How real is Game Of Thrones?

The short answer is … pretty real.

And the long answer, once you remove the obvious historical obstacles – dragons, direwolves and magic – from the equation?

It’s possibly as long as one of George R.R. Martin’s sprawling epics. Whole university courses have been devoted to the study of Game Of Thrones and its links to the real-life medieval era.

But we don’t have to sit for six months in the halls of Harvard for an answer: we can wrap it up in 10 salient points.

1. GOT is inspired by England’s real-life War Of The Roses

George RR said Game Of Thrones harks closest to England’s famous 15th-century feud.

2. Which featured duelling houses

Like all the struggling for power between the Lannisters and Starks? The War Of The Roses was about the battle between House York and House Lancaster. They had cool house sigils, too: House York was a white rose, while Lancaster a red rose.

3. The fighting was unbelievably bloody

Think the Battle of the Bastards was savage?

Just listen to this description of the Battle Of Towton, described as the most barbaric ever on English soil: “On Edward’s orders, no mercy was shown in victory. Skulls later found on the battlefield showed the most horrific injuries: faces split down the bone, heads cut in half, holes punched straight through foreheads. Some men died with more than 20 wounds to their head.”

4. You win or you die

Insurrections, rebellions and plots to overthrow the king and/or queen were common in English history.

If you won, you got to sit on the metaphorical Iron Throne.

If you lost, you were sent to the Tower Of London, en route to losing your head.

Mankind has been at war for some nine-tenths of recorded history … so the constant fighting in Game Of Thrones isn’t atypical by any means.

5. Life was short and brutal

Rape, pillage and murder were never far away for the oppressed, largely illiterate medieval peasants, who had to swear their allegiance to a lord like in Game Of Thrones. If you were lucky, you got a just and fair lord like Ned Stark: too bad if you got someone like “Old Flay ’Em Alive” Roose Bolton instead.

Like then (and, some would argue, today), the legal system favoured the rich and powerful, who often employed their own punitive forms of justice.

Knowledge of medicine was extremely primitive. You could die from tooth problems, stepping on a nail, being crushed by a horse, being eaten by wolves or any number of viruses or illnesses (medieval greyscale?) for which there was no explanation.

The church was a comfort for many: but, as Tyrion once lamented, there was no god of “tits and wine”.

Incidentally, the average life expectancy was under 35 … which is longer than many of the characters of GOT have lived.

6. Food and housing was basic

Peasants lived in huts. Tradesmen lived in slightly better huts. Merchants possibly owned houses with real bedding instead of hay or rushes (ooh, fancy).

Castles were used extensively by the nobility, either for war or as ancestral homes.

The food was also terrible – largely plant based with the occasional meat offering – which is why The Hound loved his chicken: and why someone like Hot Pie would have been worth his weight in gold.

Take the number of calories you eat in a day and then cut them in half. Then probably cut them in half again.

On the plus side, everyone drank a lot of beer: mostly because you couldn’t trust the water, but also because it was fun.

7. Social classes were rigid

Despite the outliers of Littlefinger and Varys – men who rose above their humble origins by their intelligence and cunning – there wasn’t a whole of lot of social mobility in medieval times.

If you were born a commoner from the metaphorical Flea Bottom you tended to stay a commoner from Flea Bottom.

Intermingling with the lower classes was frowned upon, along with any resulting high-born bastards.

Well-born ladies like Sansa were brought up to marry well, even to evil shits like Joffrey.

In a world where the job of social media influencer didn’t exist yet and (inherited) might was right, the one place a man of humble birth could rise was on the battlefield.

People like The Mountain would be rewarded by their lords … but wouldn’t be expected to turn up to court too often.

8. Some of the characters are inspired by real life

Are they Huns? Mongols? Or, as more recently suggested, Scythians?

George RR said that the Dothraki are an “amalgam of a number of steppe and plains cultures … seasoned with a dash of pure fantasy”.

The Night’s Watch are like the Templars or Teutonic Knights, depending on your point of view.

Plus Robert Baratheon is said to be inspired by fellow overthrower Edward IV, while Tywin Lannister is a dead ringer for scheming moneybags Warwick the Kingmaker.

9. So are some of the most famous events

The Red Wedding doffs a bloody cap to the Glencoe Massacre, where 38 members of Clan Macdonald were killed by their “hosts”.

When he was captured by the Parthians, the Roman general Crassus supposedly had molten golden poured down his throat to symbolise his thirst for gold. Meanwhile, Viserys had a molten crown poured over his head to symbolise his desire for power (and because he was also being a dick).

Also, Hadrian’s Wall = The Wall?

10. It depicts the eternal drama: the human heart in conflict with itself

Family or realm? Love or duty?

Mercy or brutality?

Yesterday’s leaders wrestled with the same existential dilemmas we struggle with today.

Heroism is on the line: will you take the call?

My new thriller Game Of Killers: The Spartan is out now as an ebook and paperback.