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- The War of the Roses. Stark? York? Lannister? Lancaster? Come on people! Surely you can see the connection? Taking place between 1455 and 1485, The War of the Roses was a series of bloody battles over the British throne by rival royal families.
- Hadrian's Wall. George R. R. Martin (GRRM) has admitted that he came up with his giant ice wall creation (imaginatively called ‘The Wall’) while visiting Hadrian's Wall near the Scottish border with England.
- The Roman Empire. But it’s not just that great big wall the Romans constructed that GRRM was inspired by. Various elements of the Roman Empire have seeped into the world of Game of Thrones.
- The Black Dinner. One of the most notorious events in GoT history is the brutal, gruesome ‘Red Wedding’ where King Robb Stark, his wife, Queen Talisa, his mother, Lady Catelyn and many many more were murdered during the marriage of Edmure Tully to Roslin Frey.
- The War of the Roses. To begin with, the main plot of A Song of Ice and Fire is plucked directly from the English War of the Roses. The war was generations-long and fairly complicated (especially since everyone in English history has one of three names), but it boiled down to a fight for the English throne between the Lancasters (Lannisters) and the Yorks (Starks), complete with boy kings, scheming mothers, a duty-bound "hand of the king," and a royal growing up in far off Europe with a claim to the throne (little Daenerys and her jerk brother).
- The Fall of Rome. Before the Targaryens brought their dragons to Fantasy England, they were part of a vast empire over in the Fantasy Mediterranean. Old Valyria bears a striking resemblance to the Roman Empire: both were technically "republics," both empires enslaved people from all across (Fantasy) Europe and the (Fantasy) Middle East, both arose on a peninsula in a warm climate, both built roads and buildings with wildly advanced technology for their time, and both eventually collapsed, leading to centuries of conflict.
- Pompeii and the Pink and White Terraces. In real history, of course, there were a whole mess of different factors that led to the fall of Rome, like invasions and over-reliance on slave labor and too much military spending.
- The Black Dinner and the Massacre of Glencoe. Yes, the Red Wedding is indeed based on a true story — two true stories, to be exact, and both of them in Scotland.
- Iron Born - Vikings
- Invasion of The First Men
- Greek Fire/ Wild Fire
- Roman Empire
- War of The Roses
- Andal Invasion
- Hadrian's Wall
- William The Conqueror
- Pompei/ Atlantis
- Black Dinner/ Glencoe Massacre
Perhaps the clearest connection between the real world and Game of Thronesis the Ironborn. The Ironborn are Westerosi who live on the Iron Islands. The ruling family is House Greyjoy, whose family words are 'we do not sow'. This is tied to the cultural customs of the Iron Islanders to raid and pillage other lands for their products, rather than to ...
Before the invasion of Aegon the Conqueror, Westeros had been subject to two major invasions - the first was the invasion of the First Men and the second was the invasion of the Andals. Before men came to Westeros, the island was inhabited by the Children of the Forest and the Giants - much of this time was known as the Dawn Age. However, the First...
Greek fire was one of the most powerful and mysterious weapons of the ancient world. The name comes from the first use of the fire by Greeks who were being besieged in the 7th Century. In addition to the besieged Greeks, the Byzantines often used the fire during sea battles due to its unique ability to continue burning while on water. To this day, ...
The Valyrian Empire was incredibly similar to the Roman Empire in two main ways. The first is in infrastructure. The Valyrian's built vast roads that helped connect distant lands and make travel between two points far easier. This was also one of the most recognizable exports of the Roman Empire, who exported roads and aqueducts around their Empire...
If you were to describe the first few seasons of Game of Thrones, you may describe its defining plot as being the struggle for power between several families. However, not only would this describe Game of Thrones, but it would also describe the War of the Roses. The War of the Roses was a war between the families of Lancaster and York that spanned ...
The Andal invasion as the second major invasion suffered by Westeros. After the First Men had learned to live in peace with the Children of the Forest, the Andals arrived from Essos and replaced the First Men as the dominant group on the continent. The Andals brought their own religion, the Faith of the Seven, that eventually became the dominant re...
The Wall is a structure in the far north of Westeros that separates the Seven Kingdoms from the wild lands of the Free Folk and the White Walkers. The ice Wall stands at over 700ft tall and over a hundred leagues wide, stretching from the Shivering Sea in the east to the Bay of Ice in the west. The Wall was built with the intention of keeping out t...
The third and final major invasion of Westeros (so far anyway) was Aegon's invasion. Aegon the Conqueror, one of the greatest Targaryen characters in the Game of Thrones universe, fled the Doom of Valayria with his two sisters, Visenya and Rhaenys, and conquered Westeros with the power of his dragon, Balerion the Black Dread. Aegon then started his...
While the Valyrian Empire closely resembles the Roman Empire in terms of its size, infrastructure, and collapse. It differs greatly in the manner of its collapse. The Roman Empire collapsed due to a variety of several factors including war and political tension, the Valyrian Freehold literally exploded and collapsed in a vast cataclysm. RELATED: 10...
Arguably, the most shocking event in Game of Thrones history was the Red Wedding. It was the treacherous butchering of several fan-favorite characters and truly subverted the expectations of the viewer by ending Robb's brave campaign in an instant. The Red Wedding was inspired by the Black Dinner of 1440 and the Glencoe Massacre of 1691. The Black ...
May 28, 2019 · Dragons, giants, White Walkers, and that weird thing Melisandre gave birth to in a cave — everyone knows Game of Thrones is all just fantasy. But there are a lot of historical parallels in Game of Thrones, and George R.R. Marting included many of them intentionally.
Apr 13, 2024 · Of course, the world where Game of Thrones is based is entirely fictional, but are there real-life events that inspired George R. R. Marin, who wrote the original books? If you think that Game of Thrones is completely fictitious and has no relation to real-life events, then you might just be wrong.
Apr 10, 2019 · In honor of 'Game of Thrones' Season 7, learn about the historical figures that most likely inspired George R. R. Martin's addictive saga and the characters we love today.
Apr 6, 2019 · Just as in Westeros the King’s Road heads from King’s Landing to Winterfell and to beyond the wall, so in real life the Great North Road led all the way from London to Edinburgh—Castle Rock, as...
