Jennifer R. Davis, Ph.D. Headshot

Department

  • History
  • School

  • School of Arts and Sciences
  • Expertise

  • Early Medieval Western European History
  • The Carolingian Dynasty
  • The Post-Roman West
  • Medieval Studies
  • Languages

  • Can read French, Latin, German and Italian
  • Publications

    • Charlemagne's Practice of Empire

      Charlemagne's Practice of Empire

      Davis examines how the Frankish king Charlemagne and his men held together the vast new empire he created during the first decades of his reign. Davis explores how Charlemagne overcame the two main problems of ruling an empire, namely how to delegate authority and how to manage diversity. Through a meticulous reconstruction based on primary sources, she demonstrates that rather than imposing a pre-existing model of empire onto conquered regions, Charlemagne and his men learned from them, developing a practice of empire that allowed the emperor to rule on a European scale. As a result, Charlemagne's realm was more flexible and diverse than has long been believed. Telling the story of Charlemagne's rule using sources produced during the reign itself, Davis offers a new interpretation of Charlemagne's political practice, free from the distortions of later legend.

      Learn More
    • Charlemagne�s Portrait Coinage and Ideas of Rulership at the Carolingian Court

      Source: Notes in the History of Art XXXIII, 19-27

      Learn More
    • Charlemagne�s Settlement of Disputes

      in Streit am Hof im fr�hen Mittelalter, ed. M. Becher and A. Plassmann, Super alta perennis. Studien zur Wirkung der Klassischen Antike 11 (Bonn: Bonn University Press), 159-173

      Learn More
    • The Problem of King Louis IX of France: Biography, Sanctity, and Kingship

      in Journal of Interdisciplinary History XLI, 209-225

      Learn More