• Originally built by <PERSON> the black who was the last iron king to rule over both the riverlands and iron islands.
• The Ironborn invaded the riverlands and conquered its lands, forcing its people into slavery and forcing them to build Harrenhal. So <PERSON> wasn’t initially controlled by <PERSON> it was the other way round.
• He built it as a monument to himself and drained the riverlands of finances and resources as it took 40years to build.
• It is rumoured that <PERSON> mixed the blood of slaves into the mortar used for the stonework in order to prevent any lord from permanently holding it.
• Harrenhal initially fell to <PERSON> the conqueror
• After conquering Harrenhal <PERSON> passed control of it to his loyal banner of House <PERSON>.
• Following their demise, the houses Towers, then Harroway, then Strong, and then Lothston all had stewardship of Harrenhal.
• During the reign of <PERSON> sons, a rebel naming himself <PERSON>, who claimed to be the bastard of <PERSON> led a revolt and took over Harrenhal however his revolt was destroyed.
• The only significant conflict that Harrenhal hasn’t been involved in was <PERSON> rebellion. It is believed however that Harrenhal was trigger for the rebellion, as it was there that <PERSON> named <PERSON> the Queen of Beauty and Love. 725
After this <PERSON> kidnapped <PERSON> and this led to the beginning of the rebellion.
• During the war of the fiver kings, House <PERSON> controlled Harrenhal. However the crown stripped them of the castle and handed it to house <PERSON> due to his betrayal of <PERSON>.
• Interestingly <PERSON> never took control of the castle and the war still raged on. He was then sent to take the Black at the wall thereby stripping him of the castle.
• <PERSON> army then took control of the castle as an operating base against the Young Wolf, however he abandons it as he’s ordered back to Kings landing to help defend the city.
• <PERSON> takes over the empty castle and leaves <PERSON> as the castellan. <PERSON> later leaves to attend the wedding of <PERSON> and <PERSON> and leaves <PERSON> in charge.
• Interestingly <PERSON> is related to the <PERSON> as his maternal grandmother was from this House, therefore he has an official claim to the castle.
• House <PERSON> were loyal bannermen to Lord <PERSON> of Riverrun thereby enforcing <PERSON>’s claim.
Previous castellans of Harrenhal :
<PERSON>
<PERSON>
<PERSON>
<PERSON>
<PERSON>
<PERSON>
<PERSON>
As it is a wide held belief in Westeros that <PERSON> is cursed, <PERSON> is the only castellan so far not to have befallen some tragedy.
<PERSON> as noted by user568458 is currently in the hands of <PERSON> though he doesn't currently occupy it physically as he's based in the Vale. 725