The published record gives Ser Preston Greenfield little space before it kills him — a knight of the Kingsguard, sworn first to Robert and kept on under Joffrey, present at councils and processions without ever quite stepping into the story's foreground. It is his death, not his service, that the chronicle remembers him for, and even that is recorded secondhand: a maester notes that the smallfolk's fury at a starving city, loosed on whatever royal procession happened to be passing, found in Greenfield's white cloak an easy and undiscriminating target.
Unaligned
Preston Greenfield
- House
- House Greenfield; Kingsguard sworn to Robert I and Joffrey I
- Titles
- Ser · Kingsguard
- Seat
- none
- Culture
- unspecified (House Greenfield)
- Religion
- The Faith of the Seven (presumed)
- Weapon
- a knight's longsword (unnamed)
- Notable for
- A Kingsguard knight present at the King's Landing bread riot while protecting the High Septon
Last confirmed present at the King's Landing bread riot, escorting the High Septon amid one of the ugliest single episodes of mob violence the smallfolk's grievances produced during the war.
Where they appear
These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.
Key events
- unknownBorn to House Greenfield; little of his life before the Kingsguard is recorded.
- before 298 ACServes as a knight of the Kingsguard under Robert I Baratheon.
- 298 ACKept on in the Kingsguard after Robert's death, serving the newly crowned Joffrey I.
- 299 ACCaught in the riot that erupts around Princess Myrcella's departure for Dorne, amid a starving city's fury at its rulers.
- 299 ACDies trying to shield the High Septon from the mob, his body found the next day beaten and stabbed past easy recognition.
- 299 ACHis death is used, alongside Lady Lollys Stokeworth's rape in the same riot, by Petyr Baelish to persuade Lord Mace Tyrell to place Ser Loras Tyrell in the Kingsguard.
Reading the character
Preston Greenfield is a minor presence in the published books — a knight of the Kingsguard seen mostly at councils and royal processions, never quite stepping into the story's foreground on his own account. He belongs to a class of characters the text uses more as fixtures of court life than as figures with interior arcs of their own, establishing how crowded and formal Joffrey's court really is rather than carrying any storyline himself.
What little the reader does learn about him comes filtered through the King's Landing bread riot, a moment the text uses to explore the widening gap between the smallfolk's suffering and the nobility's indifference to it — and, in the hands of at least one schemer at court, a piece of raw material to be shaped toward that schemer's own ends.
The arc of Preston Greenfield
This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.
SourcesACOK · TyrionASOS · SansaTWOIAF · The Reign of Joffrey I
How did Preston Greenfield die?
He was killed by a mob during the King's Landing bread riot that broke out around Princess Myrcella's departure for Dorne, while trying to protect the High Septon.
Who replaced Preston Greenfield in the Kingsguard?
Ser Balon Swann was raised to the white cloak to fill the vacancy his death left behind.