The Birth of France: Warriors, Bishops, and Long-Haired Kings [Hardcover]

Katharine Scherman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The rulers of Frankish Gaul exuded crude vitality and a freewheeling spirit. Sadistic Queen Fredegund, known for her magnetic sexual allure, favored assassination as the most convenient way to dispose of her enemies. Emperor Lothair kept six women as lovers under his various roofs; dying at age 77, his last words were an enraged cry against the God who had dared to lay low a great king. His father, Clovis, a Catholic convert, led a ruthless career of conquest with all the radiance of a consecrated hero. This full-blooded chronicle maps the troubled centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire when poetic, inventive Celts and pragmatic Romans merge with tough Franks on the Christian soil that became medieval France. Scherman (The Flowering of Ireland takes her saga through the last Merovingian "sluggard kings"dissolute, weak, lazyup to Charles, the Christian savior of Europe, who used the church as a war chest to underwrite his military campaigns.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The general reader interested in early French history will enjoy this well-written and generally informed account, if he or she is not overwhelmed by the enormous detail. The author traces the development of Frankish kingship from the imperfect Christianization of Clovis and his sons down to the accession of Charlemagne. Although Scherman is familiar with the primary sources of this brutal period, the text seems to be based primarily on secondary works that do not reflect recent trends in historical research. Still, this is a rare appreciation of the literary, artistic, architectural, and musical aspects of the culture. Bennett D. Hill, St. Anselm's Abbey, Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 323 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (August 12, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394560892
• ISBN-13: 978-0394560892
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,407,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alot of folklore that may be more acurrate than the latest,"archaeology digs"., August 27, 2007

By 

Douglas E. Libert "howitt" (parkersburg wv) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Birth of France: Warriors, Bishops and Long-Haired Kings (Paperback)

the authors main source seems to be Gregory of Tours and so some of the tales seem to be more folklore than scholarly interpretation and there are no archaeology finds to prove a point.Also there are no maps.Still it is a vibrant interpretation of Gregory's work and the author uses alot of contemporary sources as well,in addition she has visited most of the sites mentioned.the book gives a good description of the fragmented kingdoms of Europe that were eventually (through much bloodshed) wielded into modern day France.Apparently the Franks were a supertribe who grew to major importance when they were recruited as a military force by what was left of the Roman Empire. The Roman Pope officially sanctioned the Franks and they adopted Christianity during Clovis' reign.(Needless to say but well documented in the book there were scores of "pagan relapses"by the franks and their subjects.The Roman pope wanted to be rid of the Lombards so he hired a "bigger dog",the Franks,a tribe who would not be well juggled by any authority of God or man. I found it interesting that Islam was somewhat welcomed initially during the middle ages by alot of these petty kingdoms.Rulers used Islam as a pawn(as they also used Christianity)to promote their own interests.Charles Martels' victory at Tours seems somewhat watered down as I realized that some of these European kingdoms may have had more fear of Charles the Hammer than the so-called"Muslim hordes".Insane kings.evil queens,religious hypocrites,they're all here,as well as the shining nobility the true unifiers, both religious and secular,from this period.The author obviously has a deep respect and knowlege of classical Greek and Roman works.

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read, October 20, 2011

By 

HistoryShowsUs (TX, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Birth of France: Warriors, Bishops and Long-Haired Kings (Paperback)

Any history for this time period could be a plodding treatise on dry facts and dates but happily this book is not one of them.
The timeline is handled more like a story with anecdotal sidelines to support the tale. Any study of this period would be difficult due to the scant documentation available so much of the narrative could be speculative but no more so than any other examination of this early period.
I thought that the timeline jumped around a bit but was probably due to the sections of the book being broken down into social groups (Rome, church, monarchy) rather than chronological groups so the timelines crossed in various sections and it appeared that the author was repeating herself. It didn't take away from the...plot because the anecdotes pertaining to the oft repeated character was usually something different than in the other section of the book.
I did find some dates that were obviously mislabeled BC instead of AD (and vice verse) as well as a repeated predilection to calling BC Roman leaders as "emperors" when no such term existed prior to Octavian.
The most difficult part of the book to follow were the references to geographic areas whose names no longer exist or are not familiar to the average fan of history. A lot of times I was trying to figure out where "so and so" was located in relation to "such and such". Maps and illustrations would have helped in this area but there is not a single illustration or plate in this entire book. That is definitely the biggest "fail" regarding this other wise excellent read.
Overall this book is both informative and entertaining.
It would probably be best if you ignore the snooty elitist reviews of this book, unless you plan on a PhD in classical/Medieval history, and just enjoy the ride.

2.0 out of 5 stars Frankish history lite, April 28, 2011

By 

Caleb Hanson (Wilmington, MA, US) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Birth of France: Warriors, Bishops and Long-Haired Kings (Paperback)

A decidedly un-scholarly history of the Merovingians. As history, it's whiggier than I like 'em: lots of judging people by whether they're striving to fulfill their National Destiny or not, lots of sweeping generalizations and who cares if they contradict each other, lots of "Swimming Against the Tides of History" writing. It reads like it was written for people who like the idea of France and want to feel like they've learned a little something more without working too hard at it.

While the book as a whole, on the chapter level, is in chronological order, within the chapters Scherman skips around whimsically. She uses Snorri's Edda as her source for pre-Christian Frankish religion, which is pretty hard to support. She does sometimes tell a nice anecdote--better ones about bishops than about kings--but never gets into any serious analysis. A map or two would have helped.