ASOIAF battles and their historical counterparts

[James Steller]

Given GRRM's love of history, and given the many battles which have taken place in the series so far, are there any which have obvious historical counterparts/inspirations? Obviously some have predicted that

Spoiler

Stannis will fight his own version of the Battle on the Ice.

But are there any others?

[Canon Claude]

The battle of the camps reminds me a bit of how the Dutch flooded their own country when they're invaded by the Spanish.

[King Edd of House Tollet]

Battle of Blackwater is a counterpart of several sieges of Constantinopla during the Middle Ages

[King Edd of House Tollet]

If I'm not Mistaken, Whispering Wood is a counterpart of The Battle of Towton from the War of the Roses

[The Drunkard]

2 hours ago, James Steller said:

Given GRRM's love of history, and given the many battles which have taken place in the series so far, are there any which have obvious historical counterparts/inspirations? Obviously some have predicted that

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Stannis will fight his own version of the Battle on the Ice.

But are there any others?

In terms of context rather than tactics, the Battle of Ice is also similar to the Battle of Pharsalus fought by Caesar and Pompey. Caesar was in foreign territory, outnumbered and with dwindling supplies, while Pompey held a well-supplied, defensive position, and was therefore keen to simply wait Caesar out. However, due to pressure from within his own camp, Pompey was forced to give battle, at which point Caesar won a crushing victory. Pompey fled, his cause being effectively over, and Caesar pardoned most of the senators and soldiers who fought against him.

Events in Winterfell will be more elaborate seeing as Roose didn't send out his whole force, but it's similar in that both he and Pompey would've won had they simply held their position and not bowed to their subordinates. The better military minds of Caesar/Stannis were (or will be) able to capitalize on that mistake, and however it goes the battle/s will decide the war.

[Byfort of Corfe]

None of the various sieges at Constantinople (there were around 18 sieges) ended with an outside force coming to the rescue ala "Tywin/Renly at the battle of Blackwater.  The closest would be the 12 year blockade of the City from 1390 to 1402. This was finally ended by the Ottomans defeat at Ankara which so devastated the Empire that they had to withdraw, but again this didn't happen anywhere near Constantinople.   And let's face it, Kings Landing was never really put under siege.  Blackwater was an assault. 

 

And I'm sorry but I fail to see how Towton resembles "Whispering Wood".  Whispering Wood is an ambush, at Towton you had a Yorkist force arriving on the field to find a larger Lancastrian force in a strong defensive position, with a ditch in their front and marshy ground on both flanks.  The Yorkists, with a strong wind at their backs, opened with a deadly arrow barrage which the Lancastrians couldn't match as the wind kept their arrows from being effective.  This caused the Lancastrians to abandon their position and advance, bringing on hours of deadly hand to hand fighting.  The Lancastrians pulled off a relatively small cavalry charge against the Yorkist left flank.  The Yorkist left started to fall apart but was rallied and the fighting became general.  Fresh contingents from the Lancastrian Army forced the Yorkists to begin to retreat after 3+ hours of fighting.  It seemed that the superior numbers of the Lancaster Forces would take the day when the rest of the York Army arrived.  Hidden by a ridge until the last moment they hit the Lancastrian left.  This, after severe fighting caused the Lancastrian Army to fall apart, many of their casualties coming as they fled.  There are claims that altogether the battle may have lasted around 10 hours.  Now while we don't have a comprehensive account of "Whispering Woods" what we do have doesn't, IMHO, really come close to Towton.  Most of the fighting at Towton, except for the Lancastrian Charge on the left, was conducted on foot.  GRRM is deeply in love with portraying the heavily armored mounted knight as the great battle winner, something that, by the time the Wars of the Roses are happening was no longer true. In fact, for the English, ever since Bannockburn the trend had been more for fighting dismounted in an army dominated numerically by archers.

 

At Whispering Wood you seem to have something of a feigned retreat.  The Normans did this (there is some question as to whether it was feigned or an actual retreat) at least twice, at Hastings of course and Civitate.  But both times the retreat happened in the middle of a battle and the "retreat" and then counter attack were carried out mainly by the forces that had retreated, not by some hidden force.   Of course at Hastings and Civitate you are talking about the maneuver being carried out by mounted knights so there is that, although you are also talking about some four hundred years prior to Towton or the period that GRRM has said most influenced him. 

[King Edd of House Tollet]

Definitely Blackwater was inspired by sieges of Constantinople, of course it doesn't need to be a fight-per-fight or movement-per-movement copy, Martin just got inspiration, he didn't made a full counterpart

If you want something specific, the Second Arab SIege in 717 AC is the clearest example. The Byzantine were at civil war (much like Westeros in the WO5K) and the arabs vastly outnumbered the byzantines, much like Stannis outnumbers Tyrion. And the Byzantines had as their greatest weapon the infamious Greek FIre, the real-life inspiration of the Wildfire, which they used to cause massive damage on the superior arab fleet. Also, they raised a Boom Chain (ring a bell?) to prevent the Arabs to use best their numerical advantage. Yeah, it didn't later have a massive army flanking the arabs, but as I said, Martin merely took inspiration, he didn't made a full counterpart

As for Towton, the battle itself may not share much similarities with Whispering Wood, but is similar on the political context, since Robb was cleary inspired by Edward IV, a young king with military prowness, who leaded his battle at the front of the battlefield to motivate his men, much like Robb did, with the advantage of having a direwolf as bodyguard. But if you want a similar ambush in a forest, Battle of the Teutoburg Forest might be the mostly likely counterpart, where a massive Germanic army used the forest terrain to apply several ambushes to a Roman legion until it was decimated.

[Blackfyre Bastard]

But the Siege of Constantinople of 717-718 was lifted after a relief army of Bulgars attacked the besieging army on the rear, very much a la Tywin.

[Lord Vance II]

I don't know much detail about warfare before guns...but the Battle of the Camps has always reminded me of the Seven Day's battles from the American Civil War (in spirit, and obviously not in time frame.) A numerically inferior force using fast, ferocious attacks to drive back a superior, but divided force. 

The land portion of Stannis' attack on KL is kind of like Antietam (Sharpsburg for you rebels) with reinforcements arriving in the knick of time. Of course, I'm sure neither of these are unique in warfare, but they're just what came to mind. 

Also, Robb's Riverland's campaign reminds me of Robert E. Lee. Using deception, forced marches and surprise to consistently win over a numerically superior foe. He is also willing to roll the dice and divide his forces. Though their reasoning's are very different. Of course, Lincoln didn't have Lee murdered at a wedding. Conversely, the Lannister moves remind me of U.S. Grant, knowing he has more men and more resources as his enemy and not afraid to lose men.