Unaligned

Preston Greenfield

Life: 299 AC, during the King's Landing bread riot, killed by the mob while trying to protect the High Septon
House: House Greenfield; Kingsguard sworn to Robert I and Joffrey I

Killed defending the High Septon during a riot in King's Landing, one of the ugliest single episodes of mob violence the smallfolk's grievances produced during the war.

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.

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.

Caught in the riot that erupted around Myrcella Baratheon's departure for Dorne, Greenfield dies trying to shield the High Septon from a mob well past listening to any authority, royal or holy. His body, found by Ser Jacelyn Bywater's gold cloaks the following day, is described as beaten and stabbed past easy recognition — a detail Petyr Baelish later admits to spreading deliberately, alongside the rape of Lady Lollys Stokeworth in the same riot, to persuade Lord Mace Tyrell that his son Ser Loras belonged in the Kingsguard, guarding Margaery's family from exactly the kind of chaos that had killed Greenfield. Ser Balon Swann is raised to the white cloak in his place.

Where the books leave Preston Greenfield: Preston Greenfield's death in the riot that greeted Princess Myrcella's departure for Dorne was violent enough, and his body mutilated enough by the crowd's rage, that it took the gold cloaks several days to find and identify what was left of him.

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.