Leo V

775 – 820 · Generation XIX · Emperor (r. 813–820)

Leo (AD 775 – 820). Emperor (r. 813–820). Son of the patrician Bardas; assassinated. Of Armenian origin, he rose through the ranks under Nikephoros I and Michael I Rangabe to command the Anatolic Theme, and when Michael's army broke at Versinikia he pressed the emperor into abdication and took the crown himself. He held Constantinople against the blockade of Krum of Bulgaria, and after the khan's death sealed a thirty-year peace with his successor Omurtag, closing a decade of war. In 815 he deposed Patriarch Nikephoros and set the second age of Byzantine iconoclasm in motion. His end came at the hands of partisans of Michael the Amorian, one of his most trusted generals — the man who then succeeded him.

Children

Constantine (778 – ?)