The Merovingian Kingdoms 450–751
The Merovingian Kingdoms 450–751 by Ian N. Wood My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book is an essay. If you are specialized in history and are familiar at least to the intermediate level, with the history of the 5th to 7th centuries, this is a good thing. If you are someone who is interested in the subject (which would probably be the reason why you would buy it) but have not read much on the period, I would recommend keeping this shelved up for a later date. The Merovingians were a complicated family, with lots of brothers who all are named Dagobert, Clovis, Childeric or Chilperic, have different mothers and ruling different parts of a kingdom that somehow evolved as a whole. It's difficult to keep up with all the splits in the kingdom, the brothers, their sons, their nephews and even the regions in themselves which are different from generation to generation. Add to that a very thorough analysis of the religion, culture and aristocracy of the time, and this book has made for