House Bolton is a fictional family in George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire. They are bannermen to House Stark. The Boltons are an old line descended from the First Men and dating back to the age of Heroes. Their sigil is a flayed man, red on pink. Their seat is the Dreadfort and they are one of the most powerful vassal lords of the North. The Dreadfort's torture chambers are legendary.

History

The Boltons are an ancient and powerful house of the North who for many centuries were bitter rivals of the Kings in the North, the Starks of Winterfell. The Boltons achieved some successes against the Starks, flaying the skins of several Stark lords and hanging them in their stronghold, the Dreadfort. According to rumour, some Bolton lords even wore the flayed skins of their enemies - including the Starks - as cloaks. This practice has given the Boltons a somewhat sinister reputation, and it has been suggested that the Night's King was a Bolton.

Approximately a thousand years ago the Boltons finally swore fealty to the Kings in the North and agreed to abandon their tactic of flaying their enemies alive. However, three hundred years later the Boltons rose in rebellion against the Starks of Winterfell. The Stark armies besieged the Dreadfort for four years before the Boltons finally capitulated and dipped their banners once more. Since then the Boltons have remained loyal to the Starks, although rumours persist that they continue to practice the flaying of prisoners in secret, and maintain a hidden chamber in the Dreadfort to display the skins of their enemies.

House genealogy

      ?----------Roose==+==(first wife) Lady Ryswell==+==(second wife) Lady Walda Frey

        |               |

     Ramsay Snow       Domeric

Current members

Roose

Lord Roose is the current Lord of the Dreadfort, and a retainer of Lord Eddard Stark. He is of utterly average size and appearance, his only distinguishing feature being his strikingly pale eyes. He receives regular leechings, which he believes to improve his health, prompting some to call him the Leech Lord. Though mild-mannered and courteous, he is cold and capable of great cruelty. He speaks softly, forcing others to listen closely. In light of the childhood death of his trueborn son, Domeric, Bolton's heir is his bastard-born son: Ramsay Snow (now Bolton).

Bolton answered his liege's call as Robb Stark summoned his banners to aid his grandfather Hoster Tully and father Eddard. His intelligence and coolness earned him command of the northern infantry sent to engage Lord Tywin Lannister. During the war he married his second wife, "Fat" Walda Frey, granddaughter of Walder Frey, an ally of King Robb; he claimed that his choice was influenced by Lord Walder's offer of his bride's weight in silver as a dowry. In the course of the war, he maximized the losses incurred by other northern Houses and kept his own men relatively unscathed. He took Harrenhal from the Lannisters by treachery, having persuaded the Brave Companions to turn on their former allies. In the course of his stay, the Companions captured Jaime Lannister and amputated his right hand; he released Jaime and sent him on to King's Landing after getting his assurance that Roose would not be held responsible for Jaime's maiming.

Roose was then summoned north to join Robb in his campaign to retake the north from House Greyjoy. However, after Lord Tywin's great victory on the Blackwater, Bolton decided that House Stark's cause was lost and plotted with Lord Tywin, Lord Walder, and his own bastard son Ramsay to bring them down. His first overt act of treason was to order one-third of Robb's foot to attack Duskendale, a minor port; these Stark loyalists were trapped and destroyed by Lannister-Tyrell forces. He then arranged for several thousand other northmen to be massacred by Ser Gregor Clegane on the Trident. Finally, he helped plan the Red Wedding and personally murdered King Robb. For this service, the Lannisters named him Warden of the North, allowed him to legitimize Ramsay, and gave the Boltons a girl posing as Arya Stark to cement their claim on Winterfell.

Ramsay Snow

Ramsay is the natural son of Lord Roose, known as the Bastard of Bolton or the Bastard of the Dreadfort. After his trueborn half-brother, Domeric, died of a "bad belly," Roose brought him to the Dreadfort and treated him as heir- Ramsay considers himself a Bolton despite his birth. He has a fleshy appearance, with plump lips and long hair; he has the same unusual pale eyes as his lord father. Where Roose is cold and calculating, Ramsay is vicious and unpredictable, taking delight in torturing others. He is an avid practitioner of the old Bolton custom of flaying enemies.

While his father was away at war, Ramsay began to amass troops at the Dreadfort. When he received news that the neighboring lands of House Hornwood had lost both their lord and his heir, he abducted the widowed Lady Donella Hornwood and married her against her will. After consummating the marriage before witnesses, he forced her to name him heir and locked her in a tower cell without food; she starved to death after eating some of her fingers. Ser Rodrik Cassel led a punitive expedition from Winterfell to bring Ramsay to justice, and the Manderlys seized the Hornwood castle. Ramsay and a notorious servant, Reek, were found by Ser Rodrik's men as they were raping and murdering a common girl. He was able to survive by switching clothes with his necrophiliac companion, who was killed in his place; Ramsay was taken as a prisoner to Winterfell in the guise of Reek , although Bolton men continued to fight the Manderlys over the Hornwood lands.

After Prince Theon Greyjoy captured Winterfell, Ramsay exchanged a vow of service to Theon for his release. He orchestrated Theon's cover-up of the Stark boys' escape by killing two peasant boys of an age with the Starks. Theon presented their flayed corpses as the Starks, then had their heads mounted on spikes over the castle walls. Ramsay then on Theon's advice killed the three Ironborn men who knew the truth about the bodies to keep the secret more secure. Ramsay next offered to help Theon by recruiting an army to help hold the castle against Ser Rodrik's forces. He returned with several hundred Bolton men, and fell on the Stark army outside the castle. Under a guise of friendship, he massacred the leaders of the Stark army sending their army into disarry and flight, only sustaining minimal casualties to his own forces. When the castle gates were opened to him, he then turned on the ironborn- slaughtering the common soldiers, taking Theon as a captive, and burning Winterfell. He presently holds Theon at the Dreadfort, and is reportedly flaying him in increments. It is not yet known whether Lord Roose sanctioned this attack.

After the Red Wedding, King Tommen granted him a decree of legitimization at Lord Roose's request, making him Ramsay Bolton in truth. He is now betrothed to a girl posing as Arya Stark, and will be Lord Protector of Winterfell. As of A Feast for Crows, Ramsay is leading a campaign against the ironborn in Moat Cailin; aside from the Dreadfort men, he also commands the forces of his new bannermen (Umber, Ryswell, and several others).

Sworn Houses

After they were raised to Lords of the North several houses swore fealty to their new overlords, not all willingly, and their loyalty is likely of dubious quality: after all, the head of the Umber house, the Greatjon, fiercely loyal to House Stark, is being held by the Freys after having seen Roose Bolton murder Robb Stark, while the Manderlys are known to be loyal, and may be treating with Stannis as of A Feast for Crows.

• Manderly of White Harbour.
• Ryswell of the Rills.
• Umber of Last Hearth.

References