A World of Ice and Fire: The Reign of Daeron II by Maester Yandel:
Despite the excesses of his father, Daeron inherited a relatively stable throne. Although the crown was heavily in debt, Baelor's infrastructure projects in Dorne were already paying dividends to the Iron Throne, and the prince held much political influence thanks to years of acting as a counterweight to Aegon's corruption. Traditional institutions such as the Kingsguard, the Citadel, and the Faith threw their weight behind Daeron as soon as he ascended, counteracting the opposition of the City Watch, the Alchemist's Guild, and Aegon's cronies within the bureaucracy.
With political backing from some of the most powerful institutions in Westeros, Daeron's first act was to flush out the court of corruption. The city watch of King's Landing was cut in size, with most of its gunpowder force incorporated into the Kingsguard, and public funding towards the Alchemist's Guild vanished. The small council was reshuffled, with more capable and honest lords replacing Aegon's loyalists. Finally, a task force of maesters was formed to audit the records of the civil service to look for corruption among minor officials and servants.
By 185 A.C., nearly a tenth of the crown's bureaucracy and the Royal Court was replaced with Daeron's supporters and more competent and honest officials, with much of the difference coming from Dorne thanks to the effort of Daeron's wife, Queen Myriah Martell.
After his own government was sorted out, Daeron's next action was finalizing the unification of Dorne with the Iron Throne. The king initiated a flurry of correspondence with his goodbrother, Prince Maron Martell of Dorne, to negotiate the final details involving Dorne's incorporation with the other six kingdoms. Much of the groundwork was already laid by Baelor I, whose infrastructure projects established a lot of goodwill with the Dornish that lasted even in spite of Aegon's failed invasion of the peninsula. Nonetheless, communication delays, some haggling regarding the political autonomy of Dorne, and each ruler's own domestic concerns caused negotiations to last close to two years, but in 187 A.C., the Treaty of Union was signed between Dorne and the Six Kingdoms, formally incorporating Dorne with the rest of the continent.
In exchange for swearing fealty to the Iron Throne, the Treaty of Union gave two notable concessions to the Dornish. The first was the betrothal of Princess Daenerys to Prince Maron, which was largely a symbolic move meant to garner support for the union, while the second was giving Dorne much more leeway in their own affairs compared to other Great Houses sworn to Daeron. While the Dornish allowed the Iron Throne to enforce its own laws in Dorne, agreed to transition their currency to the Westerosi dragon used by the rest of the continent, and ceded the ability to regulate trade with other regions under the auspices of the Iron Throne, the Dornish retained several other powers. Most notably, Daeron gave Sunspear the ability to collect taxes in the name of the Iron Throne and the ability to implement their own foreign policy, barring declaring war. These concessions gave considerable autonomy to Dorne for the time, but as the hold of the Targaryen kings weakened, it would soon become the norm for the relationship between King's Landing and the subordinate regions.
The time between the Treaty of Union and the First Blackfyre Rebellion was a relatively calm period without many major reforms or events. The conclusion of the first phase of reformations in Daeron's rule characterized the political happenings of this time period, alongside the construction of the Water Gardens and Summerhall in celebration of the Treaty of Union. Both the Water Gardens and Summerhall were modest retreats for the Martell and Targaryen families, as both lords had more pressing financial matters than another palace to build.
However, underneath the surface of stability that Daeron's rule provided was a powder keg waiting to explode. Daeron's reorganization of the court and his corruption probes left many bitter officials and soldiers, and due to the increasing Dornish presence in court thanks to Queen Myriah, rumours flew around the court that Daeron was part of a Dornish conspiracy to dominate the entirety of the Seven Kingdoms. Other dissidents revived the theory that the king was of illegitimate birth, further reinforcing the idea that there was some Dornish conspiracy now behind the throne.
The most concerning divisions emerged in the Kingsguard, primarily under Ser Aegor Rivers and Ser Quentyn Ball. The bastard of Aegon IV and Barba Bracken quickly rose to the rank of colonel, but he still harbored a deep resentment of the king for banishing Aegor and his mother to Stone Hedge, which was only eclipsed by his hatred of his erstwhile comrade and half-brother Ser Brynden Rivers. Meanwhile, Ser Quentyn Ball was one of the beneficiaries under the massive expansion of the City Watch by Aegon, rising the ranks to command the gold guard, which swelled in size to division-sized unit at its height. The former king, in another bout of bestowing titles to his loyal subordinates, promised Quentyn a position as one of the Kingsguard's commanders as soon as a vacancy opened, but he passed away before any position in the general staff opened. For reasons lost to time, when an opening appeared in the general staff, Daeron passed over Quentyn for Ser Willem Wylde, causing the former to begin plotting treason even before Daemon decided to press his claim to the throne.
Due to the integration of the vast majority of the gold guard into the Kingsguard, Quentyn had many contacts and connections within the officer corps of the Kingsguard, while Aegor became a focal point for opposition against the king. Most dangerously, Quentyn was promising enough officer that Daeron appointed him colonel of the Ironwatch Regiment, the honor guard of the Targaryens and the only Kingsguard unit present in the Arsenal Palace and the heart of the capital. This put the discontent Quentyn in a prime position to launch a coup.
Surprisingly, Daeron's purges never extended to the Kingsguard, presumably because he thought his uncle, Prince Aemon, had suppressed corruption in the army of the Crownlands. This proved to be a critical mistake. Aemon had populated the officer corps with political appointees to fund his reforms, of which many had loyalties to his brother or his cronies. While Aemon was able to control his officer corps thanks to his reputation and experience, successive Lord Commanders were not as politically capable, leading to increased corruption and loyalties to officers rather than the Iron Throne. Daeron's purge of the civil government often swept up friends and family of these officers, leading to further resentment in the Kingsguard. Aegor was aware of these happenings, and he assembled a cabal of these treasonous officers working to coup Daeron, including Quentyn.
The conspirators realized that they needed legitimacy for their rebellion to succeed, so they approached Daemon to ask him to proclaim his claim for the Iron Throne. Daemon already harbored some bitterness towards his half brother, due to Daeron's refusal to let Daemon wed Princess Daenaerys and then Daeron's marriage alliance between Princess Daenaerys and Prince Maron Martell. Although he rebuffed some isolated efforts by disgruntled courtiers before, Daemon realized that he could have a realistic chance at the throne if several lords and a large portion of the Kingsguard launched a swift and bloodless coup and decided to join the plot in late 195 A.C.
The Kingsguard would be the largest force involved in the First Blackfyre Rebellion, but the First Blackfyre Rebellion would also be the first true test of gunpowder units outside the direct control of the Iron Throne. Maester Sowyer's The Evolution of Regional Militaries offers a far more in-depth perspective regarding the development of gunpowder units under the control of the Lords Paramount and their subordinates, but as a brief overview, the Lords Paramount all had sizeable, but inexperienced gunpowder units. The last combat experience many of these armies had was either during the Dance of the Dragons, five and sixty years ago, or in the case of House Tyrell, six and thirty years ago during the Conquest of Dorne. Virtually all veterans of the aforementioned conflict had either retired or died, meaning that the only experienced officers in the armies of the Great Houses were former Essosi mercenaries of dubious loyalty accustomed to a different style of fighting, or Kingsguard veterans.
In addition, there also was the matter of centralization. While Aemon established a general staff that would head the Kingsguard, the Lords Paramount did not have the political capital to consolidate their military forces under their own banner. As such, initial gunpowder armies were regional affairs, with vassals commanding armies. Although the Lords Paramount were still able to exert control over these forces, oftentimes by establishing a local monopoly on weapons and gunpowder manufacturing and having a large army directly under their control, their vassals were responsible for raising and training troops as well as officers. As a result, while these armies nominally flew the banner of the Lords Paramount, their loyalty was to their commander, not any regional capital or the Iron Throne.
However, what these inexperienced armies possessed were numbers. By 190 A.C., the Westerlands and the Reach possessed more soldiers than the Kingsguard, with the other populated regions (barring the Iron Islands and Dorne due to their smaller population) gradually approaching the size of the royal army.
Daemon's support base primarily lay in the Reach, particularly among the Marcher Lords who viewed the Dornish influence of the court with considerable alarm. Headed by Lord Gormon Peake, these marchers could muster eight thousand infantry, two thousand cavalry, and a dozen artillery pieces. The Marcher Lords of the Stormlands also covertly pledged loyalty to Daemon, bringing another four thousand soldiers and five artillery pieces to Daemon's side. There was also a smattering of support in the northwestern regions of the Reach and within the Westerlands. Quentyn Ball used his connections to amass a sizable opposition in the northern areas of the Reach, bringing in half of the Reach's Army of the North - roughly six thousand men - into the conspiracy. Likewise, Ser Robb Reyne, a prominent Kingsguard officer who was part of Quentyn's inner circle of conspirators, persuaded the rest of his house and by proxy several thousand men within House Lannister's personal army to join the Blackfyre conspirators. A couple thousand men, chiefly from Houses Bracken and Shawney, would be the final army that would rise against the Iron Throne, courtesy of the efforts of Aegor Rivers and Lady Barbrey Bracken's political capital.
In total, nearly five and forty thousand men - five and twenty thousand regional soldiers and twenty thousand Kingsguard pledged themselves to Daemon's cause. With an elite corps of Kingsguard at their head and a sizable regional army, the plot could have easily succeeded if given enough time. In a stroke of luck for Daeron, his only loyal half-brother, Ser Brynden Rivers, discovered the plot a month before the conspirators could launch their coup. In the dark of the night in 196 A.C., the Raven's Teeth regiment under Ser Brynden Rivers and elements of the 3rd Division under Ser Gwayne Corbray sailed across the Blackwater Rush from the Aegonfort located there with orders to arrest Daemon Blackfyre and Quentyn Ball, beginning the First Blackfyre Rebellion in earnest.
Despite the loyalist's best efforts at secrecy, the movement of several thousand men could not be concealed under the cover of darkness, and Quentyn was roused from his sleep by a panicked orderly telling of forces bearing down on the capital. By the time the Ironwatch were roused, the loyalist forces had swiftly locked down the ports and roads with dragoons, while the infantry were fanning out and slowly closing in on Daemon and his supporters. The Raven's Teeth and Ser Brynden Rivers beelined the Arsenal Palace, seizing it without significant opposition from the unprepared Ironwatch guardsmen. However, the sheer size of King's Landing meant that Quentyn was able to quickly rally the majority of his regiment, and they made a fighting retreat, rescuing Daemon and other loyalists before breaking through a weak point in the loyalist cordon closing in on Daemon and the Ironwatch. They then fled north along the Rosby Road.
Although the conspirators were surprised that their plot had been discovered, Daemon had contingencies in place. The Ironwatch Regiment had lost two thirds of its troops escaping King's Landing and warding off pursuing cavalry on the Rosby road, but they managed to make it to the Aegonfort north of King's Landing, where Aegor Rivers was garrisoned along with the 3rd Heavy Dragoon Regiment. From the Aegonfort, ravens were dispatched to barracks across the Crownlands, bearing a secret code for the traitors within the Kingsguard to rise up and declare for Daemon. The conspirators had the advantage of preset plans, and forces loyal to Daemon often immediately acted upon receiving the raven, whereas the loyalist forces were confused and had no idea who the traitors were in their ranks. This advantage proved critical, and by the end of the week, the loyalist Kingsguard was decisively crippled. Of the half of the Kingsgaurd that still retained its loyalty to Daeron, the traitors captured or killed a third of its officer corps, a fifth of the rank-and-file, and nearly half the gunpowder stores. In addition, the vast majority of the Crownlands fell to Daemon, due to a combination of the lords sworn directly to the Iron Throne lacking any standing army and resentment towards Daeron for seemingly favoring the Dornish over his subjects in court.
The story was similar across much of the Seven Kingdoms, and the first week of the Blackfyre Rebellion would soon be known as the Black Week due to the spate of victories in favor of the Blackfyres during that time and the disarray caused among the Targaryen loyalists. In the Reach, saboteurs detonated the Highgarden Arsenal, crippling the supplies of the Tyrell army, while Blackfyre declarants captured or killed all loyalist officers above the rank of sergeant in the Reach's Army of the North. The Lannister vassals who sided with Daemon would not immediately reveal their true allegiances, instead opting to remain within the Lannister army undetected until the right moment came. In the Riverlands, the Iron Throne's only major success during the Black Week came when a combined Tully and Blackwood force was able to repel a Bracken-led force attempting to seize saltpetre production facilities along the Red Fork. However, House Bracken and its supporters were still able to lock down the south bank of the Red Fork, effectively cutting the Riverlands in two and negating Lord Medgar Tully's ability to assist other theaters in suppressing the Blackfyres.
In total, nearly thirty thousand Targaryen loyalist soldiers were killed, captured, or otherwise incapacitated, while the Blackfyres suffered well under five thousand casualties. In addition, the success of the Black Week turned support against the king. Many lords who initially intended on raising their banners for the Iron Throne dithered and delayed mobilization following the Black Week or supported both sides even up to the Hand of the King, Lord Ambrose Butterwell, who infamously ordered each of his sons to support an opposing side.
A year of maneuver and battles would follow, until the First Blackfyre Rebellion's apex at the Battle of the Redgrass Field. As Westeros' first major conflict with all-gunpowder armies, I cannot do justice to the development of strategy and tactics during the rebellion, as inexperienced field armies gradually evolved into the professional forces we see in Westeros today. Maester Ronas' Guns of Red and Black offers a more thorough analysis of the First Blackfyre Rebellion, as opposed to the brief overview I will be providing, region-by-region.
In the Reach, despite losing much of his gunpowder supply and weaponry, Lord Leo Tyrell would fight a brilliant campaign against the Marcher Lords, strategically attacking castles and holdings to incite political divisions within the Peake host. By the seventh moon of 196 A.C., the Marcher Lords devolved into political infighting and were unable to take any unified action as a single host, which Leo Tyrell utilized to his advantage by launching a night raid on their camp and capturing or killing virtually every prominent lord in the Blackfyre's southernmost army. Only Lord Gormon Peake managed to escape, leading a regiment of cavalry to pillage the Tyrell before eventually heading north and joining the main Blackfyre army in the Crownlands. However, logistical shortages exacerbated by a much higher than predicted consumption of gunpowder and bullets and the destruction of the Highgarden Arsenal meant that Lord Tyrell had to spend several moons rearming his host, at which point that Rebellion had already concluded at the Battle of the Redgrass Field.
At the same time, the Army of the North set out to neutralize House Lannister while House Tyrell was preoccupied in the south and marched their host of six thousand into the Westerlands, leaving only a small blocking force at Goldengrove. Lord Damon Lannister decided to meet the Fireball's host in the field, expecting that his fifteen-thousand strong army would be able to trounce the much smaller Blackfyre force. At the Battle of Crakehall, Damon Lannister executed a classic double envelopment, using the weight of his numbers to establish a much longer front line and envelop the opposing force. Unfortunately, House Reyne's forces on the far right flank struck their banners and raised Blackfyre ones, shortly before charging their former allies. The morale shock of having close to four thousand soldiers turn traitor proved to be too much for the Lannister forces, and a general rout followed, where over half of Damon's remaining force was picked off as they ran back to Casterly Rock. Soon, Damon was holed up in Casterly Rock with a little over three thousand men and thrice as many men besieging him, but due to a lack of heavy artillery, the Blackfyre army could do little more than invest the castle and attempt to starve out Damon. Nonetheless, the Targaryen loyalists in the Westerlands were neutered, and most of the Blackfyre force soon left to assist the Riverlands and the Crownlands, leaving a force of five thousand to maintain the siege of Casterly Rock and keep order in the Westerlands.
The Riverlands were a far more static front compared to the Reach and the Westerlands for most of the Blackfyre Rebellion. House Bracken and the other Blackfyre supporters entrenched themselves along the Red Fork, utilizing the natural barrier the river provided to ward off House Tully's army. When a Stark host of five thousand led by Lord Barthogan Stark arrived some two moons after the Black Week, they attempted to force a crossing near what would be known as the Ruby Bridge. With the support of House Darry, which suddenly switched from neutrality to supporting the Targaryens, Barthogan laid a pontoon bridge across the Trident and attempted to cross his men over, only for Aegor Rivers to wreck the bridge with some well-placed artillery fire and shatter the Stark and Darry infantry that did manage to cross with a cuirassier charge into the already confused Targaryen forces. After the failed crossing, the Riverlands once again returned to the tense standoff along the Red Fork, punctuated only by sporadic artillery fire and skirmishes along the Red Fork.
Three turns of the moon passed before any serious offensive in the Riverlands was made by either side, but the Targaryens launched another attempt to cross the Trident. This time however, the Targaryens had multiple advantages. First, House Lothston realized that the stalemate was playing into Daeron's favor, as it gave his loyal Lords Paramount time to muster their own forces, and they decided to betray the Blackfyre cause. Secondly, an Arryn army of twelve thousand that marched out from the Bloody Gate in support of Daeron, giving them nearly a three-to-two numerical advantage in the Riverlands. Finally, Daeron's diplomatic efforts in Essos had disrupted Daemon's efforts to find a backer in the Free Cities, meaning that the Royal Fleet, which had stayed loyal to Daeron, could now sail freely without fear of an Essosi armada.
This time, the Targaryen forces launched a three-pronged assault. First, House Lothston's forces fortified Harrenhal and the surroundings, harrying Blackfyre forces and effectively splitting the Riverland forces in two. As a result, the couple thousand Blackfyre men west of Harrenhal were unable to respond to the crossing in time. Secondly, the Royal Fleet, sailing from Gulltown, seized Saltpans in the dead of the night, taking the defending militia completely by surprise. From there, the Royal Fleet fleet quickly ferried a couple thousand Seaguard and Arryn soldiers across the Bay of Crabs, and within two days of the capture of Saltpans, a host of two thousand men marched towards Lord Harroway's Town to seize the bridgehead across the Red Fork, while a thousand cavalry raced south to cut off and encircle the defending force. By the time the Blackfyres were able to rally an effective force to break through the cordon established by the Lothstons and the Arryn cavalry, the thousand-strong garrison defending the crossing at Lord Harroway's town had surrendered. With Arryn, Stark, and Tully forces streaming over the crossing, the Riverlands became untenable, setting the stage for the Blackwater Campaign.
Meanwhile, the Crownlands had also devolved into an impasse. Thanks to the efforts of Ser Gwayne Cobray, the loyalist Kingsguard was able to hold and fortify King's Landing. A new fort was constructed between the Blackfyre-held Aegonfort on Rosby Road, and the arrival of two thousand Baratheon infantry plus the Seaguard meant that the Blackfyres couldn't directly assault the capital. As a result, Daemon and his cabal of officers spent most of the year in the Crownlands launching ineffective cavalry raids or reinforcing the Riverlands as Stark and Arryn soldiers attempted to cross the Red Fork. However, with news of House Peake's defeats in the Dornish Marches and further mobilization in Dorne and the Stormlands, Daemon realized that he needed to act before the Lords Paramount swamped him with sheer numbers. When news of the defeat at Lord Harroway's Town reached Daemon, he decided it was time to act. The Blackfyres dispatched ravens for the Blackfyre units in the western Riverlands, including the reinforcing host from Casterly Rock, to march along the Blackwater Rush, while the Kingsguard would advance south and meet them to present a strong enough host to attempt to seize King's Landing.
As Daemon started marching south, even the most incompetent office could deduce Daemon's plan. However, the forces loyal to Daeron could not intercept the Blackfyre army in time, so Lord Hayford, the new Hand of the King after Daeron sacked Lord Butterwell, dispatched light cavalry and infantry under Brynden Rivers to delay their advance. Under the Bloodraven, the light units did a superb job of harrying Daemon's advance, inflicting several thousand casualties and giving time for Arryn forces to advance south and join Daeron's host. With rumours that a Dornish host was finally marching from Sunspear, Daemon had to force a battle, and several miles west of King's Landing, the loyalists finally offered battle.
Thanks to the last-minute reinforcements, Daeron's forces possessed a slight numerical advantage, fielding five and twenty thousand men to Daemon's two and twenty thousand. However, the Blackfyre forces had several advantages despite the numerical disparity. First, the majority of the Targaryen forces were outside the Kingsguard, such as the two thousand men from the Stormlands, a thousand Seaguard, the two thousand men from the Riverlands and the North, and ten thousand Arryn soldiers. On the other hand, Daemon commanded fifteen thousand Kingsguard, with only seven thousand soldiers coming from regional armies from the Reach, the Westerlands, and the Riverlands. In addition, a sizable fraction of the Targaryen kingsguard were light infantry and light cavalry units, which tended to be less prestigious units that Aemon overlooked when he sold off positions in the Kingsguard. With an advantage in line infantry and heavy cavalry, the Blackfyres were confident in their ability to break the Targaryen line and open a clear path towards King's Landing.
The first disaster for Blackfyres occurred a few nights prior, when Targaryen reconnaissance patrol killed Ser Quentyn Ball while the Blackfyre commander was surveying the outskirts of the Blackfyre camp. Despite Daemon and Aegor's own tactical acumen, Quentyn was the primary force behind the Blackfyre war plans and an important figurehead as part of the Blackfyre triumvirate alongside Daemon and Aegor, and his untimely death prior to the battle was a severe blow to Blackfyre morale prior to battle.
Nonetheless, Daemon pressed on, and the Blackfyre and Targaryen forces met each other at Redgrass Field. The chosen battlefield was mostly flat, save for a sizable ridge on the Targaryen right flank (and the Blackfyre left flank) that overlooked the entire battlefield. The Targaryen line placed the Kingsguard and their most experienced units at the flanks, hoping for an envelopment. Thanks to prior reconnaissance of the battlefield, Ser Gwayne Cobray and Lord Hayford, who assumed command of the Targaryen forces, placed most of their light infantry and dragoons on their right flank to seize the ridge, under the command of Brynden Rivers. Lord Donnel Arryn and the Arryn line infantry under his command formed the center of the Targaryen line, while Ser Gwayne Cobray held a significant reserve in the rear should the untested Arryn forces break prematurely.
On the other hand, the Blackfyres attempted to execute a declined flanking maneuver, a tested tactic dating back to the Lockstep Legions that dominated pre-gunpowder Essos. Their right flank consisted of regional forces stiffened by a handful of Kingsguard, led by Ser Aegor Rivers and Lord Shawney. Daemon commanded the center, consisting of Blackfyre line infantry, while Lord Costayne took the left flank, which consisted of the elite Foot Guards, heavy dragoons, and curaissers meant to break through the flank and envelop the Targaryen forces.
As the sun traversed over the sky, each side deployed their light infantry and cavalry to maneuver and skirmish with each other, while the artillery rained down shot and shell on the tightly-packed line formations of the enemy.
The Targaryen numerical advantage in cavalry and the Blackfyre advantage in field artillery cancelled each other out, resulting in both sides inflicting similar casualties during the opening round, but on the Weeping Ridge, Brynden's light infantry and light dragoons gained a clear edge over the enemy, slowing pushing them back from the heights. As the Blackfyre artillery made itself more known, Lord Hayford decided to advance and meet the Blackfyre line in combat.
In over two centuries of the existence of gunpowder on the continent, a true gunpowder battle had never existed before. The battles of Aegon's Conquest and Dance of the Dragons were either skirmishes between barely battalion-sized units fighting against each other, or absolute butchery as gunpowder units laid into helpless spear levies and knights alike. The closest would be Daeron's daring assault on the Dornish positions at the Battle of the Boneway, but the nature of the Dornish defences and the large contingent of spearmen and archers on the Dornish side meant that the battle played out more like a medieval siege than any true battle between line infantry.
At Redgrass Field, the sight of well-ordered blocks maneuvering as one and the plumes of smoke erupting from these blocks as line infantry volleyed shots at their opposing foes painted a new face of warfare on the continent. Nevertheless, the commanders were less focused on the impact their strategies may have on the militaries of the future compared to achieving victory on the current battlefield. The differing deployments each side offered meant that virtually every unit on the battlefield was either pressing forward or falling back. As expected, the Daemon's Kingsguard regiments pushed back their opposing forces, while the Riverlanders gradually retreated as the Targaryen Kingsguard utilized their superior drilling and experience to outshoot their opponents.
Soon after both lines began exchanging massed fire, Brynden finally triumphed over the Blackfyre light infantry on the Weeping Ridge, pushing them completely off the critical position. Although he could not execute any true flanking maneuver with his light infantry and cavalry, the seizure of the ridge allowed the Targaryens to set up horse artillery on the slopes, enfilading the Riverlander levies. As the Targaryen left flank seemed poised to break the Blackfyres, disaster struck when Daemon ordered a massed charge. The Arryn forces, already demoralized by the gunfire exchange and the constant artillery bombardment, broke as Blackfyre Kingsguard surged forward with their bayonets. Forces had to be diverted from both flanks to supplement Ser Gwayne Corbray's forces as they tried to plug the gap, but the disorganized nature of the response was spotted by the Blackfyre commanders. Artillery batteries redoubled their efforts and focused on the center, while the flanks launched spoiling attacks, delaying reinforcements and sowing further confusion among the Targaryen forces.
Seeing victory was at hand, Daemon ordered his troops to continue the assault. Well-ordered line formations devolved into haphazard collisions with other formations. Most engagements ended swiftly as one side broke, but some melees were between nigh-fanatical units, resulting in fights that would last up to an hour. In one infamous incident, the corresponding companies led by Lord Butterwell's sons charged at each other, and the ensuing clash claimed the entirety of both companies. The brothers were the last to fall, with their swords claiming each other's lives.
When an errant shot knocked Ser Gwayne Cobray off of his horse, victory seemed imminent. However, Daemon decided to tend to his injured opponent, leading his personal guard into the fray to retrieve the Targaryen commander, charging and breaking the few units between him and Gwayne. However, as Daemon assisted the commander onto a horse, the guns atop the Weeping Ridge erupted in flame once again. As fate would have it, one cannonball, a six-pound sphere made of cast iron, soared over the heads of Targaryen and Blackfyre soldiers alike to cleanly decapitate Daemon Blackfyre. To this day, most of the realm swears that magic or divine providence was what fell Daemon that day, whether it be whatever fell powers Brynden Rivers made a pact with or the righteous judgement of the Seven. Nonetheless, the sight of their leader toppling to the ground headless reversed all gains made in the Targaryen center. Soldiers already enduring heavy losses and exhaustion were pushed over the edge as their reason for rebelling died ingloriously on Redgrass Field. A general rout soon followed, and half of the surviving Blackfyre army was soon streaming from the battlefield.
Aegor knew the rebellion was over when Daemon died, but his hatred for his half-brother only swelled, and he soon rallied the right and sent messengers to Lord Costayne to rally the left flank. Contemporary Targaryen accounts describe both commanders cutting down the next dozen routers they saw, while Blackfyre accounts and records from the Golden Company only describe Aegor firing a shot into the air before rallying his soldiers with inspired oratory.
Given that the enemy forces had seemingly routed for good, the Targaryens abandoned any formations to pursue the fleeing Blackfyre forces, so Aegor and Lord Costayne's charge came as a complete surprise. Soon, Targaryen forces caught out of position and shocked by the reversal of the battle were the ones breaking away from the battlefield. Aegor's host advanced uphill after shattering the pursuing line infantry and cavalry, inflicting heavy casualties on the light infantry atop the hill. At one point in the battle, Brynden and Aegor were less than a hundred feet from each other, and according to legend, the half-brothers shot at each other with their pistols. Both officer's bullets struck home, with Aegor hitting Brynden in the eye, and Brynden hitting Aegor in the stomach. Through pure force of will, Aegor managed to remain standing, while soldiers pulled his hated half-brother to safety. However, the defense of the Raven's Teeth bought enough time for Maekar to rally his own forces and hold the Weeping Ridge along with the rest of the Targaryen left flank.
Although the efforts of Brynden and Maekar held the left flank, the Targaryen right flank, which had suffered less casualties and contained the Blackfyre elites, broke completely. Exploiting this gap, Gormon Peake led his remaining eight hundred cavalry through the routing infantry directly towards Lord Hayford's command post. With the last reserves already committed in a frantic bid to stabilize the front, Lord Hayford only had his guard battalion nearby, which the Peake cavalry outnumbered two-to-one. Despite their best attempt at forming a square, Lord Hayford's bodyguard was overwhelmed, and a stray shot killed the Hand of the King.
By noon, over half of the soldiers who assembled at Redgrass Field were either dead, injured, or fleeing. The Blackfyres had a numerical edge in terms of combat-effective soldiers, but the Targaryens held the Weeping Ridge. The conclusion of the battle was still up in the air, and even with Daemon's death, the Blackfyres may still have rallied under another Blackfyre to take King's Landing and gain even more legitimacy for their cause. However, as the Blackfyres pushed up the hill slowly, Martell and Baratheon banners appeared in the distance, emerging from the smoke.
Prior to the battle, Ser Brynden Rivers had utilized his freeriders and light dragoons to deny the Blackfyres any attempt at scouting. Thanks to the harrying of Daemon's forces as marched south to meet up with his regional forces, the Blackfyre light cavalry and light infantry units were already depleted, and Brynden's concentration of his light forces along the banks of the Blackwater Rush plus the natural barrier the river offered prevented any meaningful reconnaissance beyond the river. In addition, the Kingsguard officer had also waged a disinformation campaign, utilizing spies and double agents to feed the Blackfyre high command reports that the Dornish and Stormlands army that Baelor managed to rally was several weeks away from the Crownlands. In truth, the bulk of Baelor's force was only seven days away, but several days prior, the prince detached his several thousand cavalry to rush towards the Blackwater Rush.
At the same time, Lord Hayford sent a covert company of engineers masquerading as a light infantry detachment patrolling the Blackwater Rush to make preparations to construct a pontoon bridge. The cavalry arrived at the river the night before the battle, at which point the engineers erected two pontoon bridges in the cover of darkness. By morning, four thousand cavalry were crossing the Blackwater Rush, and although one pontoon bridge collapsed, taking a couple hundred cavalrymen with it, most of the force made it intact over the river. A combination of the Blackfyres not expecting any flanking force from the rear and all the gunpowder smoke obscured Baelor's host, allowing it to march undetected until one of Aegor's retinue spotted movement a kilometer away.
Caught between Maekar's line infantry and Baelor's cavalry, the Blackfyre host broke once again, this time for good. The Battle of Redgrass Field proved to be a decisive Targaryen victory, ending the First Blackfyre Rebellion. While there were a few engagements after, such as the relief of Casterly Rock and the pursuit of Aegor Rivers and the Blackfyre family, the Targaryens had reasserted their authority over the continent.
Approximately twelve thousand men were either killed or injured, and another five thousand were captured at Redgrass Field, with both sides sustaining similar casualties. Of particular note would be the excessive rate of casualties among the officer corps of both sides, which had a casualty rate double that of enlistees. Of the ten major commanders on the field, only three escaped any sort of harm, and both commanders, Daemon Blackfyre and Lord Hayford, died. Maester Ronas theorizes that the deaths of so many officers was a result of the chivalric idea that knights led from the front, a notion that quickly faded due to the deaths of so many noble officers at Redgrass Field.
The Battle of Redgrass Field is still taught to this day across the military academies of Westeros and even some in the Free Cities. Modern military theory has its roots in the lessons learned from Redgrass field with ideas such as the importance of terrain, morale, and leadership being increasingly emphasized over the more abstracted military theory previously taught. However, the impact on military theory and strategy is the least of the First Blackfyre Rebellion's impact, and its failure would soon become a catalyst for change across the entire realm.
Author's Note:
So, the First Blackfyre Rebellion!
Originally, I wanted to cover all of Daeron II's reign in one single chapter, but the First Blackfyre Rebellion took a ton of effort to write.
Regional armies are my answer as to how subjects under the Lords Paramount will still be relevant (at least leading up to Robert's Rebellion). Basically, the Lords Paramount have about the same authority as the Holy Roman Emperor as the head of a conglomeration of smaller states at this time. I plan to increase centralization as the 3rd century A.C. progresses, but some regions like the Riverlands and the Reach will still have relatively independent vassals by Robert's Rebellion.
A combination of this decentralization and the fact that Westerosi attitudes are still changing as the Targaryens modernize the continent means that the First Blackfyre Rebellion still plays out like a medieval war, albeit with guns. As such, internal politics with the army are a much greater factor than in the 18th and 19th century, hence Leo Tyrell's ability to divide-and-conquer the Marcher Lords and the mass defection of the Reyne forces at the Battle of Crakehall.
The Battle of Redgrass Field is a conglomeration of strategies employed during the Seven Years War and the War for Austrian Succession and some playing around in Empire: Total War. The real outlier in this battle is how many generals were killed, which would be extremely anomalous (although Field Marshals and Kings did still die from battlefield injuries during the 18th century).
Next chapter will finish Daeron's reign.