House Blackwood

House Blackwood appears as a Riverlands house whose political importance is shown less through a continuous family chronicle than through the alliances and crises surrounding its members. Its history in the account moves from a royal attempt to reconcile it with its ancient rival House Bracken, to Alysanne Blackwood’s marriage and postwar work in the Riverlands, and to Benjicot Blackwood’s command of a battered force in the Vale. These episodes present kinship not as a private matter alone, but as a means of binding houses, people, and regions after conflict.

Rivalry and a Royal Marriage Alliance

The enmity between House Blackwood and House Bracken was described as centuries old. During Aegon I Targaryen’s reign, Queen Visenya sought to make peace between the rival houses through a double wedding: a son of each family was matched with a daughter of the other. The reciprocal arrangement was intended to seal peace by placing the two houses in shared family ties. It shows House Blackwood entering the historical account as one party in a long-standing feud that royal marriage diplomacy sought to contain.

That precedent gives a wider context to later Blackwood marriages and alliances. The family’s place in the narrative is repeatedly shaped by relationships that cross political or regional boundaries: the old royal match aimed to reconcile rival houses, while Alysanne Blackwood’s marriage brought the house into close connection with the North through Cregan Stark. In both cases, marriage carries consequences beyond the couple, helping to organize loyalties after a period of conflict or division.

Alysanne Blackwood and Cregan Stark

Alysanne Blackwood is presented as a formidable presence rather than a conventional courtly figure. A skilled huntress, horse-breaker, and archer, she was often in the company of Sabitha Frey. While accompanying her young nephew Benjicot at court and council in King’s Landing, she met Cregan Stark, then a widower, and took a liking to him. He returned her interest and sought her company. Her strength, fearlessness, and blunt manner appealed to the stern Lord of Winterfell.

Their relationship also entered a consequential political dispute. After Cregan had Corlys Velaryon in his power, the young king’s edict offered a reason to spare him, but Cregan was not legally bound to honor it. The accounts disagree about what persuaded him to show leniency: Septon Eustace suggests religious mercy and also speculates about the danger of provoking Alyn Velaryon’s fleet. Mushroom instead attributes the decision to a bargain with Alysanne. In his account, she asked Cregan to let the prince’s edict stand, and he listened. The narrative thus associates Alysanne with an intervention that may have helped avert another conflict, while preserving uncertainty about Cregan’s reasons.

In 132 AC, Alysanne and Cregan married. Her nephew Benjicot, Lord of Raventree, led a party to Winterfell to witness the wedding. The journey took three times as long as expected because winter had already settled over the North; snowstorms and attacks by outlaws cost the party horses, food, and wedding gifts. Despite the dangers, the ceremony was described as splendid. Alysanne and Cregan pledged their troth before the heart tree in Winterfell’s godswood, and Cregan’s young son Rickon sang for his new stepmother at the feast. The marriage joined a Blackwood woman to the ruling family of the North and made Benjicot’s kinship with her visible in the ceremony itself.

The Widow Fairs and the Resettlement of Soldiers

Alysanne’s influence extended beyond her marriage. After Cregan stepped down as Hand and prepared to return north, his host presented a practical problem: many of his soldiers had been unwanted or surplus at home, and returning them to a winter-bound North threatened hardship for the households they had left behind. The account credits Alysanne with proposing that they settle among widows in the Riverlands, where their labor and presence could be welcome.

More than a thousand northmen accompanied Alysanne and Benjicot back to the Riverlands after the royal wedding. At Widow Fairs held at Raventree, Riverrun, Stoney Sept, the Twins, and Fairmarket, hundreds married local women. Others chose not to marry and entered the service of Riverlands lords as guards and men-at-arms; a few became outlaws and met violent ends. The scheme was therefore not without failure, but it largely succeeded. The newcomers strengthened lords who received them, particularly House Tully and House Blackwood, and helped revive and spread worship of the old gods south of the Neck. Alysanne’s matchmaking connected the needs of returning soldiers to local households and gave the settlement lasting social and political effects.

Benjicot Blackwood in War and Politics

Benjicot’s role becomes clearer during the fighting in the Vale. When Ser Robert Rowan died after a boulder was sent down upon the column, Benjicot assumed command. He was still six months short of manhood, yet had already gained substantial experience of war. By the time the survivors reached the Bloody Gate, a third of the force had died in attacks or from cold and hunger. They found food, warmth, and welcome there, but Joffrey Arryn judged that the survivors were too depleted to help in his war. Benjicot’s assumption of command therefore marked a real responsibility, even though the campaign had left his men unable to serve as the reinforcements their allies needed.

The following political gathering further shows Benjicot’s standing among the Riverlands and Vale powers. In 136 AC, after Alyn Velaryon and Benjicot had forced the rival Vale claimants and their supporters to submit to Joffrey Arryn, Benjicot accompanied Alyn to the largest assembly of nobles since the Great Council at Harrenhal. His presence placed the young Lord of Raventree among the leading figures involved in the settlement of the Vale and the kingdom’s uncertain regency. Together, the episodes establish House Blackwood’s significance through both its local ties and its participation in wider affairs: the house’s reach rests on marriage, settlement, military service, and the authority of its young lord.