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The dark queens : the bloody rivalry that forged the medieval world / Shelley Puhak.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Puhak, Shelley, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Brunehaut, Queen, consort of Sigebert, King of Austrasia, 534-613.
- Brunehaut.
- Fredegund, Queen, consort of Chilperic I, King of Neustria, -597.
- Fredegund.
- Queens--France--Biography.
- Queens.
- Merovingians.
- France--History--To 987.
- France.
- Genre:
- Biography.
- Biographies.
- History.
- Physical Description:
- xvi, 367 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 25 cm
- Other Title:
- Bloody rivalry that forged the medieval world
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022.
- Summary:
- "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." -- description from publisher's website https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/dark-queens-9781635574913/
- 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.
- Contents:
- Machine generated contents note: ch. One A Wedding in Metz
- ch. Two Meeting the Franks
- ch. Three The Fall of Charibert
- ch. Four New Alliances
- ch. Five A Missive to Byzantium
- ch. Six The Slave Queen
- ch. Seven All the King's Men
- ch. Eight The Siege
- ch. Nine The Witch and the Nun
- ch. Ten Back Channels
- ch. Eleven Uprising
- ch. Twelve The Laws of Sanctuary
- ch. Thirteen Crime and Punishment
- ch. Fourteen "Wise in Counsel"
- ch. Fifteen Fredegund's Grief
- ch. Sixteen Brunhild in the Breach
- ch. Seventeen The Regency
- ch. Eighteen Set Ablaze
- ch. Nineteen Brunichildis Regina
- ch. Twenty The King Is Dead
- ch. Twenty-One The Vexations of King Guntram
- ch. Twenty-Two The Gundovald Affair
- ch. Twenty-Three The Diplomatic Arts
- ch. Twenty-Four The Dukes' Revolt
- ch. Twenty-Five A Royal Engagement
- ch. Twenty-Six The Defiant Nuns
- ch. Twenty-Seven Allies and Assassins
- ch. Twenty-Eight Forlorn Little Boys
- ch. Twenty-Nine The Fading of the Kings
- ch. Thirty The Dual Rule
- ch. Thirty-One Brunhild's Battles
- ch. Thirty-Two The Fall.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-295) and index.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.
- ISBN:
- 9781801109161
- 1801109168
- 9781635574913
- 1635574919
- OCLC:
- 1297039056
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