Faith Militant uprising

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Faith Militant uprising
Date 41 AC48 AC
Location Seven Kingdoms
Result Faith Militant Disbanded.
Belligerents
House TargaryenFaith of the Seven
Notable commanders
King Aenys I Targaryen
King Maegor I Targaryen
Ser Damon Morrigen
Septon Moon
Ser Joffrey Doggett
Strength
Royalist housesFaith Militant Rebel houses.
Losses
Septon Murmison, Hand of the King

The Faith Militant uprising was a general rebellion by the militant orders of the Faith of the Seven against the rule of House Targaryen over the Seven Kingdoms.[1][2]

History

The Faith Militant uprising was a large conflict that engulfed the Seven Kingdoms for seven years. It's root causes began in the reign of King Aenys. The constant (though largely unintentional) slights the Faith of the Seven suffered by King Aenys led to an armed rebellion against the Iron Throne by the Seven.

The first of these slights began on the Iron Islands when a man who claimed to be King Lodos reborn was dispatched by Goren Greyjoy. Goren sent the pickled head of the would be king in a jar to King Aenys who in gratitude granted Goren a boon. A decision that Aenys would later regret, as Lord Goren used the boon to oust the Faith of the Seven from the Iron island's to the despair of the rest of the realm and to the anger of the Faith of the Seven.

The second slight happened in 39 AC when Prince Maegor took a second wife named Alys Harroway. This marriage angered the Faith of the Seven and the High Septon (whose niece was Maegors first wife) so Aenys tried to placate the faith by stripping Maegor of his office and sending him into exile to Pentos. A renowned Septon known as Murmison replaced him as Hand of the King.

The final slight that enraged the faith and led to armed rebellion happened in 41 AC when Aenys had his daughter Rhaena wed to his son and heir Aegon receiving a denunciation from the faith "King Abomination", Pious Lords and even smallfolk who once loved Aenys turned against him. Murmison was expelled from the faith for performing the wedding of Aegon to Rhaena and was later torn apart by smallfolk in a litter two weeks after he performed the ceremony. The Faith Militant uprising had begun. [3]

Conflict

Aenys died less then a year when the conflict started, some say due to illness caused by the strain he suffered. Many others though claim he was killed by Visenya Targaryen so she could place her own son Maegor king. Which is what happened.

Ravens flew, declaring a new King had been crowned and that those who defied him would suffer a traitors death. Maegor mounted the Black Dread and set for King's Landing to crush the uprising. Landing on Visenya's hill he planted his standard, rallying his supporters to him. Visenya challenged those who questioned her son right to rule to prove themselves. A challenge that the Captain of the Warrior's Sons accepted.

Ser Damon Morrigen challenged Maegor to a Trial of seven who which Maegor accepted. Ser Damon and six Warrior Sons against the King and his six champions. It was a conquest in which the Kingdom itself was at stake. In the end only King Maegor was left alive, the other thirteen lay dead. Though King Maegor took a blow to the head and collapsed just as the last Warrior Son died. For twenty seven days he lay in a coma. On day twenty eight, Queen Alys returned from Pentos bringing with her Tyanna of Pentos who many whispered was a sorcerer. On the 30th day the King awoke.

Maegor mounted Balerion and without warning flew over the Sept of Remembrance on Rhaenys's Hill unleashing the Black Dread's flames and consuming the Sept and all within in dragon flame. Those who tried to flee were slain by archers Maegor had placed around the hill. The screams of burning and dying men were said to echo in the streets of King's Landing and for it was claimed for seven days a pall hung over the city.

At the Battle of Stonebridge, Maegor brutal methods against the Faith made the Mander run red with blood for twenty leagues. The bridge and castle that commanded it was forever known as Bitterbridge thereafter. Another fierce battle was fought at the Great fork of the Blackwater which was a decisive victory for King Maegor whose dragon left death in it's wake.

The uprising all of Maegor's reign. Maegor's extremely bloody and harsh methods for crushing the rebellion, placing a bounty on the heads of the members of the orders, a gold dragon for any scalp of a Warrior's Son and a silver stag for the scalp of a Poor Fellow, gained him the name 'The Cruel'. Even the death of the High Septon in 44 AC and his replacement by a more passive one did nothing to stop the determination of the Warrior's Sons and Poor Fellows. [4]

Septon Moon and Ser Joffrey Doggett led a large army of Poor Fellows against the king in 48 AC .[4]

Upon Maegor's death in 48 AC, King Jaehaerys I Targaryen offered an immediate amnesty on pain of the Faith Militant's disbanding, which was accepted. For this, Jaehaerys I was given the name 'The Conciliator'.

References and Notes