u003cpu003eu003cbu003e“A well-researched and well-told epic history. u003ciu003eThe Dark Queensu003c/iu003e brings these courageous, flawed, and ruthless rulers and their distant times back to life.”--Margot Lee Shetterly, u003ciu003eNew York Timesu003c/iu003e-bestselling author of u003ciu003eHidden Figuresu003c/iu003eu003c/bu003eu003cbru003eu003cbru003eu003cbu003eThe 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.u003cbru003eu003cbru003e u003c/bu003eBrunhild 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.u003cbru003eu003cbru003e 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.u003cbru003eu003cbru003e In u003ciu003eThe Dark Queensu003c/iu003e, 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. u003ciu003eThe Dark Queens u003c/iu003eoffers proof that the relationships between women can transform the world.u003c/pu003e