Maidenpool

The city's name comes from an old song: Florian the Fool, who legend says spotted Jonquil bathing with her sisters in the pool that still bears her memory, and fell for her on the spot.

Behind walls of pink stone stands a hill with the Mootons' castle, and beyond the town more hills roll away to the east. It has inns, a sept, and a fish market with a scaffold; the Fool's Gate is the one people remember. Two roads run to it from King's Landing: one crosses Duskendale and is the shorter, the other hugs the coastline.

Long before there were Seven Kingdoms, the city changed hands more than once. Manfryd the Mighty, King of the Storm, beat the Mooton king and folded the town into his realm.

The Andal invasion brought the Fall of Maidenpool and the death of King Florian the Brave, a story still sung today. Later King Benedict I Justman pushed his borders out to the city, and Torrence Teague was crowned King of the Trident there.

The Teagues didn't hold it long: Storm King Arlan III Durrandon took it from them. Three centuries on, Harwyn Hoare, King of the Iron Islands, conquered the whole region around it.

As King's Landing grew into the Targaryen capital, seaborne trade through Maidenpool kept climbing with it.

Prince Aegon and Princess Rhaena visited after their wedding, as part of a royal progress. Lord Mooton laid on a feast, but no septon would bless the match — the Faith wanted nothing to do with that marriage.

In 51 AC King Jaehaerys I and Queen Alysanne passed through during their progress across the Crownlands.

Alysanne, pregnant with her first child, wanted to bathe in Jonquil's Pool. Someone tried to kill her there, and only her ladies-in-waiting got her out unharmed.

In 104 AC the city held a tournament to mark Viserys I's ascent to the Iron Throne.

Another followed in 207 AC, and during Aerys II's reign a melee there was won by a young Ser Barristan Selmy.

During the Dance of the Dragons, Prince Daemon Targaryen made Maidenpool his base alongside Nettles while the two hunted for Prince Aemond.

They had to flee the city when Queen Rhaenyra wrote to Lord Manfryd Mooton ordering Nettles' execution. Daemon's taking of the city is dated to 130 AC.

The War of the Five Kings turned Maidenpool into a crossing point between northern forces under Helman Tallhart and Robett Glover and the royalist troops of Lord Randyll Tarly.

When Ser Jaime Lannister, Ser Cleos Frey, and Brienne of Tarth pass through on their way south, they find it empty, its gates smashed and half its houses burned.

After the Battle of Duskendale, Lord Randyll marches on Maidenpool, takes it, and locks Lord William Mooton in a cell in the castle tower.

Randyll Tarly starts rebuilding the town while hunting down the outlaws plaguing the surrounding country. Brienne of Tarth passes through on Sansa Stark's trail; after crossing paths with Dick Crabb, she heads on toward the Whispers.

Later, Lord Harrion Karstark is held prisoner in the city.