The rebellion lasted close to a year and was decided almost entirely by battles Robert fought in person. His genius was not the patient strategy of a Tywin Lannister; it was speed, audacity, and the sheer terror of the man himself in the front rank. Where Robert's hammer fell, lines broke.
Opening moves · The Stormlands
The Battles of Summerhall
Victory ×3 — in one day
Racing home from the Vale to raise his banners, Robert learned that three of his own stormlord vassals — Grandison, Cafferen, and Fell — were marshaling for the king and planned to unite against him. He refused to let them. Marching hard, Robert fell upon each host separately at the ruined palace of Summerhall and broke all three in a single day, slaying Lord Fell in single combat and then, in perfect Robert fashion, taking Fell's famous son Silveraxe captive and eventually winning him over. The legend of the rebellion was born here: strike first, strike fast, and turn yesterday's enemies into tomorrow's drinking companions.
The Reach intervenes · Ashford
The Battle of Ashford
Defeat
Pressing south-west, Robert's stormlanders collided with the vanguard of Lord Mace Tyrell's much larger Reach army at Ashford. The battle was brief and went against him — the only defeat of Robert's career, and one for which Lord Randyll Tarly's van deserves the real credit, though Mace Tyrell dined out on it for the rest of his life. Robert, wounded, extracted his forces and retreated north to join his allies, leaving Storm's End to withstand a year-long siege under his brother Stannis.
The turning point · The Riverlands
The Battle of the Bells
Victory
Cut off from his allies and hunted by the royal Hand, Lord Jon Connington, a wounded Robert went to ground in the town of Stoney Sept — hidden, tradition insists, in a brothel. Connington searched the town house by house as the sept's bells rang warning, but before he could flush his quarry, the armies of Eddard Stark and Hoster Tully fell upon the town. Robert erupted from hiding straight into the thick of the fight, nearly reaching Connington himself. The royalists broke; Connington was exiled for the failure; and the rebellion, which had been a day from decapitation, never faced serious pursuit again. Aerys, finally understanding the danger, sent Prince Rhaegar to take command.
The decisive field · The ruby ford
The Battle of the Trident
Victory — war decided
The full rebel host — stormlands, North, Vale, riverlands — met Rhaegar's forty thousand at a crossing of the Trident. The battle hung in the balance until the two causes met in their champions: Rhaegar Targaryen, resplendent in black plate with rubies across his breast, and Robert, already bleeding, swinging the hammer. In the churning water of the ford, Robert's blow stove in the dragon prince's chest, and the rubies burst free into the current — men would pan that stretch of river for years, and it is called the ruby ford to this day. The royal army shattered. Robert's own wound kept him from the pursuit, so it was Eddard Stark who raced ahead to King's Landing, arriving to find the Lannisters had sacked the city and a dead king at the foot of the Iron Throne.
