Aemond's march on Harrenhal

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Butcher's Ball
Conflict Dance of the Dragons
Date 130 AC
Place south of Gods Eye, riverlands
Result decisive victory for the blacks
Combatants
Aegon II Targaryen.svg Greens Rhaenyra Targaryen.svg Blacks
Commanders
Kingsguard.svg Ser Criston Cole House Dustin.svg Lord Roderick Dustin
Ser Garibald Grey
Ser Pate of Longleaf
Strength
less than 3,600 300 mounted knights
300 longbowmen
3,000 archers
3,000 spearmen
hundreds of Winter Wolves
Casualties
hundreds
Ser Criston Cole
unknown

The Aemond's march on Harrenhal was a campaign during the Dance of the Dragons, as Prince Aemond Targaryen and Ser Criston Cole marched the main army of the greens from King's Landing north to Harrenhal.[1]

Prelude

After the Battle at Rook's Rest, Aegon II was badly injured and his brother Aemond was given command of the greens' forces in King's Landing, as regent for his brother until he recovered. An aggressive young man, Aemond decided to attack the blacks' forces gathering at Harrenhal under his uncle Daemon, before they had sufficient force to strike at the capital. Aemond devised a plan to catch the river lords on two fronts, by having the Lannister army invade the riverlands from the west while he led their forces from King's Landing to attack from the east.

Aemond led a force of 4,000 men in total out of King's Landing, also led by Ser Criston Cole of the Kingsguard, now Hand of the King. Aegon II, Aemond, and Criston had previously led an army of slightly less than 3,000 to the Battle at Rook's Rest, where they lost some 800 men. While in King's Landing Aemond reconstituted his forces and sent forth all their remaining strength for the advance on Harrenhal. Aemond and Criston finally led a force of 4,000 men, mostly infantry, north up the kingsroad, expecting to reach Harrenhal after a sixteen day march.

Advance north

Muddy roads and rainstorms slightly slowed the advance of the Criston's army, as it was mostly made up of foot soldiers and had a large baggage train. Rather than quickly fly ahead, Prince Aemond kept Vhagar with the main column throughout the march, thinking that his uncle Daemon would attempt to attack it with his dragon Caraxes.

Criston's vanguard fought and won a short, sharp battle against Ser Oswald Wode, Lord Darry, and Lord Roote on the lakeshore, but met no other opposition. This was apparently a feint meant to lure them closer to Harrenhal and away from King's Landing.

On the nineteenth day of their march they reached Harrenhal - only to find it abandoned.

Daemon's plan

Daemon had anticipated Aemond's reckless course of action, and his spies in the city confirmed it (apparently organized by Mysaria). As soon as word reached him that Aemond's army was on the march, he mounted Caraxes and flew southwest of the Godseye to avoid his nephew's line of advance, then looped back around to join Rhaenyra's dragonriders and the Velaryon fleet for a strike at King's Landing, which Aemond had left with only a skeleton defense force and no war-capable dragons. Worse, the city watch were still loyal to Daemon and threw all but one of the city gates to the blacks as they arrived, thus the city fell in a single day with relatively little fighting.

Aftermath

On hearing of the fall of King's Landing during their march away from the city, Aemond was consumed by fury, and turned it on House Strong. Already loathing them in general due to the rumors that Harwin Strong had been the bastard father of Rhaenyra's sons, and never fully trusting Lharys Strong as the greens' spy-master, Aemond became convinced that they must have collaborated with the blacks. Indeed, Lharys had not been apprehended when the blacks took King's Landing but simply disappeared. His uncle Ser Simon Strong, meanwhile, had surrendered Harrenhal to Daemon without a fight - though he protested his innocence, insisting that he couldn't possibly have held a siege against Caraxes. Disbelieving him, Aemond commanded that Simon be given a sword in a trial by combat: Aemond had been well-trained by Criston Cole himself while Simon was an old man, thus the resulting duel was utterly one-sided. Aemond cut Simon to pieces, then fed his corpse to Vhagar.

Aemond then proceeded to massacre every male of House Strong, down to the last little grandson. The heap made of their severed heads ultimately stood three feet tall. No man or boy was spared, not even bastards - except only one, Alys Rivers, whom Aemond took as a bed-mate, ignoring all other women. Men claimed that she was a sorceress who had bewitched him.

Not long afterward the Lannister host approaching from the west was outmaneuvered and destroyed in the massive Battle by the Lakeshore, on the very west coast of the Gods Eye. When news finally reached Aemond and Criston at Harrenhal they realized they couldn't hold it and chose to abandon it themselves. Aemond began a one-dragon campaign of revenge on the riverlands using Vhagar, while Criston led their host south to try to link up with the main Hightower army advancing north through the Reach. Criston lost hundreds of men from harassment attacks, disease, and desertion, but before he could pass out of the riverlands his army was intercepted at the Butcher's Ball.[1]

Quotes

[Aemond] reached Harrenhal a day after Cole, and that night celebrated a great victory; Daemon and "his river scum" had fled rather than face his wroth, Aemond proclaimed. Small wonder then that when word of the fall of King's Landing reached him, the prince felt thrice the fool. His fury was fearsome to behold.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Triumphant.