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The Battle of the Bastards is a battle late in the War of the Five Kings in which Jon Snow and Sansa Stark retake Winterfell from Lord Ramsay Bolton, the Warden of the North, and restore House Stark as the ruling house of the North.

Prelude:

"A monster has taken our home and our brother. We have to go back to Winterfell and save them both!" ~ Sansa Stark to Jon Snow

Sansa urges her brother to help her retake Winterfell from the Boltons but Jon, weary from fighting, is reluctant at first. However, Jon agrees when he receives a letter from Ramsay, in which Ramsay threatens Jon's younger brother Rickon and sister Sansa, as well as the wildlings. In the letter, Ramsay reveals he is holding Jon and Sansa's brother Rickon hostage, and demands the return of Sansa on threat of murdering the wildlings and Rickon, before having Sansa gang-raped. Jon and Sansa resolve to march on the Boltons to save their younger brother and retake Winterfell.

Raising an army:

"There are more than three other houses in the North: Glover, Mormont, Cerwyn, Mazin, Hornwood. Two dozen more. Together they equal all the others. We can start small and build." ~ Jon Snow's initial plans

With the Karstarks under Harald Karstark having declared for Ramsay due to their anger toward Robb and Jon respectively, Jon and Sansa are forced to recruit the meager forces of the minor Houses to aid them. They are successful in persuading the Free Folk, House Mazin, House Hornwood, and House Mormont to join them, while Robett Glover, head of House Glover, refuses to declare for them, citing both his hatred for the wildlings and his anger at Robb for having failed to protect them from Balon Greyjoy's invasion of the North. He would eventually lead a force when word got out that the Kingdom of Gondor had accepted Jon Snow's plea for aid. When the news spread of the mighty King Eldarion of Gondor amassing his troops, the major Houses started to rise in revolt against the Boltons. The Umbers came with greenboys and old horns, eager to fight. Manderlys arrived on their fastest steeds in the dead of the night before the fight. A separate faction within House Karstark under the leadership of Alys Karstark pledged their support.

The Battle:

"Who owns the North?!" ~ Mors Umber rallying the Stark-lead coalition

The battle begins with the Stark forces deployed on a hill, standing behind their allies in a rearguard formation to defend the trebuchets and catapults of Gondor. Across the field is the much larger Bolton army, using burning flayed corpses in an effort to demoralize the Stark-coliation to no avail. Ramsay himself trots out on his horse to the front of the formation, bringing along a prisoner: Rickon Stark himself. Ramsay acts at first as if he will slit Rickon's throat, but instead cuts his bonds and delightfully insists that he play a game. He points at Jon and tells Rickon, "Run to your brother." Rickon immediately starts running in a straight line toward Jon, while Ramsay shoots and misses with a war bow. Just when Rickon is about to reach Jon, however, Ramsay's final shot hits Rickon in the heart, killing him almost instantly.

Enraged and maddened at such a display, King Eldarion commanded his artillery pieces to fire. Jon prepares for his last stand by drawing Longclaw and facing the Bolton cavalry seemingly alone. He is saved by the timely arrival of flaming rocks from the Gondorian trebuchets that marked the start of the battle, the Bolton-Karstark cavalry were disorganized by the sudden rain of fireballs and were easy pickings for Gondorian archers. Jon managed to run back within striking distance of allied arrows with the enemy forces hot on his trail. Ramsay sends forward his remaining forces, which Harald Karstark leads into battle. The Stark forces retaliated by surging down the hill after a rallying cry from Mors Umber, and the battle becomes a bloody storm of swords. Men fall in battle so quickly that they begin to form small hills of the dead. When King Eldarion moved his spears into formation, encircling the Bolton infantry and slowly moving into the kill. Seeing his mighty force destroyed, Ramsay decides to retreat to Winterfell to hopefully hold out in a siege. Jon, in a murderous fury, gives chase.

Despite his general's concerns, Ramsay expresses confidence they can withstand the Starks since they hold Winterfell. His plan goes awry, however, when a large boulder smashed the gate - fired from a trebuchet on the orders of one Sansa Stark in her bid to contribute to retaking her home. Ramsay, refusing to surrender, taunts Jon, saying that he finally accepted his proposal of single combat, before proceeding to shoot arrows at an unarmed Jon. Jon quickly grabs a shield from a fallen Mormont soldier and while boldly advancing, blocks three of Ramsay's shots. When he reaches Ramsay, he smacks the bow out of his hands and knocks him to the ground. With Ramsay down, Jon pins him and proceeds to beat him savagely, severely disfiguring Ramsay's face. Though it seems as if he will kill Ramsay, Jon stops when he sees Sansa, realizing that she has as much right to revenge as he does. Jon orders Ramsay locked as a prisoner in the kennels, and the Flayed Man banners drop to the ground in a cluttered heap while the Direwolf banner is raised above Winterfell for the first time in three years. The Boltons' rule of the North is over, and House Stark and its allies retake the North with a decisive victory.