The Dark Queens

The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World

De: Shelley Puhak

Narrado por: Cassandra Campbell

“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 best-selling 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.

©2022 Shelley Puhak (P)2022 Audible, Inc.

Suspenseful, in-depth history

It's not often that a historical narrative can hold me on the edge of my seat. The fact that this book did that is a huge tribute to Puhak's ability as a storyteller. She's not just a storyteller, though: she obviously has the academic chops to grapple with the sources and the tough questions, and she gives her conclusions in a way that always respects the reader's intelligence—I never felt talked down to or brushed off, as sometimes happens when academic historians write books for laypeople. Nor did I feel like Puhak was distorting history for the sake of a gripping narrative, as sometimes happens when fiction authors (or aspiring fiction authors) try their hand at history. This is an author who has real respect for the source material, and real respect for the reader.

Now, as to the suspense: it helps, of course, that the period (Merovingian France) is one that I have very little familiarity with so I had no idea how the story ended. But I've read plenty of new-to-me histories, and "suspenseful" is very rarely a word I can use to describe them. I'm reading a history of the Thirty Years' War right now, and while I'm fascinated by the intricacies of what's happening, I don't feel any suspense about the outcome (even though I don't know what it is).

What Puhak does is select two people from this period in history (Queen Brunhild and Queen Fredegund) and then make very real their fears, concerns, ambitions, and desires. Throughout the twisting and complex civil wars that follow, she always makes ensures that we know the stakes for Brunhild and Fredegund. What could be a rather confusing list of betrayals, battles, and royal marriages in another author's hands is instead rendered completely clear, and completely vivid, because we see them through Brunhild's and Fredegund's eyes, and we see how they fit into their calculations and anxieties. And because we see all these events through their eyes (again, in a historically respectful way—this isn't fiction) we feel the weight of how each event might affect them. The result is a surprisingly taught and suspenseful narrative.

Along the way, we get plenty of the smaller stories that pull the reader onto fascinating side-trips. I will be forever grateful to this book for introducing me to Radegund, the captive Princess of a destroyed kingdom who escaped to become an Abbess and political power-broker in her own right.

Excellent, excellent stuff, and quite possibly the best book I've read this year. Highly recommended.

Loved this story!

This is a must read! I loved the story - it’s inspiring and beautiful. Hurry and download

I Want More

I love learning about the forgotten or hidden corners of history. It was so cool learning about these two amazing female leaders and how they impacted their time period in so many ways. as the author says, I don't know what it would've meant to learn about leaders like Brunhilde and Fredegund when I was younger but I know listening to this book makes me want to tell everyone about them. I'm so glad this book was written to give them some of the recognition that was stolen from them by the men of their times.

Loved the narration!

I hate to put a negative review for anything however I had to force myself to listen to this long lingering story. I was actually relieved when it was completed. The narrator however, was fantastic. I’m looking for other titles that she has narrated now.

The Most Riveting History Book I've Ever Read

Genuinely one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. I was hooked from the first few sentences.

Very well researched book! I I enjoyed it!

Very good read ! Historically interesting & informative! The story regarding this time in history was both religiously & diplomatically quite captivating.

loved it + recommended it all my friends + family

Super interesting + well researched. It's an epic story of survival, boldness, + clever minds. I'm looking forward to reading more of Shelley's writing.

Astounding reveal of history I knew nothing about

This remarkably detailed and rich narrative of the contested reigns of two Merevingian queens fascinated and awed me, so alive did they seem. I highly recommend this book.

We wouldn’t have GOT without them

Phenomenal history of the Franks and historic women who were bad asses !
Highly recommend to anyone who is a feminist, history buff and a GOT fan.
Nothing is more surprising than real history!

The printed book has a map and character list.

It would have been nice if I could have downloaded that as a .pdf to follow along rather than screenshot what I found online.