Wonderland // Ned Stark // Petyr Baelish (1)

5. Rebellion

All the Tully bannermen answered the call with the exception of House Darry, who declared for Aerys, and House Frey, who did not declare for either side until shortly after the Battle on the Trident, when the war was all but won.

Realizing what was happening, King Aerys summoned his banners. The houses sworn directly to House Targaryen responded, as did the forces of House Tyrell, which commanded the most populous region in the Seven Kingdoms and hence the largest army. However, whilst House Martell vocally pledged support, privately Prince Doran was furious at the insult to his sister's honor, and mustered his troops with extreme lethargy. Disturbingly, Tywin Lannister refused to answer Aerys' summons and did not muster his forces, although he also seemed unmoved by requests from the rebels to join them as well. As always, House Greyjoy chose not to get involved in the affairs of the mainlanders.

While on paper the rebels enjoyed a slight numerical superiority as long as Houses Greyjoy, Lannister and Martell chose to remain out of the fighting, their strength was divided, with the Baratheon armies mustering in the Stormlands many hundreds of miles from where the Stark, Arryn and Tully forces were gathering in the northern Riverlands. Robert managed to return home safely, but found gathering his forces close to the hostile Reach lords and those of the Crownlands problematic. The situation was not improved by some of the storm lords and river lords rejecting their liege lords' commands and instead declaring for the king.

However, Robert was a charismatic leader, a strong warrior who led from the front and also skilled tactically. The Tyrell armies posed the greatest threat to the rebel cause, but due to the size of the Reach would take some time to assemble. He decided to go on the offensive, leaving his brother Stannis to hold Storm's End. Intelligence revealed that forces commanded by Lord Grandison, Cafferen and Fell were planning to attack his army after gathering near the ruins of Summerhall. Robert surprised them by attacking each army as it came upon the field, defeating it in turn and then waiting for the next to arrive. Winning three battles in one day added to Robert's reputation, and his charisma won the three lords and their men to his cause.

Robert advanced west to Ashford, but he had been out maneurvered by Lord Randyll Tarly, the most experienced general under Lord Mace Tyrell. Tarly had assembled a strong force in record time and took this army's vanguard ahead of the main force. Despite being outnumbered by Robert's forces, he held them at bay long enough for the main Tyrell host to arrive. Desperately outnumbered, Robert was forced to withdraw from the field. Mace Tyrell took the credit for the victory, boasting how he had 'smashed' Robert's armies, but in reality Robert's forces remained more or less intact, and Tarly had done nearly all the fighting.

With the Tyrell armies now fully mobilised, Robert had no choice but to abandon the southern front and attempt to link up with his allies in the north. To this end he force-marched his troops north towards the Riverlands.

Rather than pursue, the Tyrells continued to march east and instead besieged Storm's End, held by Robert's brother Stannis.

By this time, Aerys was furious with the lack of success in the war and replaced his Hand, Lord Owen Merryweather, with Ser Jon Connington. Connington was tasked with assembling an army out of the river lords who had remained loyal to the king, along with other forces from the Crownlands. Learning that Robert was marching north with his forces, Connington decided to intercept Robert and prevent his reunion with the northern armies. He succeeded in scattering Robert's forces. Robert himself went to ground in the town of Battle of Stoney Sept and Connington was unable to flush him out before another force led by Eddard Stark arrived, compelling Connington to withdraw. For his failure Connington was stripped of his rank and exiled to the Free Cities, and was replaced by Lord Qarlton Chelsted as Hand of the King, whilst Ser Jonothor Darry of the Kingsguard took command of his army.

Meanwhile, additional fighting had been taking place in the north. Ned Stark had returned north by sea to see to the muster of the northmen, but his ship was shipwrecked on Sweetsister. Lord Borrell knew that his liege lord, Lord Sunderland, although an Arryn bannerman, harboured royalist sympathies and would want Ned taken prisoner for a ransom. Lord Borrell chose to release Ned instead, and he returned home safely.

Whilst the forces of the Vale were able to muster with no major problems, Lord Tully encountered difficulties. Several of his bannermen had sided with Aerys instead, leading to fighting across the Riverlands, whilst Lord Walder Frey, whilst proclaiming his allegiance, refused to commit his 4,000 troops to the war. In addition, the continued hesitation from Tywin Lannister left a potential threat to the Riverlands' flank should he choose to side with the king. As a result, the war in the north bogged down into a number of minor skirmishes and battles.

At the beginning of Robert's Rebellion, Rhaegar and Lyanna first remained at the Tower of Joy. But as the tide was turning against the Targaryens, Rhaegar eventually marched to war with his loyal followers, leaving Lyanna to the Tower under the guard of Gerold Hightower and Ser Arthur Dayne.

The arrival of the northmen changed things, and Ned led a determined sally down the western shore of God's Eye to rescue Robert at Stony Sept. Upon his return, the rebels had enough strength to launch an assault on King's Landing. The bulk of the Tully and Arryn forces assembled on the north-eastern banks of the Green Forkand once joined by the Starks and Baratheons, they marched south along the Kingsroad to the main crossing point over the Trident.

By this time, Prince Rhaegar had reappeared to take command of the royalist army. King Aerys has made representations to Prince Doran Martell that his sister remained in King's Landing and in his power, whilst in a similar letter to Lord Tywin he commented that his son, Ser Jaime, as a member of the Kingsguard was in danger of being sent into the most threatening situations. Both threats seemed to work, and the Martells committed their forces to the cause, whilst, eventually, word came that Lord Tywin was leading an army to help defend the capital. Ser Lewyn Martell of the Kingsguard assumed command of the Dornish forces, and joined them to Rhaegar's royalist army at the Trident, although the Lannister host was still too distant to lend aid. Ser Jonothor Darry of the Kingsguard rallied the forces defeated at Stony Sept and joined them to Rhaegar's army as well.

King Aerys dispatched his pregnant wife and their youngest son, Viserys, to Dragonstone for safekeeping, under the protection of Ser Willem Darry, the master-of-arms at the Red Keep.

The royalist army, outnumbering the rebels by several thousand troops but considerably less experienced, met the rebels in the Battle of the Trident. The battle was a bloody one fought over the river crossing, but Robert proved victorious.

Rhaegar fought in the Battle of the Trident where he was killed personally by Robert Baratheon, as the latter wanted revenge for Rhaegar for kidnapping and raping Lyanna, which never really happened. With the loss of Rhaegar, the end result was nearly certain. Afterwards, House Lannister proceeded to sack King's Landing, resulting in the deaths of Rhaegar's first wife Elia and their two children, Rhaella and Aegon as well as Aerys, Jaime Lannister stabbed him in the back.

He killed Prince Rhaegar in single combat, whilst Ser Lewyn was slain and Ser Barristan Selmy of the Kingsguard was wounded and forced to yield. With their commanders killed or incapacitated, the royalist army routed, leaving the road to King's Landing open.

Robert had taken a wound, so Ned Stark led the rebel army straight down the road towards the capital, racing to reach it before the Lannister reinforcements. He failed, as the Lannister army arrived at the city several hours before his own forces. However, Lord Tywin had no intention of helping to save King Aerys. His army brutally sacked the city and wiped out the defenders. Ser Jaime turned his cloak and stabbed Aerys' through the back at the foot of the Iron Throne itself. Lannister bannermen stormed Maegor's Holdfast and killed Elia and her children, ending a potential rival threat to the throne.

Once that was done, Lord Tywin swore loyalty to Robert Baratheon and surrendered the city to Ned Stark when he arrived, thus effectively ending the war, although some fighting continued in the south.