Review: Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers that Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe by M. Gabriele & D.M. Perry

Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers that Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe

by Matthew Gabriele & David M. Perry

Release Date: December 10, 2024

2024 Harper

Ebook ARC; 304 Pages

ISBN: 978-0063336674

ASIN: B0CZ798FMJ

Audiobook: B0CYHZTW4W

Genre: Non-Fiction / Historical / Medieval

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

4 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

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 overthrew 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.

My Thoughts

Oathbreakers is the second book I've read by these authors and I enjoyed the intricate writing and detailed descriptions of the time period.  Although I am very familiar with Charlemagne and the havoc his sons and grandsons set in motion after his death, the authors did a great job at bringing a fresh perspective to the details of the time period.  For anyone familiar with the time period, I don't think this book offers anything new, but it does offer a clear insight into the causes and consequences of what happened. I definitely liked the more human perspective; it's always easy to say in hindsight that such and such should have been done, but the authors did a great job to show the humanness of the actions and choices that people made, not realizing until much later the impact those choices would have on future events and people. 

This book is definitely written for those who don't have a lot of knowledge about the time period, so the authors take a different approach in their writing than is usual in non-fiction history books, more of a chatty approach, one meant to feel as if they are talking to you or lecturing you.  For the most part this didn't bother me, but there were times when it drove me crazy, especially during the more serious parts of the book when I felt like the subject material was too serious for this 'chattiness'.  Maybe having a history background kind of affected my feelings about this as I am used to a more serious approach, but there were times when I just wanted the authors to go much more in-depth and talk about how serious the situation actually was as those moments definitely impacted those places for generations to come.  The lighter tone just didn't always match the situation.

That being said however, the authors did do a great job of outlining the Carolingians and the impact they had on the time period. This is definitely not an easy story to tell and outline so I appreciated the cohesiveness of what was done in this book.  And trying to keep all the names straight is no easy feat when half of them are names Louis or Charles or Pepin or something similar.  I also liked how the authors mentioned a bit about the societal structure and the impact the wars would have had on starvation and disease over the years, although little is known about the farmers and other people who did not serve at court. Unless there is  stash of papers hidden somewhere, there is a lot we will never know and the authors constantly mention the sources from which they gain their information as well as the reliability of those sources.  In some instances, we just don't know why some people were at odd with each other and can only speculate based on future actions. 

Verdict

Oathbreakers provided a fascinating look into this medieval time period. I was particularly fascinated by the relationships, especially those of the daughters who spent their entire life at court, had affairs and children out of wedlock, but influenced a lot of wealthy people nonetheless yet paid the consequences for those relationships. And what happened to Judith of Bavaria as well as Dhuoda just made the reader realize how much women sacrificed for their children or were victims of the political struggles. The authors did a great job bringing this time period to life and provided perspective for actions and decisions that were made, but there is no question the idiocy of the nobility were responsible for a lot of death and destruction that very much impacted the development of Europe. I know people like to ascribe certain people as being 'heroes', but I liked how the authors showed a different side to that perception and really make you think about who you venerate.