House Tyrell

House Tyrell is a fictional family in George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire. House Tyrell is the principal noble house in the Reach; many lesser houses are sworn to them. Their seat is at Highgarden. Their sigil is a golden rose on a green field, and their words are "Growing Strong." The Tyrells were stewards to House Gardener, the Kings of the Reach who on accasion married into the lesser house. From their female line of Gardener blood descend from the legendary Garth Greenhand, the first King of the Reach in the Age of Heroes. After Targaryen extinguished house Gardener in that war of the Conquest, Aegon the Conqueror made the Tyrells lords paramount in the Reach, Lord of Highgarden and Wardens of the South.

Genealogy of recent Tyrells

  Luthor==+==Olenna Redwyne
          |
  +-------+-------+
  |    Mina   Janna
  |
 Mace==+==Alerie Hightower
       | 
 +-----+---------------+------------+
Willas |             Loras          |
       |                            |      
    Garlan==+==Leonette Fossoway  Margaery

Tyrells in A Song of Ice and Fire

Mace

Lord of Highgarden, Defender of the Marches, High Marshal of the Reach, and Warden of the South. Mace Tyrell is a prematurely old and rather tedious man lacking in political savvy. His sole military accomplishment is the Siege of Storm's End. Though he has tried to use the Battle of Ashford as evidence of strategic brilliance, he actually had little to due with the fighting. He now serves only as the figurehead of his powerful house for his more intelligent family members.

Mace has always dreamed of his daughter being a Queen, thus when Renly and Loras presented the plan to crown Renly and have him wed Margaery, they had his full support. However, King Renly’s rule did not last long enough for him to consummate the marriage as he was slain at Storm’s End. When word of this reached Mace, he marched some ten thousand men to Bitterbridge to plan his next move with his sons. They were joined by Petyr Baelish with an offer from King Joffrey. Forming an alliance with house Lannister he was soon joined by Lord Tywin’s army to march on and defeat Stannis at the Blackwater. His reward was a seat on the small council. Later he was charged with the capture of Storm’s End, after a short siege he abandoned his charge hearing news that Margaery had been imprisoned. He is currently marching his army on the city of King’s Landing.

Alerie Hightower

Lady Alerie Hightower Tyrell is Mace's wife and the eldest daughter of Lord Leyton Hightower, Tyrell's most powerful bannerman. She is described as simpering by Cersei Lannister. Physically, she is an elegant woman, tall and lovely with long silver hair worn in a braid, held with jeweled rings.

Willas

Mace's eldest son, the heir to Highgarden. He was crippled in a tourney mishap while facing Oberyn Martell; the latest round in a longstanding feud between the two houses that continues to this day. Willas is described by others as a very intelligent, scholarly, and sensitive young man. He even appears to hold no grudge on Oberyn for the accident, and communicates with him occasionally through letters.

Although he has not appeared directly in the story, Margaery and Olenna planned to marry him to Sansa Stark to gain Tyrell claim on the North, but the plot fell through. Tywin Lannister suggested him as a possible candidate for marriage to Cersei Lannister, but Mace refused the offer. The matter was dropped after Tywin's death.

Garlan

Mace's second son, he is known as Garlan the Gallant. Although his younger brother is renowned in the joust, Loras admits that Garlan is superior with the sword, making Garlan one of the best swordsmen in Westeros. Garlan often trains against two or three men at once. He is married to Leonette Fossaway, daughter of a Tyrell banner-house. They have no children of yet.

Garlan wore Lord Renly's armor during the Battle of the Blackwater, killing a dozen knights, including the famed warrior Ser Guyard Morrigen. The sight of what seemed to be a dead man leading the vanguard drove many of Stannis' men into panic. For his service on the Blackwater, Garlan was granted the Lordship of Brightwater Keep and the lands of the Florents, who were bannermen to the Tyrells but joined with Stannis. This reward makes Garlan a powerful lord in his own right. At Joffrey's wedding, he was one of a very few characters in the series to acknowledge and praise the abilities of Tyrion Lannister. During the wedding feast, he stood up for Tyrion when the drunken groom abused him, even rebuking the Joffrey in front of his court. During Tyrion's trial, Garlan attempted to defend him, but Tyrion realized that Cersei was using Garlan's honorable reputation to build a credible backbone for her case. After Margaery and Tommen's wedding he returned to the Reach with some ten thousand men in an attempt claim his new lands of Brightwater.

Loras

Mace's third son, known as the Knight of Flowers. Loras is one of the best jousters in Westeros, and this fact, combined with his dazzling good looks and ostentatious showmanship, has made him a celebrated figure in the courts of the Seven Kingdoms. Despite his youth and slender frame, he is also a capable warrior, using swords, axes, and morning stars to deadly effect.

Loras Tyrell attended the Hand's Tourney wearing ornate armor wrought with jeweled flowers, with a cape made of roses. With each victory, he handed a white rose to a pretty girl in the crowd. He then handed a red rose to Sansa Stark, the Hand's daughter, who was overwhelmed by his gallantry and was thereafter infatuated with him. When he rode a mare in heat against Ser Gregor Clegane, the huge knight's stallion bucked him, prompting Gregor to attack Loras. After Sandor Clegane came to his rescue, Loras forfeited the final round to him.

After Renly Baratheon, Loras's secret lover, made his claim for the Iron Throne, Loras followed him, and House Tyrell and its bannermen backed Renly's claim. Renly made Loras the head of his Rainbow Guard and the two remained inseparable even after Renly's wedding. After Renly's assassination, Loras went berserk, killing the two Rainbow Guards in charge of protecting him that night and hunting for Brienne of Tarth, whom he believed to be the assassin. When the Tyrells joined the Lannister cause against Stannis, Loras fought beside his brother Garlan, who wore Renly's armor.

Loras joined the Kingsguard at his father's behest, to protect his sister Margaery when she became the Queen. He maintained a close relationship with his sister, but still suffered from Renly's loss. Cersei used Loras's reckless state to manipulate him into quickly ending the siege of Dragonstone, hoping that he would endanger himself in the process. Loras was reported to have won the island stronghold in an unnecessary bloodbath. True to Cersei's hopes, it was reported to her that he was horribly injured by burning tar in the battle. His status is so far unconfirmed.

Margaery

Margaery is Lord Tyrell's only daughter, a very beautiful maiden, and very fond of her brother Ser Loras, the Knight of the Flowers.

Margaery was first married to King Renly Baratheon, as a pledge of loyalty from the Tyrell family. When he was killed, the Tyrells allied with the Lannisters, wedding Margaery to King Joffrey Baratheon. After Joffrey was poisoned at their wedding feast, Margaery was wed yet again, this time to Joffrey's younger brother Prince Tommen, a little boy who was then crowned king. In the months after their marriage, the Queen Regent Cersei schemed to dispose of Margaery and the Tyrells, taking advantage of Margaery's claim to still be a maid despite three marriages. This claim may or may not be true; Margaery's maidenhead was confirmed gone, but even Cersei admits that horseback-riding may take a highborn girl's maidenhead as often as a wedding night.

Margaery is an intelligent and shrewd young woman, very much the protégé of her cunning grandmother, Lady Olenna. While Tommen's queen, she did much to curry favor with the populace, visiting local markets and buying fresh fruits, breads and fish, and ordering dresses and such from many local seamstresses, and making great public shows of charity, all while travelling with a bright and colorful retinue. Margaery and her famous brother Loras did much to increase the popularity of House Tyrell in King's Landing. Margaery suggested several activities for Tommen in an effort to shape him into a successful ruler, such as riding in sight of his subjects and observing sessions of the Small Council, and her brother Loras, widely considered one of the most skilled young knights in Westeros, offered to train Tommen. Cersei forbade all of Margaery's and Loras's suggestions. Later, Margaery recognized the military threat created by the ironborn invasion of the Shield Islands, and was incredulous at Cersei's lack of understanding.

Cersei accused Margaery of adultery and treason, lining up an impressive, if untrue, array of conspirators and evidence; she was arrested, and imprisoned to await trial by the Faith at the Great Sept of Baelor. While in custody, she confronted Cersei, revealing that she knew that this was all the doings of her "good-mother" (mother-in-law), and that she knew Cersei wanted to kill her and Loras. Later, one of Cersei's key witnesses revealed the queen regent's plots under torture, and Cersei soon found herself sharing Margaery's plight. Their fate is unknown.

Olenna Redwyne

Lord Mace Tyrell's mother, widow of Lord Luthor Tyrell. A wizened, cunning woman with a wicked wit and a sharp tongue, Olenna is known as the Queen of Thorns.

Olenna was introduced in A Storm of Swords, sharply questioning Sansa Stark on Joffrey's nature, apparently concerned about the rumors that followed the boy that was to wed her granddaughter. She refused to take Sansa's half-truths and her attempts to politely cover up the truth. After getting Sansa to speak about Joffrey's cruelty and the beatings he gave her, Olenna began talking of taking Sansa away to Highgarden, and marrying her to Willas, perhaps in an attempt to give the Tyrells a claim to the North. Petyr Baelish later claimed that Lady Olenna was King Joffrey's poisoner. The truth of this charge is unclear, but Olenna did appear to remove a bead from Sansa's hairnet, and it is strongly implied by several characters that the beads in this net were actually a deadly poison in disguise.

Houses sworn to House Tyrell

• Ashford of Ashford
• Bulwer of Blackcrown. The Bulwers are cousins of the Tyrell family, with a member, Victaria Tyrell, marrying into the family at some point in the recent past. The Lady of House Bulwer, Lady Alysanne, is a little girl who is in Queen Margaery's train of ladies, and is described as a "cousin." Victaria Tyrell is Lady Alysanne's mother.
• Chester The Lord of House Chester is given the title of Lord of Greenshield.
• Crane of Red Lake
• Florent of Brightwater Keep. An ambitious house which insists it has a superior claim to the overlordship of the Reach than House Tyrell, claiming a more senior line of descent from House Gardener, the extinct reigning house of the Reach.
• Fossoway. Two branches exist:
  • The "red apple" Fossoways of Cider Hall
  • The "green apple" Fossoways of New Barrel a cadet branch of the former. It descends from Raymun Fossoway, who chose the side of Ser Duncan the Tall in a trial of seven against his cousin Ser Steffon Fossoway. To distinguish himself from his kinsman, the newly-knighted Ser Raymun took a green apple as his sigil. These events are described in The Hedge Knight.
• Grimm of Grimstone. The Lord of House Grimm is given the title of Lord of Greyshield.
• Hewett of Hewett Castle. The Lord of House Hewett is given the title of Lord of Oakenshield.
• Hightower of the Hightower. They are the Lords of Oldtown, one of the largest cities in Westeros and a great port. The Hightower in Oldtown is the tallest structure in Westeros, serving as a beacon for mariners and a residence for the Hightower family. As masters of Oldtown, the Hightower family is very influential. The Lord of House Hightower carries the titles "Voice of Oldtown and Lord of the Port." The Citadel, headquarters to the maesters, is located within the city, along with the "Starry Sept," the original seat of the High Septon and the Faith. Lord Mace Tyrell's wife, Lady Alerie, was born a Hightower, the daughter of Lord Leyton. Lord Leyton reputedly never descends from his high residence, nor does does his eldest daughter, Mallora, called the "Mad Maid."
• Mullendore of Uplands
• Oakheart of Old Oak. Ser Arys Oakheart (a POV character), is a member of the Kingsguard. The current ruler of Old Oak is Lady Arwyn Oakheart, a delicate and gracious woman.
• Osgrey of Standfast. The Hedge Knight describes the service of Ser Duncan the Tall to Ser Eustace Osgrey.
• Redwyne of the Arbor, a large island off of Westeros proper. The Redwynes provide the fleet for the Tyrells. The Arbor area is famous for its wines. Lord Paxter sits on the Small Council. Lord Mace Tyrell's mother, Olenna, was born a Redwyne. Additionally, Mace's sister, Mina, is Paxter's lady-wife.
• Rowan of Goldengrove
• Serry The Lord of House Serry is given the title of Lord of Southshield.
• Tarly of Horn Hill. The current Lord of Horn Hill is Lord Randyll. He is a famous soldier who defeated Robert Baratheon at the battle of Ashford. His eldest son Samwell is a member of the Night's Watch and a friend of Jon Snow. The Tarlys are one of the few Westerosi families that own a Valyrian steel sword; the Tarly sword is called Heartsbane.
• Vyrwel of Darkdell