Rohanne Webber and her Husbands (Spoilers Extended)
We meet Rohanne Webber in the Sworn Sword, where we learn she already has had several husbands and due to her red hair and spider sigil, she becomes known as the Red Widow:
The Red Widow, she was called, for the husbands she had put into the ground. Old Sam Stoops said she was a witch, a poisoner, and worse.
and:
Egg drew water to fill it for the third time, then clambered back onto the well. "You'd best not take any food or drink at Coldmoat, ser. The Red Widow poisoned all her husbands."
"I'm not like to marry her. She's a highborn lady, and I'm Dunk of Flea Bottom, remember?" He frowned. "Just how many husbands has she had, do you know?"
The Husbands of Rohanne Webber
Post Background
Throughout ASOIAF, numerous events are often "increased" or made to believe that it took "7" or "77" attempts in order to somehow placate the Seven. For example:
It is said that, every seventy-seven years, a storm greater than all others comes howling down upon Storm's End, as the old gods of sea and sky try once more to blow Durran's seat into the sea. It is a pretty tale...but a tale is all it is. The records of the maesters of Storm's End show that there are fierce storms nearly every year, especially in autumn, and whilst some are greater than others, there are no records that show unusually powerful storms seventy-seven years apart. The greatest storm in living memory was in 221 AC, in the last year of the reign of Aerys I, and the greatest before that was the storm of 166 AC, fifty-five years earlier.
I previously did something similar with Beric Dondarrion if you are interested: The Seven Deaths of the Lightning Lord
This post originated as something similar as I thought "Rohanne had six there's got to be a seventh", but we don't have enough information on some of the deaths for a post like that to really make sense. So instead I just made another list with some thoughts on each.
#The Husbands
As of The Sworn Sword, Rohanne has had 4 husbands. We get most of the information about these husbands from her conversation with Dunk:
"—pretty. It was pretty ." Dunk did not know where that came from, but he was glad it came. He liked her nose, and the strawberry-blond color of her hair, and the small but well-shaped breasts beneath her leather jerkin. "I thought that you'd be . . . I mean . . . they said you were four times a widow, so . . ."
Unnamed Husband (#1)
Her first husband died during the First Blackfyre Rebellion (fighting for House Targaryen):
"My first husband died when I was ten. He was twelve, my father's squire, ridden down upon the Redgrass Field.
and:
She stroked her cheek with the tail of her braid. "My first husband perished on the Redgrass Field. My father found me others, but the Stranger took them, too. I no longer trust in men, no matter how ample they may seem. I trust in stone and steel and water. I trust in moats, ser, and mine will not go dry."
Unnamed Husband (#2)
Her second husband was "old and frail":
"Old men are frail, I know. I learned that from my second husband. I was thirteen when we wed. He would have been five-and-fifty on his next name day, had he lived long enough to see it. When he was half a year in the ground, I gave him a little son, but the Stranger came for him as well. The septons said his father wanted him beside him. What do you think, ser?"
Ser Simon Staunton (#3)
Simon is from House Staunton and died choking on a chicken bone:
We are all children of the Seven, ser, but apart from that . . . dear me, no. Lady Helicent was sister to Ser Rolland Uffering, Lady Rohanne's fourth husband, who died in the spring. My brother was his predecessor, Ser Simon Staunton, who had the great misfortune to choke upon a chicken bone. Coldmoat crawls with revenants, it must be said. The husbands die yet their kin remain, to drink my lady's wines and eat her sweetmeats, like a plague of plump pink locusts done up in silk and velvet." He wiped his mouth. "And yet she must wed again, and soon."
It should be noted that his brother is Septon Sefton.
Ser Rolland Uffering (#4)
Ser Rolland Uffering died "in the spring":
My husbands seldom linger long, I fear. The last died in the spring."
That was what they always said of those who had perished during the Great Spring Sickness two years past. He died in the spring. Many tens of thousands had died in the spring, among them a wise old king and two young princes full of promise. "I . . . I am sorry for all your losses, m'lady." A gallantry, you lunk, give her a gallantry. "I want to say . . . your gown . . ."
and:
We are all children of the Seven, ser, but apart from that . . . dear me, no. Lady Helicent was sister to Ser Rolland Uffering, Lady Rohanne's fourth husband, who died in the spring. My brother was his predecessor, Ser Simon Staunton, who had the great misfortune to choke upon a chicken bone. Coldmoat crawls with revenants, it must be said. The husbands die yet their kin remain, to drink my lady's wines and eat her sweetmeats, like a plague of plump pink locusts done up in silk and velvet." He wiped his mouth. "And yet she must wed again, and soon."
Also (unrelated), I never noticed that House Uffering seems to have some ties to the Order of the Green Hand, as their sigil has seven green hands at the top.
Ser Eustace Osgrey (#5)
Due to the fact that she must wed again per her father's will, Rohanne ends up marrying Ser Eustace at the end of the Sworn Sword. Rohanne and Eustace's son Adam were in love at one point (before he died on the Redgrass Field, but her father refused Eustace's offer of marriage). So probably more of a political marriage unite the land, prevent the lordship from going to Wendell.
We don't know how or when exactly Ser Eustace dies except it probably happened before 219 AC when Rohanne marries Gerold Lannister.
Gerold Lannister (#6)
Her attraction to Gerold is mention in The Sworn Sword
The septon shrugged. "If truth be told, there has been a dearth of suitors. My good-sister is not hard to look upon, you will have noticed, and a stout castle and broad lands add to her charms. You would think that younger sons and landless knights would swarm about her ladyship like flies. You would be wrong.
The four dead husbands make them wary, and there are those who will say that she is barren, too . . . though never in her hearing, unless they yearn to see the inside of a crow cage. She has carried two children to term, a boy and a girl, but neither lived to see a name day. Those few who are not put off by talk of poisonings and sorcery want no part of the Longinch. Lord Wyman charged him on his deathbed to protect his daughter from unworthy suitors, which he has taken to mean all suitors. Any man who means to have her hand would need to face his sword first." He finished his wine and set the cup aside.
"That is not to say there has been no one. Cleyton Caswell and Simon Leygood have been the most persistent, though they seem more interested in her lands than in her person. Were I given to wagering, I should place my gold on Gerold Lannister. He has yet to put in an appearance, but they say he is golden-haired and quick of wit, and more than six feet tall . . ."
". . . and Lady Webber is much taken with his letters." The lady in question stood in the doorway, beside a homely young maester with a great hooked nose. "You would lose your wager, good-brother. Gerold will never willingly forsake the pleasures of Lannisport and the splendor of Casterly Rock for some little lordship. He has more influence as Lord Tybolt's brother and adviser than he could ever hope for as my husband. As for the others, Ser Simon would need to sell off half my land to pay his debts and Ser Cleyton trembles like a leaf whenever the Longinch deigns to look his way. Besides, he is prettier than I am. And you, septon, have the biggest mouth in Westeros."
But it is confirmed they later marry (after Gerold becomes Lord of Casterly Rock under some mysterious circumstances).
If interested: Gerold "the Golden" Lannister: Mysteries
Gerold (a supporter of Egg at the Great Council of 233) became Lord of Casterly Rock after his brother and niece died unexpectedly. Then after 10 years of marriage and 4 sons, his second wife (Rohanne) disappears "under mysterious circumstances":
No man now living can say with certainly whether there was any truth to these whispers, for Gerold Lannister soon proved himself to be an exceptionally shrewd, able, and fair-minded lord, greatly increasing the wealth of House Lannister, the power of Casterly Rock, and the trade at Lannisport. He ruled the westerlands for thirty-one years, earning the sobriquet Gerold the Golden. Yet the tragedies that befell House Lannister in the years that followed were proof enough for Lord Gerold's enemies. His beloved second wife, Lady Rohanne, vanished under mysterious circumstances in 230 AC, less than a year after giving birth to his lordship's fourth and youngest son, Jason. Tywald, the eldest of his twin sons, died in battle in 233 AC whilst squiring for Lord Robert Reyne of Castamere during the Peake Uprising. Lord Robert likewise died, leaving Ser Roger Reyne (the Red Lion), his eldest son, as his heir.
It does use the word "beloved", but Gerold's enemies sure thought that he had something to do with it (or possible knew it would just upset him), as the Reynes/Tarbecks use Rohanne's name as a "dagger at Gerold's heart":
Ellyn Reyne, now Lady Tarbeck, departed Casterly Rock with her husband, never to return, but the rivalry between her and Lady Jeyne Lannister was not at an end. If anything, it seemed to intensify. ‘The War of the Wombs,’ the hunchback Lord Toad called it. Though Lady Ellyn had not been able to give Ser Tion an heir, she proved more fertile with Walderan Tarbeck (who, it should be noted, had a number of older sons from his first two marriages). In 240 she gave him a daughter, whom she named Rohanne. In 241 another daughter, Cyrelle. Both these names were carefully chosen, Maester Belden points out. “Daggers aimed at Lord Gerold’s heart,” he calls them. In 242 Lady Tarbeck produced a son, a lusty red-haired boy she named Tion. -TWOIAF (unabridged), The Westerlands: House Lannister Under the Dragons
Gerold died in 244 AC:
Ellyn Reyne, now Lady Tarbeck, departed Casterly Rock with her husband, never to return, but the rivalry between her and Lady Jeyne was not at an end. If anything, it seemed to intensify through what Lord Toad came to call the War of the Wombs. Though Lady Ellyn had not been able to give Ser Tion an heir, she proved more fertile with Walderan Tarbeck (who, it should be noted, had a number of older sons from his first two marriages), giving him two daughters and a son. Lady Jeyne answered with children of her own, the first of whom was a son. He was given the name Tywin, and legend claims that when his grandsire Lord Gerold ruffled the babe's golden hair, the child bit his finger.
Other children followed in good course, but Tywin, the eldest, was the only grandchild his lordship ever knew. In 244 AC, Gerold the Golden died of a bad bladder, unable to pass water. At the age of four-and-twenty, Tytos Lannister, his eldest surviving son, became Lord of Casterly Rock, Shield of Lannisport, and Warden of the West. -TWOIAF, The Westerlands: House Lannister Under the Dragons
Unnamed Husband (#7)
Rohanne (Gerold's beloved wife) disappears "under mysterious circumstances" after giving Gerold 4 sons (she also has another daughter from a previous marriage).
I've read numerous great theories about what exactly Rohanne died upon her disappearance (again a mother left behind at least 4 children).
- Dunk
It is very possible that Dunk is forced to flee and become a sellsword at some point:
But I do have notes and fairly specific ideas for a number of them. There's the one set in the north that people have been calling "The She-Wolves of Winterfell," though that will not actually be the title. After that -- or maybe before, if I jump around in time -- there will be "The Village Hero," "The Sellsword," "The Champion," "The Kingsguard," "The Lord Commander," and several more in between. SSM, How Many Seasons: 19 March 2015
So its possible she runs off with Dunk (although I tend to think that Dunk is a sellsword before Rohanne disappears), especially because I like the idea of a D&E about Rohanne/Gerold/Egg/Dunk. That said since Dunk has bastards everywhere if we see any giant red heads in Essos, we should take note lol.
I have speculated a lot on the future of Dunk and Egg if you are interested:
What We Know: The She Wolves of Winterfell
The Future of the Dunk & Egg Series
Characters We Could See in D&E and the Main Series
- The Stranger
This is probably my favorite one (although it doesn't completely explain why Rohanne would disappear either willingly or unwillingly).
Rohanne complains about the Stranger:
She stroked her cheek with the tail of her braid. "My first husband perished on the Redgrass Field. My father found me others, but the Stranger took them, too. I no longer trust in men, no matter how ample they may seem. I trust in stone and steel and water. I trust in moats, ser, and mine will not go dry."
and:
"Old men are frail, I know. I learned that from my second husband. I was thirteen when we wed. He would have been five-and-fifty on his next name day, had he lived long enough to see it. When he was half a year in the ground, I gave him a little son, but the Stranger came for him as well. The septons said his father wanted him beside him. What do you think, ser?"
Since Silent Sisters are "married to the Stranger":
"A man would need to be a fool to rape a silent sister," Ser Creighton was saying. "Even to lay hands upon one . . . it's said they are the Stranger's wives, and their female parts are cold and wet as ice." He glanced at Brienne. "Uh . . . beg pardon." -AFFC, Brienne I
Its possible that Husband #7 and thus completing the necessary "7" Husbands is the Stranger.
Thoughts on the Silent Sisters
Its obviously very possible that Rohanne was killed by Gerold, or never married once she disappeared, but as I mentioned, this post was about her husbands, so I felt necessary to speculate on an additional one. I've also read/seen less likely theories involving valyrians, ironborn, etc.
I do think its interesting that one of her dead husband's brothers is her septon and also how pious, the sister of another one is:
Do not think ill of Lady Helicent, I pray you. My good-sister is a simple creature, but she has no harm in her. For all her piety, she could not dress herself without her septas."
TLDR: List of Rohanne Webber's six husbands and some speculation on a seventh.
Posted Dec 10, 2020, 3:31 PM UTC · edited