The Battle of the Bells

The Battle of the Bells, fought in the town of Stoney Sept during Robert's Rebellion, was the engagement that sealed the fate of the Targaryen dynasty. It was the moment when the royalist commander, Jon Connington, failed to capture the rebel leader Robert Baratheon, a failure that allowed the rebellion to survive and ultimately triumph. The battle's name derives from the pealing of the town's bells, which rang out to warn of the approaching royal army, a sound that would haunt Connington for the rest of his life.

Background and the Hunt for Robert

After the outbreak of Robert's Rebellion, the Mad King Aerys II Targaryen appointed the young and ambitious Jon Connington as his Hand of the King, giving him command of a royal army to crush the rebels. Connington, a close friend of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, was eager to prove himself. He cornered the wounded Robert Baratheon in the town of Stoney Sept, where the rebel lord was hiding. Connington sealed off the town and conducted a thorough search, sending his knights house to house, peering into every cellar, and even sending men through the sewers. He offered pardons and rewards, took hostages, and hung them in crow cages, swearing they would have neither food nor drink until Robert was delivered to him. Despite all this, the townsfolk, whom Connington later called "a nest of traitors," hid Robert, moving him from one secret bolt-hole to the next, always one step ahead of the king's men. At the end, the usurper was hidden in a brothel.

The Battle and Its Aftermath

While the search dragged on, Eddard Stark and Hoster Tully arrived with a rebel army, and a battle ensued. The bells of the town's old sept rang out, a sound that Connington would never forget. In the fighting, Robert emerged from his hiding place with a blade in hand and almost slew Connington on the steps of the sept. The royalist forces were defeated. Connington's failure to capture Robert was a catastrophic blow to the Targaryen cause. He later reflected that he had wanted the glory of slaying Robert in single combat and did not want the name of butcher. His friend Myles Toyne, the commander of the Golden Company, later told him that Lord Tywin Lannister would not have bothered with a search; he would have burned the town and every living creature in it, and when the fires guttered out, he would have sent his men in to find the bones of Robert Baratheon.

Significance and Legacy

The Battle of the Bells was the turning point of Robert's Rebellion. Robert's escape and Connington's defeat allowed the rebellion to gather strength, leading directly to the Battle of the Trident, where Rhaegar was slain, and the eventual sack of King's Landing. For Jon Connington, the battle was a personal and political catastrophe. He was stripped of his titles and sent into exile by a suspicious Aerys II, and his lands and lordship passed to his cousin. The sound of bells ringing would forever tie a knot in his guts, a constant reminder of his failure. Seventeen years later, he reflected that the Battle of the Trident would never have been fought if he had only slain the stag there in Stoney Sept. The battle's legacy also shaped Connington's later actions; when he returned to Westeros with a feigned Aegon Targaryen, he was determined not to repeat the mistakes of his youth, planning to take Storm's End by guile rather than risk another prolonged siege.