Staedmon's Folly

In the year 185 AC, a revolt broke out a year after the death of King Monterys. But this was no spur of the moment uprising such as others, but a long planned rebellion that had been fomenting ever since the integration of Dorne into the realm.

Staedmon's Folly was a brief revolt caused by increased Dornish influence in the royal court as well as the rights the Prince of Dorne had been given years ago.

Prelude and Conspiracy
The chief instigators were Lord's Barristan Staedmon and Lord Gormon Peake, though Lord Barristan died before the revolt began. He was succeeded in the plot by his son Lord Maynard Staedmon.

In the aftermath of Dornish integration, many important positions had been filled by Dornishmen and with some nobles, there was a feeling that Dornish customs and culture would conquer Andal customs from within.

Lord Staedmon too had his own reasons for planning his rebellion. His son was going to marry Jacaerys's daughter, but before the betrothal was finalized the King married her off to the new Prince Martell, after the previous one had been fed to Tessarion.

In 173 AC, Lord Peake and the new Lord Staedmon garnered several major supporters, including Lord Benjicot Bracken, Lord Guy Costayne, Lord Ambrose Ambrose (who backed out in the year 180 AC, though his death a year later brought his brother back to the fold only to back out again later). Later the Sunderlands, the Tarlys and the Dondarrions in 183 AC.

The conspiracy had finally acquired enough financial and military capability to act, and when King Monterys died they did.

In 185 AC, the conspirators planned to assassinate multiple high ranking Dornishmen in the King's court before Maelor had the chance to consolidate power in the capital.

The plan failed drastically, with Lord Costayne's brother being killed. With the conspiracy exposed, the group rose in open revolt.

The Burning of Raventree Hall
The Bracken men struck first at the loyalist Blackwood's who wanted an opportunity to seize land at the expense of the rebellion (Burning of Raventree Hall). Lord Benjicot defeated the Blackwood host and sacked Raventree Hall and marched his force to meet with other Riverland rebels of Butterwell and Cox. Together they moved a host of six thousand strong to secure Harroway's Town and other important crossings.

Lord Bracken defeated another army hastily assembled by the remains of the Blackwood host and several minor houses. Lord Blackwood was killed at the Battle of Harroway's Town. However, after the engagement, Lord Bracken made no further offensive moves beyond raiding villages in the Riverlands and Crownlands.

The Sunderlands and the Stormlords strike out
House Sunderland used the outbreak of rebellion to engage in a brutal raiding campaign in the north and the Vale both, being far disconnected from the rest of the rebels and long abandoning the initial cause for war, Lord Sunderland aimed to secure as much plunder as he could.

The Iron Islands and Westerlands, it seemed, would enjoy a mutual agreement of neutrality.

Meanwhile in the Stormlands, Lord Dondarrion and Staedmon rallied other Marcher Lords like Caron and Selmy to their cause. Their host was vast and a genuine threat to Storm's End. Marshalling a force of ten thousand men, the Rebels attacked Wyl without warning and sacked it viciously (Sacking of Wyl) before marching north to try and link up with Tarly.

The Crown Responds
Maelor insisted on his personal involvement in the war, overruling even the objections of Lord Darklyn, an old and seemingly loyal commander to the Crown. Instead of being granted the full control of the army as he'd thought, the man was given merely half. Grudgingly, he resigned to his fate and marched for the Stormlands with five thousand soldiers behind his back, while the King set for the Reach with a host of nearly the same size.

In the Vale, House Sunderland was easily dealt with by the Northmen, however, rather than be defeated in battle, Lord Sunderland sold out his fellow conspirators and managed to escape unscathed with a large bribe to both Lord Stark and Arryn, primarily out of the gold stolen from both Lords' realms.

The Reachmen Rout and Maelor's Dare
While the revolt was succeeding in the field elsewhere, it was anything but for the Reachmen Involved. House Costayne had at once surrendered to Lord Hightower at the sight of his army and Lord Tarly and Peake had only just finished raising their force by the time the Hightower army arrived. Much to everyone's surprise, they were caught between a pincer when the King arrived. Everyone had suspected the Crown to strike either the Riverlands or Stormlands first but they had chosen to split. Maelor's Dare, as it was later known, paid off.

Lord Peake was killed as were all his sons, while Lord Tarly's eldest son managed to escape back to Lord Costayne's keep of Three Towers. There he managed to convince the Lord to allow him to flee to Essos, which he did. Lord Tarly was later executed by Maelor and his second son, an infant, made Lord of Horn Hill. House Peake was stripped of a keep (Whitegrove) for their leading role in the revolt. Orphan-Maker was also confiscated from them, and returned to the Roxtons.

Having crushed the Reachmen, Maelor turned to deal with the Stormlands and reinforce Darklyn.

Bracken Blunders
When Lord Bracken finally began to leave Lord Harroway's Town, the Reachmen rebels had been destroyed. Why Lord Bracken waited so long to move is still a mystery to history. Some say he was wrought with guilt over his treason, though more likely a reason was that he was worried about a reformed Blackwood host attempting to attack Harroway's Town a second time, but now alongside with Darklyn.

This would fall in line with the fact Lord Bracken finally began his march into the Crownlands after he heard that Lord Darklyn was in the Stormlands.

Once in the Crownlands, Lord Bracken marched towards the Claw to try and force their submission, marking his last blunder. Rather than tempt Lord's Rykker and Bar Emmon to his side, he tried the Clawmen. Harried at every turn and with his supplies stretched thin, the army of Lord Bracken met failure after failure. Some Clawmen nobles would offer banners of peace only to massacre the men sent.

After two months of fruitless campaigning, Lord Bracken took his remaining men back to Harroway's Town.

This was to be his final battle. Waiting there was an army of five thousand Blackwood, Butterwell and even Mallister. The Second Battle of Harroway's Town was a total disaster, ending the lives of many rebel nobles. Lord Bracken would survive to take the black, however, alongside two brothers and one son. His second son was killed in the battle while his third succeeded him.

The Knight of Skullfort, Humble Beginnings
Lord Darklyn rested his force several miles near Gallowsgrey as the ten thousand strong rebel force marched north. Known for his caution, the commander did not dare risk an engagement with a numerically superior opposition - instead, he went around, dodging them entirely. The exact specifics of what he'd planned are unknown - some say he was waiting for the right moment to strike, others claim he'd been slighted by Maelor stealing his command, and thus let the rebel army pass in an attempt to have them crush his monarch, whose salvation, of course, would only be delivered by Darklyn. In any case, the Crownlord picked off small forces found on his way, slaying outriders and scouts and taking several holdfasts left merely with skeleton garrisons, while never directly engaging his enemy, instead tailing them warily.

Maelor did, of course, eventually meet his foe, in the Battle at Skullfort. The emboldened Stormlords crushed their might against the tactical expertise of the boy they had underestimated. That, paired with the fact that Dornish warriors reinforced the loyalists during the midst of the engagement, toppled the structure of the rebels. Lord Caron and Lord Staedmon were both slain in personal combat by a single man, a lowly retainer, later known as Rodrick of Skullfort, after his knighting by the King. The enemies of the Crown were broken, routing or surrendering, yet those that chose to flee rather than accept shackles were ridden down by the conveniently arriving host of Lord Darklyn, who expressed his concern for coming too late. If Maelor thought he was something other than genuine, he made no mention of it.

End of the War
Staedmon's Folly ended with the deaths, capture or exile of the leaders of the rebel movement. Lord Darklyn followed a general policy of amnesty with his defeated foes in order to garner support for his own ambitions, a sharp contrast to the uncompromising hardness of Maelor, and his treatment of enemies.

While not as major as some of the other revolts during King Maelor's reign, it was important for fostering Lord Darklyn's own rebellion to become Hand of the King, one backed by loyal troops and newly won allies.