Battle of the Redgrass Field

When the natural son of Princess Daena Targaryen turned twelve, King Aegon IV acknowledged him as his own and handed him Blackfyre, the Valyrian steel sword passed down from king to king. Before dying, Aegon legitimized all his natural children and gave them a place in the succession. Daemon grew up convinced the crown should have been his rather than his half-brother Daeron II's, whose parentage not everyone accepted as certain.

In time he proclaimed himself the rightful king and raised an army; the realm split between those loyal to the throne's dragon and those loyal to the dragon on his banner. Lord Butterwell, Daeron II's Hand, did nothing to calm tempers, and days before the clash he was replaced by Lord Hayford. One of Daemon's supporters was caught with stolen dragon eggs meant to bolster his claim, and a storm left the crossbowmen Lord Bracken was bringing to the fight stranded at sea.

The two armies met on a flat field that had no name yet. Lord Arryn's vanguard broke apart under Daemon's assault, which left behind the bodies of Wyl Waynwood and the Knight of the Nine Stars before he met Ser Gwayne Corbray. The two Valyrian steel blades crossed until Daemon wounded his opponent and blinded him; instead of finishing him off, he dismounted and had him carried back to the maesters.

That mercy cost him the victory. Lord Bloodraven and his archers had meanwhile seized a rise that overlooked the field, and from there they penned Daemon in at bowshot range. He killed Aegon, the elder of Daemon's twin sons, first, knowing the father would never leave the boy on the field; then he loosed seven arrows into Daemon himself and brought him down. Aemon, the younger twin, picked up his father's sword to keep fighting and fell as well.

With their leaders dead, the rebels began to scatter. Bittersteel managed to snatch Blackfyre from the ground, rally what men remained, and charge the archers on the rise, putting out one of Bloodraven's eyes before the charge burned itself out. Prince Baelor Targaryen then fell upon the rebel flank at the head of men from the Stormlands and Dorne, while Maekar Targaryen crushed the other side, and with that the battle was decided.

Ten thousand men were left on the field, and the blood soaked into the ground later gave it the name Redgrass Field. With Daemon and his two sons dead, the rebellion collapsed and Daeron II stood confirmed as king of the Seven Kingdoms. Among the fallen were also Lord Hayford, killed by Lord Gormon Peake, and the three sons of Ser Eustace Osgrey.

Bittersteel escaped to the Free Cities with Blackfyre still in his hands, and several of Daemon's sons — five of them, between the acknowledged and the natural — kept the claim alive for decades, until the death, much later, of Maelys the Monstrous. Singers would later remember the day in the song "The Hammer and the Anvil", honoring Baelor and Maekar's maneuver.