Prince Brandish was the bewitched bear that befriended both Snow and Rose Red as children. For unexplained reason, he had been cursed by Coalheart, father of the seven dwarves. In order to return to normal, he had to kill Coalheart. During his search he came upon the young sisters and befriended them. However, their mother was very weary of his presence. While he was gone the sisters encountered Coalheart several times when he was in a disastrous situation. And in order to save his life (even though he was always ungrateful), Snow had to cut off his beard. And in a way, the cutting of his beard made him lose his enchantment.
Eventually Brandish found Coalheart and killed him, in doing so, his curse was lifted and he was returned to his normal self. Feeling very grateful, he promised to marry Snow White and having his younger brother Holben, he promised Rose that she could marry him. Both girls were indulged in ideas of tiaras, riches, and all sorts that came with being a princess.
However, both their parents felt very differently to the union. Snow and Rose’s mother refused to have either daughters marry royalty, most likely due to some unsaid disdain for the royalty. And Brandish’s father was against it for two reasons, one Snow was a commoner and second, he knew of their mother being a witch. The idea of his son mixing their heritage with that of the witch kind, disgusted him. Holben, just simply didn’t wish to marry Rose due to her young age and didn’t wish to wait for a wife to come of age to sleep with her.
But despite how either families felt, Brandish felt honor bound and vowed not to break his promise to Snow White. During the night, both Brandish’s father and the girls’ mother had a private meeting in which both agreed, they were against the union. He came with a conclusion for their problem, Brandish wouldn’t have to keep his promise if Snow White were dead. The king gave their mother two options, kill her or have her sent away and make it look like she died. Believing it for the best, Snow’s mother sent her away to live with her sister, a newly widowed queen.
As she left, she faked her daughter’s death, while it broke Brandish of his vow. She unknowingly, did more damage to Rose Red than she could imagine. What became of Prince Brandish and his family was never revealed, it is most likely they either were killed during Geppetto’s rise of the Empire or he or one of his family members could still be alive and working under his rule. But with Geppetto, currently out of power, its not really known.
Its recently been revealed in Fables #125, that Werian Holt was revealed to be Prince Brandish; something that surprises even Mrs. Sprat. As Werian Holt, they had become co-conspirators for an unknown plan for Fabletown. Much to both Snow and Briar Rose‘s surprise he comes claiming himself to be Snow’s first and true husband. It has not been revealed how Prince Brandish came upon Mister Dark or how they became allies, or if Mister Dark knew Brandish came after Snow. All that is known is that Brandish is very determine to take Snow back as his wife and will more than likely have a confrontation with Bigby Wolf.
He attempts to claim Snow as his but she quickly rejects his advances. Despite her pleas, he declares that her marriage to Bigby as illegal and false. While he claims to be merciful, he shows he has no amount of remorse when he tells Snow that he intends on killing Bigby and her children. He also planned to force Snow as his wife and replace her “children” with human children. All of which he refers to as an “act of cleansing”.