House Hoare

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House Hoare of Orkmont
Hoare.png
Coat of arms Per saltire sable, azure, argent and Or, two chains saltireways argent between in chief a longship Or, in dexter a crow volant sable, in sinister a pine vert and in base a bunch of grapes gules
Seats
Regions
Titles
Died out 1 AC

House Hoare of Orkmont is an extinct house of the Iron Islands. The Hoares were the High Kings of the Iron Islands after the Andal settlers on the islands ended the rule of House Greyiron. While they originally came from Orkmont, they later moved to Fairmarket and Harrenhal in the riverlands and ruled as Kings of the Isles and the Rivers.

According to semi-canon sources, their banner depicts per saltire and with two heavy silver chains crossing between a gold longship on black, a dark green pine on white, a cluster of red grapes on gold, and a black raven flying in a blue sky (clockwise).[1]

History

A kingsmoot gave House Hoare the Seastone Chair after the Greyiron line had been extinguished. However, instead of returning to the Old Way when all the kings were chosen in assembly, the Hoares kept the title hereditary as the Greyirons had done. Harrag Hoare is cited by Aeron Damphair as an example of a great king that was chosen through a kingsmoot. Possibly he was the one chosen after the end of the Greyiron line, but he could also have been a previous king from the same house.[2]

Under King Qhored Hoare the realm of the ironborn reached the peak of its expansion, and it was said that all the western coast of Westeros where the salt of the Sunset Sea could be smelled or the crashing of its waves heard were under their control.

During the next years, the power of House Hoare would diminish and many of the conquests would be lost. For instance, Bear Island was lost in a wrestling match to Rodrik Stark, who gave it to the Mormonts. The possessions of the ironborn were reduced to the Iron Isles and the coast of the riverlands.

In a new age of expansion, the ironborn under King Harwyn Hardhand[3], the thirdborn son of King Qhorwyn the Cunning, took all of the riverlands from the Storm King Arrec Durrandon. Harwyn and his successors, Halleck and Harren, ruled from the riverlands as Kings of the Isles and the Rivers. When not unsuccessfully warring against the Kings of the Rock, the Kings of the Reach, and the Kings of Mountain and Vale, Halleck ruled from Fairmarket instead of the Iron Islands.[4]

Harwyn's grandson, Harren the Black, ordered the construction of Harrenhal, the greatest castle of the Seven Kingdoms, on the shores of the Gods Eye in the riverlands, a long away from the sea. The construction took forty years, and was finished the day Aegon I Targaryen and his sisters landed in Westeros. Having seen how Kings Loren I and Mern IX had been defeated at the Field of Fire, Harren decided to remain within his castle. Aegon burned it with the Targaryens' dragons, incinerating Harren and his sons alive and thus ending the Hoare line. Harren's brother, Lord Commander Hoare, led the Night's Watch at that time, but the brother kept to his vows and did not intervene even as his house died.[5]

With the extinction of the Hoares during the War of Conquest, Aegon the Conqueror allowed the ironborn to select Vickon Greyjoy of Pyke as the new Lord of the Iron Islands. Aegon chose Edmyn Tully of Riverrun, the first of the river lords to rebel against Harren, to replace the Hoares in the riverlands[3] as Lord Paramount of the Trident.[6]

House Hoare's banner represented the distant lands that had been under the rule of the house: the longship for the Iron Islands, the green pine for Bear Island, the grape cluster for the Arbor, and the black raven for the maesters of Oldtown; all bound by the iron chains of the ironmen.[1]

Recent Events

A Feast for Crows

Harren Half-Hoare is a raider loyal to Euron Crow's Eye; his relation to House Hoare is unclear.[7] Lord Maron Volmark is mentioned as a possible candidate for the kingsmoot on Old Wyk, as he has the blood of Harren the Black in him through the female line of House Hoare.[8]

Historical Hoares

References and Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 The Citadel. Heraldry: Houses on the Iron Islands
  2. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 1, The Prophet.
  3. 3.0 3.1 A Game of Thrones, Appendix.
  4. The World of Ice & Fire, The Iron Islands.
  5. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 60, Jon VIII.
  6. The World of Ice & Fire, The Riverlands.
  7. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 11, The Kraken's Daughter.
  8. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 29, The Reaver.