Willam Royce

Ser Willam Royce was one of the Seven Who Rode, the champions who rode into the violence in King’s Landing to recover Prince Joffrey Velaryon’s body. He carried Lamentation, a famed Valyrian sword; both knight and weapon were lost in the attempt, as Willam fell and the blade vanished into the mob.

Identity and Role

Willam rode as one of the seven named champions, alongside Ser Medrick Manderly, Ser Loreth Lansdale, Ser Harrold Darke, Ser Harmon of the Reeds, Ser Gyles Yronwood, and Ser Glendon Goode. Six squires, eight gold cloaks, and twenty men-at-arms accompanied them, though their names were not preserved. Willam’s distinguishing possession was Lamentation, which he bore on the ride.

Death in Flea Bottom

When the Seven Who Rode reached the prince’s corpse, looters and other members of the mob were tearing at it in Flea Bottom. A man leapt from a rooftop onto Willam’s back and felled him during the struggle. The crowd carried off Lamentation, and the sword was never found again.

Aftermath

Willam was one of three of the seven champions who fell in the fighting. The rescue party reclaimed Joffrey’s remains, but not his missing foot; the recovery therefore came at a heavy cost. Willam’s end is bound in the account to the loss of Lamentation: the knight and his famous blade disappeared in the same chaotic battle, the weapon passing beyond recovery amid the city’s violence.