Unaligned

Criston Cole

the Kingmaker

Life: no fixed AC year given in the text
House: Cole, of Blackhaven — the son of a household steward rather than nobility, raised to knighthood on skill alone

The knight who crowned a king and commanded the war that followed — the chronicle keeps how his story ends veiled for readers not yet there.

Criston Cole was born the son of a steward at Blackhaven and rose on nothing but arms and jousting skill to command of the Kingsguard under Viserys I, a climb the smallfolk's songs found a good deal more romantic than the court itself generally did. He served for a time as sworn shield and, by most surviving accounts, close companion to Princess Rhaenyra, an intimacy that curdled into bitterness once she chose to marry elsewhere, and Criston's disappointment there hardened into the conviction that shaped the rest of his career: that Rhaenyra was unfit to rule and her half-brother Aegon was owed the throne instead. It was Criston who talked a reluctant Aegon into accepting the crown at his coronation, an act of persuasion the Citadel credits — or blames — for the name that followed him ever after.

The arc of Criston Cole

This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.

As Hand of the King under Aegon II, Criston commands the greens' armies with a soldier's competence and a convert's zeal, marching against the Blacks with rather less patience for negotiation than his royal masters sometimes wanted. His campaign ends south of the Gods Eye, where a weakened green host is ambushed by the combined riverlands and northern forces under Cregan Stark; Criston is cut down by archers before the battle proper even begins, and the massacre that follows his death — one-sided enough that a survivor is said to have called it butchery, not battle — earns the day its lasting, unlovely name.

Where the books leave Criston Cole: killed in 130 AC south of the Gods Eye, shot down by archers under Ser Robert Rivers's command in the opening skirmish of the slaughter the smallfolk called the Butcher's Ball

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.

Sourcesfire-and-bloodthe-princess-and-the-queen

Who is Criston Cole?

A common-born knight who rose to command the Kingsguard and, after a falling-out with Princess Rhaenyra, convinced her half-brother Aegon to claim the Iron Throne — earning the name the Kingmaker.

Is Criston Cole alive?

No — the chronicle need only say that his march south of the Gods Eye did not go as the greens intended; the particulars are treated in his veiled record.