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| “ | Any knight can make a knight, and when Ser Perkin began dubbing every sellsword, thief, and butcher’s boy who flocked to Trystane’s ragged banner, men and boys appeared by the hundreds to pledge themselves to his cause. | „ |
| ~ An excerpt from The Princess and the Queen describing Perkin. |
Ser Perkin, also known as Perkin the Flea, is a minor character in the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series and its television adaptation, Game of Thrones.
Ser Perkin is a knight-herrant and member of the King's Landing City Guard, a cunning and corrupt man who tries to take advantage of the chaotic situation in the city to gain power.
Biography[]
During the riots in King's Landing during the Dance of the Dragons, Perkin the Flea crowned his squire, Trystane, declaring him the natural son of the late King Viserys I Targaryen. Perkin knighted anyone who pledged to his cause, thereby raising hundreds under his command.
When Ser Torrhen Manderly led a hundred White Harbor men down the Fishhook, they found Fishmonger Square and River Row teeming with Perkin's gutter knights.
The so-called "Mudfoot" garrison joined Perkin, and Trystane's banner flew over the River Gate. Perkin's men overwhelmed the gold-cloaked garrison at the Gods' Gate.
Less than half a day after Rhaenyra Targaryen left King's Landing, Perkin and his knights, outnumbering the castle garrison, appeared at the gates of the Red Keep, demanding his surrender. Ser Garth the Harelip opened the gates, trusting in the Flea's mercy. Ser Perkin, however, executed Ser Garth along with twenty other knights still loyal to Rhaenyra, including Harmon of the Reeds. He also had Lady Mysaria whipped naked through the city, promising her that if she survived from the Red Keep to the Gods' Gate, she would be saved and allowed to leave, which he failed to do.
Ser Perkin spared Septon Eustace, possibly to avoid antagonizing the Faith of the Seven. He also freed all the prisoners from the castle's dungeons, including Grand Master Orwyle, Lord Corlys Velaryon, and Queen Alicent Hightower, who all witnessed Trystane ascending the Iron Throne. Ser Perkin's men also found the mutilated former coinmaster, Ser Tyland Lannister. The flea also welcomed Larys Strong, the clubfoot, greeting him warmly after the master of whispers emerged from hiding to take a place of honor at the side of the new "king," who called himself Trystane. Truefyre.
As Trystane issued edicts and divided the coin from the royal treasury among his followers, Ser Perkin recruited dozens of surviving gold cloaks, seizing control of Dragon's Gate, King's Gate, and Lion's Gate. Overall, he had four of the seven gates of the capital and more than half of the towers along its walls.
After Rhaenyra's death, Lord Borros Baratheon's army arrived at Blackwater Rush and was spied on from the battlements of Red Keep by King Trystane, Larys Clubfoot, and Ser Perkin. Clubfoot persuaded Trystane to send him to parley. Along with Grand Maester Orwyle and Dowager Queen Alicent, Clubfoot met with the Lord of Storm's End and came to an agreement: Ser Perkin and his channel knights would join the storm dwellers in restoring King Aegon. II to the throne in exchange for a total pardon for all. , except the pretender Trystane. "Taken and chained," Ser Perkin announced as Lord Borros arrived at the Red Keep and asked for the suitor.
Ser Perkin and his channel knights joined Lord Borros in arresting the Shepherd. As the Storm Dwellers climbed Rhaenys Hill from the west, Ser Perkin and his followers climbed the hill's steeper southern slope from Flea Bottom. Ser Perkin was later placed in command of the City Watch to enforce Queen Alicent's curfew.
Following the defeat of Lord Borros and his army at the Battle of Kingsroad, Ser Perkin joined the conspiracy to eliminate King Aegon II and his loyalists. Ser Perkin and six of his channel knights blocked the path to Maegor's Hold. When Ser Alfred Broome attempted to enter to carry out the king's order to remove Prince Aegon the Younger's ear, Ser Perkin pushed Ser Alfred off the drawbridges and onto the peaks below.
Initially, Ser Perkin was part of the new king's court, but during the Hour of the Wolf, Ser Perkin was among those arrested by order of Lord Cregan Stark for the murder of Aegon II and sent to the dungeons. During the trials held, Lord Cregan sentenced the Flea to death, not only for the death of Aegon II but also for rebelling against Rhaenyra, raising Trystane, and then abandoning him to save himself. The Flea recalled that he was pardoned both times and swore that he had acted under the orders of Larys Clubfoot, but it did not serve to convince Lord Cegran to spare his life.
Ser Perkin was the first of the condemned to be brought before Lord Stark on the morning of the executions, having cast lots with the rest of the prisoners to see who would be the first to die. After Cregan asked if he had any final words, Ser Perkin declared that he wished to take the black, and most of the condemned followed his example. He was therefore spared and traveled from the capital to White Harbor aboard Ser Medrick Manderly's galley, the North Star, before joining the Watch.
Ser Perkin would die on the Wall as nothing more than a traitor, and history would portray him as a disgrace to the cavalry and a scum of being only concerned with himself rather than as the Commander of the City Watch and a member of the inner circle of the king he aspired to be.
