Subject: A few qualms/notes. (May contain spoilers.)
Author:
Posted on: 2016-07-01 22:01:00 UTC
While I'm not a big fan of Game of Thrones, I do enjoy the hell out of history. And by "enjoy the hell out of history," I mean to the extent that I got two degrees relating to the field. Based on some of my own research, I think you've missed a few points with your comparison between the show and the actual Wars of the Roses.
You say that both the book and the show are supposed to be an alternate history of the Wars. And yet, the majority of what you've discussed in your post has to do with events that occurred after the Wars ended with the ascension of Henry Tudor. to the English throne (minus a few Yorkist revolts). You can't claim that the series represents a certain period, then discuss how it only really connects to things that occurred after said period. That undoes part of your central argument.
Painting Robert Baratheon as an amalgam of Henry VII and Henry VIII seems to me very much a surface level interpretation of all three men. For one thing, Henry VII was a far more competent ruler than Robert seems to be. He helped to re-centralize royal power and oversaw major lucrative trade agreements. As for Henry VIII, whether or not he was truly "a cruel king" depends on which historian is writing about him. He's certainly no Joffrey.
BIG SPOILERS START HERE.
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I really have to call into question your comparing Cersei with Mary I. Once again, saying the two are analogues feels like a very shallow interpretation of similarities. They might both be cruel and driven women, but for wildly different reasons. Cersei is driven by power: power for her family, but more so power for herself. One of Mary's major drive was religion: to whit, the preservation of Catholicism as the dominant force in England. I don't recall that being a big deal for Cersei. Mary was also never quite the schemer that Cersei managed to be. To select a historical figure more in line with the Wars of the Roses, Cersei might be closer to Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI and a major figure on the side of the Lancasters.
I can't really qualify how well Sansa fits as Elizabeth I, but I will say that it doesn't really fit as an analogue when considering familial connections.
I found three videos on the subject. The first two are more in-depth, but don't necessarily go into the Wars of the Roses all that much. The third is a bit simplified, but covers the subject. It's also a cute cartoon!
The Real History Behind Game Of Thrones : Part 1
The Real History Behind Game Of Thrones : Part 2
The wars that inspired Game of Thrones - Alex Gendler