The Battle of Tumbleton (130 AC) was the bloodiest and most shameful battle of the Dance of the Dragons: Lord Ormund Hightower’s army took the town, the “Two Betrayers” Hugh Hammer and Ulf the White turned their dragons on the Blacks, and Tumbleton was burned and sacked. The Greens won the day. Later, at a second battle on the same ground, they lost most of what they had won.
The Setup
By 130 AC the war was being fought with dragons. Rhaenyra held King’s Landing, and the Hightower host was marching up from the Reach under Lord Ormund Hightower, with the young Prince Daeron and his dragon Tessarion alongside it. Rhaenyra’s answer to her dragon shortage had been the dragonseeds: bastards and smallfolk given the chance to claim riderless dragons. Hugh Hammer had Vermithor, the dragon of old King Jaehaerys. Ulf the White had Silverwing, who had belonged to Queen Alysanne.
The Blacks sent Hugh and Ulf to help hold Tumbleton, the Reach’s market town on the Mander, against Ormund’s army. The ground force was led by Ser Garibald Grey, Lord Roderick Dustin and his Winter Wolves, and Lord Footly. Estimates put their numbers between six and twelve thousand. The Greens had far more.
The Treasons of Tumbleton
The battle began as a hard fight for the Blacks. Hightower archers thinned Garibald’s men, and heavy horse drove them back. Roderick Dustin led the Winter Wolves out through a postern gate and killed Ormund Hightower and Ser Bryndon Hightower before dying of his own wounds. Tessarion burned Garibald Grey. It was a fight the Blacks could still have lost with honor.
Then Hugh and Ulf turned. Instead of falling on the Hightower host they loosed Vermithor and Silverwing on the town and its defenders, and the battle was over. The histories do not agree on exactly why. Rhaenyra had knighted both men and given them lands on Driftmark, but she had refused Daemon’s proposals to give Hugh Casterly Rock and Ulf Storm’s End once Corlys objected. By the time of Tumbleton, they had learned what a dragon was worth and what they had been given for it.
The Sack
The dragonfire destroyed much of Tumbleton, and thousands died in the flames or drowned in the Mander as they fled. Then came the sack, which went on for a long time. The Greens killed men and boys of every age, raped women and girls, looted every house and tortured the wealthy for their hidden silver. Ser Jon Roxton killed Lord Footly. Footly’s men, who had surrendered, were bound and beheaded. Prince Daeron tried to restore order through Ser Hobert Hightower, and failed. Many of the Greens simply deserted with their plunder, and the army that took the town shrank. Outraged lords inside the army began to plot against the very dragonriders who had won the day for them. They called themselves the Caltrops.
The Second Tumbleton
The sequel was worse for the winners. Hugh now called himself Lord Hammer and spoke openly of being king, helped along by a soldiers’ prophecy that a hammer would fall upon a dragon and a new king would rise. Prince Daeron threw wine in his face. The Caltrops drew up warrants for the Betrayers’ deaths, and Daeron signed them.
On the day the plot was to be carried out, Addam of Hull struck. He had nearly four thousand rivermen and a night attack, and he caught the Greens unprepared. Ser Jon Roxton killed Hugh with the Valyrian steel sword Orphan-Maker while Hugh was arming, and Hugh’s men killed Roxton in turn. Ulf slept through every attempt to wake him. Daeron died in the chaos, in one of three accounts. And three dragons, Seasmoke, Vermithor and Tessarion, tore each other apart on the ground. Ulf lived one more day. He died after drinking poisoned wine brought to him by Ser Hobert Hightower.
Tumbleton was rebuilt afterward, and the bones of Seasmoke and Vermithor became one of its attractions. The Dance never produced a better ruin.
On Screen (HOTD Season 3)
Season 3 reshaped the story. The Greens’ occupation of Tumbleton happens largely off screen, and Ormund holds the town with a large army and a plan to make Daeron king. The battle itself comes in the finale, “The Treasons at Tumbleton,” where it is Daemon who attacks: the Winter Wolves go over the walls, Caraxes burns the gate, and Roderick Dustin gives Ormund his fatal wound, as in the book. Only Ulf betrays Rhaenyra, turning his dragon on both armies. Hugh arrives after disobeying orders and finds his wife Kat dead. Daeron’s fate is left open.
The show has effectively folded both battles together and left the aftermath, including Hugh’s turn, for the final season. Our book-versus-show breakdown goes through the changes one by one.
FAQ
Who won the Battle of Tumbleton?
The Greens, led by Lord Ormund Hightower and Prince Daeron. But the Treasons of Tumbleton and the sack that followed made it a victory the Greens could not build on, and the army was broken at the Second Tumbleton.
Who were the Two Betrayers?
Hugh Hammer (Vermithor) and Ulf the White (Silverwing), dragonseed riders sent by Rhaenyra to hold Tumbleton who defected to the Greens during the First Battle of Tumbleton and burned the town.
What happened to Tumbleton?
Much of it was burned, thousands died, and the Greens then sacked it for a long time. It was rebuilt afterward.
How many dragons died at Tumbleton?
None in the First Battle. At the Second Tumbleton three died in a single night: Seasmoke, Vermithor and Tessarion.
Is the Battle of Tumbleton in House of the Dragon?
Yes. Season 3 builds to it in the finale, “The Treasons at Tumbleton,” but the show changes who attacks, who betrays and what happens to Daeron.
Related Pages
- Hugh Hammer and Ulf the White
- Daeron Targaryen and Tessarion
- Addam of Hull and Seasmoke
- HOTD Season 3 ending explained
- Who won the Dance of the Dragons
- House of the Dragon family tree guide