Game of Thrones spin-off The House of the Dragon is already halfway through the third season, with both armies of the Blacks and Greens preparing for a pivotal confrontation that could dictate who will win the war.
With Lord Ormund Hightower nestled inside Tumbleton, Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen is forced to divert the combined northern-rivermen army marching to King’s Landing and repel the 15,000-strong Hightower force away from the market town.
Rhaenyra needs a swift victory in Tumbleton if she hopes to defend her infant dynasty that Prince Daemon Targaryen is already trumpeting as the second coming of Valyria.
While uncertainty and fear grip both sides ahead of the big battle in Tumbleton, let us look back at some of the one-sided climactic battles that ended dynastic families and paved the way for Targaryen rule in Westeros.
Field of Fire
This confrontation was so lopsided that it became a symbol of how hopeless the Seven Kingdoms truly were against the might of Aegon the Conqueror’s dragons.
The Lannisters of the Westerlands and the Gardeners of the Reach have been rivals for centuries. But the arrival of Aegon the Conqueror and his sister-wives, Rhaenys and Visenya, in Westeros prompted Kings Loren I Lannister and Mern IX Gardener to set aside past animosity and unite their strength against a common foe.
The two kings fielded 55,000 infantry and 5,000 knights to fight the dragonlords. On the other hand, Aegon commanded a meager 5,000 men.
According to sources, the two armies met near the Goldroad, just south of the Blackwater. Mern IX had the honor of commanding their army’s center, with his son, Edmund, leading the vanguard. Loren I held the right wing while Lord Oakheart reigned in the left.
When the combined Lannister-Gardener force seemed inches away from routing the Targaryen army, Aegon and his sister-wives then unleashed their greatest advantage: dragonfire.
Atop Balerion, Meraxes, and Vhagar, the dragonlords burned 4,000 in the battle, including Mern IX and all of his family, rendering the Gardener dynasty extinct in a single day. Seeing their cause lost, Loren I was forced to abdicate the throne of the Rock, becoming Aegon’s first Warden of the West.
This battle was forever known as the Field of Fire.
Last Storm
At the time of Aegon’s Conquest, the Seven Kingdoms were in a state of aggression against one another. Argilac Durrandon, the King of the Storm, deeply resented the Ironborn expansion in the Riverlands.
At first, Aegon appeared to be a potential ally for Argilac. However, the Lord of Dragonstone rejected the Storm King’s marriage offer for his maiden daughter, Argella.
Aegon instead offered his rumored bastard brother, Orys Baratheon, to marry Argella.
Insulted by the counteroffer, the Storm King had the hands of Aegon’s envoy cut off and sent to Dragonstone.
Sources claim that Argilac’s response triggered Aegon’s decision to conquer the Seven Kingdoms.
After his landing in Westeros, Aegon tasked Orys to conquer the Stormlands. Hearing what befell House Hoare, Argilac decided to call his banners and meet Orys in open battle.
Orys chose to form a defensive position in the hills south of the Bronzegate.
Knowing he had the numerical advantage, the Storm King pressed his knights to attack to dry and dislodge the Targaryens from their position.
As the storm rain turned the soil to a muddy mess, Argilac’s vanguard charged multiple times.
The fourth attack proved to be their undoing as Rhaenys and Meraxes surprised Argilac’s knights with dragonfire.
Thrown off his horse’s saddle, Argilac continued fighting, slaying six men.
Orys then dismounted from his horse to offer the Storm King a chance to surrender. Argilac refused, opting to fight Orys in a single combat.
Orys then slew the last Storm King, resulting in a massive Durrandon rout.
Argilac died without a son, making Argella his heir. Orys then chose to marry Argella to unite her claim to his.
He adopted House Durrandon’s words and sigil, but took the name Baratheon, completing the conquest of the Stormlands.
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