Iron, fire and ice: the real history that inspired Game of thrones

The realm : England and the world in 1314 --
The iron king : France, the reach, and the curse of the Templars --
The lion of England : The real Tywin Lannister --
The first men : ancient Britain and Westeros --
\"You\'re no son of mine\" : Scotland and the she-wolf --
\"We bow down before no man\" : Greece, Sparta, and the real unsullied --
Walls of ice and brick : Roman inspirations --
Beyond the wall : Scottish history in Game of Thrones --
The old gods and the new : religion, magic, and monsters in Martin\'s world and ours --
Winter is coming : the great famine --
The seven : Church and sept --
Dornish Spain : Moorish Spain and Dorne --
Silk ribbons tied round the sword : sellswords, rapers, and the Hundred Years War --
The seven kingdoms : the Andals and the Angles --
The dance of death : Greyscale, the Black Death, and leprosy --
\"Cattle die, kindred die, we ourselves shall die\" : Viking influences on Game of Thrones --
The brethren of the cross : the sept, the church, sparrows, flagellants --
The drowned town : Venice and Braavos --
The small folk : The Jacquerie and the peasants revolt --
Wildfire : Constantinople, the greatest city that was and will be --
The mad king : madness and fire --
Fire and blood : conquerors, castles, bastards, and dwarves --
The death of kings : the tragedy of Richard II --
A song of heroic deeds : tournaments and chivalry --
The curse of the kingslayer : the house of Percy --
\"I have other sons\" : how England\'s forgotten civil war inspired Game of Thrones --
A golden crown : Henry V, Falstaff, and Robert Baratheon --
\"I am a knight, I shall die a knight\" : William Marshal, the sword of the morning --
The witch : Joan of Arc, the woman who stepped into the fire --
The sword in the darkness : the Knights Templars and the night\'s watch --
A marriage of fire and milk : Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou --
A clash of steel : justice and vengeance --
The stallion who mounts the world : Dothraki and Mongols --
The smell of blood and roses : York and Somerset --
The rock that bestrides the continents : the rise of the Turks --
The kings in the north : the Percys and the Nevilles --
The sons of the first men : The Tudors --
The Black Dinner : The real Red Wedding --
The young wolf : York and Lancaster at the bridge of bodies.