The War of the Withering Dragon (The Grand Campaign)

The War of the Withering Dragon
"I stood upon the battlements of Stone Hedge and it seemed to me that every man and every horse from the Seven Kingdoms had gathered across the field, facing down a seemingly insignificant force of men mustered by House Hoare.  The South would trample them, overwhelm them, and then burn my castle to the ground, and for a moment I thought it might be best to dip our banners and bend the knee to them, and then I heard the war drums from across the river...The banners seemed to fill the horizon - the crowned dragon of House Baratheon, the trout of Tully, the direwolf of Stark, the sun and spear of Martell, a thousand thousand other banners - Manderlys, Ironsmiths, Yronwoods, Allyrions, Jordaynes, Freys, Pipers, Flints, Mudds, Lockes..even the banners of House Blackwood." - Lady Kyra Bracken

The Start
This war all started when King Stannis Baratheon, first of his name, inherited the throne and attempted to tame Blackwing.. However the dragon resisted Stannis and burned him. Stannis survived it, but later died of his wounds and left behind a 9 months old boy to take his place as King of Westeros.

Renly Belmore claimed that the Baratheon line no longer had their blood of the dragon and had no right to the throne, he proclaimed Lia Targaryen the rightful ruler of Westeros and the Osgreys, Chesters and Blackfyres sided with her against The Starks, Tullys, Baratheons and Martells.. House Lannister remained neutral troughout the entire war.

First Major Battle
The first major battle that was fought and always will be remembered is the Battle of Stonehedge.

The forces of House Hoares defending Stonehedge were too few, numbering at most 15.000 soldiers against more than 100.000 soldiers of the Vale, Stormlands and the Northern and Southern Reach, it was at first a lost battle until they heard the war drums from the Red Fork.. Not only Prince Renly and his army arrived, it was soon followed by Rormund Tully, Prince Daeron Martell and at last Lord Rodrik Stark. This battle would be the bloodiest battle in the entire war, over 200.000 soldiers fought that day on the battlefield, the battle lasted weeks and in the end over 100.000 soldiers were killed, alongisde several nobles, including Rodrik Stark, Brandon Stark and Prince Daeron Martell.

Other Major Battles
Archmaester Hugh Corbrey's note: The exact time of these battles is unknown, we only know that they happened and that the inpact of these battles made the war last troughout the entire regency of King Maric.

One of other major battles was the Battle of Oldtown, where the forces of the North, led by Benjicot Stark got attacked and defeated by Renly Belmore whom ambushed them while they were sieging Oldtown, half the forces of the North survived the battle and returned home quickly after to deal with a revolt. Another major battle was the Battle of Highgarden, where the forces of the Riverlands, led by Rormund Tully got attacked while they were preparing to siege Highgarden, they were utterly crushed by Rormund Tully managed to escape the battle.

Archmaester Hugh Corbrey's note: We do not know of anymore major battles after Highgarden and Oldtown, but we know that there were many skirmishes between small armies, yet the time, location and who were there is unknown. During the war a man of lowborn birth, by the name of Ser Gerald Swygert led a revolt with several thousands of peasants to remove Lia Baratheon from Storm's End, they killed any targaryen loyalist in the castle and claimed it as their own, they held the castle for 5 years until they got sieged and defeated, Gerald Swygert managed to escape the siege and fled to the Stepstones.

The Aftermath
The war was slowly turning into Maric's favour and when the Belmores dropped their weapons and surrendered, they were granted the crown's mercy. Lord Chester was deposed also quickly after and that made the Southern Reach drop their arms and returned home.

There was no hope for victory anymore for Lia Targaryen and Lord Lucas Osgrey, they surrended considering the war was lost.They were removed from their Lord Paramouncy, the Northern Reach granted to House Roxton, and the Stormlands to House Tarth.

The war had lasted 18 bloody years, hundreds of thousands of soldiers have died fighting for both sides, but peace has once again returned to Westeros.