House Harte

The Hartes are lords of the Crownlands answering to the Baratheons of King's Landing. No chronicle grants them a castle of their own, and their coat of arms is known only through sources of doubtful reliability: three red hart's heads crossed by a silver bend on a field of vair.

Their name also lives on in a folk song about a Lord Harte riding out in the rain, though no one can say which of the house's lords it is meant to recall.

While most of the realm's lords turned their backs on him, Lord Harte was among the few who stayed loyal to King Maegor I Targaryen until the end of his reign.

Two years later, with Jaehaerys settled at Dragonstone, Lord Harte was among the first to present himself before the new king at his new seat.

In the civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, Lord Harte took the side of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and her claim to the Iron Throne.

When the war turned against that cause, he refused to bow to Aegon II Targaryen, and that refusal cost him his life.