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Oathbreakers

The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe

Matthew Gabriele David M. Perry

$62.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English
Harper
16 January 2025
The authors of The Bright Ages return with a real-life Game of Thrones—the story of the Carolingian Civil War, a bloody, protracted battle pitting brother against brother, father against son, that would end an empire, upend a continent, and redefine the future of Europe

By the early ninth century, the Carolingian empire was at the height of its power. The Franks, led by Charlemagne, had built the largest European domain since Rome in its heyday. Though they jockeyed for power, prestige, and profit, the Frankish elites enjoyed political and cultural consensus. But just two generations later, their world was in shambles. Civil war, once an unthinkable threat, had erupted after Louis the Pious’s sons tried to overthrow him—and then placed their knives at the other’s neck. Families who had once charged into battle together now drew each other’s blood.

The Carolingian Civil War would rage for years as kings fought kings, brother faced off against brother, and sons challenged fathers. Oathbreakers is the dramatic history of this brutal, turbulent time. Medieval historians David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele illuminate what happens when a once unshakeable political and cultural order breaks down and long suppressed tensions flare into deadly violence. Drawn from rich primary sources, featuring a wide cast of characters, packed with dramatic twists and turns, this is history that rivals the greatest fictional epics—with consequences that continue to shape our own world.

Oathbreakers offers lessons of what deep cracks in a once-stable social and political fabric might reveal, and the bloody consequences of disagreeing on facts and reality. The Civil War at the heart of this tale asks: who is “in” and who is “out” And what happens when things fall apart

 
By:   ,
Imprint:   Harper
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 229mm,  Width: 152mm,  Spine: 24mm
Weight:   454g
ISBN:   9780063336674
ISBN 10:   0063336677
Pages:   304
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming

Matthew Gabriele is a professor of medieval studies and chair of the department of religion and culture at Virginia Tech. He is the author of the book An Empire of Memory: The Legend of Charlemagne, the Franks, and Jerusalem before the First Crusade as well as many articles on medieval Europe and the memory of the Middle Ages, and has edited several academic volumes. David Perry is a journalist, medieval historian, and senior academic advisor in the history department at the University of Minnesota. He was formerly a professor of history at Dominican University. Perry is the author of Sacred Plunder: Venice and the Aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, and he has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Nation, the Atlantic, and CNN.com among others.

Reviews for Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe

“Through subtle readings of biased chronicles and documents, Gabriele and Perry dispel the romantic aura of the Carolingian era, depicting it as an entertaining but gruesome medieval picaresque of power-hungry plots, murders, and—stomach-churningly—blindings. The authors also shrewdly explore the Franks’ genuine belief in the sacredness of kingship—and especially of royal oaths—that kept such a violent system in motion. The result is an enlightening portrait of the medieval mindset.” — Publishers Weekly ""Lively writers, the authors cast a critical eye on the surviving sources, delivering a painless education on how historians try to determine what actually happened from fragmentary and wildly biased accounts. A scholarly and entertaining history of warring brothers."" — Kirkus ""Though the events in Oathbreakers are distant in time, Gabriele and Perry describe them with an immediacy that's both informative and entertaining. . . . [revealing] that the emotions driving the actors in the Carolingian drama—ambition, greed, and the lust for power—are in fact as timely as today's headlines."" — Shelf Awareness “The ‘Holy Roman Empire’ reached a state of peace, however tenuous. But Charlemagne’s heirs had greater ambitions. The empire fell into civil war, as sons fought fathers and one another. This set the stage for Europe’s Middle Ages. Historians Gabriele and Perry (The Bright Ages, 2022) plumb resources from the era to narrate the story of these internecine struggles….This is a serious, meticulous history that will also appeal to Game of Thrones fans, who will discover intriguing parallels between history and fiction.” — Booklist “While all of this is the sort of stuff that professional medievalists love to see, the thing I like most about Perry and Gabriele’s effort is that it is fun. The Bright Ages is written in such an engaging and light manner that it is easy to race through. I found myself at the end of chapters faster than I wanted to be, completely drawn in by the narrative. You can tell how much the authors love the subject matter, and that they had a great time choosing stories to share and evidence to consider.” — Slate on The Bright Ages ""Incandescent and ultimately intoxicating, for as the chapters progress, it dawns on the reader that those who lived in this period were more conventional than cardboard figures. . . . They were, in essence, human."" — Boston Globe on The Bright Ages ""This revisionist history of medieval Europe takes apart the myth of a savage, primitive period . . . with passion and verve, [Gabriele and Perry challenge] the reader to tackle assumptions, bias and prejudices about the past to create a more joined-up, inclusive picture of the thousand years that followed the sack of Rome."" — Peter Frankopan, Guardian, on The Bright Ages


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