"House of the Dragon": the real facts behind the long-awaited prequel "Game of Thrones"

Set some two centuries before the fantastical events of “Game of Thrones,” this prequel takes us back to Westeros for more court intrigue and bloody deaths, with one significant addition: there will be dragons here.

The Serie House of the Dragon (“The House of the Dragon”) is based on the 2018 novel by George R.R. Martin “fire and blood“a story from the Targaryen dynasty recounting the “Dance of the Dragons,” a civil war waged tooth and nail (literally, by the dragons) between two factions of the seemingly fireproof, silver-haired dragon family that a She once ruled Westeros (the continent where “Game of Thrones” takes place) and gave birth to Daenerys Targaryen, a central character in “Game of Thrones” and heir to the Iron Throne.

Although the plot is entirely fictional, the human story that hides under the veneer of fantasy is based on a true event in early medieval history, a period known as “the Anarchy.”

“House of the Dragon” opens with Viserys Targaryen (played by Paddy Considine) on the Iron Throne and is plagued by questions about who will inherit his crown.

Having no sons, he decides that the succession will fall to his only living daughter, Rhaenyra (played by Emma D’Arcy and Milly Alcock), and calls a meeting of his nobles to swear allegiance to him, despite their open misgivings before. the idea of ​​placing a woman on the throne.

The king’s brother, Daemon (Matt Smith, who reprises his role as a royal after playing the young Prince Philip in the popular series “The Crown”), believes he is the de facto heir.

But Viserys lives another 24 years. In that time, his queen dies and he remarries. His new wife bears him a son, Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney).

When Viserys finally dies, his Small Council (similar to the real-life Privy Council of medieval England) no longer feels obligated to carry out the dead king’s wishes that Rhaenyra succeed him. After all, there is a male heir to consider. That’s when loyalties begin to shift and the Targaryens begin to choose a side…

“The House of the Dragon” is based on a true historical event: a grim parenthesis in the history of England between 1135 and 1153 known as the Anarchy.

It begins with King Henry I, whose succession is disrupted by the White Ship disaster of 1120, which claimed the life of his only legitimate son, William Adelin.

Although Henry I quickly remarried -to a woman 35 years his junior-, he would have no more children, so he named his daughter heiress, the empress matildaand compelled his reluctant court to swear allegiance to him.

In Anarchy’s case, it was a cousin, and not a stepbrother, who proved to be the undoing of Henry’s best laid plans.

When Henry I died on December 1, 1135, some nobles declared that the king had released them from their oaths.

Their reluctance to accept Matilda as queen led them to look for an alternative in continental Europe and they found it in Stephen of Bloissecond son of Adela, Enrique’s sister.

Twenty-two days after the king’s death, Stephen was in London wearing the crown. However, Matilde had not given up her claim to her throne, thus giving rise to the start of the civil war.

It was not called Anarchy because of the ferocity of the conflict, but because of the alleged lack of control Stephen had over the country when he was king.

But was it really anarchic? Historian Matthew Lewis questions whether this badge of disgrace is deserved, or the product of revisionism.

“If King Stephen recognized 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 [de Escocia] in the north and the rebellious barons,” he writes.

Instead, he suggests, could the name be the result of the Plantagenet house spin? “Stephen’s reign was not glorious, but that does not make it anarchic. Few totally unsuccessful rulers lasted 19 years and died in bed still wearing the crown.”

Here is a point of divergence from the real story: “The House of the Dragon“ promises to be really anarchic.

Known as the “Midyear Queen”, Rhaenyra Targaryen is an analogue of Empress Matilda, daughter and heiress of Henry I.

Born in 1102, Matilda married Henry V of the Holy Roman Empire in 1110. She was widowed in 1125, but continued to hold her title as empress.

She returned to England two years later, where – like Rhaenyra Targaryen – she was named her father’s heir instead of a legitimate son, only to face civil war when it was time to inherit his crown.

His problem wasn’t that he wasn’t up to the task, writes historian Catherine Hanley. Her regimen was not “paralyzed by the sudden revelation of previously undetected personal flaws,” rather the biggest problem was that Matilde “mole with the implicit contradictions Come in to be a woman and to be a king”.

It is a challenge that we will probably also see in “The House of the Dragon”.

* Kev Lochun is Deputy Digital Editor of HistoryExtra.com and previously Deputy Editor of BBC History Revealed. In addition, he interviews expert historians on HistoryExtra’s award-winning podcast. This article was published in the magazine BBC History Extra.

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