Empress Irene of Byzantium, Part 2
We have been looking at the stories of some of the countless number of women who served in God’s kingdom in early church history. Women evangelized, prayed, taught, preached, went on pilgrimages, reigned over kingdoms, founded monasteries, and took care of the poor. These women contributed greatly to the Kingdom of God, not so they could be remembered, but so they could serve the Lord Jesus by serving others.
Our focus has been on the stories of women who lived mostly in western Europe, because we have far more information from that part of the world. We do have some historical writings from Byzantium, so last week we took a trip towards the East to begin a look at the lives of three Byzantine empresses – Irene, Euphrosyne, and Theodora (9th century).
Note on Icons:
Many people in Western Protestant churches are not familiar with icons. The use of icons has a long history and I can only summarize a bit here. Some early church leaders felt that the pictures of saints helped the common folk to learn the story of the gospel. Indeed, Pope Gregory the Great said that religious images were the “Bible of the illiterate”. Other theologians were against using images in worship. They felt that going all the way back to the Old Testament, images had been forbidden by God. After all, they reasoned, God had given us a written word for a purpose. These objectors to the use of images were also worried that the images would be too easily worshipped in place of God.
Both of these groups make good points. I will not try and take a side on this issue. I only mention the two views of the dispute because whether or not to have icons in worship played a large role in the rulership of Byzantium. Some emperors wished to do away with icons (Iconoclasts). Other emperors were sensitive to the people and did not wish to change their worship service and so they allowed icons (Iconophiles). In the stories of our three empresses we will see how this played out in the 8th and 9th centuries.
Empress Irene of Byzantium – (754 – 803), continued…
In part 1 of our story we saw that Irene became the Empress mother/Regent of Byzantium when her husband Leo IV died. She proved that she would be a strong, effective, and popular ruler as she protected her son’s throne, accumulated support, won military battles, and built homes for the poor.
The achievement that Irene is most remembered for however is the restoration of the icons. Whatever her own personal policy may have been, Irene had seen how this issue divided the church. She had also witnessed the cruelty of the iconoclasts as they sought to impose their views on the people. Her husband had tortured many iconophiles. Irene wanted a reconciliation between the two parties.
In an effort to reunite the church, Irene summoned two church councils. The first one did not go well. At the second one held in Nicaea in 787, the veneration of icons was restored to the church. Also, a rift that had occurred between the eastern and western churches was healed. New relations began with the Pope in Rome. Irene and Constantine VI were proclaimed the new “Constantine and Helena” and were given the status of saints in the church.
For the next few years of her reign, Irene was a pious ruler and she dedicated herself to helping the poor. As Constantinople began to grow, Irene found ways to give relief to the poor. Indeed, people began to move into the city just for the help they could receive. Irene and her Patriarch housed homeless people and provided them with clothing and food. She enjoyed distributing money to them on feast days.
People thought that when Constantine reached his majority that he would automatically take over as emperor. Irene did not have much confidence in him and she kept ruling. In 787, she found a bride for him, Mary of Amnia and the royal pair had two daughters, Irene (named after her grandmother) and Euphrosyne (who will figure in the next post).
In 790, Constantine was tired of waiting for his rightful position as emperor and gathered supporters and was proclaimed emperor. He banished Irene from court. He did not rule well. Constantine made many mistakes including the same one his father had made of not rewarding the people who helped him. After pressuring her son to restore her to power, Irene came back to court in 792. She and Constantine formed a joint rulership. Many high placed people were happy to see Irene back.
Among other mistakes, Constantine divorced Mary. This gave fuel to his mother’s fire when she came back to court. Neither the church nor the people approved of Constantine’s actions. Constantine married another woman and they had a son, but the child died. Constantine also lost several military campaigns. He raised taxes to pay for the losses. His popularity was steadily going downhill.
In 797, Constantine and Irene faced a struggle for power. Irene succeeded in having him arrested. In order to prevent her son from trying to regain total control she had him blinded and banished. (Blinding was considered a merciful option to execution.) In the meantime, the uncles sensed another opportunity to try for power, but Irene had the younger four blinded and banished. (Constantine had already had his eldest uncle blinded earlier.)
Now that Irene had put down all opposition, she was the sole ruler of Byzantium. She
announced that Constantine was unable to rule due to the loss of his sight and she immediately went about proclaiming herself as the sole ruler by having new coins made. The new coins show only Irene as empress on both sides. This was the standard practice for letting everyone in the kingdom and surrounding countries (through trade) know that Irene was the ruler.
Irene received very little protest. She placed her own staff in the Great Palace. She won the support of the church when she restored those clergy who had been persecuted for opposing the “adulterous” second marriage of Constantine. She won the support of the people by lowering taxes and resuming her charitable works.
Irene became the first female to reign as emperor in her own right. She reigned for five more years. Her only mistake was in not naming her heir before she died. This made the throne vulnerable. Not surprisingly there was a military supported coup d’etat in October 802. Irene was forcibly removed from the throne.
The finance minister, Nikephoros headed the revolution and had himself proclaimed emperor. Nikephoros promised Irene a quiet life in the palace but had her moved to the island of Prinkipo. Later he discovered that her treasure was there, so he moved her further away to the island of Lesbos. She was surrounded by guards and allowed no visitors. She died there about eight months later. She was around fifty years old.
Irene had accomplished much during her reign. Her building program aided the church in social services to the poor. She helped to reunite a church that was split over areas of theology. In spite of the way that she displaced her son, Constantine, Irene was a more effective ruler. She had a more intelligent foreign policy. She extended Byzantine influence further beyond the borders that existed when she ascended to the throne. Though as a woman she faced challenges and threats against her power, she proved that she was well able to handle all aspects of government. In the end, she reigned longer than her husband, Leo IV (775-780). She left a more lasting impression than either he or the three previous male rulers had.
Very importantly, Irene had set a precedent. In the years to come Byzantium would be ruled by two more amazing empresses – Euphrosyne and Theodora. These three women changed history.
