George R. R. Martin’s immensely popular medieval fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, better known from HBO’s Game of Thrones, brilliantly tells the tale of the brutal dynastic wars that unfolded between noble Houses for control of the fictional land of Westeros. But, did you know that pre-modern European history was one of Martin’s greatest inspirations? Join us as we explore a real  “Game of Thrones,” namely, the gripping series of national and international struggles between actual European houses for supremacy in the sixteenth century that ultimately forged the modern European state system.