambush by Daenerys's troops.
King Robert Baratheon expressed fear that even after all these years, there are still a sizable number of noble houses in Westeros who are either secret Targaryen loyalists or who later developed some grievance with Robert's rule and would flock to the Targaryen banner if they attempted to retake the Iron Throne in open war. It is not clear what influence his opinions since Ser Jorah stressed to Dany that the number of Targaryen loyalists remaining in Westeros is far lower than Viserys liked to believe. Viserys believed that because House Tyrell of the Reach and House Martell of Dorne fought on the Targaryen side during Robert's Rebellion, the prospects were good that they'd be willing to join his cause and rebel against Robert. Nonetheless, for much of Robert's reign, and most of the War of the Five Kings that followed, it was unknown and remained to be seen if the dissatisfied houses would support a Targaryen return, while House Tyrell had become closely aligned with the Lannister-backed House Baratheon.
House Tyrell of Highgarden is an extinct Great House of Westeros . It ruled over the Reach , a vast, fertile, and heavily-populated region of southwestern Westeros as Lords Paramount of the Reach and Wardens of the South after taking control of the region from House Gardener during Aegon's Conquest .
The House was formerly led by Lord Mace Tyrell . Mace's son Loras was a noted tournament knight and, secretly, the lover of Lord Renly Baratheon . Mace's daughter Margaery married Renly when he crowned himself king in the War of the Five Kings to cement an alliance between Renly and her father. Following Renly's death , Margaery was then married to King Joffrey Baratheon before his assassination at his wedding feast . She was then married to his younger brother, King Tommen Baratheon . Mace's mother, the indomitable Olenna Tyrell , assumed House Tyrell's lordship after Margaery, Loras, and Mace Tyrell were all killed by wildfire at the destruction of the Great Sept of Baelor . Under Olenna, House Tyrell realigned itself with House Targaryen and declared for Daenerys Targaryen in opposition against Cersei Lannister , who had orchestrated the downfall of House Tyrell. With the death of Olenna after the Sack of Highgarden , the House has officially become extinct. In the TV series, the Tyrell family is very small, has only four known members of the main branch.
House Tyrell was founded by Alester Tyrell , an Andal knight , during the coming of the Andals . Ser Alester and his family became senior servants of House Gardener , the Kings of the Reach , serving for millennia as stewards of the royal castle at Highgarden . Over time they rose to prominence as one of the strongest noble Houses in the Reach, and even intermarried with the royal line - though so did many other powerful Houses from the Reach.
During Aegon's Conquest , King Mern IX Gardener was burned alive at the Field of Fire by the Targaryen dragons , along with all of his immediate heirs. Subsequently, Mern's steward Harlen Tyrell voluntarily surrendered Highgarden to Aegon Targaryen . Aegon rewarded Harlen by making him Lord of Highgarden and Lord Paramount of the Reach - ahead of other Houses from the Reach which were actually more closely related to House Gardener. Chief among these is House Florent of Brightwater Keep, which claims direct male-line descent from the old Gardener kings, while House Tyrell only claim descent from House Gardener through the female line.
House Tyrell's overall disposition is adequately represented by their sigil of a rose: a rose's beauty often hides the fact that it has thorns. Though the Tyrells do try to be just and fair, their benevolent demeanor serves to lull their enemies into thinking that, like the Starks, they are utterly beholden to honorable conduct. In reality, the Tyrells are just as cunning as the Lannisters in court politics and intrigue, though they often prefer a more subtle approach. Thus they strike a pragmatic balance between the Starks' honor and the Lannisters' ruthlessness.
Throughout history, House Tyrell has played by the strategy of following the sure path, siding with whoever is most likely to win in any conflict. During Aegon's Conquest , they surrendered Highgarden to the invading forces of Aegon the Conqueror, and in return the Tyrells were elevated as the new Lords Paramount of the Reach. During Robert's Rebellion , House Tyrell remained loyal to House Targaryen , as Robert Baratheon was a rebel unlikely to win, and the Tyrells owed their rule of the Reach to the Targaryens. Forces of House Tyrell managed to inflict the only loss Robert suffered during the war, albeit an indecisive one, at the Battle of Ashford . However, the vast army and resources of House Tyrell were tied up on a siege of Storm's End (held for Robert by his brother; Stannis Baratheon ). After the Mad King 's death, the Tyrells surrendered and swore fealty to Robert Baratheon.
The strength of House Tyrell has remained mostly unscathed during the War of the Five Kings , around 15,800 men, according to Olenna. Later, a small part of these forces is annihilated by the Lannister-Tarly forces at the Sack of Highgarden , leading to Olenna's death, thus eliminating the once formidable great house.
Despite the Tyrell army being diverse and ornamentally impressive in design, their vassals seem to follow this motif (bright colored armor and steel plates) despite their preference to be considered as independent houses. Most notably, House Tarly which used red tunics and steel armor which distinguishes them from House Tyrell.
The Reach is controlled mostly by House Tyrell, mostly due to Harlan Tyrell’s surrender of Highgarden to Aegon Targaryen thus elevating their status. Despite their status, however, their vassals seem to act self-beneficially and have questionable loyalties such as the Florents and the Fossoways , who aligned themselves with Stannis rather than follow their liege lords. House Tarly, on the other hand, chose to reluctantly ally with the Lannisters in fear of the Dothraki .
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, House Tyrell is a powerful noble house. The Reach is the most populous region of the Seven Kingdoms, and the Tyrells can field the largest army on the continent, although the Lannisters, being richer, can better equip their troops. This makes the Tyrells formidable enemies but excellent allies.
House Tyrell never ruled as "kings and queens", as opposed to the Starks, Lannisters , or Arryns . Before King Aegon I Targaryen's invasion and unification of the Seven Kingdoms, the Tyrells were stewards to House Gardener , the Kings of the Reach. The Tyrells had responsibility for maintaining the castle of Highgarden , the seat of royal power in the Reach. In the battle known as the Field of Fire , King Mern IX Gardener and all of his issue were burned alive by Aegon's dragons . Harlen Tyrell, King Mern's steward, surrendered Hightower to King Aegon and was rewarded with the title of Lord Paramount of the Reach and Warden of the South.
House Florent of Brightwater Keep has long disputed the suitability of the Tyrells to the rule of the Reach because they can claim a closer blood-relationship to the old kings of House Gardener. House Florent is a cadet branch of House Gardener, founded by a younger son of the main Gardener line, while House Tyrell can only claim descent from House Gardener through the female line.
As a result, the Florents have often bucked the authority of the Tyrells in the past three centuries since the Targaryen conquest. It came as little surprise when after Renly died and House Tyrell led their vassals in switching to support King Joffrey and the Lannisters, House Florent was the only major House from the Reach to switch allegiance to Stannis instead. Indeed, Stannis's wife, Selyse, is herself a Florent.
Thus the Tyrells, while always maintaining firm control of the Reach, have always feared they have an uneasy grip on their rule. While the Tyrells possess very fertile lands from which they can raise large armies, there are other powerful noble families in the Reach, such as House Florent, which don't particularly respect them the way the vassals of the Starks and Lannisters respect them because they used to be their kings. A great deal of skill at court politics has thus been needed to keep the Tyrells' powerful vassals in check, though Tyrells like Lady Olenna possess this in abundance. Therefore, House Tyrell is always on the lookout to secure a marriage into a royal line, strengthen their prestige and cement their rule over the Reach.
As D.B. Weiss summed it up in a Season 2 featurette, in the current generation House Tyrell is a closet matriarchy of sorts. While dependable, honorable, and loyal, the men of House Tyrell aren't particularly intelligent or adept at politics. Instead, the female members of House Tyrell (such as Margaery and her father's mother, Olenna) are the intelligent ones who actively plan out the political course that House Tyrell will take. An exception to this is Lord Mace's eldest son, Willas, who, unlike his father and two younger brothers ( Garlan and Loras), is said to be quite well-educated.