THE DARK QUEENS: THE BLOODY RIVALRY THAT FORGED THE MEDIEVAL WORLD BY SHELLEY PUHAK

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National Bestseller

A well-researched and well-told epic history.The Dark Queensbrings these courageous, flawed, and ruthless rulers and their distant times back to life.–Margot Lee Shetterly,New York Times-bestselling author ofHidden 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 yetin sixth-century Merovingian France, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sportthese 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 waragainst 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 Charlemagnes empire. Yet after the queens deathsone gentle, the other horrifictheir stories were rewritten, their names consigned to slander and legend.

InThe 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 cultures stubbornest myths about female power.The Dark Queensoffers proof that the relationships between woman can transform the world.

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