The smallest of the great regions and, since Aegon planted his standard at the mouth of the Blackwater, the one every other region answers to — a patch of ground that earned its outsized importance the old-fashioned way, at dragonback.
Before the Conquest the crownlands belonged to no single kingdom, a scatter of small and fractious river-lords the Iron Throne's founder found easiest simply to absorb outright once he made King's Landing his capital. Dragonstone, the Targaryen family seat from before the Conquest, anchors the region's eastern waters and outlived the Conqueror himself, who died there rather than in the city he had built.
King's Landing has since swollen into the most populous city in Westeros, and the crownlands around it have absorbed the ambitions, riots, and occasional sack that come with sitting directly beneath the Iron Throne. Duskendale, on the region's northern coast, briefly became notorious for the wrong reasons when its lord dared hold a king hostage within his own walls — a defiance the town paid for at length once the siege finally lifted.
In the timeline
SourcesTWOIAF · The CrownlandsF&B · Aegon's Conquest
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Where is The Crownlands?
The smallest of the great regions and, since Aegon planted his standard at the mouth of the Blackwater, the one every other region answers to — a patch of ground that earned its outsized importance the old-fashioned way, at dragonback.
Is The Crownlands from the books or the show?
Book canon. This entry follows George R. R. Martin's novels and histories, and notes where the television series diverges rather than following it.