The series is based on George RR Martin\u2019s 2018 novel Fire and Blood<\/em>, a history of the Targaryen dynasty that recounts the \u2018Dance of Dragons\u2019 \u2013 a civil war fought tooth and nail (quite literally, on the part of the dragons) between two factions of the silver-haired and seemingly fireproof family of dragonriders that once ruled Westeros and birthed Daenerys Stormborn.<\/p>\n Though the plot is entirely fictional, the human story beneath the veneer of high fantasy is based on a real event from early medieval history \u2013 a period known as the Anarchy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n House of the Dragon begins with Viserys Targaryen (played by Paddy Considine) on the Iron Throne, and he is plagued with questions about who will inherit his crown.<\/p>\n With no surviving sons, he settles the succession on his sole living child, his unflinchingly capable daughter Rhaenyra (played by both Emma D\u2019Arcy and Milly Alcock), and calls a meeting of his nobles to swear loyalty to her, despite their open misgivings about the thought of placing a woman on the throne.<\/p>\n Simmering none-too-quietly in the background is the king\u2019s brother Daemon (Matt Smith \u2013 reprising his persona of chafing royal after a turn as the young Prince Philip<\/a> in The Crown<\/em><\/a>), who believes himself to be de facto heir.<\/p>\n But Viserys lives for another 24 years. In that time his queen dies, and he remarries. His new bride bears him a son, Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney).<\/p>\n When Viserys finally dies, his Small Council (akin to the real-life Privy Council<\/a> of medieval England) no longer feels compelled to honour the dead king\u2019s wishes for Rhaenyra to succeed him.<\/p>\n After all, there is male heir to consider \u2013 and so allegiances begin to shift as the Targaryens pick sides\u2026<\/p>\n House of the Dragon is loosely based on a real historical event \u2013 a bleak interlude in English history between 1135 and 1153 known as the Anarchy<\/a>.<\/p>\n It begins with King Henry I, whose succession is thrown into disarray with the White Ship disaster<\/a> of 1120, which claimed the life of his sole legitimate son, William Adelin.<\/p>\n Though Henry rapidly remarried \u2013 to a woman 35 years his junior<\/a> \u2013 he would have no other sons, and so he named his daughter Empress Matilda<\/a> as his heir, and forced his begrudging court to swear their allegiance to her.<\/p>\n In the case of the Anarchy, it was a cousin rather than a step-sibling who would prove to be the undoing of Henry\u2019s best-laid plans.<\/p>\n When Henry I died on 1 December 1135, some nobles declared that the king had released them from their oaths. They looked to continental Europe for an alternative, and they found one in the form of Stephen of Blois, second son of Henry\u2019s sister Adela. Twenty-two days after the king\u2019s death, Stephen was in London wearing the crown. But Matilda had not renounced her claim to the throne \u2013 and so their civil war began.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t called the Anarchy due to the ferocity of the conflict, but because of the supposed lack of control Stephen had over the country<\/a> when he was king.<\/p>\n But was it really anarchic? Historian Matthew Lewis questions whether this badge of dishonour is deserved, or the product of revisionism.<\/p>\n \u201cIf King Stephen would have recognised anarchy, it was only in the sense of so many diverse threats emerging at once: Empress Matilda in England, her husband Geoffrey conquering Normandy, King David [of Scotland] in the north, and rebel barons,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n Instead, he suggests, could the name be the result of Plantagenet spin<\/a>? \u201cStephen\u2019s reign was not glorious, but that does not make it anarchic. Few wholly unsuccessful rulers lasted 19 years and died in their bed still wearing the crown.\u201d<\/p>\n Here is a point of divergence from real history: House of the Dragon<\/em> promises to be anarchic indeed.<\/p>\n Known as the \u2018Half Year Queen\u2019, Rhaenyra Targaryen is an analogue of Empress Matilda, daughter and heir to Henry I.<\/p>\n Born in 1102, Matilda was married to Heinrich V of the Holy Roman Empire<\/a> in 1110. She was widowed in 1125, and returned to England two years later where \u2013 like Rhaenyra Targaryen \u2013 she was named her father\u2019s heir in lieu of a legitimate son, only to be faced with civil war when the time came inherit his crown.<\/p>\n Her problem was not that she was not up to the task, writes historian Catherine Hanley. Her regime wasn\u2019t \u201ccrippled by the sudden revelation of previously undetected personal flaws\u201d \u2013 the greater problem was that Matilda found herself \u201cstumbling over the implicit contradictions between being a woman and being a king<\/a>\u201d. It is a challenge we are likely to see in House of the Dragon<\/em>, too.<\/p>\n House of the Dragon<\/em> is not the first time that George RR Martin has drawn inspiration from real history. Game of Thrones<\/em> draws parallels with the Wars of the Roses<\/a>, with the names Lannister and Stark thinly veiled analogues of Lancaster and York<\/a>. The quiet murder of Stark child-heirs Bran and Rickon holds echoes of the Princes in Tower<\/a> (though in this case, the \u2018princes\u2019 turn out to be very much alive).<\/p>\n The Red Wedding<\/a>, perhaps the most shocking event in a show known for its shocking events \u2013 in which King in the North Robb Stark and his mother Catelyn were butchered at a marriage feast \u2013 is Martin\u2019s take on the 13th-century Black Dinner. The list goes on, with real-history echoes found all the way from Dorne to the Wall (which, incidentally, is an especially frosty take on Hadrian\u2019s Wall<\/a> in the north of England).<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> House of the Dragon<\/em> arrives on HBO in the US on 21 August and Sky Atlantic via Now in the UK on 22 August. Looking for something else to watch? Explore our full round-up of the best historical TV and film<\/a> available to stream right now, or the new history TV and radio<\/a> airing in the UK this month<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Kev Lochun Published: Friday, 19 August 2022 at 12:00 am Set some two centuries before the fantastical events of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon takes us back to Westeros for more courtly intrigues and gory deaths, with one significant addition: here be dragons. The series is based on George RR Martin\u2019s 2018 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":17342,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"6"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/08\/the-real-historical-event-behind-hbos-house-of-the-dragon.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/08\/the-real-historical-event-behind-hbos-house-of-the-dragon-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/08\/the-real-historical-event-behind-hbos-house-of-the-dragon-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/08\/the-real-historical-event-behind-hbos-house-of-the-dragon.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/08\/the-real-historical-event-behind-hbos-house-of-the-dragon.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/08\/the-real-historical-event-behind-hbos-house-of-the-dragon.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/08\/the-real-historical-event-behind-hbos-house-of-the-dragon.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Kev Lochun Published: Friday, 19 August 2022 at 12:00 am Set some two centuries before the fantastical events of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon takes us back to Westeros for more courtly intrigues and gory deaths, with one significant addition: here be dragons. The series is based on George RR Martin\u2019s 2018…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/17341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2022\/08\/emma-d-arcy-as-princess-rhaenyra-targaryen-matt-smith-as-prince-daemon-targaryen-c30677b-e1660835825342.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>House of the Dragon<\/em> plot: what happens in the drama?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2022\/08\/paddy-considine-as-king-viserys-targaryen-54b5d61.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>The real historical event that inspired House of the Dragon<\/em><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Who was the real Half Year Queen?<\/h2>\n
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>The real history of Game of Thrones<\/em><\/h2>\n
Read more about the history that inspired Game of Thrones<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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