Battle of the Blackwater

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Battle of the Blackwater
Jedruszek battle of the b.jpg
by Tomasz Jedruszek. © Fantasy Flight Games
Conflict War of the Five Kings
Date 299 AC
Place King's Landing / mouth of the Blackwater Rush
Result House Baratheon of King's Landing victory
Combatants
The King in the Narrow Sea
The King on the Iron Throne
Commanders
King Stannis Baratheon
Ser Imry Florent+
Ser Guyard Morrigen+
Ser Rolland Storm
Lord Salladhor Saan
Ser Davos Seaworth
Lord Tyrion Lannister
Lord Jacelyn Bywater+
Kingsguard Sandor Clegane
Lord Tywin Lannister
Ser Garlan Tyrell
Lord Mace Tyrell
Lord Randyll Tarly
Strength
200 ships with landing party.
16,000 men-at-arms, knights, light cavalry, and freeriders. ~5,000 men in landing party.
50 ships
6,000 city watch, mostly conscripts and Janos Slynt's new men
300 knights, squires and men-at-arms
800 sellsword of Tyrion
<80,000 Lannister-Tyrell reinforcements
Casualties
See below Most of the fleet,
47 lesser lordlings
619 knights and several thousand men-at-arms,
ground army scattered or switched sides[1]
See below Most of the fleet,[2]
1,600 gold cloaks killed or deserted,
ground forces casualties unknown

The Battle of the Blackwater is the largest battle in the War of the Five Kings. The battle is fought between forces loyal to Stannis Baratheon and those loyal to Joffrey Baratheon. Stannis's army is on the verge of defeating the garrison of King's Landing, but is taken by surprise and all but annihilated by the joint forces of Tywin Lannister and the Tyrells.

Prelude

Dragonstone

Stannis is one of the members of King Robert Baratheon'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 Lannister.

Taking his suspicions and what proof he could muster, in the form of Robert's numerous bastard children, to Lord Jon Arryn, Stannis hopes to convince the Hand of the King, one of Robert's oldest and most trusted friends, of the Lannisters' treason. When Jon dies under suspicious circumstances shortly thereafter, Stannis flees to Dragonstone, his seat of power, where Stannis closes the port and its surrounding waters.

After Robert dies, Stannis rallies what strength he could, with but few Houses sworn to Dragonstone, and hiring mercenaries and pirates of the Free Cities to augment his forces. As the lord of an island fiefdom and the former Master of Ships, Stannis's naval power is considerable, but the sparse population of the rocky, volcanic islands surrounding Dragonstone leave him without the strength to risk openly contesting the Lannisters.[3][4]

Having failed to rally the storm lords to his cause in secret, Stannis presents his claims through letters distributed throughout the Seven Kingdoms, proclaiming Joffrey Baratheon 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, and a rumor spread by the Lannisters that Stannis's own daughter, Shireen Baratheon, is a bastard, Stannis's proclamation ends as little more than tavern gossip.[4]

Battling Renly

Even before Stannis's ravens have taken wing with his claim, his younger brother Renly Baratheon has ridden from King's Landing to Highgarden, where he weds Margaery Tyrell, the daughter of Lord Mace Tyrell, and claims the crown for himself. For Stannis, this is blatant treason. Moreover, Stannis is infuriated with the knowledge that the the Stormlands have 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, Storm's End. On Dragonstone Melisandre tells Stannis of two futures she has seen in her flames, one in which Stannis is defeated in King's Landing by his brother Renly, and one in which he sails to Storm's End, where his brother shall die, and his men will flock to Stannis. This leads Stannis to strike for Storm's End.[5]

Stannis lays siege to the coastal fortress, which is under the command of Ser Cortnay Penrose, but all his might is but a meager thing against all the strength of the Stormlands and the Reach at his brother Renly's command. When Renly abandons his march on King's Landing, bringing all his knights and mounted forces to lift the siege, Stannis is vastly outnumbered. However, before the battle can begin, Renly is slain by a shadow called forth by the shadowbinder Melisandre.[6]

With Renly dead, the greater part of the knights and lords who had been sworn to him submit to Stannis, the last Baratheon, chief among them House Florent, relatives of Stannis's wife, Selyse Florent. About a fifth of the cavalry does not submit, and flee under the command of Ser Loras Tyrell back to Bitterbridge, where almost 60,000 men of Renly's army wait with his widowed Tyrell queen.[7][8] Loras captures the knights Stannis sent to try and recruit the Reach and Stormlands infantry still encamped at Bitterbridge.

Prelude

Unaware of the capture of Ser Parmen Crane and Ser Erren Florent, Stannis's army marches on King's Landing. Reinforced with some of the strength of the Stormlands, King Stannis has almost twenty thousand men at his command, mostly knights and freeriders, against the few thousand gold cloaks of the City Watch of King's Landing. However, the city is guarded to the south by the Blackwater Rush, and requires an amphibious assault to conquer. Stannis moves his host and fleet upon King's Landing.

Under the direction of the acting Hand, Tyrion Lannister, King's Landing strengthens its defenses, doubling its City Watch, burning the buildings outside the city walls and constructing a chain which would allow the defenders to close off the Blackwater Rush, as well as preparing ships loaded with wildfire. Tyrion sends out his remaining 150 mountain clansmen to harass Stannis's flanks in the kingswood. Stannis's vanguard arrives early, and Joffrey's war galleys are dispatched to exchange arrows with his forces. The vanguard is said to have five thousand men, flying the banners of Houses Fossoway, Estermont and Florent, under the command of Ser Guyard Morrigen. [9]

Treacherous waters and inclement weather delay Stannis's fleet on its northward journey from Storm's End. About a dozen ships are lost on the journey to Blackwater Bay and the troops on land suffer days of harassment from Tyrion's clansmen and skirmishers in the kingswood, despite burning swaths of the forest trying to ferret them out.[9] Stannis gives command of the fleet to Ser Imry Florent, who commands from Stannis's galley, the Fury. Stannis himself is on the south side of the Blackwater with his host, making them create arrows and rafts.[10]

The Battle

Battle on the River

The wildfire burns the Blackwater - by Amok ©

Stannis's fleet sails up the Blackwater Rush with almost all their strength. Confident of his superior numbers, and knowing that the fleet of King's Landing cannot hope to contest them, Ser Imry does not send scouts ahead, and attacks immediately, leaving only a contingent of 30 Lyseni mercenary galleys led by Salladhor Saan as rearguard out in Blackwater Bay. The fleet is organized into ten battle lines composed of twenty ships each. The first two lines, made of war galleys belonging to the royal navy and the lords of the narrow sea, were to smash the enemy fleet. A third line of war galleys, together with the Myrish sellsails, are to land troops to attack the city, before joining the first two lines in battle. The smaller and slower ships are to ferry Stannis's host.[10]

When Stannis's fleet engages with Joffrey's, they encounter ships loaded to bursting with wildfire, a deadly accelerant, which burns even on water. Spreading downstream it soon engulfs in flames the closely packed ships of both fleets, which find their retreat cut off by the massive chain that has been raised between two winch towers at the mouth of the river.

The wildfire unleashed a tremendous amount of damage, destroying Joffrey's small fleet and a large portion of Stannis's. However, a few of Stannis's ships escape the conflagration: eight ships manage to land troops to the northern bank, and forty or so galleys remain ready to row Stannis's main force across the river. The congestion of wrecks caught by a pier unwittingly provides a bridge - albeit a burning, unstable one - for the army to cross.[10]

Attack on King's Landing

Tyrion during the Battle of the Blackwater ‎- © 2012 John Picacio

The city itself is defended by some 5,700 gold cloaks (300 having been sent to escort Petyr Baelish in his attempt to recruit the Tyrells), leavened with 800 mercenaries and 300 knights, squires, and men-at-arms from the court and the surrounding Crownlands. As acting Hand of the King, command of the defense is taken by Tyrion Lannister.[11]

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

Realizing that they have to drive off the rams and hold the river at all costs, Tyrion makes to lead the next sortie himself. Shamed into action by the dwarf's display of courage, the Kingslanders rally to clear the riverbank one last time; at this point Cersei, fearing for her son, has Joffrey withdraw to the Red Keep from amongst the men.[12] As soon as the defenders see the king retire, their morale breaks and they begin throwing down their spears and flee by the hundreds, leaving the walls and killing their officers, including Ser Jacelyn Bywater, in the process. Tyrion manages to disperse the attackers at the King's Gate and make for the Mud Gate,[13] where he takes the fight to the riverfront as they observe a large group of Stannis's soldiers crossing over the bridge of ship wreckage in the river. However, in the fighting amidst the wreckage of the collapsing bridge of boats, Tyrion is severely wounded at the hands of Ser Mandon Moore of the Kingsguard, who had been Tyrion's sworn shield throughout the battle. [14] With the bridge breaking up and their Hand lost in battle, the defenders retreat within the city walls. At this point the battle seems to be lost.[15]

Arrival of Tywin Lannister

Lannister soldiers defending King's Landing – by Tomasz Jedruszek. © Fantasy Flight Games

Though Stannis's army is still split across the Blackwater, victory is now within his grasp. Just as quickly as the tide had turned in his favor, however, it is turned again by the sudden appearance of foes on his flanks. Unknown to either the attackers or the defenders, the Tyrells have accepted Tyrion's alliance offer, which was sent with Petyr Baelish, and Renly's former army has marched from Bitterbridge, uniting with Lord Tywin Lannister's own host in the shadow of the kingswood.[12]

Tyrion's wildlings in the kingswood create a blind spot for Stannis by killing his outriders and scouts, and allow the Tyrell vanguard to take Stannis's smaller and partially crossed host unaware from the side. Lord Tywin leads the right, on the north side of the river, Mace Tyrell the left, and Randyll Tarly the center, but much of the fighting is done by the vanguard, led by Ser Garlan Tyrell.

Garlan is dressed in the ornate and unmistakable armor of the late Renly Baratheon, leading to confusion and disorder amongst Stannis's ranks, and even stories that Renly has risen from the dead and fights as a ghost for Joffrey. "Renly's shade" slays Guyard Morrigen, who leads Stannis's van.

Divided, surprised, and outnumbered, Stannis's host breaks quickly, with most of his lords bannermen switching allegiance mid-battle, proving as fickle to Stannis as they had to the deceased Renly. The Bastard of Nightsong leads a rearguard action that allows some Stannis loyalists, chiefly Florents, to escape, along with Stannis himself on the Lysene galleys which had been left in Blackwater Bay while the rest of the fleet burned.[16] However, thousands of troops are left behind.[17]

Aftermath

The triumphant Tywin Lannister in King's Landing - by Pojypojy ©

Despite Stannis Baratheon's survival, the battle is a major defeat for House Baratheon of Dragonstone, as he is able to retreat with only a fraction of his army and a token fleet to Dragonstone.

Most of the captured storm lords and men of the Reach bend the knee to King Joffrey. With the newly forged Tyrell alliance, the Lannisters now control the whole south and west, commanding overwhelming superiority of numbers in the field. The end of the war seems close.

Honors and Rewards

King Joffrey and the small council grant the following honors and rewards to the participants and survivors of the battle:

Highborn Hostages

Notable Casualties

Lannister/Tyrell forces

Stannis' forces

Ships

King Joffrey

King Stannis

Quotes

It was Lord Renly! Lord Renly in his green armor, with the fire shimmering off his golden antlers! Lord Renly with his tall spear in his hand! They say he killed Ser Guyard Morrigen himself in single combat, and a dozen other great knights as well. It was Renly, it was Renly, it was Renly! Oh! the banners, darling Sansa! Oh! to be a knight![12]

- Dontos Hollard to Sansa Stark


My hirelings betray me, my friends are scourged and shamed, and I lie here rotting. I thought I won the bloody battle. Is this what triumph tastes like?[15]

- thoughts of Tyrion Lannister


Too many good men died that day.[17]

- Tyrion Lannister to Kem

References and Notes