House Bracken

**House Bracken of Stone Hedge** is an old house from Stone Hedge in The Riverlands. They blazon their arms with a red stallion upon a golden escutcheon on brown.

## History

### Age of Heroes

The Brackens have the blood of the First Men in their veins and were kings of the riverlands during the Age of Heroes. They have an old and bitter feud against their neighbors, the Blackwoods. According to the Brackens, the Blackwoods were vassals who betrayed the Brackens and usurped their crown.

### Andal Riverlands

The Brackens and Blackwoods allied together against the Andal invasion, but they were defeated in the battle of the Bitter River. The feud has continued throughout the years, aided by House Bracken's change to the Faith of the Seven after the Andal invasion. The Blackwoods believe the Brackens poisoned the weirwood at Raventree Hall. Battle Valley and the village of Blackbuckle are part of the disputed land. There have been numerous peaces between the Brackens and Blackwoods, many sealed by marriage, but the feud always restarts. Benedict Rivers was a bastard born from both houses who eventually became King Benedict I Justman.

When Lady Agnes Blackwood led the resistance of the river lords to King Harwyn Hoare, Lord Lothar Bracken attacked Agnes's army from behind. It is possible Lothar hoped to become King of the Trident after Harwyn defeated the Storm King Arrec Durrandon, but House Hoareinstead took the riverlands for themselves. Harwyn starved Lothar to death when he later rose in rebellion.

### Targaryen Era

House Bracken aided Aegon the Conquerer during the Wars of Conquest and rebelled against Harwyn's grandson, King Harren the Black of Harrenhal. The Brackens and the Blackwoods had been weakened by a private war a decade before Aegon's Conquest, however, and Aegon granted the new title of Lord Paramount of the Trident to Lord Edmyn Tully of Riverrun.

Ser Lyle Bracken was one of the seven knights of the Warrior's Sons who fought against King Maegor I Targaryen in a trial of seven in 42 AC.

Another member of House bracken, Ser Olyver Bracken served in Maegors Kingsguard.

A Bracken fought a duel with a Blackwood over Rhaenyra Targaryen in 112 AC, but the princess eventually wed Ser Laenor Velaryon.

During the Dance of the Dragons, the Brackens declared for Aegon II Targaryen and the greens. Prince Daemon Targaryen and the Blackwoods defeated the Brackens at the battle of the Burning Mill and took Stone Hedge. Lord Bracken served as Hand of the King to King Aegon IV Targaryen. His elder daughter Barba was the fifth mistress of Aegon IV and the mother of Aegor Rivers, the Great Bastard known as Bittersteel. However, House Bracken fell from favor after Lord Bracken began talking openly of marrying Barba to Aegon IV after Queen Naerys nearly died in childbirth. Lord Bracken's second daughter, Bethany, was deliberately groomed by her father and elder sister to win back the king's favor by displacing Melissa Blackwood, with whom Aegon IV had replaced Barba as mistress.

Bethany succeeded in displacing Melissa, but found the King's embraces distressing and she sought comfort in Ser Terrence Toyne of the Kingsguard.  After the affair was discovered, both Bethany and her father were executed.

According to Ser Eustace Osgrey, Lord Bracken was to sail with Myrish crossbowmen to aid Daemon Blackfyre and Bittersteel during the First Blackfyre Rebellion, but was delayed by storms.

Ser Otho Bracken slew Lord Quentyn Blackwood at a tourney in King's Landing in 206 AC, reinvigorating the feud. Three years later Otho and some Blackwoods participated in the tourney at Ashford Meadow. Ser Steffon Fossoway considered convincing Otho or the Blackwoods to fight for Ser Duncan the Tall in his trial of seven, but decided it would be impossible to make them both fight on the same side. When Lord Bracken lay dying, Septon Sefton explained that Otho would inherit and the Blackwoods would not suffer him, meaning war. Lord Bracken's eldest son and heir had died in the Great Spring Sickness. The then Hand of the King, Lord Brynden Rivers, was half-Blackwood, and thus was considered unlikely to stop it.

Lords Bracken and Blackwood came to Riverrun when Lysa Tully was young to put their feud before Lord Hoster Tully's judgment. Hoster attempted to marry Ser Brynden Tully to Lord Bracken's daughter. The daughter of Elys Waynwood was on her way to marry a Bracken when she was kidnapped by Burned Men and not heard from again.