In the Game of Thrones series, any sort of semi-important position was basically held by a member of one of the houses (royalty). Was it like this during Medieval times?

by JillyPolla

In the series (both books and TV), basically anybody that had any sort of "official" responsibilities was going to be a family member of one of the houses. Positions like military leadership (even lower level), captaining of the guards, stewardship of castles, and any sort of managerial positions was held by family members of houses.

In fact, when it wasn't, the books and TV made a point to mention it. People like Janos Slynt and Varys actually had plot elements of them not being royalty, and even minor characters who were low born had that as some sort of plot point. This implies that non-royalty having official responsibilities were so rare that when it happens it's a "thing".

How accurate is this compared to actual Medieval history?

anotherMrLizard

I think you might have 'royalty' confused with the 'nobility.' The 'highborn' members of the noble houses in GOT would appear to correspond to feudal European nobility (those in charge of an hereditary fiefdom an their families), not necessarily royalty.