Were the Middle Ages boring compared to Game of Thrones?

Started by Queequeg, March 30, 2013, 12:35:21 PM

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Razgovory

Quote from: Peter Wiggin on March 30, 2013, 07:04:09 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on March 30, 2013, 06:53:16 PM
Well, that's another thing we can credit Peter the Great for not inventing.

Point being that he liked to "collect" them, so they were clearly around. The author clearly knows enough about GoT to know that Tyrion is a human and not some other species like Snow White's dwarfs, so his "no dwarves" claim is rather odd; there have always been humans with stunted growth.

I was wondering why you brought that up.  "Collecting" human oddities was fairly common in Europe for hundreds of years.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

11B4V

QuoteThe battle of Courtrai, fought between the French army and rebellious Flemish townspeople on July 11, 1302, was one of the bloodiest of all medieval battles

Can someone confirm this?
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Grey Fox

Quote from: 11B4V on March 30, 2013, 07:23:38 PM
QuoteThe battle of Courtrai, fought between the French army and rebellious Flemish townspeople on July 11, 1302, was one of the bloodiest of all medieval battles

Can someone confirm this?

No, because that's a lie.
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The Brain

Does the author really use Towton as an example of a brief and relatively bloodless battle? I hope I'm just too drunk and tired to understand.
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11B4V

Quote from: Grey Fox on March 30, 2013, 07:25:50 PM
Quote from: 11B4V on March 30, 2013, 07:23:38 PM
QuoteThe battle of Courtrai, fought between the French army and rebellious Flemish townspeople on July 11, 1302, was one of the bloodiest of all medieval battles

Can someone confirm this?

No, because that's a lie.

Figured that didnt sound right.
"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

The Brain

Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Solmyr

Quote from: 11B4V on March 30, 2013, 07:28:30 PM
Quote from: Grey Fox on March 30, 2013, 07:25:50 PM
Quote from: 11B4V on March 30, 2013, 07:23:38 PM
QuoteThe battle of Courtrai, fought between the French army and rebellious Flemish townspeople on July 11, 1302, was one of the bloodiest of all medieval battles

Can someone confirm this?

No, because that's a lie.

Figured that didnt sound right.

Well, more nobles than usual died in that battle, because the Flemish didn't care about ransom.

Camerus

Dude claims to be a "historian of the period", but can't think of many examples of violent warfare or interesting events from the entire Middle Ages (even from the high and late Middle Ages only, as his analysis seems to exclude the early MA)?   :huh:

Sheilbh

Well, yes.

In the Middle Ages Tywin Lannister would probably have had to wait an extra 4-5 months before his army was fully assembled and requisitioned, leaving a relatively short campaigning season. So instead of being able to roam over the country he would have to content himself to a chevauchee somewhere. Game of Thrones is fictional and about moving a plot forward. In the Medieval period war was expensive, incredibly difficult to organise and pretty unpredictable because no plan would ever, ever work.

But a series of Tywin meeting local dignitaries and making plans while writing feverish letters for Tyrion to speed up recruitment and send more money would be terribly, terribly dull.

Which isn't to say the period isn't interesting or didn't have violence.
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Ed Anger

In the Middle Ages, George RR Martin would have been torn apart by geese, who would chase him through the village, until he collapsed in a heap.
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garbon

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Razgovory

Quote from: Sheilbh on March 30, 2013, 08:37:25 PM
Well, yes.

In the Middle Ages Tywin Lannister would probably have had to wait an extra 4-5 months before his army was fully assembled and requisitioned, leaving a relatively short campaigning season. So instead of being able to roam over the country he would have to content himself to a chevauchee somewhere. Game of Thrones is fictional and about moving a plot forward. In the Medieval period war was expensive, incredibly difficult to organise and pretty unpredictable because no plan would ever, ever work.

But a series of Tywin meeting local dignitaries and making plans while writing feverish letters for Tyrion to speed up recruitment and send more money would be terribly, terribly dull.

Which isn't to say the period isn't interesting or didn't have violence.

Yeah, the big thing in the novels is that events move much quicker.  Pitched battles were uncommon, commanders preferred to engage in siege warfare and raids.  You wouldn't have several major battle in quick succession.  That isn't to say that knights didn't get to use their capabilities very often.  There were doubtless countless smaller actions and raids that were never recorded.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Sheilbh

There's also the issue of ease. Towns and castles don't move so they're easy to find, two armies roaming in the same general vicinity could miss each other. Even if they arranged a battle (and they often did) something else could happen that required one or other to move somewhere else and so on. Which is the other thing, very often they did try to arrange battles because that was the chivalrous thing to do.
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jimmy olsen

Well the Seven Kingdoms seem much more centralized than medieval Europe, more so than is realistic given how closely their feudal social system mirrors Europe's. There are plenty of preindustrial empires that could have waged such campaigns, but they were organized quite differently.
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The Brain

Quote from: Razgovory on March 30, 2013, 08:57:45 PM
Quote from: Sheilbh on March 30, 2013, 08:37:25 PM
Well, yes.

In the Middle Ages Tywin Lannister would probably have had to wait an extra 4-5 months before his army was fully assembled and requisitioned, leaving a relatively short campaigning season. So instead of being able to roam over the country he would have to content himself to a chevauchee somewhere. Game of Thrones is fictional and about moving a plot forward. In the Medieval period war was expensive, incredibly difficult to organise and pretty unpredictable because no plan would ever, ever work.

But a series of Tywin meeting local dignitaries and making plans while writing feverish letters for Tyrion to speed up recruitment and send more money would be terribly, terribly dull.

Which isn't to say the period isn't interesting or didn't have violence.

Yeah, the big thing in the novels is that events move much quicker.  Pitched battles were uncommon, commanders preferred to engage in siege warfare and raids.  You wouldn't have several major battle in quick succession.  That isn't to say that knights didn't get to use their capabilities very often.  There were doubtless countless smaller actions and raids that were never recorded.

In the Wars of the Roses you had many pitched battles, often several in a season. The dynamic was very different from say the war in France.
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