Maegor I and the Faith Militant

Maegor I and the Faith Militant were bound in a conflict that tested whether the Iron Throne could rule a realm whose religious authorities and armed orders rejected its authority. Maegor won decisive battles and ultimately secured the Faith’s formal dissolution, but his reliance on force did not end opposition: it drove the struggle into a protracted campaign of suppression, rebellion, and costly rule.

A contested crown and a trial by combat

The confrontation became immediate when Maegor returned to King’s Landing after his coronation. The Warrior’s Sons, an armed order of the Faith, answered Queen Visenya’s challenge to contest his right to rule. Their grand captain, Ser Damon Morrigen, proposed a Trial of Seven, in which each side would provide seven champions. Maegor’s position was precarious: his brother Aenys had taken the Kingsguard to Dragonstone, leaving the new king without champions at first.

A common man-at-arms, Dick Bean, volunteered before any knight would step forward. His example and the rebuke of Bernarr Brune, a squire knighted by Aenys, helped bring other men to Maegor’s side. The ensuing contest killed seven of the Warrior’s Sons, including their commander. Maegor survived a severe blow and was carried away for treatment. As he was borne down the hill, the remaining Swords of the Faith knelt in submission; Visenya ordered them back to their fortified sept on the Hill of Rhaenys. The victory settled the immediate challenge but did not reconcile the order to Maegor’s rule.

Dragonfire and open war

After twenty-seven days near death, Maegor recovered. The following morning, he appeared on the Red Keep’s walls with Alys Harroway and Tyanna of the Tower, then flew Balerion to the Hill of Rhaenys. There, seven hundred Warrior’s Sons were at prayer in their fortified sept. Maegor burned the building with dragonfire while archers and spearmen waited outside for those who fled. The attack destroyed the order’s strongest contingent; chapters remained in Oldtown, Lannisport, Gulltown, and Stoney Sept, but the Warrior’s Sons never again approached their former strength.

The Poor Fellows, the Faith Militant’s other armed order, were also gathering in large numbers. Maegor first commanded them to surrender their weapons, threatening proscription and death. When that order failed, he called on loyal lords to disperse them by force. The High Septon answered from Oldtown by urging the Faithful to take up arms against the king. The dispute had become a war over who could claim to defend the gods and govern in their name.

At Stonebridge, Wat the Hewer led nine thousand Poor Fellows into a disastrous crossing of the Mander, where six lordly forces caught his divided army. Wat was captured alive and taken to King’s Landing. At the Great Fork of the Blackwater, Ser Horys Hill commanded a larger force, reinforced by two hundred mounted Warrior’s Sons and the levies of rebel lords. Maegor’s army was of comparable size, with nearly twice as many armored horsemen, longbowmen, and the king himself mounted on Balerion. A rainstorm weakened the dragon’s fire but did not prevent Maegor from attacking repeatedly. By nightfall the Faithful’s army had broken, and the remaining Poor Fellows scattered or surrendered.

Suppression, outlawry, and resistance

Maegor’s victories did not end the movement. Warrior’s Sons and Poor Fellows continued to assemble, and the king summoned lords and landed knights of doubtful loyalty to King’s Landing to swear homage and provide hostages. He outlawed both orders, making membership punishable by death, and commanded the High Septon to appear before him for trial. The High Septon refused and instead demanded that Maegor come to Oldtown to answer for his actions. Many pious lords also withheld their submission, relying on their castles and followers.

After allowing the opposition to gather for almost half a year, Maegor and Visenya attacked its supporters in the riverlands and westerlands, burning the seats of multiple rebellious houses. The campaign devastated the family of the new grand captain, Ser Joffrey Doggett, whose father, mother, and young sister died when their home was destroyed. At the same time, smaller groups of Poor Fellows continued to harass loyalists and attack vulnerable settlements. Maegor’s military reach was formidable, but the violence widened the circle of people with reason to hate his rule.

The king later remained in Oldtown for almost half a year, holding court and presiding over trials. Captured Warrior’s Sons were offered a choice: renounce the order and take the black, or refuse and die. Three-quarters chose the Night’s Watch; the remainder were executed. Maegor personally beheaded seven prominent captives, while their former brothers-in-arms carried out the other executions. Ser Morgan Hightower alone received a full royal pardon. The new High Septon then formally dissolved both the Warrior’s Sons and the Poor Fellows, declaring that the Iron Throne would protect the Faith. Maegor allowed the surviving members until the end of the year to surrender their weapons, after which rewards were offered for the heads of those who remained defiant.

Costs and the limits of victory

The dissolution of the orders did not mean that all resistance vanished. Maegor’s forces continued to pursue outlawed members, and the campaign against Poxy Jeyne Poore shows how suppression could provoke fresh fighting. After septons declared her a witch, Maegor ordered her execution. Three hundred of her followers, including Poor Fellows and peasants, attacked in an attempt to rescue her. The royal forces were ready and killed the rescuers; Ser Horys Hill, who had escaped the earlier defeat at the Great Fork, died among them. The encounter joined religious resistance to local support and demonstrated that outlawry had not removed the movement from the realm.

The wars were also costly to the Crown. Maegor’s campaigns drained the royal treasury, and his master of coin raised existing taxes and imposed new ones to replenish it, worsening the lords’ hostility toward the king. Those pressures continued into the regency that followed: Edwell Celtigar again imposed heavy charges, including tripled port fees, while work on the Dragonpit stalled for lack of funds. Later, loans secured by Rego Draz helped the construction resume. The financial aftermath made clear that victory in the field had not come cheaply.

Maegor’s campaign therefore achieved a formal settlement without securing willing religious consent. The Faith’s new High Septon accepted royal protection and dissolved its armed orders, while the king used executions, threats, and military force to enforce the result. The relationship was shaped by that contradiction: the Iron Throne claimed to defend the Faith even as its king fought the Faith’s armed adherents, and the struggle left royal authority stronger in law but burdened by continuing resistance and the cost of coercion.