--- --- # This Video Explains the Real-Life History Behind _Game of Thrones_  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney May 13, 2015 3:06 PM UTC  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney May 13, 2015 3:06 PM UTC You don’t need a history degree to know that plenty of what goes on in _Game of Thrones_ is entirely fictional. (Hello, fire-breathing dragons!) But that doesn’t mean the bloody conflicts in Westeros don’t draw on real-life history, either. Author George R.R. Martin [has said he was inspired by](http://www.empireonline.com/interviews/interview.asp?IID=1496) the War of the Roses in 15th-century England while writing the books that later become the hit HBO series. But if scrolling through a 9,000-plus-word Wikipedia article and parsing the parallels yourself doesn’t seem like a good use of your time, the folks at TED-Ed have provided a six-minute animated lesson (above) that will teach you the difference between your Lancasters and Lannisters. Game of Thrones: New Video Explains Real-Life History Behind HBO Hit ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3857057/game-of-thrones-history-war-of-the-roses/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3857057/game-of-thrones-history-war-of-the-roses/"},"headline":"This Video Explains the Real-Life History Behind Game of Thrones","datePublished":"2015-05-13T15:06:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:09:46.674Z","description":"George R.R. Martin drew heavily from the War of the Roses in 15th-century England","url":"https://time.com/3857057/game-of-thrones-history-war-of-the-roses/","keywords":["Television","game of thrones","George R.R. Martin"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3857057/game-of-thrones-history-war-of-the-roses/","name":"This Video Explains the Real-Life History Behind Game of Thrones"}}]}] ```