The Dark Queens The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World

Shelley Puhak

eBook - 2022

National Bestseller"A well-researched and well-told epic history. The Dark Queens brings these courageous, flawed, and ruthless rulers and their distant times back to life."—Margot Lee Shetterly, New York Times-bestselling author of Hidden FiguresThe remarkable, little-known story of two trailblazing women in the Early Middle Ages who wielded immense power, only to be vilified for daring to rule. Brunhild was a foreign princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law Fredegund started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet-in sixth-century Merovingian France, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport-these two iron-willed strategists reigned over va...st realms, changing the face of Europe. The two queens commanded armies and negotiated with kings and popes. They formed coalitions and broke them,... more