Vulture Hunt
Vulture Hunt | |||||||||||||
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Location | Dornish Marches | ||||||||||||
Battles | Battle at Stonehelm | ||||||||||||
Result | Iron Throne victory | ||||||||||||
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The Vulture Hunt was the campaign to stop the first Vulture King during the reign of King Aenys I Targaryen.
History
The Vulture King was a Dornish outlaw who gathered thousands of followers to rise against King Aenys I. He scored a number of early victories against the marcher lords, as Deria Martell, Princess of Dorne, largely ignored the insurrection, leading to the Vulture King's support swelling up to nearly thirty thousand strong.
King Aenys was ineffective at dealing with this crisis, as he was with others that spread throughout the Seven Kingdoms, which Dorne was not yet part of. The former Hand of the King, Lord Orys Baratheon, along with the marcher lords—foremost among them Lord Sam Tarly—managed to hunt down the rebels of the self-proclaimed outlaw king. Savage Sam's blade, Heartsbane, is said to have been red from the blood of Dornishmen.[1]
During a battle at House Swann's castle of Stonehelm, Orys's forces crushed a part of the Vulture King's host and captured Lord Walter Wyl. Walter's father, the Wyl of Wyl, had chopped off Orys's sword hand in the First Dornish War. Orys chopped off Walter's sword hand, then his other hand, followed by both feet, calling his actions usury. Although Lord Baratheon died of his battle wounds during his return to Storm's End, his son Davos said Orys died smiling at the rotten hands and feet dangling in his tent.[3]
Generations later, another Vulture King arose but was eventually defeated by Lords Caron and Dondarrion.[4]
References and Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The World of Ice & Fire, Aenys I.
- ↑ The Sons of the Dragon.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Andals in the Stormlands.
- ↑ The Hedge Knight.