The grisly real history that inspired A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms

Game Of Thrones fans have a new spin-off to enjoy with A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms - and real life history played an important role.

This new prequel follows Ser Duncan the Tall aka 'Dunk' (Peter Claffey), a hedge knight, and his young squire Aegon Targaryen or 'Egg' (Dexter Sol Ansell).

Unlike the aristocratic, often royal main characters in the other shows, Dunk is of a lowborn background.

It marks a very different tone to both Game of Thrones and existing prequel House of The Dragon, which focus more on characters vying for the Iron Throne.

Bosses wanted the new series rooted in medieval history, with showrunner Ira Parker aiming to capture authenticity.

Viewers previously blasted BBC's big-budget historical drama King & Conqueror as 'nonsensical' and 'utterly unrealistic'.

To avoid such criticism, Ira brought in Dr. Hugh Doherty, a lecturer in medieval history at the University of East Anglia, as an advisor.

Hugh shared he has become a 'go to person for medieval history', although this marks his first involvement with the Game of Thrones universe.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Hugh explained: ‘These things are always more believable if they have a texture, if they have detail. 

'In many ways, Game of Thrones, House of The Dragon and A Knight Of Seven Kingdoms, they're often more accurate in their depiction of medieval politics and warfare than, say, TV series that are claiming to present historical events.

‘You know, the BBC Conqueror series was disastrous. I only saw a fraction of it, but it was pretty inaccurate all and all in its depiction of medieval life.

'Whereas Game of Thrones has a kind of richness, an atmosphere that I think is very important, and making that texture and look accurate, that's where scholars like me come in.'

Addressing A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms focusing away from the noble families in Westeros, Hugh said: 'I think it is a very good idea for [the show] to concentrate on more modest knightly heroes.

'Warfare offered many poor, but ambitious and talented men a chance to secure enrichment and promotion. 

'The adventures of the landless hero was even the stuff of legend in the Middle Ages—-and formed an important component of many tales and poems.'

In addition, Hugh also opened up about real-life historical influence on the tournament depicted in the HBO series.

He shared: 'The tournament in the show I think was similar to the epic tournament convened at St-Inglevert in the spring 1390, when three knights challenged the knights of Europe to jousts. 

'It appears to have lasted for close to five weeks—-a remarkable act of endurance.'

Naturally, this new show has a lot riding on it given the controversy to how Game of Thrones wrapped up back in 2019. 

The final episode saw some diehard fans of the franchise hit out that season eight felt 'rushed', and moved away from the books, written by George R. R. Martin.

It saw the death of Emilia Clarke's 'Mad Queen' Daenerys Targaryen - while Isaac Hempstead Wright's Bran Snow became king.

A fan-led appeal called for the final season to be remade, which ultimately amassed more than 1.8million signatures.

The petition read: 'David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have proven themselves to be woefully incompetent writers when they have no source material (i.e. the books) to fall back on. 

'This series deserves a final season that makes sense. Subvert my expectations and make it happen, HBO!'

Speaking to the New York Times, Jon Snow actor Kit Harington said: 'That genuinely angered me. Like, how dare you? Sorry, that’s just how I feel. I think it was a level of idiocy that can only come about through social media.

'There are very, very few downsides to having a hugely popular show, but one I can think of is when you try to end it, many people have big opinions on how it should end.

'The petition shows a lot of enthusiasm and passion for the show, but it wasn’t something that we seriously considered.'

A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms is available to stream on NOW