House Staunton is a noble house of the crownlands, seated at Rook's Rest, an old castle upon the shore of the narrow sea a day's ride south of the kingswood. Like the other small lords who hold the lands about Blackwater Bay, the Stauntons came into the service of House Targaryen after the Conquest and thereafter looked to the Iron Throne as their overlord. Their arms bear a field chequy in black and silver, divided by a white bar across which spread a pair of black wings.
The house earned its place in the chronicles during the Dance of the Dragons, when its lord declared for Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen and the blacks. To break that allegiance and bait a trap, the queen's enemies marched on Rook's Rest, and when Princess Rhaenys came upon her dragon Meleys to lift the siege she found Prince Aemond and Ser Criston Cole lying in wait. In the Battle of Rook's Rest that followed, Rhaenys and the Red Queen were brought down and slain, and King Aegon II and his dragon Sunfyre were grievously burned, a bloody day that proved among the turning points of the war. Lord Staunton himself was slain by the greens in the fighting, and his head sent to King's Landing. In later days Lord Symond Staunton served as master of laws to King Aerys II Targaryen, where he is remembered for pressing the king to forbid tourneys and for feeding his suspicions of his own son, Prince Rhaegar. The castle and its house endured as one of the lesser seats of the crownlands, holding still to the Iron Throne.