#jon fossoway

[highgardenart]

Lady Janna Tyrell & Ser Jon Fossoway

“Buxom Lady Janna was Lord Tyrell’s sister, and wed to one of the green-apple Fossoways…”

[goodqueenaly]

Why do you think Jon Fossoway was married to Janna Tyrell when the Green Fossoways are a knightly house? I understand that some knightly houses can be really powerful, but why not marry a Tyrell off to a powerful lordly house of the Reach, or elsewhere?

Well, for one, it’s not necessarily the case that every daughter of a noble House - even a House as great as House Tyrell - marries a lord or heir of equal standing. The reasons for not doing so may be different in every case, but it’s certainly not unknown for a daughter of a paramount House to marry someone of “lesser” dynastic status. Maybe there were no great lords or heirs available at the time Janna was marrying - because they were already married, or because they were betrothed already, or because they had heirs already and her children would be lower in the lordly succession. It could be any of these, or another reason entirely.

Still, I wouldn’t say that the head of House Fossoway of New Barrel is a particularly bad match for a daughter of Lord Tyrell. For one, of course, it’s natural for lieges’ daughters to marry their fathers’ vassals; the green-apple Fossoways might be “only” landed knights, but they are still sworn directly to Highgarden, and might expect the same sort of favor-marrying as any of their neighbors. Too, I wonder how strong House Fossoway of New Barrel is: landed knights can be as strong, or even stronger, than some of their lordly neighbors - “lords in all but name” - and if the green-apple Fossoways were richly rewarded in the aftermath of the Third and/or Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion (by a grateful Prince Aegon/Aegon V, perhaps, who of course had reason to think well of Ser Raymun Fossoway), they might be an eminent power in the Reach, more than appropriate as a marital choice for a Tyrell of Highgarden. Finally, I wonder whether this marriage was not in some part a shoring up of relations between the Tyrells and the Fossoways in the aftermath of the War of the Ninepenny Kings: with Ser Derrick Fossoway being one of the infamous Band of Nine, the Tyrells might have wanted to make sure that the Fossoways were firmly supportive of Highgarden and its pro-crown lords. Ser Jon Fossoway was the head of this possibly strong if “only” landed knightly House, had the Fossoway name (and, through that, descent from the mythical reacher hero Foss the Archer), and might have seemed a politically sound choice.