The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry that Forged the Medieval World by Shelley PuhakMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
What I learned about the Merovingians in school and most of my previous reading (not counting the fevered imaginings of Dan Brown and the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail) was short, simple, and boring: the “long-haired kings” of the Franks, after Clovis I converted to Christianity, eventually deteriorated to “do-nothing kings” and were overthrown by the father of Charlemagne. The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World by Shelley Puhac brings this dynasty to life through its portrayal of two of its rival queens.
Brunhild was a Visigothic princess who married Sigebert, a grandson of Clovis; Fredegund was a slave in the court of Sigibert’s brother Chilperic. After Brunhild’s sister, who had married Chilperic, was murdered and replaced by Fredegund, who had previously been his mistress, the fight was on. Over the course of the next forty years, the two queens schemed and plotted against one another using everything from diplomacy to assassination and military moves, and mainly working through the men in their lives - husbands, sons, and in Brunhild’s case grandsons - given that women were not allowed to wield overt power in the Frankish culture. Obviously, both were strong-willed and charismatic, and at times Puhac’s “narrative nonfiction,” while based on the original sources, is riveting and at times reads like a novel. Sadly, after their deaths, those who followed them made sure that their memories were either erased or vilified.
The only issue that I had was that at first, I found it difficult to keep some of the names straight, given that many were not only unfamiliar to me but similar to one another as well, such as Fredegund and Radegund or Chilperic and Childebert, although that got easier since they became more fleshed out as the narrative progressed. I would recommend bookmarking the list of characters at the beginning for easy referral.
I received a copy of The Dark Queens from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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