House Hayford of Hayford is a minor noble house of the crownlands, seated at the castle of Hayford that stands on a hilltop astride the kingsroad less than a day's ride north of King's Landing. Their arms bear the green fretwork and pale wavy of an old Andal line, and their seat has long commanded one of the main approaches to the capital along the road. The house has answered to the Iron Throne as its immediate overlord since the Targaryen Conquest, their proximity to King's Landing binding them closely to the fortunes of whatever dynasty holds the city. A Lyra Hayford was among the candidates proposed as a bride for the young King Aegon III, a sign that the house stood in some favour at court even in the unhappy years that followed the Dance of the Dragons.
During the reign of Daeron II, the Hayfords demonstrated the loyalty that has been their most consistent trait. A Lord Hayford was slain during the Dance of the Dragons for refusing to renounce his oaths to Queen Rhaenyra, and another Lord Hayford was appointed Hand of the King to Daeron II on the eve of the Battle of the Redgrass Field in 196 AC, only to be cut down in that same battle by Gormon Peake. The house sent men to support Lord Brynden Rivers when he marched to crush the Second Blackfyre Rebellion at Whitewalls, and their banner continued to fly for the red dragon thereafter. By the opening of A Game of Thrones, the line has dwindled to a single infant, Lady Ermesande Hayford, the last of her house; she was wed as a babe at the breast to Tyrek Lannister so the Lannisters might press a claim to her lands, but Tyrek's disappearance in the bread riots of King's Landing left the child a widow before she could speak her own name.