Iron, Fire and Ice

Home > Nonfiction > Iron, Fire and Ice > Page 56
Iron, Fire and Ice Page 56

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

 

‹ Prev