A castle near Kings Landing, it is close enough to provide fresh foodstuffs for the royal household. At the beginning of A Song of Ice and Fire its ruler is the elderly Lady Tanda, who has two grown daughters: her married daughter Falyse, heiress to Stokeworth Castle, and Lollys, a dim-witted, child-like woman.

Lady Tanda ultimately died and was succeeded by Lady Falyse and her husband, Ser Balman Birch. Ser Balman was killed by Lollys' new husband, Ser Bronn of the Blackwater, an unsavory hedge knight once in service to Tyrion Lannister, after he attempted to dispense with him at the direction of Cersei Lannister, and the castle fell under Ser Bronn's control, who now styles himself Lord Protector of Stokeworth. Expelled from her castle, Falyse took shelter with Cersei in the Red Keep, where she was given to the unscrupulous maester Qyburn to aid him in his experiments.