Brunhild was a Visigothic 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 for decades, changing the face of Europe.
After Brunhild’s and Fredegund’s deaths, however, their stories were rewritten, their names consigned to slander and legend.
From the tangled primary evidence of Merovingian sources, Shelley Puhak resurrects these two women in all their complexity, painting a richly detailed portrait of a shadowy era and dispelling some of the stubbornest myths about female power.
The Dark Queens by Shelley Puhak is published in paperback on 2 March, 2023.
Shelley writes about the rivalry between these two queens and a shocking murder in An Easter assassination and an early medieval queen.
