Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

Schermer's history of the Merovingians is not a very good book.

Histories - and this one in particular - call for maps, illustrations, and and genealogies; there are no maps or pictures at all, and the genealogical table is inadequate and confusing.

There are factual errors, too. On p. 14, she has Gaul finally conquered by the emperor Domitius in 121 BC. Much of southern Gaul was occupied then, but it would be 80 years before Gaul was organized as a discrete province by Caesar, 100 years before Rome had any emperor at all, and 200 before there was one with a name similar to Domitius. (Domitianus, ca 90 - 100 AD.) If there was a consul Domitius who fought in Gaul about then, he was eclipsed completely by the consul Gaius Marius, unmentioned.

Finally, the conclusion embodied in the title is indefensible: the Merovingians were not the "Birth of France". Like Gaul, France is a pentagon of land bounded by the Rhine, the Alps, the Mediterranean and the Pyrenees, the Atlantic and the Channel, with a people who have a unique language and culture. It is a country. In Merovingian times no "country" was possible: a dying warlord split up his conquests between his sons, and treacherous fratricide broke them up again until another man, more bloodthirsty or treacherous than the rest, reworked them into another empire. It was not until primogeniture (ca 1000 AD) that a recognizable body of land could pass from king to king intact, and retain its societal integrity. Clovis was only the first of a half-dozen barbaric conquistadors (Pepin and Charlemagne, Rollo and Haardrade of Norway, Canute of Denmark, William of Normandy) who hacked out transient realms in northwest Europe in the second half of the first millennium. After Clovis, it would be five centuries before a French language began to appear, and almost ten before the old Roman province of Gallia would finally be reunited. Clovis and his Merovingian heirs created blood, devastation, and poverty - not France.