At this point, in the war of the Five Kings, it seemed that the Lannisters were surrounded
by enemies on all sides and were about to be crushed - with Robb Stark winning impressive
victories and Stannis Baratheon marching on the capital. But Tywin Lannister was ever resourceful
and even in this seemingly desperate situation was looking for ways to improve his position.
Still, the battle for King’s Landing that would be later known as the Battle of Blackwater was
about to start, and the defeat in that battle could have ended even most genius of Tywin’s
machinations. The fate of his family now rested upon the shoulders of his hated son - Tyrion.
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In the aftermath of the victories at the battles of the Fords and Crag, the Starks
and Tullies were celebrating and planning their next moves, but events transpiring to the south
would change their outlook very soon. Tywin had at this stage received word that Stannis
had taken Storm’s End and was now marching and sailing his swollen army towards King’s Landing.
This necessitated a course correction from the Lannister Patriarch - he left a small
force under Gregore Clegane to continue harassing the Riverlands and turned Southeast on a forced
march towards the headwaters of the Blackwater Rush. Here he met the Lords Tarly and Rowan,
agreeing to an alliance between the Lannisters and Tyrells, which changed the balance of power.
Stannis Baratheon didn’t know about this alliance and was marching northeast towards the King’s
Landing hoping to take the capital and the throne. However, this would prove to be less
simple in practice than it was in theory: the son of Tywin Lannister Tyrion was appointed
the Hand of king Joffrey. He had inherited all of the guile and intelligence from his father
and made what preparations he could to defend the city. In order to prevent any defections,
false rumours were spread claiming that Stannis intended to raze the Great Sept of Baelor to the
ground as a sacrifice to his new deity Rhollor. Likewise, stockpiles of wildfire were secured
for the siege and the Vale Mountain Clans were sent out to harass and harry Stannis’s advance.
The number of the city guard - Gold Cloaks was increased threefold, artillery constructed and
sellswords hired for the defence of the city. Most importantly of all, however,
Tyrion ordered the construction of a great chain boom across the mouth of the Blackwater.
The total garrison of King’s Landing amounted to seven to eight thousand men, with the
primary contingent being 5,700 Gold Cloaks, supplemented by 800 sellswords, 300 knights,
squires, and men at arms, hundreds of engineers manning ballistae, scorpions and catapults,
alongside contingents of House’s Stokeworth and Rosby, while the navy consisted of a paltry 45
war galleys complemented by vessels requisitioned from traders and what was described to be a swarm
of hulks, skiffs, ferries, and barges. Tyrion also had 150 or so members of the Mountain clans
which were his personal allies and he sent them towards Stannis to harass his forces.
By way of comparison, Stannis commanded a force of 16,400 cavalrymen primarily hailing
from the Reach as well as contingents from the Stormlands and Crownlands. He had also
embarked some 4,600 infantrymen upon his ships who were primarily raised from the Crownlands,
Lys and Myr on 200 ships, with 60 war galleys, 40 smaller Myrish war galleys, 80 carracks and
lumbering great cogs as well as 25 Lysene pirate galleys under the command of Salladhor Saan.
At the urging of Ser Davos Seaworth, Lady Melisandre is left behind in
order to ensure the victory is deemed to be Stannis’ and Stannis’ alone.
Despite the attempts of the Mountain Clans of the Vale, who utilized scorched earth and hit-and-run
tactics in order to slow the advance of Stannis’ warriors the former Lord of Dragonstone duly
arrives before the Lannister Tyrell host. The Baratheon host countered the threat posed to their
baggage train by setting the Kingswood alight, effectively smoking out their harassers. So began
the largest and most decisive battle of the War of the Five Kings, the Battle of the Blackwater.
Stannis vanguard of five thousand men consisting of Houses Fossoway, Estermont and Florent under
the command of Ser Guyard Morrigen arrived early and a number of Joffrey’s war galleys
meet them head on exchanging arrow fire between them. The remainder of the fleet was delayed
by the treacherous water and terrible weather conditions causing the loss of a dozen ships.
Overall command of the fleet was granted to Ser Imry Florent who took up his position on
Stannis’ flagship Fury, while Stannis commanded the host on the South side of the Blackwater
ordering the creation of rafts and also arrows. The battle began properly when Ser Imry Florent
ordered the fleet up river in order to engage Joffrey’s ships, entering the visual range of the
city by the late afternoon. Stannis’ commanders were overconfident due to superior numbers,
scouts were not sent ahead and the entire navy moved forward with the exception Salladhor Saan’s
Lysene Galleys who were kept as a rearguard in Blackwater Bay. Florent organised the ships into
ten battle lines of twenty ships each, the first three composed of war galleys belonging to the
royal navy and Lords of the Narrow sea. The Myrish ships behind them were tasked
with landing their embarked soldiers to attack the city before joining the first three lines,
while the far slower and smaller sailed ships were to ferry the remainder of Stannis’ soldiers.
As they continued their approach Ser Davos noticed the newly constructed watchtowers
and the chain in the water, but at this stage, it wastoo late and the ships continue forward
irrespective of the imminent danger they now face. Trebuchets on the city walls
began to hurl stones at the oncoming fleet, while pots of pitch were also flung at them.
It is at this stage Tyrion’s plan to save the city came to the fore. A number of Joffrey’s ships
have been filled with wildfire and as Stannis’ fleet was lured into its doom, they imploded,
setting the ships and the river itself aflame as wildfire continued to burn even on the water.
To the horror of Stannis’ commanders, they realise they were now trapped within the torrent of heat
and flame as the chain has been drawn up behind them - the casualties were substantial. However,
the first two battle lines were well upstream of the roiling inferno which emerged behind them when
the hulks bearing the wildfire passed by them. Between thirty and forty galleys escaped the
initial blast, with eight landing under the city walls, allowing their man to make it to dry land,
likewise, the Myrmen were able to escape with their lives by sailing for the South Bank.
Within the walls of the city, Tyrion Lannister took charge of the defences, however, the first
threat he faced came from within the walls, as some drunkards in Flea Bottom begin looting and
Lord Jacelyn Bywater sent some of the Gold Cloaks tasked with defending the city to deal with them.
Tyrion then organized sortie parties of mounted men-at-arms and the miniscule number of knights
he had available to him under the command of Sandor Clegane and Ser Balon Swann to harass
the disembarking soldiers of the besieging host. This was initially successful in holding back the
onslaught of Stannis’ superior force, the casualties however are grievous.
Tyrion learned of a further complication with Stannis’ men successfully landing upon the
tourney ground and now preparing to ram the King’s Gate. He made his way to the King’s Gate, where
Sandor Clegane has already led three sorties. The knight who has been visibly spooked and drained
of his courage by the wildfire now embroiling the battlefield refused to venture out again.
Those gathered at the Mud gate seeing the warrior who towered above faltering, started losing heart.
Tyrion recognized this and seeing that desertion in can be imminent,
elected to lead the next sortie himself. The fact that one with such a short stature was willing
to fight shamed many of the defenders gathered there and they found courage to join their Hand.
Chroniclers would later write “That shamed them well enough. A knight mounted,
helmetless, and rode to join the others. A pair of sellswords followed. Then more. The
King’s Gate shuddered again. In a few moments the size of Tyrion’s command had doubled. He
had them trapped. If I fight, they must do the same, or they are less than dwarfs.”.
While Tyrion made his way out to disperse the attackers, the Mud Gate fell under attack.
Fearing for the safety of her son Joffrey, who was commanding the soldiers nearby,
queen-mother Cersei ordered him to be brought to the Red Keep. Before he left, the king ordered
members of his kingsguard Mandon Moore and Boros Blount to assist Tyrion. Still, king’s departure,
destroyed the morale of the defenders there who desert en masse slaughtering their commanders
among them Ser Jacelyn Bywater. Tyrion proves more successful however driving off the attackers at
the King’s Gate before wheeling around and making his way towards the lost Mud Gate. At this point
Ser Balon Swann alerted the acting Hand to a less than ideal situation developing on the River.
The galleys of which their commanders had lost control had smashed into one another creating a
bridge of sorts, which allowed the boldest among Stannis’ ranks to cross the river joining the
fray on the part of their lord. Sensing imminent disaster once more, Tyrion alongside his sortie
party made their way out onto the bridge in order to halt their opponents' advance.
The bridge was quickly breaking up however and Tyrion turned to retreat from the tenuous ground.
However, at this point, he was betrayed and attacked by Ser Mandon Moore,
who was possibly ordered to do so by Joffrey, who hated his uncle. Before he could slay the
Hand of the King outright however, Ser Mandon was himself killed by Tyrion’s squire Podrick Payne.
The bridge was now breaking and as the defenders thought that Tyrion was slain in the fighting,
they retreated behind the city walls. Their resistance continued here for a few hours,
but it was soon clear that Stannis’ troops are going to enter the city soon. Fortunately for the
defenders, soon they noticed that some kind of commotion was happening behind the enemy lines,
almost as if they were fighting among themselves. That was actually the relief force of between
twenty and fifty thousand Tyrells and Lannister soldiers - Tywin had arrived just in time to save
the city and his family. Moving from their initial position on the Blackwater Rush,
the Lannister host had force marched to Tumbler’s Falls where they joined with Lord Mace Tyrell’s
larger army and make use of the fleet of barges he has in place. Together they made their way
downstream before disembarking a half day’s ride from the capital and arriving at the battle around
dusk crashing into Stannis’ rear and taking the otherwise meticulous commander at unawares.
Lord Tywin took command of the right wing on the river’s North side, Randyll Tarly held
the centre with Mace Tyrell commanding from the left. The greatest shock of the day came in the
form of spectre of Renly Baratheon come to take his revenge on his brother for his assassination.
Garlan Tyrell wearing the easily recognizable armour of the fallen king cut a bloody swathe
through the dismayed Baratheon lines at the head of the vanguard, causing many more to
defect to the Lannister side believing their liege had returned. Ser Garlan then slayed Ser
Guyard Morrigen who commands Stannis’ van, causing further chaos among his ranks. According to the
chronicles: “They plunged through Stannis like a lance through a pumpkin, every man of them howling
like some demon in steel. And do you know who led the vanguard? Do you? Do you? Do you? It was Lord
Renly! Lord Renly in his green armor, with the fires 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!”. Salladhor Saan seeing how the tides were turning,
put his ships ashore taking as many survivors as he could fit, while Rolland Storm fought
a desperate rearguard action, allowing for Stannis and some of his remaining soldiers
to board the galleys with at least half of the remaining loyalists being Florents.
Due to the limited capacity of the galleys for soldiers to embark thousands were left behind,
and they began to turn on one another in an attempt to save their own lives.
Stannis was left with a bare fraction of the soldiers he had brought with him due
to defections and casualties respectively with his only remaining ships being those belonging to the
sellsword Saan as they retreated back towards Dragonstone. The garrison also suffered much
in the way of casualties with 1600 Gold Cloaks either killed in the fighting or having deserted
alongside the majority of the Sellswords, Knights and Men-at-arms having been killed,
however, the relief force suffered only minimum casualties in the ensuing chaos they caused.
The victory was simultaneously a decisive victory for the Lannister-Tyrell alliance as well as a
devastating blow to all others who claimed the Iron Throne. Joffrey at the behest of the High
Septon set aside his betrothal to Sansa Stark instead taking Margaery Tyrell as his bride,
cementing their alliance and immediately making the Lannisters the most powerful
force in the realm easily outnumbering the forces Robb Stark could bring to bear.
While Tywin Lannister relieved of much of the pressure he had previously been under
in Harrenhal, took up the role of Hand of the King proper. He was further proclaimed Saviour
of the City setting himself up in a position as the true strength behind the crown and setting
about to bring the conflict to a swift conclusion. While Tywin enjoyed the adulation of the people of
King’s Landing a small few would recognize the telling role the now grievously injured
Tyrion had played in saving the city, however, the youngest of the Lannister siblings stewed
in his anger and resentment a concoction of emotion which was to have devastating
consequences for his family: “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?”
The situation the Starks found themselves in was bad, but it was about to get much worse
as we will see in the future videos in our series which will be released soon. We are
planning to cover the battles of many other fantasy, sci-fi, and space opera universes,
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