In our previous video on the history of Westeros we covered the conquest of the Seven Kingdoms
by Aegon I, and the battles against Kings Argilac the Arrogant, Loren Lannister and
Mern Gardener. The victory of the Dragonlords in these battles secured their control over
the continent, and although their dynasty began well it was not without bloodshed. The
rebellion of Daemon Blackfyre was one of these devastating events, and it culminated in the
Battle of the Redgrass Field.
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Aegon I’s conquest of Westeros stalled during the attempted invasion of Dorne, and his sister-wife
Rhaenys, as well as her dragon Meraxes, perished in the fighting. For a century and a half
after the conquest, Dorne continued to resist invasions and incursions. In 158 Daeron I
conquered Dorne, but their guerilla tactics and deception lead to his death in 161 after
he was invited to faux peace negotiations. After the death of the Young king, his brother
Baelor I became King and made peace with Dorne, which had now regained its independence. Upon
his return to the capital at King’s Landing, Baelor imprisoned his three sisters in the
newly built Maidenvault of the Red Keep. One of them, Daena, continuously escaped from
captivity and eventually became pregnant, giving birth to a son, Daemon Waters, in 170
AC. The incredibly pious Baelor I fasted for 40
days and nights after discovering this, and perished as a consequence. In 171 he was succeeded
by his uncle Viserys II. This competent monarch had three children: a frail and pious daughter
Naerys, the noble dragonknight Aemon, and the handsome but irresponsible Aegon.
After a year of rule King Viserys II died, supposedly of natural causes, but rumours
persist that he was poisoned by his son Aegon, who succeeded as Aegon IV in 172. He immediately
began to rule in an arbitrary and careless fashion, filling his court with opportunists,
sycophants and women who would allow the King to satisfy his his lusts with them. He would
appropriate land from one noble house, only to grant it to another family which had earned
his favour on a whim. This caused immense dissatisfaction among the nobility of Westeros.
The most damaging impact on the realm would become obvious in 182. The bastard Daemon
Waters was an incredibly competent warrior, and supposedly looked the spitting image of
Aegon I. At twelve years old he was knighted by Aegon IV, becoming the youngest knight
in Westerosi history. Then, in an act that surprised everyone, he granted the ancestral
Valyrian steel blade Blackfyre to Daemon, revealing him to be HIS bastard son.
After this, Aegon’s 29-year-old trueborn son Daeron began to actively oppose his father’s
rule, and a core of similarly minded nobles began to form around him. This opposition
caused a quarrel between the Prince and his father, and the king purposefully questioned
the legitimacy of his son. In 184, when Aegon lay on his deathbed, he legitimised his many
bastard sons, including the popular Daemon Waters, who then took the name Blackfyre.
After he did this, Aegon IV died and was succeeded by Daeron II.
The crown-prince received news of his father’s death in Dragonstone and within a fortnight,
was crowned by the High Septon in the Red Keep. In order to proclaim his legitimacy,
the new King also wore his father’s crown. Daeron immediately set to work undoing the
worst of his father’s excesses, removing the inept and corrupt members of the late
King’s Small Council and replacing them with wise and capable men. He also attempted
to address the rot within the City Watch, which Aegon IV had let fall into disrepute
and decay. Despite his father’s appalling treatment
of him, Daeron would not undo Aegon’s last wishes and de-legitimise his bastard half-brothers.
Instead, he attempted to stabilise the realm by treating them honourably, allowing them
to get the incomes from their lands. The principal Great Bastard Daemon Blackfyre, was wed to
Rohanne of Tyrosh [ti’rosh] as Aegon had wished. On their wedding day, Daeron granted
Daemon a tract of land near the Blackwater and the permission to raise a castle of his
own. It is possible that the King did these things because he was kind and just, however
others say that he did them to assert his rule and legitimacy. Whatever the motivation,
these efforts eventually proved to be in vain. Another key aspect of Daeron’s reign was
the final unification of the Seven Kingdoms. After two years of negotiation with Dorne,
an agreement was reached: Daeron’s sister Daenerys was to be joined in marriage with
Prince Maron Martell, while Daeron would marry Maron’s sister Mariah. The princes of Dorne
maintained many privileges and rights, as well as maintaining their own laws and tax
collection. In 187 Prince Maron knelt and swore his oaths to the Iron Throne.
Many Westerosi nobles were now dissatisfied, as it was widely believed that Dorn had gained
too many concessions and privileges, and that Dornish nobles had too much influence at court,
encouraged by queen Mariah. Knights and lords, who had been used to intermittent warfare
with Dorne, still held their old animosities, and began to distrust the peacemaking king.
In addition, there were still questions raised about Daeron’s legitimacy, due to the rumours
spread by his late father. All of these factors played a part in sowing the seeds of rebellion,
and these would grow over the following decade. Many of the dissatisfied lords and knights
of the realm would seek out the exemplary Daemon Blackfyre. Two of these nobles – another
bastard of Aegor IV, Aegor ‘Bittersteel’ Rivers, and Ser Quentyn ‘Fireball’ Ball
- played a key role in convincing Daemon that he was the rightful heir, and the latter gradually
became convinced that he should claim the throne. The young Blackfyre himself had ample
reason to be dissatisfied. The status of a bastard began to anger him, and there were
rumours that the marriage of Daenerys, whom he loved, caused him to loathe King Daeron.
In the early weeks of 196, Daeron received word that his half-brother intended to declare
himself king within a month. It is not known how this knowledge reached him, but it is
likely that another of the Great Bastards, Brynden Rivers, alerted him.
As soon as the king was informed of Daemon’s intentions, he dispatched his elite guard,
the Kingsguard, to arrest the would-be usurper before his plans could progress any further.
However, Daemon was forewarned by Ser Quentyn Ball. With his help, the claimant to the throne
escaped the capital. Those who supported Blackfyre’s claim used
this attempted arrest as the catalyst for war, claiming that the King had acted against
his brother out of nothing more than baseless fear. It was this final event that ignited
the First Blackfyre rebellion in 196; Daemon raised the reversed Targaryen banner, showing
a black dragon on a red field. The rebels then declared for Daemon Blackfyre, first
of his name, proclaiming him the true eldest son of Aegon IV.
Half the realm declared for the rebels and half remained loyal to the king, with a patchwork
of Houses remaining neutral. Meanwhile Lord Bracken, who supported Daemon, had travelled
across the narrow sea in order to hire Myrish crossbowmen and other mercenaries.
Fighting broke out across the Seven Kingdoms almost immediately, except for in the North,
which was ambivalent to the internal squabbling of the south. In the West, Ser Quentyn Ball
commanded an army attacking the Westerlands and managed to win two battles in that region,
killing Lord Lefford at the gates of Lannisport and then defeating Lord Damon Lannister almost
immediately afterwards. After turning south, ‘Fireball’, as he was commonly known,
also defeated a loyalist force at the Mander River and killed almost all of Lady Penrose’s
sons. Further south in The Reach, the loyalist Leo
Tyrell fought against traitorous forces in that region and won many victories. Despite
that, the Blackfyre forces kept Leo occupied, and he was unable to march north in time for
the final battle. In 196 after almost a year of open rebellion
across the Seven Kingdoms, the usurper Daemon gathered his forces and marched towards King’s
Landing. In response, Prince Maekar Targaryen organised the nearby loyalist forces into
a coherent force and went to confront the rebels, while Prince Baelor travelled south
in the hopes of rallying Stormlanders and Dornish forces to assist.
The two armies met on a plain near the capital, with the high Weeping Ridge anchoring their
flanks. The numbers of troops at the Battle of the Redgrass Field are unknown, but it
is widely believed the initial armies were in balance. Both forces had a vanguard of
heavy knights in the center with another smaller contingent of lighter cavalry on the wings
and infantry behind. Lord Donnel Arryn commanded the loyalist Van
with the Kingsguard Lord Commander Gwayne Corbray at his side. Meanwhile, Prince Maekar
commanded the infantry from behind his line. The loyalists also had the elite skirmishing
force of Brynden Rivers, the Raven’s Teeth, fighting for them. Meanwhile, the enemy force
was under the command of Daemon Blackfyre and his two sons at the point of his vanguard,
with Aegor ‘Bittersteel’ Rivers on the right and Lord Costayne on the left.
The usurper began the battle by charging with his vanguard into the loyalist’s cavalry
frontline. Daemon and his elite warriors were unstoppable, cutting the opposing vanguard
to pieces and scattering the remains to the rear. As this happened, a famous duel occured
between the usurper and Ser Gwayne Corbray, both fighting with Valyrian steel swords.
The fight went on for many minutes before Daemon managed to severely injure his opponent,
leaving him blind and bleeding. Rather than breaking the loyalist line, he then stopped
in his tracks, ordering his men to take the honourable Ser Gwayne to the rear so he could
receive medical assistance. By this time, Brynden Rivers and his elite
company of archers had mounted the Weeping Ridge and stood ready to attack. Seeing the
Blackfyre assault succeeding, he ordered his longbowmen to rain arrows down around the
reversed Targaryen banner. Daemon’s elder son Aegon perished first under the hail of
missiles, followed by Daemon himself. His younger son Aemon then took up Blackfyre,
but Brynden slew him as well. With their leaders and vanguard decimated
by the loyalist archers, the rebels gradually began to flee. However, Aegor Rivers, who
had commanded the right flank at the beginning of the battle, was able to rally the fleeing
soldiers into a counter charge at the royal forces, while he fought a duel with Brynden
Rivers and took one of his eyes. It appeared for a moment as if this might break the royal
forces, but then warhorns were heard from the rear. Prince Baelor had entered the battlefield
with a host of Dornish and Stormlanders and crashed into the rebels from behind. At the
same time, Prince Maekar ordered his army to charge the enemy front, which crushed them
between his anvil and Baelor’s hammer. 10,000 men died on the Redgrass Field, a victory
which ended the First Blackfyre Rebellion and secured King Daeron’s rule.
However, Aegor Rivers managed to flee the battle and escaped to Essos, where he would
form the Golden Company mercenary group. He also took with him the five surviving sons
and several daughters of the dead Blackfyre claimant. While the first rebellion had been
quelled, the Blackfyre Pretenders continued to plague the Seven Kingdoms until Maelys
the Monstrous died at the hands of Ser Barristan Selmy in 260 AC.
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