Houses of the Crownlands

[Padraig O'Sullivan]

I'm just wondering before Aegon's  conquest, where did all the houses like Massey, Rosby and Stokeworth belong to in the 7 Kingdoms. Like did they belong in the Stormlands, the Riverlands or the Reach.

[TheSovereignGrave]

House Massey and House Bar Emmon were both sworn to Argillac Durrandon, but had closer ties to Dragonstone and so swore allegiance and joined Aegon before he even warred against the Storm King. House Rosby and House Stokeworth surrendered to Aegon without a real fight and House Darklyn resisted (alongside House Mooton) but none of that ever brought in any of the real Kings, so it makes sense to assume that they weren't sworn to a King at that time.

[John Suburbs]

That whole area went back and forth between ironmen, various river kings, stormlanders and even a few excursions from the vale, so it makes sense that none of the houses in the area had strong loyalties to anyone.

[Guest jasonothegreat]

Im pretty sure all of the northern half of the crownlands were sworn to the River Kings (Excluding the Claw Isle) then all of the southern half was controlled by the Stormlands. With like the middle parts like Blackwater Rush, Farring Cross etc. being sworn to the Reach and Westerlands. This is just from looking at the De jure maps in the CK2 mod, which in my opinioon seem pretty legit and make sense

[The Dragon Demands]

Before the Conquest the future Crownlands were more or less an extension of the Riverlands.

At times, other parts of the Riverlands were conquered and held by other kingdoms for generations.  Indeed, the Stormlands conquered and held the Riverlands for three hundred years - "the Crownlands" are just the part of the Riverlands that happened to be closest to the core of "the Stormlands" at Storm's End.  

Petty River Kings held bits and pieces at one point or another, i.e. the Darklyns of Duskendale were minor kings in the age of the First Men over their local lands.

When the ironborn invaded the Riverlands under Harren Hoare's grandfather, he took what we now call "the Riverlands".  His son then kicked the Storm Kings out of the eastern parts down to the Blackwater (present day Crownlands).  

Argillac the Arrogant managed to stem the tide of collapse of the Durrandon super-kingdom but he realized he was getting old and needed a powerful ally to try to kick the ironborn, now under Harren Hoare, back from the Blackwater.  So he offered an alliance to Aegon Targaryen - but as Aegon noted, he cynically offered as a reward that Aegon hold the lands currently occupied by Harren, which he'd have to successfully conquer to get anyway --- Argillac wanted Aegon to be a buffer between the ironborn in the Riverlands and the core of the Stormlands.  

So they were closest to the Stormlands as part of the Riverlands but it comes in waves; certainly due to simple geography they were often conquered by the Storm Kings, only to lose them, then win them back again.  

SOUTH of the Blackwater, east to Massey's Hook?  Even at the time of the Conquest Bar Emmon and Massey were actually still sworn to the Storm Kings - but they had developed such close economic ties with the Targaryens on Dragonstone that they openly joined the invasion from the start.  By which I mean they didn't just turn their banners after losing, they joined Aegon *before* the Conquest even began.  

As for the minor islands like Dragonstone, Driftmark, and Claw Isle?  An interesting question is what the heck was there before the Valyrians came, but I imagine they were just another disputed zone.

Really, the Crownlands were an extension of the Riverlands, more or less; the whole reason Aegon began his invasion there is because it was a border zone between three other powerful kingdoms (ironborn in the Riverlands, Storm Kings, and sort of the Reach) that none of them could agree whose problem he was until he already had a firm beachhead.