House Stokeworth of Stokeworth

When Aegon the Conqueror crossed the Narrow Sea, Stokeworth barely put up a fight: the castle yielded to Queen Visenya Targaryen after Vhagar set its roofs alight.

Years later, Lord Alyn Stokeworth became Hand of King Aegon I, and kept the office under his son Aenys I. He and Visenya herself were the ones tasked with tearing down old Aegon's Fort to raise the Red Keep in its place. The Hand died far from court, hunting the rebel Harren the Red through the Riverlands; his squire, Bernarr Brune, avenged him.

When the realm rose against King Maegor I in the name of Prince Jaehaerys, the lord of Stokeworth joined the rebels. Maegor's sudden death on the Iron Throne sent him hurrying back home. Once Jaehaerys was crowned, he travelled to Dragonstone to pay his respects, and in 51 AC he hosted the young king at Stokeworth itself, during Jaehaerys's first progress through the realm.

Alyn's daughter Samantha spent years as a companion to Princess Rhaena Targaryen and was at Fair Isle when Rhaena married Androw Farman in 49 AC. Five years later, on Dragonstone, Samantha was among the women a jealous Androw poisoned.

When war broke out between Rhaenyra Targaryen and her half-brother Aegon II, the lord of Stokeworth ended up on the losing side of the moment: he was among those locked up in King's Landing for backing Rhaenyra. Swearing loyalty to Aegon before the King's Justice was enough to set him free, but Ser Criston Cole later marched on his castle to demand his men join the green cause.

Once the city fell back into Rhaenyra's hands, Lord Stokeworth tried to swear fealty a second time. She did not forgive the first switch and had him beheaded. Prince Daemon proposed marrying the dead lord's young daughter to his own younger son, or even to Ulf the White as a reward for his loyalty; on Lord Corlys Velaryon's advice, Rhaenyra instead left the title to Lord Stokeworth's son.

When Rhaenyra had to flee the capital after the Storming of the Dragonpit, the new young lord's castellan gave her shelter for the night. Aegon II, back on the Iron Throne, had the boy brought to him in chains and only released him after taking a ransom and hostages.

Stokeworth's troops, alongside those of Rosby and Hayford, abandoned Lord Borros Baratheon in the middle of the Battle of the Kingsroad. Shortly after, the house declared for Aegon III.

At just eight years old, Lady Falena Stokeworth was floated as a possible bride for King Aegon III after Queen Jaehaera's death, but before the ball meant to present her she fell down a staircase and broke her leg. In 149 AC she became Prince Aegon's mistress, and two years later, once the two of them were found together in bed, she was married off to Ser Lucas Lothston, who was named Lord of Harrenhal. The prince kept visiting the castle often in the years that followed.

After King Baelor the Blessed died in 171 AC, it was Lady Maia Stokeworth who first raised the suspicion that his uncle Viserys had poisoned him to take the throne.

In 193 AC, Ser Arlan of the Coin Tree overthrew the lord of Stokeworth in a brawl inside the capital itself; sixteen years later, a Stokeworth, Ser Samwell, competed at the Tourney of Ashford. Men of the house also marched with Lord Brynden Rivers to Whitewalls, to put down the Second Blackfyre Rebellion.

Closer to more recent times, a Stokeworth, Manly, commanded the City Watch of King's Landing; when he died, the post passed to Janos Slynt.

During King Robert's reign, Lord Petyr Baelish was a regular guest at dinner with Lady Tanda Stokeworth and her daughters. Littlefinger suspected she hoped to marry him off to Lollys, and for his part he saw her as a possible ally, together with Lord Eddard Stark, should it ever come to standing against the Lannisters.

With Tyrion Lannister now settled at court, Lady Tanda kept inviting him to feasts with the same idea in mind. On the day Myrcella Baratheon set sail for Dorne, a riot broke out in the streets of the capital; in the chaos, Lollys was pulled from her litter and left behind. She was later found wandering naked, having been raped by some fifty men who left her pregnant.

Falyse Stokeworth reached the capital with a party of men from the castle the day before the Battle of the Blackwater. The Stokeworths spent the fighting sheltered inside Maegor's Holdfast.

Lady Tanda offered Lollys as a bride to Lord Tywin Lannister for his son Tyrion, and separately gave King Joffrey a pair of leather boots as a wedding gift. When Joffrey choked to death at his own wedding feast, Tanda fled the Red Keep.

Shortly after, Ser Bronn of the Blackwater, newly knighted, agreed to marry Lollys.

When Cersei Lannister refused Falyse Stokeworth's request that Lollys's son be named Tywin, Bronn named him Tyrion instead, a choice many read as a direct jab at the Lannisters. Falyse remarked that if Lord Gyles Rosby died, his lands might well pass to Stokeworth, since Lady Tanda was aunt and third cousin to Gyles's second wife.

Lady Tanda broke her hip falling from her horse. Fearing Bronn might be secretly helping his brother Tyrion, Cersei asked Falyse and her husband, Ser Balman Byrch, to get rid of him. The plot went wrong: Bronn killed Balman and threw Falyse out of the castle. She ran back to Cersei begging for men to take Stokeworth back, but Cersei turned her away and, wary that the failed plot might reflect on her, handed Falyse over to Qyburn for his experiments.

When Lady Tanda died of a chill, Lollys inherited the title ahead of Falyse, with Bronn as her lord.

Falyse Stokeworth died screaming in the black cells, a victim of Qyburn's experiments.