“House of the Dragon” was inspired by the chaos of the Middle Ages, a world without law and order

In my medieval history courses, students often ask whether historical reality could be derived from medieval film fantasy.

I tell them that fantasy doesn’t claim to be historically realistic. But it may possibly reflect medieval conflicts, values ​​and norms.

The first season of HBO’s “House of the Dragon” was an example of this. Her narrative, as noted by co-creator George RR Martinwas inspired by England's anarchya civil war within the twelfth century, triggered by King Henry I. Effort, his daughter, the Empress Matildaa reigning queen. King Viserys from Martin's fictional Westeros does the identical together with his daughter RhaenyraThis fantasy was harking back to the vagaries of succession and the misogyny characteristic of the Middle Ages.

The recent season offers a more colourful medieval palette, with themes similar to inner strife, justice and the facility of the common people finding broad – indeed, universal – resonance.

“A sin begets a sin which begets a sin”

A conflict embodies factional power within the fictional Westeros.

The feud between the Brackens and Blackwoods, two noble families, is a storyline in each seasons.

During Princess Rhaenyra's journey searching for a husband in Season 1, one in all her suitors, a member of the Blackwood familykills a heckler in her presence, who happened to a bracken fern.

It is the newest broadside in an escalating cycle of retaliation, with the origins of the dispute long erased from memory. a personality noted that the spark that ignited the feud between Bracken and Blackwood “has been lost to time. Sin begets sin, which begets sin.”

In the centuries-old enmity between these two families, no insult is taken into account too small: at one point, the Blackwoods accuse the Brackens of moving a boundary stone to steal pastureland, and this accusation in some way reaches the ears of King Viserys, who dismisses it as a neighborhood problem.

In Season 2, groups of young people from Bracken and Blackwood meet on the disputed pasture. Heated insults ensue: A bracken fern Calls a Blackwood a “baby killer” and “kin killer”. A battle ensues, the results of which is a pasture plagued by Bracken and Blackwood corpses, the Blackwood Patriarch also dead.

The Brackens’ victory proves to be fleeting.

The surviving Blackwoods offer weapons to Princess Rhaenyra's husband. Demonin exchange for assist in attacking the Brackens. The Brackens are unfazed by the specter of carnage that Daemon can bring upon them together with his fire-breathing dragon, so Daemon urges the Blackwoods to commit atrocities. They do: they pillage and destroy sacred shrines, burn crops, steal livestock, slaughter peasants, and kidnap women and kids.

Cobbling together a legal framework

The stubborn hatred between factions in Westeros reflects elements of the medieval experience.

When Germanic kingdoms Although they emerged within the early Middle Ages, they lacked institutions to take care of order, similar to a everlasting police force and complicated judicial institutions and procedures.

In these kingdoms, the victim of a criminal offense could personally and legitimately hold an alleged perpetrator to account. This could end in retaliation and trigger cyclical, long-term hostilities, although the danger of feud could also result in a settlement of a dispute without the usage of violenceThe intercession of a neighborhood lord was often of decisive importance here.

Early Germanic law attempted to curb this sanctioned vigilantism. It assigned a monetary value to virtually every antisocial act to be able to encourage material compensation relatively than revenge. The Code of Æthelberht of KentEvery chopped off finger, every knocked out tooth, every wound had a precisely defined value. In the case of murder, everyone received a “wergeld” – literally “man's money” – corresponding to their social status. One fascinating law punished the destruction of the male “genital organ” with three “man's prices.” Perhaps there have been things worse than death.

Medieval kingdoms progressively created increasingly sophisticated institutions to manage justice. In the twelfth century – the chronological muse of “House of the Dragon” – English Common LawInquests gathered information, juries brought indictments, sheriffs arrested offenders, and juries rendered verdicts.

Rumors of a revolt

Despite all efforts to develop legal systems, in medieval Europe – as in Westeros – the king was the ultimate authority.

In the series, a humble shepherd asks King Aegon for relief for the sheep he gives to feed the dragons through a royal tithe. Aegon refuses. The blacksmith Hugh Hammer demands payment for the dragon-slaying weapons he creates, and receives only Aegon's empty promise of compensation.

These editions are harking back to medieval taxation and the English king “Delivery rights”, which gave the king the chance to appropriate food and goods at will. The abuse of the availability led to its regulation within the Magna Cartathe primary document to state in writing that a king shouldn’t be above the law.

But what significance did the machinations of the elite – whether in Westeros or in medieval England – have for the lower classes of society?

One of probably the most interesting facets of the second season for me is the deal with the common people of Westeros. Mysaria – an immigrant, former thief, prostitute, and paid informant – becomes Rhaenyra's confidante. Mysaria is well aware of her “bourgeois origins” and might see the hostility of the elite raining down on a vulnerable population that has little probability to fight back.

In the series, Rhaenyra's naval blockade of King's Landing is the clearest example of the plight of the common people. Until Rhaenyra can raise a land army, the blockade is the one tactic she will use against her opponents.

Food becomes prohibitively expensive. The shortage is exacerbated by the rich buying and hoarding. Hungry residents fight over the past scraps. When starvation threatens, Hugh Hammer and his family attempt to flee to the countryside, but are imprisoned in town by royal order.

With her clear understanding of the dynamics between the elite and the common people, Mysaria foresees negative consequences for the burdens placed on the poor.

In her opinion, law and order can only be maintained if people undergo the system. She advises Rhaenyra to not underestimate her subjects. Their power lies of their sheer numbers.

The women devise a plan to permit unmanned boats carrying food under Rhaenyra's banner to go through the blockade and enter King's Landing harbor, using the people's misery as a weapon. The people conclude that Rhaenyra cares for the common people despite the blockade, while her opponents, seemingly unaware of their plight, proceed to have fun within the Red Keep, the royal castle.

News of this meal triggers a revolt against the supporters of Rhaenyra's opponents.

Holding on to power

This explosion of popular violence has its medieval counterpart within the urban and rural uprisings of the 14th centurya century marked by a “Plague of rebellion”, probably the most famous being the English Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.

Rhaenyra understands how many years of peace erase the collective memory of the horror of war.

After her father's death, she asks a typically medieval query: “As queen, what is my true duty to the kingdom? To ensure peace and stability? Or to sit on the Iron Throne at all costs?”

Rhaenyra’s reflections on leadership in a turbulent time are reminiscent not only of the Middle Ages, but in addition of today’s US politics – a moment marked by ageing rulers, political tribalism, increasing inequality And Rumors of armed civil war.