Imperial Coronation (4): Irene of Athens, the woman who brought about the coronation of Charlemagne

Constantine VI and his mother Irene

Irene Sarantapechaina, or Irene of Athens, is one of the most remarkable women in Byzantine history. Coming from a family of little importance, she managed to reach the pinnacle of power and was the first woman to rule the Roman Empire—making her figure especially fascinating in today’s world. The means she used to achieve this were not always very clean, but… you can’t have everything.

Endowed with a strong character, this intelligent and capable woman also possessed great courage and did not back down in difficult situations. Her culture and proverbial beauty opened the first doors for her, but it was thanks to a series of strokes of luck that she climbed the steps separating her from the summit one by one. Driven by boundless and voracious ambition, seeing herself standing out above her immediate surroundings and the winds of fortune blowing in her favor, Irene would stop at no obstacle. Her figure, full of contrasts, and her incredible life story are immensely intriguing, but the reason she interests us here is the role she played in the restoration of the Roman Empire in the West—or, in other words, in the coronation of Charlemagne.

Let’s look first at the stages of her dazzling rise:

1. 769: ENTERING THE PUBLIC ARENA. Irene emerged into history by winning a contest to become the wife of the heir to the Byzantine throne, the future Leo IV. Her personal qualities undoubtedly worked wonders.
2. 775: ANOTHER STROKE OF FORTUNE. The winds of history began to blow strongly in her favor. On September 14, Constantine V, one of the most vehement iconoclast emperors, died, and Irene’s young husband Leo IV ascended the throne. From that moment, she began to play an important role in government affairs. Astute and skilled in palace intrigues, she easily managed her weak husband, who also suffered from poor health. But during the five years she was empress consort, her role was mostly behind the scenes, in a discreet second plane. Raised in Athens, where the majority were fervent defenders of icons, Irene was also on the iconodule side (see the iconoclastic controversy in the previous entry) and managed to moderate her husband’s iconoclastic stance. In this way, many exiled monks were able to return to their monasteries during those years.
3. 780: ACCESS TO POWER: THE REGENCY. On September 8, after exactly five years of reign, Leo IV died at the age of 31. Irene immediately reacted and declared herself regent of the Empire on behalf of her son Constantine VI, barely 9 years old. She skillfully thwarted early attempts by an iconoclast faction in the army, acting in the name of the late emperor’s brothers, to overthrow her. Leo IV’s five brothers—whether or not they were involved in the failed coup—were captured, tonsured, and forcibly ordained priests to prevent them from ever claiming the throne.

Irene remained regent for ten years. Her greatest achievement in that time was convening an ecumenical council in the Church to end the cancer eating away at the Empire: the iconoclastic controversy. The great assembly of bishops from all over the world, including papal delegates, took place in Nicaea in 787 (after a disastrous first attempt the previous year) and was the 7th ecumenical council in Church history. The council achieved its goal, and for almost three decades there was doctrinal peace in the Empire, although the iconoclast faction remained active, lurking, conspiring, and waiting for its chance.

When the council took place, Constantine VI was already 17 years old, and it was time for his mother to gradually introduce him to state affairs. But nothing was further from Irene’s mind, who considered herself entitled to keep him away from power indefinitely.

4. 790: FIRST BIG MISCALCULATION. This shrewd woman, always so skillful in her maneuvers, made her first serious error in 790, when her son was 20 years old—more than old enough at the time to take command. The situation could no longer be postponed, and Constantine assumed power, but Irene tried to reserve a position in government for herself, decreeing a rank higher than her son’s! Such a move, which exposed her boundless ambition, unleashed the fury of conspirators who wanted to remove her from the throne. Irene quickly thwarted the conspiracy and imprisoned her son. But the rebellion this caused was so violent that the tables soon turned, and it was Irene who ended up arrested.

Separated from his mother, the young and inexperienced emperor soon showed his ineptitude, a moment his enemies took advantage of to attack the Empire’s borders: the Arabs from the east and the Bulgarians from the north. The situation was grave, and there seemed to be only two ways to resolve it: either call Irene back alongside her son or overthrow Constantine VI. Both solutions were attempted.

5. 792: IRENE’S RETURN. At the same time Irene returned to her son’s side, a plot was underway to overthrow the emperor and replace him with Caesar Nicephorus, one of Leo IV’s five brothers who had been forcibly ordained priests by Irene. The plot was uncovered, and this time Constantine VI acted decisively but brutally. He ordered his uncle Nicephorus to be blinded—the traditional Byzantine punishment to end an enemy—and cut out the tongues of his four brothers, just in case. This display of cruelty only further undermined the young emperor’s already weak popularity: inexperienced, impressionable, indecisive… and now cruel.

But Constantine VI’s coup de grâce was his decision to divorce his wife and remarry in 795. He thus lost his last important support: the monks and clergy, who believed he guaranteed iconoclastic peace. Constantine was left hanging, exposed to a fatal blow. And that “anyone” could be none other than his own mother. Since her return to the palace, she had been working to undermine her son’s authority. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising if it were she—far more perceptive and far-sighted than her son—who encouraged his divorce project, knowing his position would become untenable from that moment.

6. 797: ALONE IN POWER. Constantine VI must have been very dull if in the last year of his reign he was not aware that he was doomed. Perhaps he was not even too surprised when, on August 15, 797, a group of soldiers jumped on him in the street. Defended by his personal guard, he managed to flee by boat to the other side of the Bosporus. But, hunted like a wild animal, they caught him and brought him back to the palace. There, at three in the afternoon, they blinded him. Some chroniclers of the time say the brutal operation was carried out in the very purple chamber where his mother had given birth to him 26 years before.

At last, Irene ruled alone in Byzantium. She had achieved the great ambition of her life. She was the first woman in the millennia-old history of Rome to do so. But just as her son had lost support when he brutally disposed of his five uncles, Irene could hardly have done better when she had to remove her own son, the legitimate emperor of Rome.

* * * * *

The eighth century was drawing to a close. While Byzantium was entangled in this tumultuous story and seemed to be dissolving before everyone’s eyes, besieged by external enemies and internal discord, in the West the star of Charlemagne—the most powerful king among the new barbarian kingdoms—was rising brilliantly. His domains kept expanding until they rivaled the ancient Empire in size. Culture and the arts flourished at his court. He was the one holding the Muslims at bay and conquering new kingdoms for the faith. He was the defender of the Pope, who had long trusted only him in the face of any threat. What could stop him from attaining the imperial dignity? In theory, only one obstacle stood in his way: the imperial throne was already occupied. Occupied by the emperor of the East, the only legitimate heir of Rome. But since Constantine VI had been overthrown by his own mother, many understood that the throne was vacant. Constantine VI was, in fact, the last Byzantine emperor to be unanimously recognized by all of the West and the Pope as Emperor of Rome.

Without a doubt, all the stars had aligned in favor of the Frankish king.