Vulture Hunt

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Vulture Hunt
Location Dornish Marches
Battles Battle at Stonehelm
Result Iron Throne victory
Belligerents
Iron Throne: Vulture King
House Wyl
Notable commanders
Lord Orys Baratheon
Lord Sam Tarly
Lord Harmon Dondarrion
Lady Ellyn Caron
Vulture King
Lord Walter Wyl
Strength
Combined strength at Stonehelm:
  • ~7,500 men - many armored knights or disciplined men-at-arms
  • 30,000 men[1][2] Some knights and trained spearmen, many more rabble. Subsequently split in two:
  • Western half under the Vulture King: 15,000 men
  • Eastern half under Walter Wyl: 15,000 men
  • 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