Is westeros more comparable to early 11 century France then 15th century England

[Tarellen]

I mean after the dragons died targ power basically became reduced to the land around your captial and that's it like in 11th century France. Unlike 15th century England where power was more cenrlized and the king held land thourgh out his kingdom. Is this comparison correct?

[Bloodraven's Bastard]

This is what happens when an American looks at European insanity from a distance.

[Bellatrix Stark]

I mean after the dragons died targ power basically became reduced to the land around your captial and that's it like in 11th century France. Unlike 15th century England where power was more cenrlized and the king held land thourgh out his kingdom. Is this comparison correct?

Except that Martin said he was inspired by the War of the Roses, which is 15th century. 

[Bloodraven's Bastard]

Except that Martin said he was inspired by the War of the Roses, which is 15th century. 

 

Exactly.

 

Americans looking at European history is a recipe for disaster.

[Nihlus]

It's mostly based on Britain (not England; North = Scotland, Dorne = Wales) throughout the middle ages. I'm not so sure about the War of the Five Kings being the War of the Roses (beyond the obvious Robert = Edward IV, Stannis = Richard III, fAegon = Henry VI), but the rest of the history seems to match up well enough (Dance of Dragons = The Anarchy, Seven Kingdoms = Heptarchy, King's Landing = London, North-Westerlands conflict = Scotland-England conflict, Aegon's conquest = Norman conquest, etc.). Then again, a lot of influences are clearly taken from the rest of Europe too.

[Richard Writhen]

Dorne is very south American in flavor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the far east past Essos seems asiatic.

[Tarellen]

Except that Martin said he was inspired by the War of the Roses, which is 15th century. 

I ment power of the nobility wise

[Caspoi]

There is no uniform "century" that Westeros (and much less Essos) is set in.

[Nihlus]

Dorne is very south American in flavor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the far east past Essos seems asiatic.

Dorne is Moorish Spain. Or southern Moorish Spain + northwestern cost of Africa. Or Wales.

[Bael's Bastard]

Dorne is Dorne, and the inspiration is probably not limited to one country or continent.

[Ferocious Veldt Roarer]

Except that Martin said he was inspired by the War of the Roses, which is 15th century. 

 

To be more precise, he said his wars were inspired by the War of the Roses (which happened in England), and by the Hundred Years' War (which was fought on French soil). And even if history of England was a major inspiration, obviously his Seven Kingdoms aren't a very faithful copy of any medieval country. If it's 15th century's England, where's Magna Carta? Where's parliament? I'll say the original question has merit.

[JonCon's Red Beard]

It's 21th Century my family without the incest.

[TheMorrigan]

I believe the 7 kingdoms of Westeros are loosely based on the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.

[falcotron]

Direct royal power has been restricted to land around the capital (plus Dragonstone and Storm's End) from the start; beyond that, power has been decentralized in a typically feudal way. Remember that Aegon just took on the existing kings as his vassals, without changing their internal systems at all. And this doesn't seem to have changed significantly with the death of the dragons.

So, 4th century Westeros is like 11th century France in that both are European-style feudal society, but it's no more like 11th century France than it is like any of the others. It doesn't have specifically French elements, like the separate oaths of homage and fealty, or the county system, or lords whose vassals are part of a different kingdom, etc.

More generally, there are clearly influences from all over history (and probably from other fantasies), as well as unique inventions. Some of the background stories are a reasonably close match to specific parallels--Aegon is William if he had dragons instead of forts; the Dance is the Anarchy; Harwyn's conquest is the Great Heathen Army; etc. But making the present day too close a parallel to anything specific would preclude borrowing other interesting stories from history, and restrict his creativity. As GRRM has said, if he wanted to write historical fiction, he would have written historical fiction rather than fantasy.

[Lord Wraith]

Except that Martin said he was inspired by the War of the Roses, which is 15th century. 

 

Well that and the 100 years war. Inspired by doesn't mean everything is the same.

[DominusNovus]

Feudal England had no sub-vassalage, to the best of my knowledge (hence why its barons that were constantly in conflict with the King, rather than dukes), whereas France had it in spades.  Westeros has sub-vassalage, so there's a stronger connection to France right there.

[falcotron]

Feudal England had no sub-vassalage, to the best of my knowledge (hence why its barons that were constantly in conflict with the King, rather than dukes), whereas France had it in spades.  Westeros has sub-vassalage, so there's a stronger connection to France right there.

England did have sub-vassalage, it just wasn't universal. William I created direct king's barons, but marquesses, the more powerful earls, and a couple of bishops, not to mention continental dukes, counts, etc. had their own barons as well (and, in some cases, higher sub-vassals). Earls were expected to control their barons the same way a French count would be.

Anyway, England definitely had a flatter structure than Westeros. On the other hand, another big difference between England and France is that all English peers, including the lowliest barons, were entitled to participate in the Great Council; in France, it was only the palatine nobles who were called to advise. So there, Westeros sounds more like England. Similarly, the French made a much bigger deal out of the names meanings of the different ranks than the English (at least pre-14th century), and again, Westeros just has one name, meaning, and set of laws for all ranks.

So, just identifying that Westeros is like some particular country in some particular way doesn't help you to predict whether it's like that country in another way.