Merovingian France may not have been on everyone's radar but it had been on mine for quite a number of years - and I had written about both on a old webpage I created back in the late 1990s (now archived for posterity). And in particular, the incredible and oft times deadly rivalry between two women who managed to wield more power than their contemporaries.

Firstly we have Brunhilde/a, Queen and wife of Sigebert, King of Austrasia. A women of pedigree who - like her sister before her - was destined for a marriage of political consequence. And then secondly we have Fredegund/a, a slave-girl at the court of Neustria, who in this capacity came to the attention of Chilperic I, and who clawed her way to becoming his third wife - a position she had no intention of relinquishing.

The rivalry between not only these two women but also by the sons of Clothar I King of the Franks, upon the disintegration of his kingdom, would resonate through the generations to come, resulting in the death knell for the dynasty which came barely two centuries later.

Both women suffered the same fate in the end - to either be written out of the history books or the have their reputations so besmirched as to become the epitome of the fallen Eve or Jezebel reincarnate. And the fate of Brunhilde would not rear its ugly head under the Tudor Dynasty, when Henry VIII dispatched the aged Duchess of Salisbury in 1541.

Puhak brings all of her research together to provide the reader with an accessible account of the Merovingian period under these two women. Ample notes and sources will be much appreciated by those seeking to further enrich their own knowledge of the dynasty.

In sixth century Europe, men ruled and women had no voice. However two Merovingian Queens managed to survive and wield great power through dynastic ambition. The two could not be more different, Brunhild was a Visigoth princess from Spain sent to forge a powerful alliance, Fredegund was a former slave who rose to marry the King. Widowed early both acted as regents and were sworn enemies of the other but as their power waned both were almost forgotten.
This is a great book, it is readable and yet learned. There are few sources of evidence from the 'dark ages' but Puhak has used the contemporary sources to weave together a complex tale of rivalry and politics. I haven't read much about this era so found it incredibly interesting

Set in the 6th century, in what is now France but before that nation came to exist, The Dark Queens is the story of two women who became queen - one the child of royalty from what is now Spain, the other a former slave - both intelligent and shrewd, working hard to keep themselves and their children safe in a dangerous time. It would be fair to say, I think, that the narrative in question is not 100% unbiased, as the former gets a more positive press than the latter even as they're getting up to the same kind of blood-letting and other royal hijinks.

A solid piece of narrative non-fiction, covering a period of time I wasn't particularly familiar with before starting The Dark Queens - the only downside is the names, especially as there was a tendency to either have names starting with the same syllables or name people after previous members of the same royal family. All a bit confusing and a family tree might have helped!

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley and this is my honest review of the book in question.

NON-FICTION THAT READS ALMOST LIKE A NOVEL

"It begins with three weddings in quick succession - and one murder."


That is a dynamite beginning! And the rest of the book followed suit. The two subjects of this book, Fredegund and Brunhild are, despite the sparse source material and their 'age', very well fleshed out. I got a real sense of who they were, what they strove and fought for and what their weaknesses were. I came to respect both of them, each in their own way. The writing was excellent, making the past come to life while still being informative. My only concern was the lack of source citations throughout the text. That would have brought this experience to a 5-star read.

We don't know a lot about Merovingian queens, something more about Charlemagne's mother, and I was happy to learn something more about this age and these women.
Well researched, informative, and gripping.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Easy to read and informative, *The Dark Queens* is my favorite non-fiction book of 2022 so far. The only difficult part to follow was the family tree and keeping all the early medieval names straight. I think the finished version of this book might have a family tree and appendices, but the e-arc did not. I am planning to get a finished copy of this book when it comes out, so we shall see.

Side note: there is genuinely someone in this called Duke Boso. His first name was Guntram. Real people looked down at their precious newborn and thought “yes, he looks like a Guntram.”

From the introduction, Puhak’s writing captivated me – a tall order since the time period discussed here came about 1,300 years before the historical period I am most interested in. I do, however, have a soft spot for learning about maligned and forgotten (read: re-written) historical women, and *The Dark Queens* is certainly that. I would like to add a warning that this book is not for anyone with a weak stomach: this book includes grisly homicides, suicides, torture, and dead children.

This book follows medieval queens and sisters-in-law Brunhild and Fredegund who lived in and ruled most of what is now France and some of western Germany during the latter half of the 500s and the very early 600s. Puhak has done a great job of sifting through existing primary and secondary sources and presenting a narrative that is easy to understand for a layperson. I also appreciate the acknowledgment that there are gaps in the historical record – there is no trying to gloss over missing or conflicting information. She also makes excellent points about human rights and women’s rights (or lack thereof) and how many of the same unjust themes have carried on into the modern era.

> Women possessed both more value and more rights under Salic law than they had under Roman law, and more than they would in most kingdoms in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Yet despite the legal code’s seeming progressive bent, a woman’s value was directly linked to her reproductive potential, to her ability to make more warriors or princes.
>

In another example, she discusses the contemporary “explanation” for Queen Fredegund’s political savvy: she must be a witch. Obviously, the only way a woman could influence her husband or understand politics is to be a witch, under the tutelage of Satan, himself.

Puhak also combats a sticky and unsavory myth: that the medieval *world* was just Europe. The medieval world was, in fact, *the world*.

> [the wedding ring] Chilperic slipped on the new queen’s [Brunhild’s] finger would have contained a garnet, transported all the way from a mine in India. The stones were all the rage and prized even above diamonds. The rest of her new jewelry had traveled just as far. The amber beads now knotted around her neck came from the Baltic, and the lapis lazuli inlaid into her earrings from Afghanistan.
>

I learned so much from this book and it has made me more curious about the early medieval world – something I never thought I’d say.

I don't read a lot of history and when I do, its usually either hyper-specific small scale or big picture global history pieces. Kings and Queens are not really my area of interest, the story of people who think they have been given the divine right by God to be dicks to lots of people is not my bag. So The Dark Queens should not be up my street, except the Dark in question is the "don't call them the Dark Ages" and the Queens in question are Brunhild and Fredegund - two Queen Regents who were in power in the Merovingian Empire in France for thirty years. I'm also not that used to narrative history and Shelley Puhak's previous work as a poet lifts this to a page turner that is near novelistic.

The problem with writing about this period of history is how few sources there are, and this comes across in the book. Gregory of Tours and the Latin poet Venantius Fortunatus are the two main sources here, particualrly the former when it comes to the non-stop scheming of Brunhild - and there is a frustrating final section where the souurces die and we are left with little. But up until then we have a rollocking tale of marriages, deaths, assassinations and being sent thee to a nunnery. Fredegund in particular is partial to a poisoning or two, and Brunhild manages to act as Queen Regent to two generations of her own family - and clearly command loyalty of her non-countrymen (Brunhild initially being Spanish). It is full of some extraordinary political chicanery, slices of the story would make incredible shorter stories or films.

The narrative history style here is on the whole pretty honest. Occasionally Puhak dips into th ebrains of her protagonists and takes a punt on what they might be thinking, which is probably breaking the rules but in most cases these are just after people have been assassinated or they themselves are awaiting execution. The larger point stands anyway, Fredegund and Brunhild have been largely written out of history despite staying in power agains the odds. Indeed Brunhild's name has been usurped for the Valkyrie in Wagner, as a name with a certain amount of warrior prowess, The Dark Queens did a lot to not only tell me of these particular people but also the world they lived in, the shape of post Roman, Early Holy Roman Empire Europe, and works as both feminist history and a solid read about the period.

6/5! Fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable. It's cram packed, so much happens it's hard to believe there are so few written records. I could see them both in my mind's eye and for all they were cruel by our standards I have a real respect for them both, certainly I wouldn't have wanted to be a glass ceiling in their presence.

The Dark Queens tells the story of two women who lived in the 6th century CE, who influenced the lives and deaths of many men, women and children.
Shelley Puhak has written a narrative non-fiction book that traces the lives of Fredegund and Brunhild; two Merovingian Queens.  She uses a variety of sources to create a vivid picture of these women's lives.  Fredegund and Brunhild deserved to have their stories told in this way; evidence based with educated guesswork and supposition to explore how the dots may be joined.
I was genuinely enthralled with the machinations of the Merovingian empire and shocked by how this archaic story is continually mirrored throughout history, even 1000 years later.
Shelly Puhak has not only done an important job here by making these stories available to the more general public, but she has breathed humanity into a period of time that can sometimes seem incredibly distant.  This is a reminder that 'his story' is rarely ever 'her story'.

The Dark Queens is the extensively researched and spirited nonfiction debut of Shelley Puhak and shines a much needed light on two sixth-century Merovingian queens and the territory of Francia (modern-day Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and parts of Germany and Switzerland) that was their battleground. Prior to reading this book I knew absolutely nothing about the early Middle Ages and hadn’t heard of either noble-born Spanish princess Brunhild or her sister-in-law, former palace slave Fredegund. It seems incredible that I recognised neither name but both women commanded armies, played politics, reigned for decades and were also wives and mothers. As Puhak makes clear, the stories of these two Frankish queens have largely been written out of the history books, their reputations maligned and stories twisted to fit inaccurate legends.

Merovingian King Clothar outlived his brothers to reunite Francia, but upon his death in 561 he divided his land into separate kingdoms that are split between his four sons (Charibert, Guntrum, Sigibert and Chilperic). King Sigibert’s marriage to Brunhild was not an obvious love match but more of a carefully negotiated alliance with his new queen well-educated, well-travelled and in possession of impressive political acumen. After seeing his older half-brother opening declaring his dynastic ambitions by taking a foreign bride, acrimonious King Chilperic makes former palace slave, Fredegund, his third wife. As the era unfolds, realms change hands, political alliances are masterminded and bitter conflicts divide, with Queens Brunhild and Fredegund always in the mix. Whilst I would have liked more focus on our two leading ladies and their relationship I do understand that this would have necessitated a huge amount of conjecture. Puhak is very honest about the shortcomings of the primary sources she is working from and the biases and agendas of the male writers. As a reader I felt that Brunhild was portrayed in a more sympathetic light but given that Fredegund was responsible for a slew of assassinations I suspect this was largely my perception as opposed to a conscious intention by Shelley Puhak.

I can count on one hand the number of history books that I’d recommend to general readers but without a doubt The Dark Queens falls firmly into that category with its fascinating insight into two trailblazing women. It’s rare for history but there isn’t a dull moment and the events really do read like a veritable soap opera. The narrative is pacy and the events that occur are in ‘you couldn’t make it up’ territory with bloodshed, incest, duplicity, fratricide, torture and revenge that makes for non-stop entertainment and an impressively readable book. I learnt an incredible amount and there are some memorable nuggets of information, not least that it was Fredegund’s battle strategy of using a ‘walking forest’ to disguise her men that was adopted by Shakespeare in Macbeth. In the later stages I did have to work hard to keep track of not only who was who but the progression of the ever shifting allegiances and successive marriages and it was here that I found myself referring back and forth to the Dramatis Personae cast list.

Unfortunately there was no kindle option for this book so i was unable to open it - it wouldn't open on my pc either. Please ignore the star rating - that was just do i could send in the feedback. I cannot give a star rating as i cannot read the book!

A well researched history of two forgotten Queen’s, who were powerful, ruthless, ambitious and schemed to not only take the power behind the throne, but managed to keep this status after the deaths of their husbands, even resorting to murder. Both Queen’s lived in the same period of history, the Merovingian dynasty of the Mediaeval period ( sixth century Western Europe ) and both ladies and their respective Kings, ruled most of Western Europe with Paris as their Capital City.
Fredegund was Queen for 29 years, not bad for one who rose from being a servant girl, and Queen Brunhild ruled for 46 years. Apparently, they had never heard about the female sex being the weaker sex! They achieved greatness, either by murdering their enemies, fighting alongside armies in battle, holding great sway over their husbands, and children, and knowing which influential Churchman to flatter, or to ask advice from.
This book uses a large amount of primary sources, mainly writings of Gregory of Tours, later to become Pope Gregory the Great.
I visited the Church of Saint Martin of Tours some years ago, and read some information of how Gregory supported King Clovis of France, who knew that Clovis later became Louis, and so many French Kings took that name!!
I greatly enjoyed this book. Two Queen’s I had never heard of, how daring and committed they were to destroy their enemies and they even dared to accept traitorous offers of marriage to remain in power, whereas most deposed or widowed women were forced to go into a convent, the quiet life was not for them. I feel I have learnt a great deal about this period of history, girl power in the extreme!!
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers, Head of Zeus for my digital copy, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
I have rated this as a four star read, only because I couldn’t access any images of maps, or any pictures mentioned throughout this book.
I will leave reviews to Goodreads and Amazon.

What a period of history! The Dark Queens is packed with drama and is also very well-written; a real page-turner but equally an important addition to the bookshelf.

I hadn't heard of Brunhilda or Fredegund before, and I am so glad that this book has been written - their story is fascinating of itself but it also has wider ramifications for the inclusion of such neglected groups as ...women (only 52% of the population). Thank you for this book!

I love history and I love this book of the story of two lesser-known queens that were very important. It’s always interesting writers take a portion of history that isn’t covered enough and choose to write about it.

Author Shelley Puhak does an extremely good job of telling the stories of two Merovingian Queens, during the beginning of the medieval era, and combining scholarship with storytelling to bring the era and characters to life. With early history, the risk is always whether the author relies on primary sources and risks the book becoming too academic and dry, or whether telling the story means that this is traded for historical accuracy. It’s a delicate line to walk, but I think Puhak manages it well. Yes, sometimes you feel her own opinions coming through, but, overall, this is a readable account which shines a light on women, who are normally overlooked on the history of the period.

Our two Queens are Brunhild, a Spanish princess and wife of Sigibert and Fredegund, a former slave girl, and wife of King Chilperic. Chilperic was the half brother of Sigibert, Guntram and Charibert, and the brothers ruled an area which comprised of much of modern France and Germany. These lands were split between the brothers on the death of their father, King Clothar, and resulted in incursions, attacks, jealousy and resentment. Meanwhile, as the book continues, we learn of why Brunhild had reasons to dislike Fredegund and how Fredegund – ambitious and intelligent – fought to achieve, and retain, power and influence.

This history shows not only the tenuous control that most women had over their lives, but how quickly life could change for both men and women – whether royal or not. Men could be killed in battle, or by illness. Women were easily shuttled off to a convent (or, in one case, fought to be allowed to go to one). This book has everything, from dynastic ambitions, marriage, murder, banishment, imprisonment, and epidemics. An interesting insight into a period of history that I knew little about and fascinating views of two women who held power in a time when this was highly unusual. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

In her afterword Shelley Puhak notes that Dark Queens is a "not an academic history, it is a work of narrative non-fiction based on primary sources". I think the book would have been greatly served by having this statement at the start of the book. Once viewed with this in mind, Dark Queens is an engaging and immersive story of two early medieval queens that are somewhat overlooked historical figures. 
Puhak paints a portrait of two complex women who navigated the challenges of their time and the social norms of the time in which they lived.  I wasn't entirely convinced of some of the assumptions Puhak makes of their motivations, the chronology of events, or even the way in which events occurred, as there was a lot of supposition...however, this is the nature of narrative history (and another reason it would have been good to have the caveat at the start). I did also find that the book didn't necessarily follow an entirely chronological path. While the chapters did, within each chapter it jumped around a lot which I found distracted from the clarity of the narrative. Similarly, despite quoting a number of sources, she doesn't always reference where the information is coming from which lessens its impact.

That being said, she draws on a range of interesting source material and provides relevant- and very interesting- cultural context.  More than this, Puhak makes some very interesting comments and thoughts about gender and femininity. She draws on the value that was imposed by society on women's bodies, through the payment made to the families of murdered or dishonoured women, and also to the value placed upon potential brides and queens. Tracing the journey of a slave who became a queen and a princess who carved out a political role for herself she subtly highlights the irony of women not being wanted in politics, but also valued for their knowledge of politics once already a queen. The writing style is similar to Dan Jones so fans of his books would enjoy this.

Overall, it is an engaging and enjoyable read which brings attention to a pair of underrepresented women. Academic readers may have an issue with the lack of citation, but non-specialist readers will find it easy to read and a fun way to spend a weekend. Greatly enjoyable for all.

My sincere thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for providing me with a copy to read.

OH YES.

This has pretty much everything I love about a history book.

1. Rediscovering, or repairing, or reframing, previously maligned historical figures.
1a. In particular, women. And here, Puhak does it to not one but TWO women, living at the same time, with lives that were interwoven and had an enormous impact on each other.
The late 500s in what is now France was a remarkable time: it was, as Puhak points out, a time of "dual female rule" - Brunhild and Fredegund, one a Visigoth princess and the other a former slave, were regents for their grandson and son respectively. Together they controlled nearly as much land as Charlemagne would a few centuries later. This dual female rule wouldn't be repeated in Europe for another thousand years. And why don't we know about it? Because, Puhak claims - with some pretty strong evidence - there was a concerted effort at damnatio memoriae; getting rid of all memory of the actions of these two queens from history. A lot like what happened to Hatshepsut in Egypt. Either expunge the actions of the women, or cast them in as completely evil or irrelevant light as you possibly can. Because how embarrassing to remember that women had been instrumental in leading and shaping your kingdom for decades!

2. I learned many new things.
A lot about the Merovingians, of course - which I had no knowledge of, except for the name, and (as Puhak ruthfully notes) as the name of a character in a Matrix film. But I also learned that the Latinised version of 'Clovis' - whose name I did know - who was the first Merovingian king - is LOUIS and there you get the beginning of, what, 17 kings with the same name.

3. Utterly readable.
Puhak says that this is "not an academic history; it is a work of narrative nonfiction based on primary sources". And I think this is a really intriguing way of putting it. I guess the 'not academic' aspect is strictly accurate, although I do think Puhak is underselling herself. There aren't footnotes - but there are extensive references at the back, and my goodness her bibliography is incredible and IF I HAD THE TIME (and access to them) I could glut myself on following them all up. I love the use of the primary sources here; she uses the various histories from the time, and later, judiciously - weighing up their perspectives and their intentions and figuring out what makes sense. And it ends up being absorbing and riveting.

4. What a story.
Honestly, you could present this as fiction and people would believe you. Marriages brokered, broken, and occasionally seen through; so many murders and possible-murders; kingdoms divided and reunited; treason, scheming, bargaining... Puhak argues that Cersei from Game of Thrones is inspired by these two women, in some sense, and I'm not quite convinced of that but it tells you something about their lives.

What a fantastic book.

This book is “a work of narrative nonfiction based on primary sources”, so it probably does not contain the full truth about the lives of the two queens, but rather an imaginary reality that can be read from the archival records and other surviving medieval documents found in our time.

I also felt a little bias on the part of the writer, as he portrayed one queen as good and the other as inherently bad. While there are sources that would prove just the opposite. But there has to be a good and a bad hero in every story so that we always feel personally touched in the events. And this book was like that, I was almost present in the throne halls, on the battlefield, I mourned with the queens at the battle losses, I cried with them at the death of their husbands and children.

It was the best and most interesting historical nonfiction of all I have read so far. I have come to know a world and an age that has been unknown to me so far, a bloody and chaotic era in French history that was still the starting point of current French and European history. The two queens were pragmatic and ruthless, yet we feel that romance, love of family and nation were also present in their lives. For virtually half a century, they ruled much of the continent, yet their lives were erased from the pages of the history books by jealous descendants.

There are a lot of events and characters in the book, no pages, no sentences that would be a little boring. We always believe that the present is the most tortuous, the most interesting, and then we realize that there were times when the lives and destinies of peoples and nations were in constant turmoil.

The Dark Queens is a fascinating tale of two Merovingian women, who grasped for power and sometimes ruled over mid-first millennium mainland Europe, together whose domains spanned most of what is now France and Germany. These are two queens who have, for the most part in popular history at least, been consigned to the shelf, but Shelley Puhak brings them to life here in a very well-researched history.

The style of this book straddles something between a drier academic style and that of telling more of a story. It makes sense, really, because primary sources from the period are scarce compared with other periods, and secondary sources for these two women are distorted by the aims of the people writing them. However, I wouldn’t say it’s wholly successful in the latter aspect—it at times felt as though it couldn’t decide which style to prioritise. I’ve read plenty of history books which go for a much less academic style and are still clearly based on thorough underlying research. I do feel as though here that paucity of sources perhaps led a little to this straddling.

There are also a couple of things that I wanted more of and less of, respectively. The first of those is how these two queens’ reigns (although to call them reigns is perhaps misleading, since they never really ruled in their own right, by the sounds of it. It was always a regency, if only in name alone) led to the subsequent developments on mainland Europe. Basically, I wanted more of how all of this fit into the historical context. Because that was hinted at and, at times, it felt like the author wanted to take their examples and compare them to modern life.

Which leads me nicely to my next point! I have no issue, really, with the comparison to modern life, but for the fact that Puhak didn’t really follow through with it. But the way it was brought up, that’s what I wanted less of. Less of the whole “they have simply become bywords for the evil stepmother/female poisoner stereotype! Misogyny at work!” because, really, that felt trite. It isn’t just misogyny that turns historical figures into stereotypes and demons (think Richard III?), so to simply condense it down to that felt quite like saying “look! We women have never been allowed power! Men don’t like powerful women!” It was, in all, simplistic and somewhat of a disappointing end to the book. These are two very complex women, as Puhak notes, so it feels reductive to summarise their story by saying it’s all due to misogyny. (I hope this point makes sense, because I can no longer tell.)

However, in all, this was an enjoyable read. This was a period of time I’ve read very little about (except for British history), so I did like reading this book and the story it told. I just felt, with the end, that it was a bit of a let down.

A brilliant book about a period of history I knew little about and two queens I knew nothing about. That lack of knowledge helped make the book read more like a historical novel as I did not know the outcomes for these two formidable women.
Well written, easy to read and understand with just the right amount of historical language.
Thoroughly enjoyable and definitely recommended.