"Our Blades Are Sharp"

The Boltons are an ancient and powerful house of the North who for many centuries were bitter rivals of the Kings in the North, the Starks of Winterfell. The Boltons achieved some successes against the Starks, flaying the skins of several Stark lords and hanging them in their stronghold, the Dreadfort. According to rumor, some Bolton lords even wore the flayed skins of their enemies - including the Starks - as cloaks. This practice has given the Boltons a sinister reputation, and it has been suggested that the legendary Night's King was a Bolton.

Approximately a thousand years ago, the Boltons finally swore fealty to the Kings in the North and agreed to abandon their practice of flaying their enemies. However, three hundred years later the Boltons rose in rebellion against the Starks. The Stark armies besieged the Dreadfort for four years before the Boltons finally capitulated and dipped their banners once more. For many centuries the Boltons remained loyal to the Starks, although rumors persisted that they continued to flay their prisoners in secret, and maintain a hidden chamber in the Dreadfort to display the skins of their enemies. The Lord of the Dreadfort during A Song of Ice & Fire is Roose Bolton. When his liege Eddard Stark called the banners of the North to fight in Robert's Rebellion, Lord Roose took up arms, fighting in the Battle of the Trident. Afterward, he counseled that Robert Baratheon should slash the throat of the legendary Kingsguard knight Ser Barristan Selmy, but Lord Robert sent for his maesters instead.