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.
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
- Titles
- Lord Commander of the Kingsguard · Hand of the King (to Aegon II)
- Seat
- None — a landless knight, later a Kingsguard commander
- Religion
- The Faith of the Seven
- Notable for
- Rose from a steward's son to command the Kingsguard, then convinced Aegon II to claim the crown — earning him the name the Kingmaker
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.
Key events
- no fixed yearBorn the son of a household steward at Blackhaven, without noble blood of his own.
- no fixed yearRises on skill at arms and in the joust alone to a place in King Viserys I's Kingsguard.
- c. before 114 ACServes as sworn shield and close companion to the young Princess Rhaenyra.
- c. 114 ACThat closeness curdles into bitterness once Rhaenyra marries elsewhere, hardening his conviction that her half-brother Aegon, not she, is owed the throne.
- c. before 129 ACRises to command the Kingsguard under Viserys I.
- 129 ACTalks a reluctant Aegon into accepting the crown at his coronation, earning the name the Kingmaker.
- 129-130 ACServes as Hand of the King under Aegon II, commanding the greens' armies with a convert's zeal.
- 130 ACKilled south of the Gods Eye by archers before the battle proper begins, in the opening skirmish of the Butcher's Ball.
Reading the character
Criston Cole's arc is one of Fire & Blood's sharpest illustrations of how personal disappointment can calcify into political conviction that looks, from the outside, like principle. His journey from a steward's son to Kingsguard commander is genuinely the stuff the smallfolk's songs make it out to be — but the turn that defines the rest of his life, a falling-out with Rhaenyra over her choice of husband, reads far more like wounded pride dressed up in the language of succession law.
Whatever its true origin, that conviction makes him one of the single most consequential figures in starting the Dance of the Dragons, and the war he goes on to prosecute as Hand of the King shows a soldier's competence married to considerably less patience for restraint than his royal masters occasionally wanted from him — a combination that serves the Greens well in the war's early going and rather less well at its costly end.
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.
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.
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.