{"product_id":"dark-queens","title":"Dark Queens","description":"A vivid double biography of two fearless early medieval queens. ''Brings the Merovingian empire to thrilling, bewildering, horrifying life'' \u003cb\u003eHelen Castor\u003c\/b\u003e ''Restores two half-forgotten and much-mythologized queens to their proper place in medieval history'' \u003cb\u003eDan Jones\u003c\/b\u003e ''Fredegund and Brunhild have finally found a worthy champion'' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eBrunhild 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. The two queens commanded armies, developed taxation policies, established infrastructure and negotiated with emperors and popes, all the time fighting a gruelling forty-year civil war with each other. Yet after Brunhild and Fredegund''s deaths, their names were consigned to slander and legend.From the tangled primary evidence of Merovingian sources, award-winning writer Shelley Puhak weaves a gripping and intricate tale, its characters driven by ambition, lust and jealousy to acts of treachery and murderous violence. \u003ci\u003eThe Dark Queens\u003c\/i\u003e 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.","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57312839958910,"sku":"NW9781801109178","price":11.75,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781801109178.jpg?v=1778589934","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/products\/dark-queens","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}