Constantin VI

Constantin VI , Byzantine Emperor of 780 with 797, born in 771, died in 800, wire of Leon IV and Irene.

Coemperor as of 776, crowned after the death of his father in 780, it reigns under the supervision of his mother. Under its influence, it decides to reinforce the bonds with Rome and joins together a council in the church of the Saint-Apostles, with Constantinople; but the council fails. The following year, in September 787, Constantin joins together a new ecumenical council with Nicée, which puts an end officially to the iconoclasme by restoring the worship of the images.

He marries in 788 Marie d' Arménie, which gives him two children: Euphrosyne, which will marry Michel II Amorien, and Irene.

Bringing together around him the opponents of Irene, it failed to be victim, of its share, a coup d'etat in 790: the areas of Asia Mineure however refuse to recognize his/her mother like empress and Constantin is acclaimed like the only sovereign of Byzance. Irene is confined in a palate while its principal minister, Staurakios, are tonsure and outlaw.

It is overcome by the Bulgarian ones into 792, then by the Arabs into 797; entrusting the capacity to his mother and making mutilate her uncles, it alienates all the Byzantine aristocracy.

Become unpopular in the army, whose rising had enabled him into 790 to get rid of the regency, he divorces Marie the Armenian one (which is exiled in a convent) for remarier Théodote: this second marriage (of which will be born a son, Leon, died in the cradle into 797) alienates the monastic party to him, which feared its inclinations of return to the Iconoclasme.

August 18th 797 in the morning, of entreated are introduced into the imperial palace and the eyes burst to him. It is off-set out of Constantinople, locked up in a monastery where it dies, probably before 812.

Random links: