It was a warm and cloudless evening somewhere in the Riverlands. Robb Stark was sitting behind a tree drowsily, occassionally glancing up as his horse neighed faintly, grazing in the grass nearby. Then, the barely audible sound of hoofbeats in the distance sobered him up in a couple of shakes of his head. He quickly got up to his feet and motioned to ser Stevron Frey sitting nearby. Frey rose up without hesitation and began whispering orders. The battle was fast approaching. It is the year 297 after Aegon’s Conquest. Eight years have passed since King Robert Baratheon brought the might of the Seven Kingdoms to the Iron Islands, crushing the rebellion, setting disobedient House Greyjoy back to royal heel. It was eight long years of summer and prosperity for the commonfolk across Westeros, but it wasn’t a particularly good time for King Robert, who since his accession to the Iron Throne years before, quickly grew bored of the dull and tedious kingly duties expected of him. He preferred organizing feasts and hunting to ”counting coppers” and all the other equally boring administrative duties. These he had both happily and conveniently ceded to his small council, mostly to his younger brother Stannis, and to Jon Arryn, Robert’s childhood foster-father and the current Hand of the King. But in early 298 AC after a short, but serious illness, Jon Arryn unexpectedly dies. His death raised some concerns at the royal court as, despite his old age, he was considered a man of robust health. Though it was expected that the King would name either Stannis Baratheon or his brother-in-law Jaime Lannister as his new Hand, Robert instead decided to journey far North, where his childhood friend and ally, Lord Eddard of House Stark, kept watch over the Northern frontier of the Kingdom in Robert’s stead. While Lord Stark was initially hesitant to accept the King’s offer, upon hearing rumors that the nature of Jon Arryn’s death was suspiscious, he made up his mind, and joined Robert’s retinue, hoping to find out the truth behind the death of their foster-father. The royal court departed south, while a mere week later in Winterfell, an unnamed assassin made an unsuccessful attempt to murder Lord Eddard’s comatose middle son, Brandon - an event which caused deep consternation among the Starks. Lady Catelyn Stark, Bran’s mother, suspected that House Lannister could be behind this assassination attempt and, feeling that sending a raven would be too risky, departs Winterfell, secretly travelling to King’s Landing to inform her husband about the attack. Upon arriving in the capital, her old friend, and member of the King’s Small Council, Petyr Baelish, claims that the valyrian steel dagger, used by the assassin, belongs to Tyrion Lannister, brother of Queen Cersei, and Jaime Lannister of the Kingsguard. Two weeks later, on her route back to Winterfell, she fortuitously stumbles upon the said Tyrion Lannister in the Crossroad Inn, not far away from the mouth of the River Trident. Believing that he was to blame for the vicious attack on her son, Catelyn enlists the aid of her father’s bannermen to help arrest the dwarf. Catelyn’s action sparked a tumultuous chain of events. King Robert Baratheon attempted to nip the conflict between the two great houses of Westeros in the bud, but as he was always more of a soldier than a skilled politician, his actions yielded little result. Lord Tywin Lannister of Casterly Rock, Tyrion’s father and the wealthiest man in the Seven Kingdoms, began amassing troops, as he saw the capture of his son as a major insult to his family’s honor. He subsequently sent one of his bannermen, Ser Gregor Clegane, to the Riverlands to wreak havoc and hopefully lure Lord Eddard Stark there, where he could have been captured and the conflict brought to a quick conclusion. But Tywin’s plan is foiled when Ser Jaime Lannister attacks and injures Lord Stark in King’s Landing in retaliation for the capture of his younger brother. Jaime then flees the capital, riding to join his father gathering troops in the Westerlands. Being grounded in King’s Landing, Ned Stark appoints Lord Beric Dondarrion with the task of stopping the Lannister’s bannermen from ravaging the Riverlands, while he continues his investigation into Jon Arryn’s death. Ned’s investigation soon leads him to an unexpected conclusion. To Ned’s astonishment, all three of King Robert’s children are in fact Queen Cersei’s bastards fathered by Jaime Lannister, who had a long standing incestous love affair with his twin sister. Soon, Lord Eddard confronts the Queen with his findings and advises her to flee the capital. Instead, she hatches a plot to kill her husband, King Robert. Cersei pulls the strings swiftly, and a couple of days later, Robert Baratheon, after drinking excessive amounts of fortified wine, is fatally wounded by a boar during a hunt in Kingswood. He dies the very next day. Lord Stark, having secretly modified the king’s last will, intends to offer the throne to the rightful heir, Robert’s brother – Stannis Baratheon, while Robert’s supposed heir, Prince Joffrey Baratheon, was to be taken into custody as a false claimant. However, Lord Stark’s plan backfires, as he is betrayed by both Petyr Baelish and the City Watch and gets arrested and charged with treason. When word of Ned Stark’s imprisonment reaches Winterfell, his oldest son and heir, Robb, hastily gathers his fathers bannermen and marches south with the ultimate goal of freeing his father. The path to the capital led through the Riverlands, the domain of House Tully, Robb’s maternal family, who were struggling against Lannister forces that devastated the countryside. As a matter of fact, by the time Robb was on the move with his army, the Tully’s were already pushed back on the defense, with many important castles taken along the way by the Lannisters. Scouts reported that the host of Jaime Lannister was besieging Riverrun, Tully’s ancestral seat, whilst the force of Tywin Lannister, who was by this time joined by his recently freed son Tyrion, was positioned to the West, guarding the Ruby Ford at the Trident. Robb knew that Lord Tywin was too experienced a commander to abandon his strategic position untriggered, so he attempted to deceive the enemy. While the majority of his force, mainly footmen under Lord Roose Bolton of Dreadfort, marched further south along the Kingsroad to focus Tywin’s attention on them, Robb secretly moved the cavalry west, crossing the Green Fork at The Twins, and then rushed south to lift the siege of Riverrun, while rallying more rivermen under his banner on the go. It’s worth mentioning that Robb’s movement remained obscure to the Lannisters mostly thanks to the abilities of Brynden ”Blackfish” Tully, his grand-uncle, who coordinated the scouting parties and provided valuable advice to the inexperienced Young Wolf. Meanwhile to the East, Lord Roose Bolton surprised Lannister troops on the eastern bank of the Green Fork and early in the morning a fierce battle ensued. Throughout, Tywin Lannister maintained composure, retaining control in the ensuing chaos, and soon pushed the northerners back, killing or capturing several thousands, with relatively minor losses on his own side. Tywin quickly realises that the enemy army was not commanded by Ned Stark’s son, as he had expected, but by his more seasoned bannermen, Lord Bolton, who retreated in good order, despite his conceded defeat. Lingering no more, Tywin Lannister abandoned his plan to guard the ford and rushed back to reunite with the other Lannister host led by his son Jaime. Concurrently to the west, Robb held a meeting, discussing his plan to relieve the defenders at Riverrun. According to scout reports, ser Jaime Lannister, believing his position to be secure, frequently left the camp to fend off loose guerilla groups of rivermen, who raided Lannister supply lines. This lack of caution was soon to be exploited by the Northmen and their allies. Ser Brynden ”Blackfish” led the unit of three hundred outriders in the vicinity of Riverrun, where they attacked some loose Lannister marauders. Upon receiving reports of another group of Tully’s bannermen harrassing the baggage train, but this time a bigger one, Ser Jaime musters most of his cavalry, and two thousand riders depart the camp, chasing Blackfish’s unit, which escaped towards a wooded area north-west of Riverrun. Jaime’s men were about to finally catch the running foe when they reached a forested valley and temporarily lost trace of the rivermen. But as the drumming of the hooves died away, the air was filled with the whistling sound of arrows released by concealed archers, killing dozens and causing disarray in the Lannister ranks. Then, the sound of trembling hooves reappeared, as a couple thousand riders emerged from the forest and struck the unsuspecting Lannisters from three sides. The surprise was total. In a matter of minutes Starks, Freys, Mallisters, Tullys, Karstarks and others slaughtered hundreds of disarrayed westerners, hacking their way through the unordered mass of men and horses. Ser Jaime Lannister fought valiantly, yet he soon realized that he did not stand a chance against this multitudinous enemy and made a bold attempt to cut his way to Robb’s guard and challenge the Young Wolf. But his attempt was futile. Surrounded by opponents, Jaime, even though he slays three of Robb Stark’s battle guards, is eventually captured. But many hundreds of his men were not that lucky, the valley was filled with the corpses of Lannister retainers. It was a total victory for the Starks and Tullys, as the seizure of Jaime Lannister was a serious blow to his father Tywin, who valued family honor and duty above all else. For the Northmen, Jaime Lannister served as an invaluable bargaining card in the effort to release Lord Stark from captivity in King’s Landing. The resolution of the conflict between the major powers of Westeros shone on the horizon, but the very next day in the capital, the newly proclaimed King Joffrey Baratheon acts foolhardishly against his family’s wishes and instead of sending Lord Eddard Stark to the Wall, sentences him to death. In an act of sheer barberousness, the young King Joffrey, has the noble Lord Stark beheaded in front of cheering crowds, sending the Seven Kingdoms into an even bloodier civil war. This video was sponsored by Audible. With an unmatched selection of books to choose from, Audible is the choice for audio book listening. For example, if you enjoy Game of Thrones along with actual history, why not check-out, The Influence Behind Game of Thrones a look at where the works of G.R.R. Martin and the past overlap. 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