George R.R. Martin's popular medieval fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire better known from HBO's Game of Thrones brilliantly portrays the brutal dynastic wars that unfolded between noble houses for control 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", the gripping series of national and international struggles between actual noble European houses for supremacy from the eleventh through the sixteenth centuries that ultimately forged the modern European state system. Writing intensive.