Assault on Dragonstone

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Assault on Dragonstone
Conflict Aftermath of Robert's Rebellion
Date 284 AC
Place Dragonstone
Result Baratheon victory
Combatants
House Baratheon.svgIron Throne/House Baratheon House Targaryen.svgTargaryen loyalists
Commanders
House Baratheon.svgStannis Baratheon
Strength
New royal fleet
Fury
Garrison of Dragonstone

The assault on Dragonstone[1] occurred in 284 AC after Robert's Rebellion.

Prelude

King Aerys II Targaryen impregnated Queen Rhaella Targaryen during Robert's Rebellion, his ardor raised after burning his Hand of the King, Lord Qarlton Chelsted, for opposing the wildfire plot.[2] After the Mad King learned that Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen had been killed by Lord Robert Baratheon in the Battle of the Trident, he sent Rhaella with Prince Viserys Targaryen to Dragonstone, the ancient island stronghold of House Targaryen.[3] Years later, Ser Jaime Lannister of the Kingsguard remembers Rhaella traveling from Aegon's High Hill to a ship in the morning,[2] while Viserys tells his sister Daenerys tales of a midnight flight to Dragonstone.[4]

The royal family who remained in King's Landing, including Aerys and Rhaegar's children, were slain in the Sack of King's Landing in 283 AC. With Rhaella and Viserys at Dragonstone, Robert Baratheon succeeded Aerys on the Iron Throne as Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. King Robert tasked his oldest brother, Stannis Baratheon, who had successfully withstood the siege of Storm's End during the rebellion, with building a new fleet for House Baratheon of King's Landing.[5]

Aerys's widow, Rhaella, died giving birth to Daenerys nine months later at the castle of Dragonstone, the last stronghold held by the Targaryens. A ferocious storm raged that night and destroyed the Targaryen fleet while it lay at anchor.[4]

Battle

Commanding from the decks of the war galley Fury,[1] Stannis set sail with the new royal fleet to capture Dragonstone. The garrison of its castle was ready to sell Viserys and the infant Daenerys to the Baratheons. However, just before Stannis sailed, Ser Willem Darry, the former master-at-arms of the Red Keep, led four other loyalists in smuggling Viserys, Daenerys, and a wet nurse from Dragonstone under cover of night. They sailed for the Braavosian Coastland across the narrow sea.[4]

Stannis's assault on Dragonstone was successful,[1] and he conquered the island and its castle in the name of King Robert I Baratheon.[6]

Aftermath

With the conquest of Dragonstone, the Targaryens lost their last holding in the Seven Kingdoms.[4] Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen lived in exile with Ser Willem Darry at the house with the red door in Braavos,[7] until Darry's death.[4]

King Robert I Baratheon granted Dragonstone to Stannis Baratheon, making him Lord of Dragonstone. The island castle was traditionally the seat of the crown prince, the Prince of Dragonstone, so Robert honored Stannis by granting him the seat of the heir to the Iron Throne.[5][8] However, Robert was also furious that the Targaryen children had escaped before Stannis arrived, and he granted the ancestral Baratheon seat of Storm's End to the youngest brother, Renly Baratheon, which Stannis resented as an intentional slight.[5][9]

Quotes

I never asked for Dragonstone. I never wanted it. I took it because Robert's enemies were here and he commanded me to root them out. I built his fleet and did his work, dutiful as a younger brother should be to an elder, as Renly should be to me. And what was Robert's thanks? He names me Lord of Dragonstone, and gives Storm's End and its incomes to Renly.[5]

I built a fleet at Robert's command, took Dragonstone in his name. Did he take my hand and say, "Well done, brother, whatever should I do without you?" No, he blamed me for letting Willem Darry steal away Viserys and the babe, as if I could have stopped it.[5]

References