House Byrch is a noble house of the crownlands, sworn to the Iron Throne and, since Robert's Rebellion, to House Baratheon of King's Landing directly, its knights marked by a silver axe on green quartered with black-and-white gyronny. A Lord Byrch was summoned to the city in 48 AC as one of King Maegor I's last loyal supporters, and in a later generation Ser Balon Byrch served in the City Watch of King's Landing, rising to command it after the death of Ser Luthor Largent.
In the present age, Ser Balman Byrch married Falyse Stokeworth and stood at her side at Lord Tywin Lannister's funeral, only to be killed soon after in a duel with the sellsword Bronn. Axe-badged corpses found hanged among the raiders of Saltpans during the War of the Five Kings were thought to be broken men once sworn to House Byrch or House Cerwyn.