hi! get some snacks & settle in, because have we got some info for you!

"hedge knights" in Game of Thrones:

• Were hedge knights a real thing?

• How believable are the setting and events in A Song of Ice and Fire?

mercenaries in medieval Europe:

• How do modern mercenary units (PMCs) compare in function and use to mercenaries active in Europe in the 13th-18th centuries AD?

• The Effectiveness of Mercenaries

• The evolution of mercenaries?

• How common and reliable were mercenaries in Europe between the Fall of Rome and discovery of America?

• Were there any renowned mercenaries during the Middle Ages?

• What are some of the best examples of a highly organized or disciplined mercenary/sellsword/privateer company from the 1000's or since?

• Were There Mercenary Knights Like Modern Mercenaries?

• Were opinions towards mercenaries as negative historically as they are today?

life as a medieval European mercenary:

• How did you actually join a mercenary band?

• What kind of life did a mercenary have during the middle-ages?

• What was it like to be part of a mercenary group in Europe during the middle ages?

• [Europe, 12th-15th centuries] I am a mercenary captain with a good company of men under my command. How does my career look, what are my functions in the army once sub-indentured by a noble, and what is expected of me in battle?

'Hedge' knight does not appear in medieval sources. It's a modern (maybe even Martin's own) invention which is in part an allusion to the errant adventuring knight of medieval romance. We're there really dubbed knights wandering the countryside looking for employ and fighting in tournaments across the land? Well there were certainly knights who threw themselves into the tournament circuit (if circuit is not itself an anachronism) but they were rarely independent (as they fought in teams during the twelfth- through thirteenth-centuries) or poor (as the costs associated with becoming a dubbed knight were so extortionate from the mid thirteenth-century).^1

As with many of Martin's ideas he has blended a medieval trope (errant adventurer) with a modern one (in this case the 'hedge wizard' of D&D). Poor peasant knights were not a trope of medieval literature. Anonymous knights who revealed their noble lineage and chivalrous nature through martial prowess then subsequent largesse were. There were, especially after the mid thirteenth-century knights who would attempt to recreate the romantic knight errant, or hold a joust in the honour of a lady at a bridge. These were not the activities of poor men.

So, again, Martin proves an unreliable window into the past. A mish-mash of borrowed concepts woven into something that's seems real but is ultimately just what it says on the tin: a fantasy.

^1 As for your ronin comparison. Well feudalism was rather more complex that you might imagine. There was no shame in being 'masterless' and many knights were lords themselves. In England after the mid thirteenth-century the costs and bureaucratic obligations associated with becoming a knight were so expensive and onerous that most nobles didn't bother. Knights would perform duties as sheriffs and Henry III was forced to issue an edict which forced anyone with an annual income of £40 or more to become a knight. Most seemed happier to spend time on their manors rather than be dragged into county administration.