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Podcast: New Books in Women's History
Episode: Shelley Puhak, "The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
Description: The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World (Bloomsbury, 2022) is 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.Shelley Puhak introduces readers to Brunhild, who 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 f...