Irene

752 – 803 · Generation XVII · Empress (r. 797–802) · Isaurian

Irene (AD 752 – 803). Empress (r. 797–802). Married Leo around AD 769. Restored icon veneration; ruled as sole empress. Drawn from the prominent Sarantapechos family, she kept iconophile sympathies through her marriage to an iconoclast, and as regent summoned the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 to condemn iconoclasm as heresy. Power she would not share: when her son Constantine VI grew restive under her shadow, her supporters gouged out his eyes in 797, leaving her to reign alone. In Rome, Pope Leo III seized on the claim that no woman could hold the Roman throne to crown Charlemagne emperor on Christmas Day 800. A revolt in 802 put Nikephoros I in her place and banished her to Lesbos, where she died within the year.

One of 6 people of Isaurian (680–803) in this archive. The iconoclast emperors, who held Constantinople through its longest siege.

Partners

Married Leo IV (750 – 780) in 769 — one child together

Children

Constantine VI (771 – ?)

Life

752 — Born
769 — Married Leo
803 — Died