by Ed West
18. Bartlett.
19. This story is recalled in greater detail in Thomas Asbridge’s The Greatest Knight.
CHAPTER 29
1. The institution, laws & ceremonies of the most noble Order of the Garter collected and digested into one body, Ashmole, Elias; Hollar, Wenceslaus; Sherwin, William, https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A26024.0001.001/1:10.3?rgn=div2;view=fulltext.
2. Frankel, Valerie Winter is Coming.
3. Froissart’s Chronicles.
4. Larrington, Carolyne Winter is Coming.
5. Carolyne Larrington: ‘Both women are warriors and are beautiful and in love with noble nights, Bradamante with Saracen Ruggiero, who she marries after he converts to Christianity, and Britomart with Artegall, who symbolises justice. Britomart rescues him from an enchantress. in line with Merlin’s prophecies, she becomes ancestor to British kings.’
6. ‘Brienne of Tarth and Joan of Arc share substance and style: they’re both obsessively loyal, and they both know how to rock a suit of armor. Brienne swore her sword first to Renly Baratheon, then to Catelyn Stark, and finally to Jamie Lannister-- she’s so devoted, she even named her sword “Oathkeeper.”
7. Castor, Helen Joan of Arc.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Tuchman, Barbara A Distant Mirror.
13. Wilson, Colin The Occult.
CHAPTER 30
1. Brothers of the Night’s Watch weren’t supposed to have sex either although it’s ignored by quite a few of them.
2. We don’t know for certain there were nine to start with or whether this was just a convention.
3. Read, Piers Paul The Templars.
4. Larrington, Carolyne Winter is Coming.
5. Read, Piers Paul The Templars.
6. The Rule of the Templars.
7. Ibid.
8. Haag, Michael The Tragedy of the Templars.
9. Ibid.
10. As Steven Attewell writes in Race for the Iron Throne: ‘While the religious nature of these orders doesn’t quite parallel, the strictness of the lifelong vows of the Night’s Watch, especially in relation to chastity and inheritance, does have at least the flavor of monasticism that came with the militant Christian orders.
11. Larrington, Carolyne Winter is Coming.
12. Season 4, Episode 3.
13. Bridge, Antony The Crusades.
14. Read, Piers Paul The Templars.
15. Read, Piers Paul The Templars.
16. In 1274 Edward I repaid 27,974 livres with an extra 5,333 in expenses.
17. Frankopan, Peter Silk Roads.
CHAPTER 31
1. http://www.hist.unibe.ch/content/tagungen/the_coldest_decade_of_the_millennium/index_ger.html.
2. As 19th century historian Jacques Chartier wrote: ‘The king of France imposed such good order on the conduct of his men-at-arms that it was a fine thing.’
3. https://neurosciencenews.com/schizophrenia-heritability-7672/?platform=hootsuite
4. Schizophrenia is far more common when both parents have it, and there is some suggestion that Henry V, a messianic figure whose behaviour was certainly on the cusp of deranged, carried risk factors.
5. Weir, Alison Lancaster and York.
6. Ibid.
7. Bicheno, Hugh Battle Royal.
8. Bicheno, Hugh Battle Royal.
9. Sewell, Desmond Demon’s Brood.
10. Russian-American academic Peter Turchin cites ‘elite overproduction’ as a major cause of destabilization in numerous societies, and this may have played a factor.
11. Rose, Alexander The Kings in the North.
12. Harvey, John The Plantagenets.
13. Weir, Alison Lancaster and York.
14. The Paston Letters.
15. Frankel, Valerie Winter is Coming.
16. Royle, Trevor The War of the Roses.
17. Kendall, Paul Murray Richard III.
18. Huizinga, Johan The Waning of the Middle Ages.
19. Horspool, David Richard III.
CHAPTER 32
1. Jager, Eric The Last Duel.
2. Jager, Eric The Last Duel.
3. Ibid.
4. Jager, Eric The Last Duel.
5. Duby, Georges France in the Middle Ages.
6. Manchester, William A World Lit only by Fire.
7. http://www.thomas-morris.uk/roger-two-urinals-clerk/.
8. Jager, Eric The Last Duel.
9. A Dance with Dragons.
10. https://www.ft.com/content/5a3b661c-fc45-11e5-b5f5-070dca6d0a0d.
11. Pye, Michael The Edge of the World.
12. ‘It was possession of the gallows that marked out those lords who claimed routine franchisal jurisdiction over thieves.’
13. Ackroyd, Peter Foundations.
14. Manchester, William A World Lit only by Fire.
15. Jager, Eric The Last Duel.
16. This may not be a true story.
17. Steven Pinker’s Better Angels of Our Nature lists numerous such fights.
CHAPTER 33
1. Kelly, John The Great Mortality.
2. Larrington, Carolyne Winter is Coming.
3. Larrington, Carolyne Winter is Coming.
4. Larrington, Carolyne Winter is Coming.
5. Frankopan, Peter Silk Roads.
6. A World of Ice and Fire.
7. Attewell, Steven Race for the Iron Throne.
8. Frankopan, Peter Silk Roads.
9. Frankopan, Peter Silk Roads.
The Dothraki language, created by David Peterson of the Language Creation Society, takes words from Turkish, Russian, Estonian (which belongs to the distant Ugric group of languages, not Indo-European), Inuktitut (spoken by Canadian Inuit) and Swahili. Peterson has said that ‘Most people probably don’t really know what Arabic actually sounds like, so to an untrained ear, it might sound like Arabic. To someone who knows Arabic, it doesn’t. I tend to think of the sound as a mix between Arabic (minus the distinctive pharyngeals) and Spanish.’ http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/04/creating-dothraki-an-interview-with-david-j-peterson-and-sai-emrys.
10. Kelly, John The Great Mortality.
11. Ata Malik Juviani, a Persian alive at the time.
12. According to The Secret Life of the Mongols, Chinggis means strong.
13. A contemporary, quoted in Frankopan, Peter Silk Roads.
14. Stone, Norman Turkey: A Short History.
15. Frankopan, Peter Silk Roads.
16. Bergreen, Lawrence Marco Polo.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/367/1589/657.
20. http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/polygamy-fuels-violence.aspx.
21. Bergreen, Lawrence Marco Polo.
22. Season 3, Episode 3.
23. Bergreen, Lawrence Marco Polo.
24. Ibid. A small branch of the Assassins did live on in Syria.
25. Haag, Michael The Tragedy of the Templars.
CHAPTER 34
1. Bicheno, Hugh Battle Royal.
2. Kendall, Paul Murray Richard the Third.
3. Royle, Trevor The War of the Roses.
4. Bicheno, Hugh Battle Royal.
5. Jones, Dan The Hollow Crown.
6. Huizinga, Johan The Waning of the Middle Ages.
7. Bicheno, Hugh Battle Royal.
8. Horspool, David Richard III.
CHAPTER 35
1. Crowley, Roger 1453.
2. Stone, Norman Turkey: A Short History.
3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/11/11/why-turkeys-military-wants-to-ban-game-of-thrones/.
4. Crowley, Roger 1453.
5. Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah.
6. Frankpan, Peter Silk Roads.
7. Norwich, John Julius Byzantium: The Apogee.
8. Stone, Norman Turkey: A Short History.
9. Stone, Norman Turkey: A Short History.
10. Stone, Nor
man Turkey: A Short History.
11. Crowley, Roger 1453.
12. Stone, Norman Turkey: A Short History.
13. Crowley, Roger 1453.
14. Ibid.
15. Crowley, Roger 1453.
16. Alternatively it was St Elmo’s fire, which is caused by atmospheric electricity.
17. Ibid.
18. Crowley, Roger 1453.
19. Crowley, Roger City of Fortune.
20. Stone, Norman Turkey: A Short History.
21. Season 1, Episode 9.
22. Larrington, Carolyne Winter is Coming.
CHAPTER 36
1. h/t to Dan Jackson, @northumbriana https://twitter.com/northumbriana/status/862745439619215360.
2. It is here that Maester Balder wrote The Edge of the World, a tale of legends.
3. In the words of historian R.L. Storey, Quoted in Rose, Alexander The Kings in the North.
4. Rose, Alexander The Kings in the North.
5. Rose, Alexander The Kings in the North.
6. Gillingham, John The War of the Roses.
7. 1 Samuel 26.
CHAPTER 37
1. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/dna-survey-reveals-25-welsh-8308111.
2. Sir John Wynn, a late 16th century Welsh baronet. Quoted in Skidmore, Chris Bosworth.
3. Kendall, Paul Murray Richard the Third.
4. Bicheno, Hugh Battle Royal.
5. Jones, Dan The Hollow Crown.
6. No one called him that at the time. It was first coined by David Hume in the 18th century.
7. Bicheno, Hugh Battle Royal.
8. Horspool, David Richard III.
9. Ibid.
CHAPTER 38
1. Seward, Desmond War of the Roses.
2. Season 2, Episode 4.
3. Whether her army contained Scots is disputed.
4. http://www.medievalists.net/2015/07/top-10-medieval-assassinations/?utm_content=bufferf2c6b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer.
5. The telling of the Black Dinner may have got exaggerated down the years. There is no mention of the bull in the earliest account.
CHAPTER 39
1. Although the Shakespearean image of a man slaying a mere boy is misleading—Clifford was 25 and Rutland 17, and so considered fully a man.
2. Rose, Alexander The Kings in the North.
3. Bicheno, Hugh Battle Royal.
4. It was the feast of Candlemass, a Christian festival that also marked the coming of spring, and in which people brought candles to church.
5. Well, depending on who you believe.
6. Weir, Alison Lancaster and York.
7. Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland.
8. The Paston Letters.
9. The Cock, since renamed the Wharfe, is a small and beautiful river that nevertheless contains perhaps the most dangerous stretch of river anywhere in the world, the Strid, due to its fast current and rocks.
10. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3588584/Is-world-s-dangerous-stretch-water-innocent-looking-river-Yorkshire-Strid-s-currents-pulverise-falls-in.html.
http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/docserver/9789004306455_webready_content_s003.pdf?expires=1501162189&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=3D13AA69A5664112A1B45B0EEBE0514A.
11. Ibid.
12. A Storm of Swords.
13. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/camden-record-soc/vol17/pp210-239.
14. Seward, Desmond War of the Roses.
15. The Chronicle of Gregory, a contemporary writer.
INDEX
Alnwick castle, 1–2, 4–5, 14, 87, 270, 303, 408
Army of the Dead, 95, 172–175
Assassins, 32, 73, 100–101, 231, 357, 370, 397
Assyrians, 57, 59, 117
Baelish, Petyr aka Littlefinger, x, 204–205, 256
Banks, 143, 195
Baratheon, Joffrey, x, 73, 114, 157, 176, 253–255, 281, 306
Baratheon, Renly, x, 284
Baratheon, Robert, x, xi, 143, 170, 259, 292, 295, 350
Baratheon, Stannis, x, 98, 118, 158, 177, 224, 228, 292
Bastards, 285–287, 303, 332, 381
Black Death, 23, 160, 164, 188, 193, 235, 296, 331
Blount family, 244
Boudicca, 75
Braavos and the Free Cities, 100, 193–199
Brothels, x, 9, 127, 195, 217
Burning at the stake, 26, 297, 342
Caligula, 72
Castles, 246
Castration, 48, 56 184, 222–223, 308
Celts, 42, 49, 93, 154, 172, 239, 264
Clegane, Gregor aka The Mountain, 379
Cleopatra, 68, 71
Crows, 321
Crucifixion, 70, 130, 326
Death by burning, 15, 297
Death by molten gold, 79, 351
Dire wolves, 86
Dorne, real–life influences, 11, 19, 20, 38, 111, 124–125, 128
Dothraki, 11, 61–62, 70, 100, 123, 151, 226, 242, 245, 347–348, 350–352, 357, 368, 375
Dragons, 13
Druon, Maurice, influence on Martin, 23, 52, 56
Dwarves, 36, 173, 245, 265, 285
Edward I, model for Tywin, 4, 8, 25, 51, 57, 85, 100, 108, 140–141, 214, 248, 256, 265, 303
Egypt, 58, 66, 67, 71, 125–126, 132, 158, 171, 181, 195–196, 199, 221, 235, 245, 326–328, 357, 375
Eunuchs, x, 59, 62, 220–223, 227–228, 354, 357, 375–376
Faceless Men, real–life inspirations, 100, 194
Flaying, 56–57
Frey, Walder, 280, 359, 391
Giants, 172
Gladiators, 69–71
Gold–swallowing, 79
Great Famine, 107
Greek fire, 219, 224–225
Greyscale, inspiration, 158
Hadrian’s Wall, 76–77, 84
Hanging, 289, 340, 342
Highlanders, inspiration for wildlings, 82, 85
Homosexuality, 53, 125, 220
Horses, breeding of, 240, 261
Human sacrifice, 74, 92–93, 100, 174–175, 219
Incest, 66–67, 73, 335
Infanticide, 31, 375
Insanity, 188, 234–235, 292, 330
Iron Born, 92, 156, 167–168, 172, 175, 177, 227
Isabella, influence on Cersei, 23, 49, 51–52, 54–57, 108–110, 112–115, 307, 337
Joan of Arc, 299, 315–317, 334, 336, 379
Jousting, 70, 257, 265
King–killing, prohibitions against, 123, 275, 310, 385
King’s Landing, real life inspiration, viii, x, 2, 19, 30, 39, 198, 257, 269, 374, 379
Knights Templar, 15, 17, 25, 321–323, 325
Lannister, Cersei, x, xi, 31, 50, 119, 135–136, 187, 190–191, 336, 381
Lannister, Tyrion, xi, 31, 95, 119, 127, 146, 157, 192, 202, 228, 255, 338, 345
Lannister, Tywin, x, 5, 25, 28, 30–31, 50, 198, 251, 286, 393, 400, 407
Leprosy, 116, 158–159, 165, 277
Longbow, 140–141, 214, 297, 384, 406
Lord of the Rings, influence on GoT, 37, 150
Maesters, 9
Male prostitutes, 221
Mance Rayder, 46
Many Faced Gods, 100
Margaret of Anjou, influence on Cersei, vii, 335, 364, 367
Marriage, 67, 337
Medieval Warm Period, 103
Melisandre, 26, 98–99, 118
Milk of the poppy, 263
Mongols, 100, 121, 206, 324, 347, 349–357, 368–369, 371, 375
Moorish Spain, 19, 111, 124, 126, 128–132, 134, 180
Neanderthals, 174, 175
Nero, 72–74, 330
Normans, 2–4, 7, 9, 42, 45, 56, 82, 87–88, 105, 111, 197, 238–250, 261, 264, 265, 268–279, 281–283, 285, 343, 361, 363, 377
Old gods, real life comparisons, 92, 97, 119
Paris, 15–16, 18–21, 23, 56, 60, 102, 106, 112–113, 122, 123, 126, 132, 137–139, 142, 144, 157, 162, 182–184, 193, 209–211, 232–234, 257, 259, 273,
292, 295, 298, 307, 316, 318, 330, 338–340, 342, 345
Persia, Persians, 11, 12, 61, 64, 65, 79, 99, 100, 124–126, 128, 130, 217, 219, 223, 257, 314, 328, 348, 350, 354, 368, 369
Plague, 160, 162–165, 189–190, 209, 211, 252
Poisoning, 111
Prostitution, 53, 72, 96, 119, 205, 221, 303, 326, 333
Qarth, 62, 217–218, 226
Ravens, 95–96, 171
Reach, real life influences, 19–20, 138, 158, 301
Red Keep, 8, 246–248, 281
Red Wedding, 396–399
Robert the Bruce, 5, 25, 45, 48–49, 90, 116, 397
Romance/romantic love, 114, 130, 267, 301–302
Roses, 365–367
Scott, Walter, viii, 262, 365
Sea travel, 44–45, 192
Sellswords/mercenaries, 146–149
Seven, parallels with Catholic Church, 119
Shakespeare, William, influence on GoT, viii, 9, 86, 252–253, 255, 295, 297, 317, 365, 389, 391, 402
Slave armies, 61, 75, 130, 196, 327
Slavers Bay, 67, 70
Slavery, 62–63, 131, 196, 197, 208, 354–355, 358
Small folk, 25, 56, 187, 202–215, 234, 278–280, 308, 323
Smallpox, 165, 237
Sparrows, 185, 187–191
Sparta, 58, 61–66
Stark, Catelyn, 280, 395
Stark, Lyanna, 60, 266
Stark, Ned, x, xi, 170, 178, 261, 269, 377, 379
Stark, Robb, x, xi, 384, 394, 398, 400–401
Sword–naming, 133
Targaryens, x, 39, 67, 70, 118, 147, 224, 237, 241, 253, 280, 329, 348
Theater, 317–318
Thermopylae, 61–62, 64, 66
Tower of London, 9, 33, 42, 49, 110, 113, 114, 213, 246, 252, 281, 332, 363, 407
Towton, Battle of, vii
trebuchets, 47–48
Trial by combat, 338, 345
Tudor, Owen, 207, 387–388, 391, 393, 402–403
Turks, 100, 322, 328, 358, 368–376, 402
Undead, walking dead inspiration for White Walkers, 94, 155, 159, 172–173
Valyrians, 39, 58–59, 70, 74, 171, 194, 197, 250, 377
Valyrian steel, 59
Venice, 8, 13, 19, 126, 161–162, 164, 193–201, 273, 342
Vikings, 2, 7, 14, 85, 87, 94, 96, 131, 133, 167–172, 174–177, 179–180, 184, 225–228, 238–242, 246, 284, 318, 344, 378, 398
Wallace, William, 46–49
