Amaury Peake

Ser Amaury Peake was a Kingsguard knight who died while attempting to take Lady Larra Rogare from Maegor’s Holdfast for questioning. His confrontation with Prince Viserys placed the authority of the regency against the prince’s resolve to protect his wife, and ended with Amaury’s death at the hands of Sandoq the Shadow.

Role and Assignment

Amaury approached Maegor’s Holdfast with a dozen men-at-arms as part of the effort to question Larra in connection with the alleged treason of her brothers. The evidence does not identify who gave him the order, but his mission was clear: he was to reach the prince’s wife. Viserys, then a boy of thirteen, stood on the drawbridge with a battleaxe and declared that Amaury would not pass while he remained there.

Amaury initially treated the boy’s defiance as an obstruction rather than a serious threat. He explained that Larra was wanted for questioning, then, when the standoff continued, ordered his men to move the boys aside. He also directed them to be gentle and ensure that the boys came to no harm, even as he pressed on with the arrest attempt.

The Confrontation at Maegor’s Holdfast

Viserys warned Amaury that forcing his way forward would bring consequences. The prince drove his axe into the drawbridge’s wood and retreated; the king drew him back into the holdfast. Sandoq then came onto the bridge to face Amaury and his men. The Kingsguard knight was in white scale armor beneath his white cloak, but wore an open-faced helm and carried no shield.

Sandoq overcame the guardsmen as they advanced. Amaury drew his own sword only after several of his men had fallen or been driven from the bridge. He continued fighting with stubborn courage, even as the balance of the encounter turned against him. For a brief moment, a surviving guard seized Sandoq’s sword. Amaury rose and charged the now-unarmed opponent, but Sandoq took Viserys’s axe from the drawbridge and killed him.

Death and Significance

Amaury’s death ended the attempt to take Larra from the holdfast. Sandoq cleared the bridge of the fallen and dying, then withdrew inside. The king ordered the bridge raised, the portcullis lowered, and the gates barred, leaving Maegor’s Holdfast secure. The episode thus turned a questioning ordered in the name of suspected treason into a direct armed confrontation at the royal residence.

The account distinguishes Amaury’s failure from cowardice: despite the disastrous outcome, his final stand is presented as no disgrace to the Kingsguard. His role in the episode is brief but decisive, marking the point at which the regency’s effort to reach Larra met the prince’s armed resistance and was stopped at the holdfast’s threshold.