Sex, violence and tragedy: What TV like Game of Thrones gets right – and very wrong – about medieval knights

At a first glance, the world of Westeros doesn't exactly scream historical accuracy. It might be the dragons...

But, just for a moment, put that to one side, look at the texture of Westeros, and you'll no doubt see how inspired George RR Martin was by Europe in the Middle Ages in writing his series A Song of Ice and Fire (which has been adapted into Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and potentially more...).

From the politics and the tournaments, to quieter elements like the danger of childbirth, Westeros borrows plenty from real-life – but, as with any TV or film adaptation, there's also a lot it gets wrong, exaggerates, switches up, or misses out.

So, to find out what's fact and what's fantasy, RadioTimes.com caught up with Dr Hugh Doherty, Lecturer in Medieval History at UEA (who consulted on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms) and Dr Thomas Asbridge, historian at Queen Mary University of London – and what they told us might just surprise you.

Tournaments were not as violent as you'd think

It's not unusual for jousting tournaments to be depicted as bloody affairs – but that's not quite the truth.

"They were meant to be bloodless," Dr Doherty points out. "The emphasis was on capturing your enemies in the field or unhorsing them as the tournament rules develop over the 14th century, and violence was shunned – but [accidents] did happen, and there are charges of murder.

"The very famous example is where a knight in 1252 ran his lance into the throat of the opposing knight. They'd all agreed to use blunted lances and swords, which was a development of the late 12th century, and he had not used a blunted lance.

"He'd used a pointed lethal lance. And so this knight was suspected of murder. So there are instances of where knights and noblemen used this as a way of settling scores."

Earlier melees, though? That's where the violence came in. Dr Asbridge explains: "Often it said's, for Game of Thrones, that [the medieval equivalent is] the 14th or 15th century, that it's the Wars of the Roses, or maybe some elements of the The Hundred Years' War.

"The period I'm most interested in is earlier and it's where we see the birth of knighthood, the birth of chivalry and the emergence of tournament, and tournaments in that era were pretty brutal, bloody affairs and pretty dangerous affairs as well. But they're not really concerned with jousting. Jousting becomes much more popular once you get to the mid part of the 13th century and onwards, and eventually overtakes tournaments completely."

"In the early period, tournaments were essentially organised war games. So they wouldn't be fought in an arena. They'd be fought over a swathe of terrain that might be 30 miles by 30 miles square. And you wouldn't fight individually. You'd fight in a band, in a group. You wouldn't have blunted weapons. Your goal, basically was to take as many captives as possible. That's how you won the game, and then you made those people ransom themselves, usually in return for cash or for for goods.

"That's something that they reference in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which is also accurate. But lots of people died, certainly lots of people got injured... By the time you get to jousting being the more prominent element, it's still dangerous, but they are usually using blunted lances and things like that. So they're attempting to mitigate the danger somewhat."

Dr Doherty adds: "Here in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, I thought they brilliantly captured the dynamism of tournaments. I could feel the hooves, never mind see and hear them. I was utterly gripped. I think it's never been done like this."

But the politics were just as brutal as seen on screen

Speaking about what he is most impressed with in terms of historical accuracy in Game of Thrones, Dr Doherty adds: "In many ways, Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, they are all more medieval in their texture than many dramatisations about the Middle Ages...

"George RR Martin understands the Middle Ages brilliantly. You know when Ned Stark [Sean Bean] is executed? It's not just the execution of him, but it's the fall of the entire house. His residence in King's Landing is sacked, people are put to the sword. They're humiliated, their belongings are looted. That's so realistic.

"I thought the transfer of power in House of the Dragon, the politics of when the king died, I thought that was brilliantly done – the way that they tried to manipulate the levers of power. There's no more dangerous moment in the history of a kingdom than the death of a ruler, because all bets are off then, at every level of society. And I think they bring that up brilliantly."

Dr Asbridge adds: "What I was really impressed with was the ability to convey the wider repercussions of war – the damage that that could do to society. The political machinations and what they describe as the Game of Thrones – that's also [well done]."

People were cleaner and less coarse than depicted

Dr Doherty says: "Sometimes they do like to emphasise the grossness [on TV] but, in reality, the evidence is clear that they emphasised charm and good manners and etiquette.

"Western society is very violent, and this coexists with this elegance and this charm. The men who are hacking at each other in great battles, in The Hundred Years' War, can then appear in costume, dressed as animals or figures from the classical mythology and dance the night away and charm.

"So in Game of Thrones – and it's understandable, because it makes brilliant television – there's an emphasis the coarseness, but that's something that knightly society looked down upon...

"The Middle Ages, I think, contrary to popular popular belief, really did emphasise cleanliness. They didn't have our understanding of of hygiene, but they certainly cherished it, and they looked for it, they just didn't have our power showers and antibiotics and all the rest of it."

And their sex lives may have been a bit different to what's shown

Of course, you can't ignore the role of sex in Game of Thrones. Speaking about how that compares to reality, Dr Doherty points out: "It's complex because it's actually our evidence on this is quite thin.

"We do have churchmen complaining about those who attended tournaments misbehaving with opportunities for lust – so that hints at the kind of things that are going on...

"It's largely the elite sleeping with each other, including men with men and so on, rather than lots of harlots and courtesans – but they're there too. They must have been. The evidence that comes to mind for me is the the presence of courtesans and prostitutes in crusading armies, because you have complaints by churchmen or very devout knights about the presence of prostitutes in the army.

"And prostitutes were part of medieval life, of urban life, so they must have been present in all sorts of ways."

Knighthood was a ladder

Meanwhile, the idea using knighthood to rising through the ranks of society is pretty spot on.

"I think the most important thing that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms gets right is this notion that knighthood could be a way to progression," Dr Asbridge points out.

"You know he famous line that Petyr Baelish [Aidan Gillen] used in Game of Thrones: "Chaos is a ladder'? Well, knighthood was a ladder. It was a means for people who were from lower social orders – not from the peasantry in most cases – for them to rise through the ranks, sometimes just to achieve wealth and possession of land, sometimes to become some of the most powerful people in a particular realm or region.

"So that, I think, they really get right. I don't know where [Dunk] is going to go as a character, but I'm assuming that's what it's about – that he's coming from this lowest point at the start, and that, I think, is a very accurate reflection of what knighthood could do."

But being a lordless knight was a "fragile existence"

But Dr Asbridge adds: "The other thing I'm intrigued to see is how much emphasis they place on Dunk being what they call a hedge knight – a knight without a lord.

"The other thing that's really apparent from studying real medieval knights is what they treasured more than anything else was being part of a group - the safety that, once you were part of what we call a household, a tight knit group around a lord, that gave you shelter.

"There's a famous image that the contemporaries use. They describe the lord as being like a tree, and you would shelter under the branches of his protection, and it's a reciprocal relationship. He seems very chivalrous by having a large group of knights supporting him, and they gain protection from the storm of the outside world. Outside of that protection, it's a really fragile existence."

Women had a more crucial role than shown on screen

One criticism of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms so far is that there's just a lack of prominent women on screen.

Speaking specifically about women's roles at tournaments, Dr Doherty explains: "They're very much not just passive actors. They were there in the audience from at least the 13th century, but probably much earlier. Often, in the 14th century, they'd escort knights onto the field. They'd give prizes. Often knights, to the anger of certain churchmen, would wear gifts given to them by the women on their banners. So it's a statement of loyalty to these women."

He adds: "Tournaments were like film festivals – there's the action in watching the film, and there's all the soirees and dinners and all of that, and the same with tournaments. There was the action on the field, which was gripping and exciting. And then there were the feasts, the dancing, the drinks, the conversations. Women would have a very, very important role in these moments, in all sorts of ways.

"Lots of marriage deals must have been thrashed out then. High politics was sorted out. There's been a very good study recently of one of one of the most famous jousts in 1390, in which three knights fought for about 30 days. That's some physical achievement!

"They challenged all of Europe to turn up and challenge them. And about 40 knights from across Europe appear to have turned up from Poland, from Spain, above all from England. And while they're fighting up the road not far outside of Calais, English and French ambassadors were trying to thrash out a peace between the two kingdoms. So there's room for high politics there as well."

And some of the tragedy of Thrones is spot on

For Dr Doherty, one of the most affecting scenes from the world of Westeros came in House of the Dragon's first episode, which saw Queen Aemma Arryn (Sian Brooke) tragically die while giving birth.

"Childbirth for women, was the great killer of the Middle Ages," he explains.

"Those scenes of childbirth in the first season are done so well. I really thought, wow, that that does underline the horrors of childbirth for women in the Middle Ages and before the 20th century."

It's very tricky to nail the role of religion

Considering his biggest pet peeve when it comes to how the Middle Ages are dramatised on TV, Dr Asbridge says: "I have a pet peeve, but I don't have an answer to it. I've often thought, how do you accurately represent the role of religion, underpinning both knighthood and much of the warfare that took place during the Middle Ages?

"I think the reality is that most people authentically believed in what they were doing. It might seem very unpleasant to us to to recognise that, to accept that, but I think that's the medieval reality.

"But, in a fictionalised account, it's very difficult to have your character be a very devout Christian in medieval terms, and for modern people to understand that, because Christianity meant something different in that era as well.

"Most of the people who went on a crusade, for example, probably authentically believed that they were doing God's work, appalling as we might think that would be today. I can understand why it's difficult to convey, but it makes it very artificial, most of the depictions of that kind of impulse, I think."

And historians have plenty of questions for George RR Martin

Dr Asbridge finishes our interview by dwelling on a question that's plagued him since reading A Song of Ice and Fire.

"It's a peculiar feature of all of George RR Martin's universe, that there seems to be no change over time," he ponders. "They mentioned this in the first episode [of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms], that they've been having tournaments here for thousands of years.

"And one of the things that we know about, at the very least human military technology, it's always a race. It's always about, okay, so you develop this type of armour, we'll find a new type of weapon to try and defeat it. You develop this type of weapon, we'll try and find a new way of defeating that – and it creates change over time.

"So if you were to look at the way in which war was fought in 1050 and the way it was fought by 1300, they're very different. But it seems very static in the world that he's created. I'd love to know why he's done that, or whether he has some explanation in his mind for why there's this inability to develop in the world of Game of Thrones."

Over to you, George!

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms airs weekly on Sky and NOW - find out more about how to sign up for Sky TV.

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