Velaryon blockade of Blackwater Bay

The Velaryon blockade of Blackwater Bay was a naval campaign by Rhaenyra Targaryen’s faction that made control of the sea lanes a weapon in the Dance of the Dragons. By closing the Gullet and cutting off shipping to and from King’s Landing, Corlys Velaryon’s fleet imposed pressure on the capital while the Blacks gathered allies and prepared for a wider campaign. The blockade was not an attempt to seize the city by sea; it was a way to constrain Aegon II’s government and shape the choices available to both sides.

Strategic Purpose and Deployment

At the war’s outset, the Black council judged that its forces were not strong enough to take King’s Landing by storm. Nor, Daemon Targaryen argued, could Aegon’s forces readily capture Dragonstone. Instead, he proposed a strategy that paired the fleet’s control of the waters with the hope that Aegon, whom Daemon considered easily provoked, might be drawn into a rash attack. The blockade therefore served both as an immediate restriction on the capital and as part of a broader effort to influence the enemy’s conduct.

The plan assigned the fleet to Corlys Velaryon, while Rhaenys Targaryen was to fly above the ships to deter dragon attack. The ships would sail from Dragonstone and Driftmark to close the Gullet and stop vessels entering or leaving Blackwater Bay. This coordinated deployment mattered: the fleet could obstruct shipping, while a dragon overhead guarded against an obvious way to break the naval cordon. Meanwhile, ravens were sent to Riverrun, the Eyrie, Pyke, and Storm’s End to seek the allegiance of their lords. The blockade thus operated alongside diplomatic efforts rather than as an isolated naval action.

Establishment and Immediate Effects

The blockade was put into effect when Corlys’s ships sailed from Hull and Spicetown to close the Gullet. The account describes the result as a choking off of trade to and from King’s Landing. It was an exertion of pressure on the capital’s connections by sea, not evidence that the city had been captured or that the blockade alone had brought the war to a conclusion.

Its effect on the royal court was visible in the daily complaints brought by merchants to Aegon II. The king, according to the account, had no answer for them beyond another cup of strongwine and demanded that Otto Hightower do something. The merchants’ protests made the blockade’s costs legible within the palace: the restriction was not merely a maneuver on a map, but an impediment to commerce reaching the capital. The evidence does not quantify the losses or describe particular goods withheld, but presents the repeated complaints as a mounting political problem for Aegon.

The Greens’ Attempt to Break the Blockade

The royal fleet alone was judged too weak to dislodge Corlys’s ships. Aegon’s efforts to secure Dalton Greyjoy’s support had also failed, leaving the Greens without the additional Ironborn strength they had hoped might alter the balance at sea. Otto therefore looked beyond the realm, approaching the Three Daughters and offering its magisters exclusive trading rights at King’s Landing in return for clearing the Gullet and reopening the sea lanes. He also promised them the Stepstones, although the Iron Throne had never claimed those islands.

The proposed intervention was delayed by the Triarchy’s own political structure. Its High Council, composed of eleven magisters from each of Tyrosh, Lys, and Myr, had to decide important matters, and was not even in session when Otto’s envoys arrived. The account emphasizes the council’s divided membership and drawn-out deliberations as a practical obstacle to swift action. This delay frustrated Aegon, who had grown impatient with Otto’s approach; he removed him as Hand and gave the office to Criston Cole. The blockade had thus forced the Greens to seek a coalition at sea, but the proposed coalition could not respond quickly enough to satisfy the king.

Place in the Wider Campaign

The blockade formed one part of a coordinated Black strategy that also included Daemon’s move against Harrenhal and the dispatch of Jacaerys and Lucerys Velaryon as envoys. As the war developed, its effects accompanied other setbacks for Aegon: the Blackwood and other riverlords gathered under Daemon’s banners, while reports arrived of support for Rhaenyra from the Vale, White Harbor, and Winterfell. The narrative presents the closed sea lanes alongside these losses, showing how military pressure and shifting allegiance compounded one another. It does not establish the blockade as the sole cause of the Greens’ reversals.

Corlys’s relationship with the Black cause also shifted. Jacaerys brought the Lord of the Tides back into the fold by naming him Hand of the Queen, after which the two began planning an assault on King’s Landing. The blockade remained part of the larger contest for the capital, but the evidence moves from the cordon’s immediate purpose to preparations for an attack. Its significance lies in that progression: the fleet first denied the city free access to the sea and added strain to Aegon’s rule; the Black leadership then looked toward a more direct assault, without the cited account specifying the blockade’s eventual end or the outcome of those plans.