My parents got into a violent debate and I want to know in order to end this, please cite your sources, thanks.
from,
Crimson
A long series of books, that are still going on...
the book series 'A song of fire and ice', the first book in the series is called A game of thrones, and the writer of the series is very heavily involved with making the show.
If you haven't already I would highly recommend reading the books. I haven't read them all but the ones I have are fantastic.
Game of Thrones is based on the book series A Song of Ice and Fire written by George RR Martin,
I heard that he was inspired by actual historical events that happend,
check out the War of the Roses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wars_of_the_Roses