0:02 What happened to Tyrek Lannister? He
0:04 went missing in the King's Landing
0:07 riots. But where is he? Is he even still
0:09 alive? Hi everyone, this is Robert.
0:11 Welcome to Indeedgeek. If you like
0:13 theories, background, history, and lore
0:14 about A Song of Ice and Fire, The Lord
0:16 of the Rings, and The Witcher, this is
0:19 the place for you. Welcome. The
0:21 disappearance of Tyreek Lannister is one
0:23 of the most long-standing mysteries in A
0:25 Song of Ice and Fire, though he himself
0:28 remains a bit of a blank slate. Not
0:29 exactly the most well-rounded of George
0:31 R. Martin's many characters in A Song of
0:34 Ice and Fire. Intentionally, I suspect.
0:36 He is the son of Tyigette and Darlesa
0:39 Lannister. So, cousin to Cersei, Jaime,
0:41 and Tyrion. But we don't get much of a
0:43 description of him other than that of a
0:45 typical Lannister physically, so
0:48 good-looking with curly blonde hair.
0:50 Born in 286, he is therefore about 13
0:52 years old at the time of the Clash of
0:54 Kings. He had seemingly been in King's
0:56 Landing for a few years by that point as
0:58 a squire to Robert Baratheon. King
1:01 Robert had two squires, Lancel Lannister
1:04 and Tyrek, surrounded by Lannisters. We
1:06 obviously know Lancel's significant role
1:08 in supplying copious amounts of wine to
1:10 the king on a hunt. But Tyre was also
1:12 there close to the king at that time.
1:14 We'll come back to that. To be honest,
1:16 he's actually rather anonymous in book
1:18 one, only mentioned by name in the
1:20 appendices. But when we get to a clash
1:22 of kings, he starts to come more to the
1:24 four. The Lannisters are working to
1:26 cement their place as the preeminent
1:28 noble family in the realm. Even though
1:30 technically they are still clinging to
1:32 the idea that Joffrey was king because
1:34 his father was Robert Baratheon. Part of
1:36 this political effort is to marry off
1:38 minor members of the Lannister clan to
1:40 noble houses in the Riverlands and
1:42 Crownlands, particularly those who had
1:43 lost ruling lords and the like in the
1:46 war. Hence Tyrek being engaged to then
1:50 married to Ladyand Hayford, the heir and
1:52 last in line to House Hayford, a small
1:54 but notable house in the Crownlands not
1:56 too far from King's Landing. It's all
1:58 rather straightforward power politics.
2:00 It puts a Lannister as ruling lord and
2:02 helps them control that small part of
2:05 the seven kingdoms. Jenna Lannister was
2:07 already married to Emmanry who was later
2:09 given Riverrun. Lancel was named Lord
2:12 Dar and so on. The twist is that Lady
2:14 Irmisand Hayford is still a baby, maybe
2:17 just one year old, which leads to much
2:19 teasing of Tyrek and hilarity among the
2:21 Lannister courtiers and squires, calling
2:23 Tyrek her wet nurse and inquiring what
2:25 kind of swaddling clothes she wore on
2:27 their wedding night. You get the idea.
2:29 This was a political marriage of the
2:31 most cynical kind. Tyrek and the
2:33 Lannisters were now de facto lords of
2:36 House Hayford. A promotion for Tyrek,
2:38 but not one he seemed particularly
2:40 pleased about. Still, this is Wester
2:42 Ross, and there was a wedding, so a
2:45 feast to celebrate. Now, Tyrex's wedding
2:47 and the associated partying in the Red
2:49 Keep did not go unnoticed by the small
2:51 folk in King's Landing, some of whom
2:53 decided that they should party, too,
2:55 coming up to the Red Keep to ask for a
2:57 share in the food and frivolity. Joffrey
3:00 led a sorty on horseback to disperse
3:02 them. He seemed to see it as a sort of
3:04 sport to ride out and beat back the
3:06 small folk. Joffrey really was. Well,
3:09 anyway, Tyrek had not been married long
3:11 before his cousin Tyrion as acting hand
3:13 of the king decided to send Princess
3:15 Marcella to Dawn in a marriage patched
3:18 to Tristane Martell. There's obviously a
3:19 whole history there with the Lannisters
3:21 and Martell's. But this was part of
3:23 Tyrion's attempt to ensure the Martell
3:25 didn't make the most of the civil war to
3:28 turn on the Lannisters. and it kind of
3:29 worked in the short term in as much as
3:31 the Martell's pursued their objectives
3:33 more by stealth and through Oberin than
3:35 by outright war. The important point
3:38 here though is that leaving to go to
3:40 dawn is a big event in King's Landing.
3:42 For the first time in ages, and
3:44 certainly the first since the war
3:46 started, the whole court in King's
3:48 Landing ventured out on mass from the
3:50 Red Keep into the city proper. Most of
3:53 the 1% of King's Landing here heads down
3:55 to the dock to bid her farewell.
3:57 Innocuous you might think, but the
4:00 timing couldn't have been worse. The war
4:02 is in full swing. The riverlands are
4:04 ablaze and refugees are flooding into
4:07 the city. At the same time, Stannis has
4:08 established a sea blockade in the
4:10 Gullet. Food from the Reach, the bread
4:12 basket of the Seven Kingdoms is also
4:14 pretty non-existent in King's Landing.
4:17 The Reach obviously support Renley. an
4:19 increased population along with a
4:21 reduction in food available while the 1%
4:23 were having their parties and feasts in
4:24 the Red Keep to celebrate the wedding of
4:27 a baby to a random Lannister squire. I
4:29 think you can guess what the mood was
4:30 among the small folk when the Dennisens
4:32 of the Red Keep, still wellfed and
4:34 richly dressed, headed on mass down to
4:36 the docks and back to bid Myrcela
4:39 farewell. As the court is heading back
4:41 to the Red Keep, a woman steps out of
4:43 the crowd with a dead baby in her arms.
4:46 Heartbreaking, surely. Sansa shows some
4:49 sympathy, but Joffrey does not. Someone
4:51 throws mud at Cersei. Joffrey sends the
4:53 hound out into the crowd to find the
4:55 offender rather heavy-handedly, causing
4:58 outcries. Mandon Moore cuts off the hand
5:00 of someone who touches Joffrey's leg. It
5:02 all kicks off. The royal party hurry
5:04 back to the Red Keep and order the
5:06 Goldcolaks to quell the riers. Some
5:08 people are pulled from their horses.
5:11 Most escape, but swords are drawn,
5:12 punches are thrown, buildings set a
5:16 fire. Basically, things escalate. It
5:18 takes a while, but the riot is put down
5:20 and the cost is counted. The high
5:22 septton was pulled from his horse, his
5:25 crystal crown stolen, and he was killed,
5:27 as was Sir Preston Greenfield, a member
5:28 of the King's Guard, and Sir Aaron
5:31 Santagar, the master at arms in the Red
5:33 Keep. Lis Stokeworth survived, but was
5:36 assaulted multiple times. Hers is a sad
5:39 story. Sansa Stark narrowly avoided the
5:42 same fate, rescued by the Hound. Nine
5:45 gold cloaks are lost. Unreported, but
5:47 probably huge are the numbers of small
5:50 folk lost and homes burned down. And
5:52 amid all that chaos, Tyrek Lannister
5:55 also goes missing. In truth, this was
5:56 probably the thing that bothered the
5:58 Lannisters the most. High Septans and
6:00 members of the king's guard can be
6:02 replaced. Minor nobles matter little.
6:05 But a Lannister, that's different.
6:07 Tyrion and Tywin both in turn try to
6:09 find him or evidence of what happened to
6:12 him to no avail. He just disappeared. We
6:15 never hear from him again. So what
6:18 happened to Tyrek Lannister? Well, let's
6:20 start with the boring but very possible
6:22 answer first. He was pulled from his
6:24 horse, attacked by the small folk, and
6:26 killed. That's what happened to several
6:27 other members of the party on their
6:29 return to the Red Keep. His undoubtedly
6:31 rich clothes and personal effects were
6:33 ripped from him, and his body left lying
6:36 somewhere in the city, and got lost amid
6:38 the confusion and fire and many other
6:40 dead bodies. He was still a Lannister,
6:42 though, and very obviously one with his
6:44 golden hair, and the gold cloaks were
6:45 very clearly searching for him
6:47 afterwards. So perhaps whoever did it,
6:49 or whoever owned the property outside of
6:51 which his body ended up, disposed of it
6:52 somewhere. Everyone knew that the
6:54 Lannisters paid their debts, and no one
6:56 would want to be held accountable for
6:57 what happened to Tyrek.
7:00 get rid of the body and move on. It all
7:02 makes sense. So, that's the boring
7:04 answer. He was just another victim of
7:07 the riots. But what if he wasn't? What
7:10 if there was something deeper going on?
7:11 Unlike many a Song of Ice and Fire
7:13 mysteries, there really is only one
7:15 broad fan theory out there with any
7:17 significant support to challenge this
7:19 boring likelihood that Tyrek was just
7:21 another victim of the riots, and that's
7:24 that Varys kidnapped him. The primary
7:26 accuser in this is actually Jaime. He
7:28 visits Hayford and is presented with the
7:30 young lady Hayford. He finds himself
7:33 wondering what happened to Tyrek. Adam
7:34 Marbrand, later commander of the
7:37 Goldcloaks, tells him, "I led a search
7:39 myself at Lord Tywin's command, but I
7:41 found no more than Bwater had before me.
7:44 The boy was last seen a horse when the
7:46 press of the mob broke the line of gold
7:48 cloaks. Afterward, well, his pfrey was
7:51 found, but not the rider. Most likely
7:53 they pulled him down and slew him. But
7:55 if that's so, where is his body?" The
7:58 mob let the other corpses lie. Why not his?
7:59 his?
8:01 Jaime<unk>s initial conclusion here is
8:03 actually the same as our initial
8:05 conclusion. He thinks if they realized
8:07 whom they killed, no doubt they threw
8:09 him in the river for fear of my father's
8:11 wroth. They know the taste of that in
8:13 King's Landing. Lord Tywin always paid
8:15 his debts.
8:18 But then he thinks again.
8:20 Yet afterward, alone in the tower room
8:22 he had been offered for the night, Jaime
8:25 found himself wondering. Tyrek had
8:27 served King Robert as a squire, side by
8:29 side with Lancel. Knowledge could be
8:31 more valuable than gold, more deadly
8:34 than a dagger. It was Ferris he thought
8:36 of, then smiling and smelling of
8:38 lavender. The unuk had agents and
8:40 informers all over the city. It would
8:42 have been a simple matter for him to
8:44 arrange to have Tyrex snatched during
8:46 the confusion, provided he knew
8:48 beforehand that the mob was like to
8:51 riot, and Varys knew all, or so he would
8:54 have us believe. Yet he gave Cersei no
8:56 warning of that riot, nor did he ride
9:00 down to the ships to see Myrcella off.
9:02 All of which makes a lot of sense. Varys
9:03 definitely would have known that a riot
9:06 was possible. And he said nothing. Given
9:08 that we now know that Varys has other
9:10 loyalties to young Griff, who at the
9:11 time is still gathering support in
9:14 Essos, this is actually not a surprise.
9:16 He was wanting to weaken the Lannister
9:18 regime as much as possible in advance of
9:20 Young Griff's invasion. Of course, that
9:22 doesn't mean he also used it as cover
9:25 for an abduction of Tyrek. So why might
9:27 he? Varys has a history of using his
9:29 dark arts to remove competent people
9:31 from the defense of King's Landing.
9:33 Think of Kevin Lannister and how he
9:35 found a way for Tyrion to escape and
9:36 also to recruit those people to his own
9:39 side. He sent Tyrion to his friend Yio
9:41 and I would argue subtly pushed Sir
9:44 Barristan that way, too. But Tyrek was
9:46 barely a teenager. He can hardly be
9:48 described as a competent defender of
9:50 King's Landing. So maybe there's another
9:53 motivation. We often talk about the Iron
9:56 Thron's debt to the Iron Bank, which is
9:58 significant. So significant that they,
10:00 the Iron Bank, are now actively
10:02 supporting a rival to the throne so they
10:04 can get their money back. But the Iron
10:06 Throne's bigger debt is to Castasterly
10:09 Rock. Witness this exchange between
10:11 Littlefinger and Ned Stark when Ned was
10:14 hand of the king. You know as well as I
10:15 that the treasury has been empty for
10:18 years. I shall have to borrow the money.
10:19 No doubt the Lannisters will be
10:22 accommodating. We owe Lord Tywin some 3
10:25 million dragons at present. What matter
10:27 another 100,000?
10:29 Ned was stunned. Are you claiming that
10:32 the crown is 3 million gold pieces in
10:34 debt? The crown is more than 6 million
10:36 gold pieces in debt, Lord Stark. The
10:40 Lannisters are the biggest part of it.
10:42 So the Iron Throne is in debt to the
10:44 Iron Bank, but probably several times
10:47 more in debt to the Lannisters. Any
10:48 reasonable accession plan for young
10:50 Griff would have to include an
10:52 understanding with Castly Rock over that
10:55 debt. Varys is a very clever person who
10:57 has had many years to come up with a
10:59 plan for how to deal with that debt. And
11:01 the obvious answer is to have someone on
11:03 his side installed in Castelli Rock and
11:06 ready to either forgive that debt or be
11:08 content to let it drag on in favorable
11:11 terms. At which point we should probably
11:13 briefly dip into the Lannister family
11:15 tree. Because although I've rather blly
11:17 been calling Tyrek a rather minor member
11:19 of the Lannister clan, War has a habit
11:21 of pushing some people up the line of
11:23 succession quite quickly. Get your
11:25 genological nerd hats ready because
11:28 Tyrek is the firstborn son of Tiget, the
11:31 fourthborn child of Tittos Lannister.
11:34 Tittos's eldest, Tywin, inherited, so
11:35 obviously his children and their
11:38 children are next in line. Leaving Tyrek
11:40 behind depending on how you count it and
11:42 your views on female inheritance.
11:45 Joffrey, Tommen, Myella, any children
11:47 they might have, then maybe Cersei,
11:49 Jaime, though he's excluded as he is
11:51 King's Guard. Tyrion, any children he
11:53 might have. Kevin, the secondborn son of
11:55 Titus, then his children, Lancel,
11:57 Willam, Martin, and Janai. Then you get
12:00 to Jenna, then Tigette, and his
12:02 children. So, Tyrek, first of those. As
12:04 I said, these things are open to
12:06 interpretation, but by my count based on
12:09 a very strict male-only inheritance
12:11 line, that puts Tyrek at the start of
12:13 this story as behind at least Joffrey,
12:15 Tommen, Tyrion, Kevin, Lancel, Willm,
12:18 and Martin in the line of succession, at
12:20 best eighth in line. And if any of those
12:22 have male children, they will also
12:24 leaprog Tyrek. And there may well be
12:26 some women who might want to challenge
12:27 that rather male-heavy presumption of
12:31 inheritance. Cersei, perhaps. So, Tyrex
12:33 starts out a long way from having the
12:35 keys to Castasterly Rock, but let's see
12:37 what happens during the story. And
12:39 please note that I don't ascribe all or
12:40 even most of these deaths and
12:44 abdications to Varys, but war is war.
12:46 Joffrey obviously dies at the Red
12:48 Wedding without having any children.
12:50 Tommen is also too young to have
12:52 children, and many people suspect won't
12:54 survive long. Mella is with the Martell
12:56 who hate the Lannisters and many Wester
12:59 Rosie won't accept her or anyone as
13:01 queen anyway. Cersei will obviously need
13:03 to be defeated in order for young Griff
13:05 to take the throne. Jaime is a member of
13:07 the King's Guard, so has disavowed his
13:09 claim. Tyrion, well, Tyrion is Tyrion,
13:11 but Tywin certainly never wanted him to
13:14 inherit. Kevin was killed by Varys. His
13:16 son, Lancel, has joined the faith big
13:18 time, disavowing his claim. Will was
13:20 killed by the castarks which makes
13:23 Martin Lannister Kevin's thirdborn son
13:26 the most likely current heir to Castly
13:29 Rock and after him Tyrek. Tyrek
13:31 Lannister is portrayed as a minor
13:33 Lannister which he is at the start of
13:36 the story. But we and probably Varys can
13:37 now see that there is a very clear path
13:40 for him to become Lord of Castly Rock
13:42 and therefore adjudicator of what
13:44 happens to that crown debt. Varys
13:46 definitely has an interest in taking
13:49 someone so young and impressionable and
13:50 someone who is probably also angry with
13:52 the Lannisters for making him a
13:55 laughingstock by marrying him to a baby.
13:56 So, it took a deep dive into the
13:58 Lannister family tree and the crown
14:00 finances to get there. But yes, Varys
14:03 has a clear motive for capturing Tyrek
14:06 as well as means and opportunity. Does
14:09 that mean that he did it? No. But at the
14:11 risk of overinterpreting a throwaway
14:13 remark by George R. Martin. He has said
14:16 that we will find out later in the story
14:18 what happened to Tyrek, which I can't
14:20 see how we would if he were just a
14:23 random victim of the riots. George
14:25 Martin is also writing Jaime as an
14:27 increasingly astute judge of character
14:29 and circumstance. And he thinks that
14:32 Varys's role here is very suspicious, so
14:35 I think we should, too. Perhaps Tyrek is
14:37 just another victim of the riots.
14:40 Perhaps he is now just a horse. I see
14:42 you, Glidus, and appreciate you. But
14:44 most likely, I now think he was captured
14:46 by Varys amid the confusion of the
14:49 riots, which he personally avoided by
14:51 not being there, and certainly knew
14:54 about and may well have instigated. Not
14:57 just as Jaime suspects, because he might
14:58 know the truth about Robert Baratheon's
15:00 death. That now seems quite a long time
15:02 ago in the plot, but because Varys needs
15:05 someone sympathetic installed as chief
15:07 holder of the crown's biggest debt for
15:09 whenever young Griff comes to power and
15:11 leader of one of the seven kingdoms. If
15:13 young Griff can conquer the Crownlands
15:15 and John Conington can deliver the
15:17 Stormlands and the Dornish come on side
15:18 and the friends in the Reach turn out to
15:20 be important and with Tyrek the
15:22 Westerlands pledge their support, that
15:24 means a large portion of the continent
15:28 might be supportive from day one. Varys
15:30 has a plan and is two steps ahead of
15:32 most of the seven kingdoms.
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