Hamlin was an Imperial earl who, following the Battle of Urû'baen, found himself displaced in the change of power, in response to which he assembled a force of several hundred former Imperial soldiers, who he therefore proceeded to lead on raids against Gil'ead and travellers on the surrounding roads. This rebellion started a month after winter broke and like the uprising of Tharos in Aroughs, lasted several months until it was ultimately put down by the Varden in a campaign of savage fighting that cumulated in Hamlin being decapitated and his head mounted upon a pike on the walls of Gil'ead, a fact that was remembered by Lyreth during his dinner with Murtagh Morzansson. In that same conversation, it was revealed that the uprisings that had been led by Hamlin and Tharos, both of whom were derided as impatient fools by their fellow Imperial, had initially and in secrecy been part of a far more widespread effort coordinated largely by both the remaining leaders and ruling families of the Empire and their allies and new handlers, the Du Eld Draumar, to restore the Broddring Empire to its previous glory.