Proposal

This project explores the role of women and nature of marriage and family at Charlemagne’s court (r. 769-814 CE). I am interested in unraveling Charlemagne’s relationships with women at the royal court, determining the nature of romantic and familial relationships, and investigating marriage customs in the eighth- and ninth-century Frankish world. Due to the relative paucity of primary texts, this project includes significant historiographical and methodological components: the student(s) and I will survey secondary literature in history and related fields to better grapple with the difficulties inherent to these questions. Ultimately, we will attempt to piece together a fuller picture of early medieval women and family, love and marriage.