Empress Irene of Athens: Byzantium's First Woman Sole Ruler

Empress Irene of Athens ruled the Byzantine Empire first as regent for her young son, from 780, and then alone from 797 to 802, the first woman to govern the empire in her own name. She is remembered for two very different acts: summoning the Second Council of Nicaea, which restored the veneration of religious images, and ordering the blinding of her own son, Constantine VI. Her reign also coincided with the coronation of Charlemagne in Rome, a turning point in relations between East and West.

Background: an Athenian bride in Constantinople

Irene was born around 750 into the Sarantapechos family of Athens, then a provincial town of the empire. Little is known about her early life or why she was chosen as a bride for the heir to the throne. She arrived in Constantinople in November 769 and married Leo, son of Emperor Constantine V, in December of that year.

The court she entered was deeply divided by iconoclasm, the policy of destroying or banning religious images (icons) that emperors had enforced since the 720s. Constantine V was a determined iconoclast. Later sources suggest that Irene privately favoured icons, but she had to keep her views quiet while her father-in-law lived.

Leo became emperor as Leo IV in 775. On 14 January 771 Irene had given birth to their only son, Constantine. When Leo died suddenly on 8 September 780, Constantine was nine years old, and Irene became regent.

The regency, 780-790

Irene’s position was insecure from the start. Within weeks a plot emerged to place one of Leo IV’s half-brothers, the caesars, on the throne. Irene had them ordained as priests, which barred them from ruling, and replaced senior officials with people she trusted, especially eunuchs such as Staurakios, who became her chief minister.

Abroad she faced the Abbasid Caliphate. In 782 an Abbasid army led by the future caliph Harun al-Rashid reached the Bosporus opposite Constantinople, and Irene agreed to a truce that required large annual payments. In the Balkans her generals campaigned against the Slavs of Greece with some success.

In 781 she arranged the betrothal of Constantine to Rotrude, a daughter of the Frankish king Charlemagne. The engagement was broken off around 787, and in 788 Constantine married instead an Armenian-Greek noblewoman, Maria of Amnia, selected through a traditional “bride show”.

The Second Council of Nicaea, 787

Irene’s most lasting achievement was the restoration of icons. In 784 she secured the election of a layman, Tarasios, as patriarch of Constantinople, and the two prepared a general council of the Church. A first attempt to meet in Constantinople in 786 was broken up by iconoclast soldiers of the capital’s guard regiments. Irene had those units transferred out of the city and disbanded.

The council finally met at Nicaea, in north-west Asia Minor, from late September to October 787, with legates of Pope Hadrian I present. It declared that icons of Christ, the Virgin and the saints should be honoured with veneration, while true worship belonged to God alone. The closing session was held in the Magnaura palace in Constantinople, where Irene and Constantine signed the decrees.

This Second Council of Nicaea is counted as the seventh ecumenical council by both the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. Iconoclasm returned under Leo V in 815, but the council’s teaching was reaffirmed in 843 and has defined Orthodox practice ever since. For the wider dispute, see Byzantine iconoclasm.

Power struggle and the blinding of Constantine VI

As Constantine grew up, he resented his mother’s control. In 790 Irene demanded that the army swear an oath recognising her as senior ruler. The troops of the Armeniakon theme (military province) refused, other units joined them, and Constantine was proclaimed sole emperor. Irene was confined to her palace.

Constantine proved an unsteady ruler. He was defeated by the Bulgarians at Marcellae in 792 and recalled Irene as co-ruler that same year. He then punished his uncles and blinded the general Alexios Mosele, alienating many former supporters. In 795 he divorced Maria and married Theodote, one of her ladies-in-waiting. Many churchmen condemned the second marriage as adulterous, a scandal known as the Moechian controversy.

Irene used this discontent. On 15 August 797 her partisans captured Constantine and blinded him in the Porphyra, the purple chamber of the palace where he had been born. Blinding was a common Byzantine way to disqualify a rival from the throne without formal execution. Constantine died of his wounds, probably soon afterwards, although the exact date is uncertain. Even writers sympathetic to Irene’s religious policy, such as the chronicler Theophanes, recorded the act with horror.

Sole ruler, 797-802

For the next five years Irene ruled alone. Her gold coins show her on both sides, crowned and holding the symbols of imperial power, and in some laws she was styled basileus, the masculine title for emperor. No woman had held the throne in her own right before.

To win support she granted generous tax relief. She abolished the municipal tax on Constantinople and reduced customs duties at the straits of Abydos and Hieron, measures welcomed by the people but costly for the treasury. Her court was weakened by the rivalry between her two leading eunuchs, Staurakios and Aetios.

Externally the empire continued paying tribute to the Abbasids, and Byzantine influence in Italy declined. The most dramatic event, however, took place in Rome.

Irene and Charlemagne

On Christmas Day 800 Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as emperor in St Peter’s Basilica. Some Western writers justified this by claiming that the imperial title was vacant, since a woman could not be a true emperor. The event is covered in Coronation of Charlemagne.

Theophanes reports that envoys from Charlemagne and the pope arrived in Constantinople in 802 with a proposal of marriage between Charlemagne and Irene, which would have united East and West. No Frankish source mentions such an offer, and historians regard the story with caution. In any case the envoys were still in the city when Irene fell.

Deposition and death

On 31 October 802 Nikephoros, the logothete of the genikon (head of the general treasury), seized the palace with the support of leading officials. Irene was not killed. She was exiled first to a convent on the Princes’ Islands near Constantinople and then to Lesbos, where she died on 9 August 803. Nikephoros I later fell fighting the Bulgarians, as described in Battle of Pliska.

Myths and facts

• Myth: Irene was the only Byzantine empress to rule. Other empresses later governed in their own right, notably the sisters Zoe and Theodora in the 11th century. Irene was the first.
• Myth: Charlemagne and Irene nearly married. The proposal is reported only by Theophanes and cannot be confirmed. Even if it was made, there is no sign it was seriously negotiated.
• Fact: her title was unusual. Her use of basileus in some official documents is genuine and remains one of the clearest signs of how new her position was.

Timeline

• 769, December: Irene marries Leo, heir to the Byzantine throne.
• 771, 14 January: Birth of her son Constantine.
• 780, 8 September: Death of Leo IV; Irene becomes regent for Constantine VI.
• 784: Tarasios becomes patriarch of Constantinople.
• 787, September-October: Second Council of Nicaea restores the veneration of icons.
• 790: The army proclaims Constantine VI sole emperor and sidelines Irene.
• 792: Irene is restored as co-ruler.
• 797, 15 August: Constantine VI is blinded; Irene becomes sole ruler.
• 800, 25 December: Charlemagne is crowned emperor in Rome.
• 802, 31 October: Irene is deposed by Nikephoros; she dies in exile on 9 August 803.

Why it matters

Irene’s regency ended the first wave of iconoclasm and produced the council that still governs the use of icons in Eastern Christianity. Her sole rule showed that a woman could hold the Byzantine throne, while the controversy over it helped the papacy justify a rival Western emperor. Her career, marked by both piety and ruthlessness, remains one of the most debated in Byzantine history.