Constantine VI

Constantine VI was the only child of Emperor Leo IV and Irene. Constantine was crowned co-emperor by his father in 776, and succeeded as sole emperor in 780, at the age of nine. Due to his minority, Irene and her chief minister Staurakios exercised the regency for him.

In 787, Constantine, then sixteen-years-old had signed the decrees of the Second Council of Nicaea, but he appears to have had iconoclast sympathies. In 788, Irene herself broke off the engagement of Constantine with Rotrude, a daughter of Charlemagne. Turning against Charlemagne, the Byzantines now supported Lombard pretender Adalgis, who had been forced into exile after the Frankish invasion of Italy. Adalgis was given command of a Roman expeditionary corps, landing in Calabria towards the end of 788 but was defeated by the united armies of the Lombard dukes Hildeprand of Spoleto and Grimoald III of Benevento as well as Frankish troops under Winiges.Ottorino Bertolini, "Adelchi, re dei Longobardi", Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani 1 (1960).

After a conspiracy against Irene was suppressed in the spring of 790 she attempted to get official recognition as empress. This backfired and with military support Constantine finally came to actual power in 790, after the Armeniacs rebelled against Irene. Nevertheless, after campaigning unsuccessfully in the Balkans, Constantine restored his mother in 792 after just two years out of power and made her co-ruler.[https://www.doaks.org/resources/online-exhibits/gods-regents-on-earth-a-thousand-years-of-byzantine-imperial-seals/rulers-of-byzantium/constantine-vi-790201392 "Constantine VI (780–797)", Dumbarton Oaks]{{cite book |last=Auzépy |first=Marie-France |date=2008 |editor-last=Shepard |editor-first=Jonathan |title=The Cambridge history of the Byzantine Empire (c. 500–1492) |publisher=Cambridge University Press |chapter=State of emergency (700–850) |page=259|isbn=978-0-521-83231-1}}

Once in control of the state, Constantine proved incapable of sound governance. Constantine himself suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Kardam of Bulgaria in the 792 Battle of Marcellae. A plot developed in favor of his uncle, the Caesar Nikephoros. Constantine had his uncle's eyes put out and the tongues of his father's four other half-brothers cut off. His former Armeniac supporters revolted after he had blinded their stratēgos Alexios Mosele due to alleged involvement in the plot. They also disapproved of Irene as co-ruler. Constantine crushed this revolt with extreme cruelty in 793.{{cite book |last=Auzépy |first=Marie-France |date=2008 |editor-last=Shepard |editor-first=Jonathan |title=The Cambridge history of the Byzantine Empire (c. 500–1492) |publisher=Cambridge University Press |chapter=State of emergency (700–850) |page=259|isbn=978-0-521-83231-1}}

He then divorced his wife Maria of Amnia, who had failed to provide him with a male heir, and married his mistress Theodote, an unpopular and canonically illegal act which sparked off the so-called "Moechian controversy". Although Patriarch Tarasios of Constantinople did not publicly speak against it, he did refuse to officiate the marriage. Popular disapproval was expressed by Theodote's uncle, Plato of Sakkoudion, who even broke communion with Tarasios for his passive stance. Plato's intransigence led to his own imprisonment, while his monastic supporters were persecuted and exiled to Thessalonica. The "Moechian controversy" cost Constantine what popularity he had left, especially in the church establishment, which Irene took care to vocally support against her own son.{{sfn|Treadgold|1997|p=442}}{{sfn|Garland|1999|pp=84–85}}

On 19 August 797,{{efn|The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium gives 19 April, but this is a mistake. Theophanes the Confessor writes: "[They] reached the City on Saturday morning, 15 August." The 15th was Tuesday, so the correct date would be August 19.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/chronicle-of-theophanes-the-confessor/page/649|title=The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor|publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1997|isbn=9780198225683 |editor-last=Mango|editor-first=Cyril A.|editor-link=Cyril Mango|chapter=A.M. 6289}}{{Cite journal|last1=Grierson|first1=Philip|last2=Mango|first2=Cyril|last3=Ševčenko|first3=Ihor |date=1962 |title=The Tombs and Obits of the Byzantine Emperors (337–1042); With an Additional Note |url=https://archive.org/details/SevcenkoStudies19611992/page/n75/mode/2up|journal=Dumbarton Oaks Papers |volume=16|pages=54–55 |doi=10.2307/1291157|jstor=1291157|issn=0070-7546}}}} Constantine was captured, blinded, and imprisoned by the supporters of his mother, who had organized a conspiracy, leaving Irene to be crowned as first Empress regnant of Constantinople. It is unknown when exactly Constantine died; it was certainly before 805, though he may have died of his wounds shortly after being blinded (indeed, the act may have been "performed in a particularly brutal manner in order to ensure that he would not survive").{{cite book |last=Norwich |first=John Julius |date=1990 |title=Byzantium: The Early Centuries |location=London |publisher=Penguin Books |page=375 |isbn=0-14-011447-5}} He was buried in the Monastery of St. Euphrosyne, which Irene had founded.{{sfn|Treadgold|1997|p=442}}{{sfn|Garland|1999|pp=85–87, 260 (Note 67)}}

Although the eighth century was a period of depopulation and ruralisation, there is evidence of a degree of prosperity, for example, the written record of the very large payment of 7,200 nomismata (100 pounds of gold) by Constantine for the fair of St John at Ephesus in 795, which seems to suggest that the peasantry was industrious at the time.{{cite book |last=Auzépy |first=Marie-France |date=2008 |editor-last=Shepard |editor-first=Jonathan |title=The Cambridge history of the Byzantine Empire (c. 500–1492) |publisher=Cambridge University Press |chapter=State of emergency (700–850) |page=264|isbn=978-0-521-83231-1}}

By his first wife Maria, Constantine VI had two daughters:

• Euphrosyne (790{{spaced ndash}} after 836), who married Emperor Michael II
• Irene (789{{spaced ndash}} after July 796), who became a nun

By his mistress and then second wife Theodote, Constantine VI had two sons, both of whom died young:

• Leo (7 October 796{{spaced ndash}} 1 May 797)
• An unnamed son (posthumously 797/8{{spaced ndash}} between 802 and 808)

File:Solidus of Leo IV and Constantine VI.png|Leo IV with his son and co-emperor Constantine VI.

File:Irene solidus sb 1592.jpg|Leo III, Constantine V and Leo IV (left), with Constantine VI and Irene (right).

File:Seal of Constantine VI.png|Seal of Constantine VI, {{circa}} 791.

File:49-manasses-chronicle.jpg|The 2nd Council of Nicaea depicted in a Bulgarian miniature of the 12th century Manasses Chronicle.

{{portal|Byzantine Empire}}

• List of Byzantine emperors

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{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book |last=Auzépy |first=Marie-France |date=2008 |editor-last=Shepard |editor-first=Jonathan |title=The Cambridge history of the Byzantine Empire (c. 500–1492) |publisher=Cambridge University Press |chapter=State of emergency (700–850) |isbn=978-0-521-83231-1}}
• {{Cite book |last=Barbé |first=Dominique |title=Irène de Byzance: la femme empereur |date=1990 |publisher=Perrin |isbn=978-2-262-00738-6 |series=Passé simple |location=Paris}}
• {{cite encyclopedia |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/the-oxfrod-dictionary-of-byzantium-vol.-1-oup-1991/The%20Oxfrod%20Dictionary%20of%20Byzantium_Vol.%201_OUP_1991/page/499/mode/1up| article=Constantine VI | last1=Cutler | first1=Anthony | last2=Hollingsworth | first2=Paul A. |editor-first=Alexander |editor-last=Kazhdan|editor-link=Alexander Kazhdan| encyclopedia=The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium | location=Oxford and New York | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1991 | pages=501–502 | isbn=0-19-504652-8}}
• {{cite book|last=Garland|first=Lynda|author-link=Lynda Garland|title=Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium, AD 527–1204|year=1999|location=New York and London|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-14688-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gWGAgAAQBAJ}}
• {{cite encyclopedia|last=Kiapidou|first=Irini-Sofia|title=Rebellion of Thomas the Slav, 821–23|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor|location=Athens |publisher=Foundation of the Hellenic World|url=http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=9984 |date=April 28, 2003 }}
• {{cite book|last=Lemerle|first=Paul|authorlink=Paul Lemerle|chapter=Thomas le Slave|title=Travaux et mémoires 1|location=Paris |publisher=Centre de recherche d'histoire et civilisation de Byzance|year =1965|language=French|pages=255–297|oclc=457007063}}
• {{cite book|last=Treadgold|first=Warren|author-link=Warren Treadgold|title=A History of the Byzantine State and Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nYbnr5XVbzUC|location=Stanford, California|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=1997|isbn=0-8047-2630-2}}

• {{Cite book|last=Ostrogorsky|first=George|year=1956|title=History of the Byzantine State|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bt0_AAAAYAAJ|publisher=Basil Blackwell|place=Oxford}}

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{{S-hou|Isaurian dynasty|14 January|771||before 805}}

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{{Succession box

| title=Byzantine Emperor

| years=8 September 780 – 19 August 797
(with Irene)

| before=Leo IV

| after=Irene

}}

{{S-off}}

{{s-bef | before=Leo IV in 776,
then lapsed}}

{{s-ttl | title=Roman consul| years=780 }}

{{s-aft | after= Lapsed,
Nikephoros I in 803}}

{{s-end}}

{{Roman Emperors}}

{{Authority control}}

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Category:8th-century Byzantine emperors

Category:Isaurian dynasty

Category:Medieval child monarchs

Category:Byzantine people of the Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars

Category:771 births

Category:797 deaths

Category:800s deaths

Category:780s in the Byzantine Empire

Category:790s in the Byzantine Empire

Category:Sons of Byzantine emperors

Category:Sons of empresses regnant

Category:Byzantine consuls