Jason Lannister

Jason Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock, led the Lannister host in the western part of Aemond Targaryen’s plan to crush the riverlords. His army eventually forced a crossing of the Red Fork, but the battle cost Jason his life: he was mortally wounded before the Lannister advance continued under another commander.

Position and Command

During the Dance of the Dragons, Aemond ruled in the name of his injured brother, King Aegon II. He proposed attacking the riverlands from both east and west, with Jason’s western army descending from the hills and crossing the Red Fork while Criston Cole and Aemond marched from King’s Landing toward Harrenhal. The two forces were meant to converge there and trap the riverlords between them.

Jason’s host was formidable: a thousand armored knights and seven times as many archers and men-at-arms. Aemond’s design depended on that force advancing from the west while his own column came from the east. Jason therefore held a central place in the campaign, though the account gives no separate statement of his personal aims or views about the plan.

The Red Fork

At the river, Jason faced the forces of Petyr Piper, Lord of Pinkmaiden, and Tristan Vance, Lord of Wayfarer’s Rest. The Lannisters outnumbered their opponents, but the riverlords knew the ground. Three times Jason’s men tried to force a crossing and were driven back. During the third attempt, a grizzled squire, Pate of Longleaf, dealt Jason a mortal wound. Piper later knighted the squire, who became known as Longleaf the Lionslayer.

The fourth attack succeeded through a change in tactics. Adrian Tarbeck, who had taken command of the western host, led a hundred picked knights upstream. They stripped off their heavy armor, swam across, and circled behind Vance’s lines. Vance was killed, and the riverlord ranks broke; thousands of westermen then crossed the Red Fork. The crossing was thus won not by the repeated frontal assaults, but by a maneuver around the defenders’ position.

Wounds and Aftermath

Jason was dying when the Ironborn struck the Lannister coast, apparently without his or his bannermen’s knowledge. Dalton Greyjoy had chosen a side after being courted by both claimants to the Iron Throne. Lady Johanna had barred the gates of Casterly Rock, which the attackers could not breach, but they captured three-quarters of the harbor ships, sank the rest, and sacked Lannisport. They carried off great wealth and more than six hundred women and girls, among them Jason’s favorite mistress and his natural daughters.

The account does not describe Jason’s final moments or give a separate notice of his death. It does place him at the point where a military success at the river and a devastating attack on his lands overlap: while his host continued east under Tarbeck, the Ironborn ravaged Lannisport during Jason’s final hours.

Role in the Campaign

Jason’s part in the war is defined by command and consequence rather than by a developed personal portrait. His large host supplied the western arm of Aemond’s double advance, and its eventual crossing helped open the route toward Harrenhal. Yet the delay and losses at the Red Fork, followed by Jason’s mortal wound, left the campaign’s western force under new leadership. His story also links the field campaign to the vulnerability of the Lannister coast: while the army pressed into the riverlands, Lannisport was exposed to attack.