Difference between revisions of "Battle of the Blackwater"

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| commander1 = [[Stannis Baratheon]] <br> [[Alester Florent]]  
 
| commander1 = [[Stannis Baratheon]] <br> [[Alester Florent]]  
 
| commander2 = [[Tywin Lannister]] <br> [[Tyrion Lannister]](WIA)
 
| commander2 = [[Tywin Lannister]] <br> [[Tyrion Lannister]](WIA)
| strength1 = 20,000
+
| strength1 = 30,000
 
| strength2= 70,000
 
| strength2= 70,000
 
| casualties1 = Almost whole army killed, taken prisoner or switched sides - 47 lesser lordlings, six hundred and nineteen knights and several thousand men at arms died.<ref>[[A Storm of Swords]], [[A Storm of Swords-Chapter 19|Chapter 19]], Tyrion</ref>
 
| casualties1 = Almost whole army killed, taken prisoner or switched sides - 47 lesser lordlings, six hundred and nineteen knights and several thousand men at arms died.<ref>[[A Storm of Swords]], [[A Storm of Swords-Chapter 19|Chapter 19]], Tyrion</ref>

Revision as of 10:40, 23 April 2011

Battle of the Blackwater
Conflict War of the Five Kings
Date 299 AL
Place King's Landing / Mouth of the Blackwater
Result Decisive victory for King Joffrey
Combatants
Stannis's army:
Stormlords, some houses of the Reach, houses sworn to Dragonstone
Army of the Westerlands, most houses of the Reach, gold cloaks
Commanders
Stannis Baratheon
Alester Florent
Tywin Lannister
Tyrion Lannister(WIA)
Strength
30,000 70,000
Casualties
Almost whole army killed, taken prisoner or switched sides - 47 lesser lordlings, six hundred and nineteen knights and several thousand men at arms died.[1] Unknown

The Battle of the Blackwater was one of the last conflicts in the War of the Five Kings. The battle was fought between forces loyal to Stannis Baratheon and royalist forces. Stannis' army was on the verge of defeating the garrison of King's Landing, but was taken by suprise and all but annihilated by the joint forces of Tywin Lannister and the Tyrells.

Intro

Dragonstone

Stannis was one of the first members of King Robert's Small Council to harbor suspicions of the parentage of the King's children, and to discover that they were born of incest between Queen Cersei Lannister and her brother Ser Jaime. Taking his suspicions and what proof he could muster, in the form of Robert's numerous bastard children, to Lord Arryn, he hoped to convince the Hand of the King, one of Robert's oldest and most trusted friends, of the Lannisters' treason. When Arryn died under suspicious circumstances shortly thereafter, Stannis fled to Dragonstone, his seat of power. Rallying what strength he could, with but few Houses sworn to Dragonstone, he closed the port and its surrounding waters, hiring mercenaries and pirates of the Free Cities to augment his forces. As the lord of an island nation and the former Master of Ships, Stannis' naval power was considerable, but the sparse population of the rocky, volcanic islands surrounding Dragonstone left him without the strength to risk openly contesting the Lannisters.

After Robert died, Stannis presented his claims through letters distributed throughout the Seven Kingdoms, proclaiming Prince Joffrey and his siblings the fruit of incest, and claiming the crown as Robert's eldest surviving brother and rightful heir. With neither proof, nor the support or love of nobles and commons alike, his proclamation ended as little more than tavern gossip.

Battling Renly

Even before Stannis' ravens had taken wing with his claim, his younger brother Renly had ridden from King's Landing to Highgarden, where he wed the daughter of Lord Tyrell and claimed the crown for himself. For Stannis, this was blatant treason. What more, Stannis was infuriated with the knowledge that the the Stormlands had thrown in with Renly, despite the fact that Stannis, as the eldest son of House Baratheon, should have held claim to the loyalty of his House's ancestral seat. Unwilling to let such treachery pass, when Stannis at last set out from Dragonstone to war, he made not for King's Landing, but Storm's End.

Stannis laid siege to the coastal fortress, which was under the command of Ser Cortnay Penrose, but all his might was but a meager thing against all the strength of storm and Reach at his brother's command. When Renly abandoned his march on King's Landing, bringing all his knights and mounted forces to lift the siege, Stannis was vastly outnumbered. However, before the battle could begin, Renly was slain by a shadow called forth by the woman Melisandre, an Asshai'i Shadowbinder in Stannis' service.

With Renly dead, the greater part of the knights and lords who had been sworn to him submitted to the last Baratheon, chiefly among them House Florent, relatives of Stannis' wife. About a quarter of the forces did not submit, and fled under the command of Ser Loras Tyrell back to Bitterbridge, where almost 80,000 men of Renly's army waited with his widowed Queen.

The Battle

Stannis' army now marched on King's Landing. Reinforced with the strength of the Stormlands, King Stannis now had almost 20,000 men at his command, against the few thousand gold cloaks of King's Landing's City Watch. However, the city was guarded to the south by the Blackwater Rush, and would require an amphibious assault to conquer.

Battle on the River

Treacherous waters and inclement weather delayed Stannis' fleet on its northward journey from Storm's End, and they did not reach Blackwater Bay until the king's army had already suffered days of harassment from skirmishers in the Kingswood. Under the command of Ser Imry Florent, who as a nephew of Alester Florent had been named Lord High Captain, the fleet sailed up the Blackwater Rush with almost all their strength. Knowing that the fleet of King's Landing could not hope to contest them, they attacked immediately, leaving only a contingent of mercenary galleys to guard the bay. Their lack of caution proved disastrous when the royalists sprung a trap, including several unmanned ships loaded to bursting with the deadly accelerant wildfire.

With the bulk of the fleet aflame, and their retreat cut off by a massive chain that had been raised between two winch towers at the mouth of the river, Stannis' greatest advantage had been countered. However, a few surviving ships had managed to ferry troops to the northern bank, and the congestion of wrecks caught on the chain had unwittingly provided a bridge - aflame, unstable, and treacherous though it may be - for the army to cross.

Attack on King's Landing

The city itself was defended by some 5,000 gold cloaks, leavened with a few hundred mercenaries and knights from the court and the surrounding region. As acting Hand of the King, command of the defense was given to Tyrion Lannister.

To avoid being overwhelmed, Tyrion tasked several groups of mounted men-at-arms, along with what few knights the city had, to harry Stannis' forces as they came ashore. Under the command of Sandor Clegane and Ser Balon Swann of the Kingsguard, they managed to help stem the tide, but as the battle dragged on, they suffered grievous casualties. Battering rams had been brought to bear on at least two of the city's gates, and when the wildfire raging across the river finally robbed Clegane of his courage, the refusal of the fearsome Hound to lead any more sorties threatened to break the morale of the defenders.

Realizing that they had to drive off the rams hold the river at all costs, Tyrion made to lead the next sortie himself. Shamed into action by the dwarf's display of courage, the Kingslanders rallied to clear the riverbank one last time. However, in the fighting amidst the wreckage of the collapsing bridge of boats, Lannister was severely wounded at the hands of Ser Mandon Moore of the Kingsguard, who had been Tyrion's sworn shield throughout the battle.

After the loss of the Hand, the defenders retreated within the city, freeing Stannis to transport enough men over the river to assault the city in earnest. The plight of the defenders worsened when King Joffrey, who had been stationed amongst the men to keep their spirits up, was recalled to the Red Keep by Queen Cersei. At the sight of the king's retreat, the watchmen manning the city walls began to break and flee by the hundreds, killing their commanders, including Ser Jacelyn Bywater, in the process.

Arrival of Tywin Lannister

Though Stannis' army was still split across the Blackwater, victory was now within his grasp. Just as quickly as it had turned in his favor, however, it was torn away by the sudden appearance of royalist reinforcements on his flanks. The army of the westerlands under Lord Tywin Lannister had joined with the greater part of Renly's army west of the city, and had marched with all haste to its relief.

The van of the army was led by Ser Garlan Tyrell, dressed in the ornate and unmistakable armor of Renly Baratheon, leading to confusion and disorder amongst Stannis' ranks, and even stories that Renly had risen from the dead and fought as a ghost for Joffrey. Divided, suprised, and outnumbered, Stannis' host broke quickly, with many of his lords bannermen switching allegiance mid-battle, proving as fickle to Stannis as they had to the deceased Renly. A few hundred loyalists, chiefly Florents, escaped, along with Stannis himself on the Lysene galleys which had been left in Blackwater Bay while the rest of the fleet had burned.

Despite his survival and escape to Dragonstone, the battle was a decisive defeat for Stannis, and the end of his claim to the Iron Throne for the time being.

References and Notes