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?

David Perry is a journalist, medieval historian, and Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies 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 his writing on history, disability, politics, parenting, and other topics has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Nation, the Atlantic, and CNN.com, among others. He and Gabriele co-write the newsletter Modern Medieval on Buttondown.

Adam Stemple is an award-winning author, poet, and musician. He’s sold nine novels to publishers like Tor, Penguin Random House, and Viking, and published five himself. He’s also sold short stories in dozens of magazines, published three graphic novels, one novella, five poems, a pile of songbooks, and won two Minnesota Music Awards. He’s the founder of Written Well (www.writtenwell.com) where he shares his experience with self-publishing in order to help other authors get published.

More importantly, he is David’s fishing buddy and was there when he caught his first muskie. He is certain David timed this book release for winter so he could be done with promotional activities before the fishing opener.