Battle of Seagard

Six years after Robert Baratheon took the Iron Throne, Balon Greyjoy crowned himself King of the Iron Islands. His younger brothers, Euron and Victarion, struck first, putting the torch to the Lannister fleet at anchor in Lannisport and leaving the western coast with no ships to defend it.

With the sea cleared, Rodrik Greyjoy, Balon's son and heir, led his men against Seagard, House Mallister's seat in the Riverlands. It was a chosen target: a rich coastal stronghold, with no enemy fleet in sight to hinder the landing.

Beneath Seagard's walls the fighting was hard, house against house. Lord Jason Mallister did not wait behind his defenses: he sought out Rodrik Greyjoy and killed him in single combat, and with him fallen the Ironborn lost the force of their assault and were driven back to the sea.

That day the bell of Seagard's Drumm Tower tolled, something that had not happened in three hundred years. That sound, reserved for the gravest danger, showed how heavily the assault had weighed on the stronghold.

The defeat cost House Greyjoy more than men and ships: Rodrik was Balon's heir, and his death left open a succession that had once seemed settled. The failed assault also shut the door on the Riverlands for the Ironborn, who never managed to hold so much as a foot of ground there.