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The conquest of Dorne was a war fought between the Iron Throne and the kingdom of Dorne, the only of the Seven Kingdoms not sworn to the Targaryen kings. During Aegon's Conquest and the First Dornish War, the Dornish had resisted the Targaryens attempts of invasion. King Daeron I Targaryen, who ascended the Iron Throne at the age of fourteen in 157 AC, felt that the continued independence of the Dornish represented unfinished business for the Targaryens, and vowed to complete the conquest.

The young king went to war that same year, personally leading one of the three hosts that entered Dorne. In 158 AC, the Prince of Dorne and his most powerful lords bent the knee to Daeron during the Submission of Sunspear. Hostages were brought back to King's Landing, but this did not stop the smallfolk of Dorne from rebelling. Lord Lyonel Tyrell remained in Dorne to chase rebels, but was famously killed at Sandstone when he pulled the sash of a heavy velvet canopy above his bed, covering himself in a hundred red scorpions. Within a fortnight of his death, Daeron I's entire conquest was undone. When King Daeron entered talks with the Sealord of Braavos about a betrothal between the Sealord and one of Daeron's sisters, with the aim of sealing an alliance with Braavos, the Free Cities of Pentos and Lys, who were at war with Braavos, decided to give aid to the Dornish.

In 160 AC, Daeron was forced to return to Dorne to resume the war. The conflict would not come to an end until 161 AC. Daeron’s conquest lasted only a summer, and resulted in thousands of deaths. It is said that ten thousand men had died conquering Dorne, forty to fifty thousand men attempting to hold Dorne. Of the many accounts written about Daeron's conquest, the book written by Daeron himself is considered to be the best one. Read more…