Lady Olenna Tyrell sadly met her inevitable death in the third episode of “Game of Thrones” season 7, but she never wilted tight up to the very end. Instead, she displayed an inner toughness, proud character, and her legendary sharp tongue. She was tough like a rose made of Valyrian steel.
The interesting story of how the Queen Of Thorns ended up as the real person who wielded power and influence in House Tyrell and the whole region of the Reach, was as fascinating and controversial as the woman herself.
Olenna could have been Daenerys’ grandaunt
According to the Wiki of "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels, Lady Olenna was a member of the House Redwyne of the Arbor. It was a vassal house holding fealty to the Tyrells of Highgarden.
At the age of nine, she was betrothed to Prince Daeron Targaryen, uncle of Aerys, the Mad King. He was the grand uncle of Rhaegar and Daenerys Targaryen. If her marriage to Daeron pushed through, she could have been the grand aunt of the Mother of Dragons. But the betrothal was eventually broken.
There were conflicting accounts from Lady Olenna and from the maesters as to who broke the engagement.
Olenna said she exerted everything she could so that the arranged marriage would fail. She was concerned about the madness that seems to befall House Targaryen, apparently.
The maesters on the other hand, revealed that it was Prince Daeron who broke the betrothal when they were eighteen. It would appear that Daeron was gay as he preferred the companionship of a young knight, Ser Jeremy Norridge, who the prince befriended when they were squires at Highgarden.
Olenna seduced Luthor Tyrell
Luthor Tyrell, the Head of House Tyrell and Lord of Highgarden was originally arranged to marry Princess Shaera Targaryen. But the princess broke their engagement and ended up marrying her brother Jaehaerys II, instead.
They were the parents of the Mad King and grandparents of Daenerys.
After the betrothal was broken, Luthor was to propose to Viola Redwyne, sister of Olenna. However, this did not materialize according to the Queen of Thorns, because she “accidentally” stumbled into the room of Luthor the night before. She seduced Luthor that night and left him “unable to walk downstairs” the following day.
It was said that Lady Olenna loved Luthor despite her obvious view of him as a fool. As she shared the story to Margaery, she voiced of the difficulty of accepting her husband’s death. Luthor and his horse fell off a cliff because he was not paying attention where he was going. What an oaf!
How Olenna poisoned King Joffrey
The Queen of Thorns, with the help of Littlefinger and the fool Ser Dontos Hollard, killed King Joffrey using a rare kind of poison known as the strangler. It was a crystallized form of poison attached to the hair net Sansa wore on Joffrey's wedding day. Petyr Baelish revealed this information to Sansa in "A Storm of Swords." In "Game of Thrones" season 4 however, the poison was in one of the jewels of Sansa’s necklace given to her by Dontos.
During the Purple Wedding, Lady Olenna feigned to put Sansa’s hair in order while expressing her sympathy for the death of Rob and Catelyn in the Red Wedding. It was at this moment that she took the strangler from Sansa’s hairnet/necklace and put it into Joffrey’s wine cup. The poison was said to dissolve when mixed with wine.
Yes Cersei, indeed it was her.