Maybe you’ve answered this, but it’s said that GRRM’s horrors (all the bad shit that happens in the books) are worse than IRL; his lows are lower so his highs can be higher. Would you say then that what we would call war crimes were less common in the Middle Ages than in the books?

This is something that medievalists are kind of touchy about ever since Petrarch coined the term the “Dark Ages” to emphasize both the glory of Rome and Greece and the Renaissance he was trying to create. So you can find a lot of articles and books pointing out that things weren’t that bad, that the Renaissance and Early Modern period was worse, yatta yatta.

I’m kind of skeptical of that argument for a bunch of reasons. GRRM is being selective with what he’s drawing inspiration from, but it’s not like it didn’t happen. The Anarchy in England, which was called the time that “Christ and his saints all slept,” doesn’t get that name without a reason. The Chanson of Raoul of Cambrai is pretty explicit about some nasty atrocities from a petty feudal war. The chevauchées of the Hundred Years War and before were hugely devastating.