The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World
The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World
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Overview
The 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 vast realms, changing the face of Europe.
The two queens commanded armies and negotiated with kings and popes. They formed coalitions and broke them, mothered children and lost them. They fought a decades-long civil war - against each other. With ingenuity and skill, they battled to stay alive in the game of statecraft and in the process laid the foundations of what would one day be Charlemagne's empire. Yet after the queens' deaths - one gentle, the other horrific - their stories were rewritten, their names consigned to slander and legend.
In The Dark Queens, award-winning writer Shelley Puhak sets the record straight. She resurrects two very real women in all their complexity, painting a richly detailed portrait of an unfamiliar time and striking at the roots of some of our culture's stubbornest myths about female power. The Dark Queens offers proof that the relationships between women can transform the world.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781799785064 |
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Publisher: | Brilliance Audio |
Publication date: | 04/26/2022 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |
Product dimensions: | 5.25(w) x 6.75(h) x 0.50(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Author's Note: Shadow Queens xi
Dramatis Personae 5
Prologue 9
Chapter 1 A Wedding in Metz 10
Chapter 2 Meeting the Franks 17
Chapter 3 The Fall of Charibert 23
Chapter 4 New Alliances 31
Chapter 5 A Missive to Byzantium 38
Chapter 6 The Slave Queen 47
Chapter 7 All the King's Men 54
Chapter 8 The Siege 62
Chapter 9 The Witch and the Nun 71
Chapter 10 Back Channels 78
Chapter 11 Uprising 85
Chapter 12 The Laws of Sanctuary 93
Chapter 13 Crime and Punishment 99
Chapter 14 "Wise in Counsel" 105
Chapter 15 Fredegund's Grief 111
Chapter 16 Brunhild in the Breach 117
Chapter 17 The Regency 125
Chapter 18 Set Ablaze 130
Chapter 19 Brunichildis Regina 139
Chapter 20 The King Is Dead 146
Chapter 21 The Vexations of King Guntram 155
Chapter 22 The Gundovald Affair 164
Chapter 23 The Diplomatic Arts 176
Chapter 24 The Dukes' Revolt 186
Chapter 25 A Royal Engagement 197
Chapter 26 The Defiant Nuns 205
Chapter 27 Allies and Assassins 212
Chapter 28 Forlorn Little Boys 217
Chapter 29 The Fading of the Kings 224
Chapter 30 The Dual Rule 233
Chapter 31 Brunhild's Battles 240
Chapter 32 The Fall 250
Epilogue: Backlash 259
A Note on Sources and Methods 271
Acknowledgments 275
Bibliography 277
Notes 297
Image Credits 347
Index 349