Julien Havet (Pierre Eugène) (April 4, 1853 - 1893), French historian, was born at Vitry-sur-Seine, the second son of Ernest Havet. He early showed a remarkable aptitude for learning, but had a pronounced aversion for pure rhetoric. His studies at the École des chartes (where he took first place both on entering and leaving) and at the École des Hautes Études did much to develop his critical faculty, and the historical method taught and practised at these establishments brought home to him the dignity of history, which thenceforth became his ruling passion. His valedictory thesis at the École des Chartes, Série chronologique des gardiens et seigneurs des Îles normandes (1876), was a definitive work and but slightly affected by later research. In 1878 he followed his thesis by a study called Les Cours royales dans les Îles normandes. Both these works were composed entirely from the original documents at the Public Record Office, London, and the archives of Jersey and Guernsey. On the history of Merovingian institutions, Havet's conclusions were widely accepted (see La Formule N. rex Francor.). After his death his published and unpublished writings were collected and published (with the exception of Les Cours royales des Îles normandes and Lettres de Gerbert) in two volumes called Questions mérovingiennes and Opuscules inédits (1896), containing, besides important papers on diplomatic and on Carolingian and Merovingian history, a large number of short monographs ranging over a great variety of subjects. A collection of his articles was published by his friends under the title of Mélanges Havet (1895), pre-fixed by a bibliography of his works compiled by his friend Henri Omont.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
