Game of Thrones: The Mad King

Winter has ended, and Lady Whent of Harrenhal has called a great tournament to celebrate. The great and the good from the Seven Kingdoms are attending, most notable amongst them Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, the entire Stark family bar their father, and Lord Robert Baratheon, lately come to his seat after the tragic death of his parents at sea. Robert is due to meet his betrothed, Lyanna Stark, the sister of his best friend Eddard, but her attention is divided between the unjust bullying received by her father's bannerman, the young Howland Reed, from some drunken squires, and strange dreams from her childhood that have been given increased vigour at Harrenhal. But plots and counter-plots swirl as the Mad King himself, Aerys II, puts in an unexpected appearance.One of the more familiar plaudits offered to A Song of Ice and Fire over its three-decade history has been "Shakespearian." Like the Bard, George R.R. Martin drew on Roman and medieval history to inspire his work, and perhaps…