Margaery Tyrell

Queen **Margaery Tyrell** is a character in the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh seasons of ***Game of Thrones***. She was the only daughter of Lord Mace Tyrell and Lady Alerie Tyrell, granddaughter of Lord Luthor Tyrell and Lady Olenna Tyrell, and younger sister of Ser Willas Tyrell and Ser Loras Tyrell.

Following the Siege of King's Landing, Margaery became Queen Consort through her marriage to King Joffrey Baratheon, and later his younger brother, King Tommen Baratheon, following Joffrey's death. However, a charge of perjury and a false dedication to the Sparrow movement led to her downfall as she was eventually killed along with her brother and father when the Great Sept of Baelor was destroyed with wildfire as orchestrated by Cersei Lannister to reclaim her lost power.

## In the books

In the *A Song of Ice and Fire* novels, Margaery is the (initially) unwed daughter of Mace Tyrell, one of the most powerful lords in Westeros. Margaery herself is considered to be not only very beautiful, but very intelligent despite her relatively young age. The Tyrells are a loving family, and Margaery has a good relationship with both her parents and her brothers. She also has a close relationship with her paternal grandmother, Olenna Redwyne, who has tutored Margaery in the skills of court intrigue.

Many Houses and eligible lords want to marry their sons to Margaery and gain an alliance with the formidable House Tyrell, but Mace has been holding out for the most favorable match possible.

Magaery is younger in the books, sixteen at the time of her marriage to Renly making her the same age as Robb Stark. However, Margaery has been further aged in the series, making her slightly older than Robb Stark, as Natalie Dormer is four years older than Richard Madden. The TV series producers enjoyed Dormer's audition so much that they decided to overlook this minor difference. Thus while Margaery is the youngest of Mace's children in the books, TV-Margaery is officially a year or two older than her brother Loras - though in the male-dominated culture and inheritance system of the Seven Kingdoms (with the exception of Dorne), this does not change Margaery's place in line of succession, or significantly change her character.

Margaery's true motivations are not discussed in the books, but the TV series makes her ambitions clear to the audience. This is largely due to the narrative mechanics: Margaery is not a POV character in the books (neither are Renly or Loras), and the scenes at King Renly's army camp are told from Catelyn's point of view - logically, she doesn't see the inside of Renly's tent nor is she privy to Margaery's actions. The TV series has the freedom to expand on the stories of non-POV characters, hence the apparent expansion of Margaery's character. Thus Margaery in the TV series is faithful to Margaery's actions and behavior in the books, it's just that the TV series actually depicts events which occurred "off screen" in the books.

An interesting result of showing Margaery's POV actions is the effect it will have on portraying the sparring between Margaery and Cersei Lannister. Most of the clashes between Margaery and Cersei are shown from Cersei's POV, but Cersei is an "unreliable narrator". Cersei is vindictive and paranoid, and starts suspecting that anything that goes wrong in the capital, both large and small matters, must be Margaery plotting against her, or at least the Tyrell family in general. Intriguingly, at least some of these attempts to outmaneuver Cersei were objectively true, i.e. the Tyrells do try to marry Sansa to their eldest son (Willas in the books, Loras in the TV series) but how much of these plots were actually masterminded by Margaery, or simply Margaery following orders from her father Mace and grandmother Olenna, weren't entirely clear. The inner mechanics of House Tyrell's political schemes in the capital are not directly portrayed in the narrative of the books. Margaery could conceivably have masterminded some of these, while others may have been the actions of House Tyrell as a whole, though Cersei increasingly fixates on Margaery and blames her for everything the Tyrells are planning, because she fears that Margaery is the new young queen who has come to supplant her. Even so, as Cersei's paranoia increases, she starts blaming Margaery for plots which other parts of the books objectively establish that other people were responsible for (i.e. Littlefinger, Varys, the other scheming courtiers, etc.). Due to these events occurring in Cersei's skewed POV narration the books were never entirely clear about which of these were plots Margaery herself directly orchestrated (at least *some* actually were), and which of these plots Cersei irrationally blamed on Margaery even though she actually had no hand in them (at least some events were revealed to not involve Margaery at all). Thus the TV series may end up definitively establishing which events Margaery was or was not responsible for, when this was left deliberately vague in the novels.

The first book, *A Game of Thrones*, features a small subplot hinting that Renly Baratheon was working as an agent to the Tyrells' rising power by trying to bring Margaery to King's Landing. He shows her picture to Ned Stark and asks if she resembles Lyanna Stark, hoping that such a resemblance will convince Robert to cast Cersei aside and make Margaery Queen. A slightly bemused Ned insists that Margaery and Lyanna look nothing alike. Ned thinks it ironic that Renly, who is said to strongly resemble a young Robert, should be smitten with a girl whom he thinks resembles Lyanna. On the second novel, Renly reveals that he and Loras have planned to wed Margaery to Robert.

As Margaery's popularity and influence over Tommen grow, Cersei becomes convinced that the Tyrells undermine the Lannisters; that they conspired with Tyrion to murder Joffrey; and that Margaery is the queen whom Maggy referred to. Driven by her paranoia, Cersei seeks to dispose of Margaery - but not simply kill her as she did with Robert and the previous High Septon; Cersei is aware it must be done in such manner that will not jeoparize the alliance with the Tyrells (at least until Stannis is defeated).

Cersei plots Margaery's downfall directly by arranging for her to be accused of serial adultery. First she sends Osney Kettleblack to seduce Margaery, but he fails because Margaery is always with her cousins and other companions. Cersei tries another plan: she forces Pycelle to admit he has supplied Margaery Moon tea (a contraceptive/abortive potion); next, she extracts a confession by torturing Margaery's singer about the men with whom Margaery allegedly slept; then she instructs Osney Kettleblack to visit the High Sparrow and confess to sleeping with Margaery.

Margaery and her cousins are arrested based on the above false testimonies and are charged with lewdness, fornication, adultery and high treason. When Septa Moelle announces that, Cersei pretends to be shocked and claims that it is impossible, Margaery and her cousins are totally innocent. The septa states that Margaery and her cousins were examined by septas, and it was revealed their maidenhood is not intact; Cersei barely manages not to laugh, because she knows the real reason - Margaery's habit of riding horses (riding a horse astride may indeed cause the hymen to crack). Cersei thinks gloatingly "*I do hope the little queen and her cousins enjoyed those rides of theirs*". She believes that Margaery is doomed and Maggy's prophecy is foiled; but, as happens with each and every scheme Cersei comes up with, this one goes wrong too.

The High Sparrow grows suspicious that Kettleblack appears so pleased with himself during the confession. Under torture, Kettleblack tells the truth: that he never slept with Margaery, that he has in fact been sleeping with Cersei, and that he also killed the previous High Septon on her orders. Together with Lancel Lannister's testimony about his affair with Cersei and about Robert's death, the High Septon has enough grounds to arrest Cersei too. Shortly after her visit at Margaery's cell, which she enjoys a lot, Cersei suddenly finds herself in much worse position than Margaery, charged with much heavier crimes.

When word of Margaery's arrest reaches them, Mace Tyrell and Randyll Tarly abandon their military campaigns in the Stormlands and the Riverlands, march on King's Landing with their armies and demand Margaery's release. As the case against her is weak, Margaery is released to Randyll Tarly's custody while awaiting trial for her alleged crimes.

Mace urges Kevan to have Tommen declare that Margaery is innocent. Kevan has doubts about the accusations against Margaery, but he insists on holding a trial - otherwise, he believes that the whispers will follow her for the rest of her life. He explains Mace that such act will be considered as a defiance against the Faith, and add the High Sparrow and his followers to the ranks of their enemies.