The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World

by Shelley Puhak

Overview

“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 Figures

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:	9781635574913
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	02/22/2022
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	46,539
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Shelley Puhak is a critically acclaimed poet and writer whose work has appeared in the Atlantic, Smithsonian, Time, Lapham’s Quarterly, Virginia Quarterly Review, and other publications. She is the author of three books of poetry, including the Anthony Hecht Prize-winning Guinevere in Baltimore and Harbinger, a National Poetry Series selection. The Dark Queens is her nonfiction debut. She lives in Maryland.

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

Editorial Reviews

★ 11/15/2021

Poet Puhak (Guinevere in Baltimore) delivers a lyrical and astute assessment of the political maneuvers, battlefield strategies, and resilience of medieval queens and rivals Fredegund and Brunhild. Members of the Merovingian dynasty, noble-born Brunhild and her sister-in-law Fredegund, a former slave, fought vigorously as active queen consorts and then regents to enlarge their respective shares of Francia (modern-day Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and parts of Germany and Switzerland) in the sixth century. Brunhild sought to improve her realm with infrastructure projects and political alliances and exhibited her negotiating skills in the Treaty of Andelot, which allowed her, her daughter, and daughter-in-law to avoid being forced into a convent and stripped of their extensive lands in the event of widowhood. Meanwhile, Fredegund chillingly orchestrated at least a dozen assassinations, including murdering a bishop during Easter Mass and sending two enslaved boys with poisoned daggers to murder Brunhild’s husband. Puhak skillfully draws on contemporaneous sources, including letters, poems, and a vividly told yet obviously biased account by Brunhild’s devoted ally, Bishop Gregory of Tours, to create her thrilling history. The resulting is deeply fascinating portrait of the early Middle Ages that vigorously reclaims two powerhouse women from obscurity. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

“History owes more to Brunhild and Fredegund, two queens whose bitter rivalry left a trail of bodies in their wake, than the lies perpetuated by their enemies. So bravo to Shelley Puhak for a remarkable piece of detective work, by turns enlightening and shocking. Anyone who thought that medieval queens spent their time sewing and sighing is in for a surprise.”” —Amanda Foreman, New York Times-bestselling author of GEORGIANA: DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE and THE WORLD MADE BY WOMEN

“Bright, smart, and playful, The Dark Queens is a marvelous trip into the murky early Middle Ages. Shelley Puhak presents a believable and vividly drawn portrait of the Frankish world, and in doing so restores two half-forgotten and much-mythologized queens, Brunhild and Fredegund, to their proper place in medieval history.” —Dan Jones, New York Times-bestselling author of THE TEMPLARS and POWERS AND THRONES

“On the one hand, a story of scheming and savagery to make Game of Thrones look tame-on the other, a genuinely important exploration of the relationship between two powerful women, written with zest and verve.” —Sarah Gristwood, internationally bestselling author of ARBELLA and THE TUDORS IN LOVE

“A blood-soaked journey through sixth-century Europe, casting new light on the so-called Dark Ages … Surprising and thoroughly riveting.” —Emily Midorikawa, author of OUT OF THE SHADOWS

“These dark queens were undaunted survivors who still whisper powerful advice … Shelley Puhak has recovered forgotten biographies we must no longer neglect.” —Kara Cooney, PhD, author of WHEN WOMEN RULED THE WORLD

“This gripping saga features everything from gory murders to scandalous nuns. Brunhild and Fredegund are often flattened into early medieval Europe's great villains, but in Shelley Puhak's brilliant telling, they come to rich and nuanced life.” —Emily Southon, PhD, author of AGRIPPINA

“Stirring and passionate … A brilliant reconstruction of our long-suppressed past, with all its murder and intrigue, loyalty and courage, The Dark Queens is unforgettable.” —Nancy Marie Brown, author of THE REAL VALKYRIE

“An eye-opening medieval delight! Shelley Puhak rescues two fascinating, real-life women from the misogynistic dustbin of history, and sheds light on the origins of such strong fictional grandes dames as Lady Macbeth, Cersei, and every Wagnerian heroine who ever sported a Viking helmet. Impeccably researched. A delicious read.” —Denise Kiernan, New York Times bestselling author of THE GIRLS OF ATOMIC CITY and WE GATHER TOGETHER

“A lyrical and astute assessment of the political maneuvers, battlefield strategies, and resilience of medieval queens and rivals Fredegund and Brunhild … Puhak skillfully draws on contemporaneous sources, including letters, poems, and a vividly told yet obviously biased account by Brunhild's devoted ally, Bishop Gregory of Tours, to create her thrilling history. The resulting is a deeply fascinating portrait of the early Middle Ages that vigorously reclaims two powerhouse women from obscurity.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From the Publisher

01/01/2022

Between the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Carolingians, there was a lesser-known Frankish empire led by the fierce Merovingians. The fiercest among them were two queens: Brunhild and Fredegund. In a time when much of Europe was navigating the challenge of reassessing its lost Roman identity and trying to take its first steps into an uncertain future, the Merovingian queens stood up to the challenge as politicians and army commanders. Both queens were rebellious and violently unforgiving to treason, but each was also quick to outmaneuver assassination attempts and plot their own rebellions around their other responsibilities (negotiating political marriages, building international relationships with allies, and navigating domestic crises). Poet Puhak (Guinevere in Baltimore) takes the audience deep into the lives of these ruling women and shows how they were both capable and skilled as they climbed to the height of their power. They reigned during an era of which there is limited historical record; Puhak contends that this made it easy for the queens' adversaries to reduce their memory to crude misogynistic stereotypes that encouraged the populace to fear women with power. VERDICT A compelling read for those with an interest in early medieval European history, Merovingian history, and women in power.—Monique Martinez

Library Journal

2021-11-30
The lives of forgotten queens.

Poet and essayist Puhak makes her nonfiction debut with a dual biography of two fierce, indomitable sixth-century women: Brunhild and Fredegund, rival sisters-in-law who inspired the fictional story of the Valkyrie, immortalized in Wagner’s Ring opera cycle. Brunhild, the daughter of a Visigoth king, married King Sigibert, a son of Merovingian King Clothar; Fredegund, a slave, became the third wife of Chilperic, Sigibert’s vengeful half brother. Drawing heavily on primary sources, Puhak creates a richly detailed tapestry depicting a volatile, turbulent age. Fratricide, torture, betrayal, and execution—as well as deadly illnesses—were common: “Among the Merovingians,” writes the author, “intrafamilial violence was accepted as a hazard of the job,” and the two queens did not shrink from bloody conflict as they sought to consolidate power for themselves and their heirs and to wrest land from enemies. By the end of the sixth century, the dual queens had reigned for decades over an empire that “encompassed modern-day France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, western and southern Germany, and swaths of Switzerland. Only Charlemagne would, briefly, control more territory than these two women.” Moreover, Puhak writes, they “did much more than simply hang on to their thrones. They collaborated with foreign rulers, engaged in public works programs, and expanded their kingdoms’ territories.” They knew their worth as women who, through marriage or motherhood, could consolidate realms. After Sigibert died, Brunhild married his nephew, a strategic move: “Her new husband was to depose his father and rule Neustria; her son would remain king of Austrasia.” Fredegund’s alleged “talent for assassination” led foreign kings to solicit her services. Puhak takes a sympathetic view of their plights: widowhood that might relegate them to life in a convent; the death of children from illness or foul play; and their physical vulnerability as women. Her brisk narrative rescues two significant figures from misogynist historians who, in perpetuating rumors and scandals, have diminished their significance.

Lively, well-researched history focused on powerful women.

Kirkus Reviews