biography
pronunciation:
[ireenee]
| sex:
| female
|
| lived:
| (752–803)
|
| biography:
| Byzantine empress, the wife of the emperor Leo IV. After 780 she ruled as regent for her son, Constantine VI. When Constantine attempted to deprive her of power, she imprisoned and blinded him and her husband's five brothers, and ruled in her own right as emperor from 797. She was deposed and banished to Lesbos in 802. For her part in the restoration of the use of icons (forbidden in 730) at the Council of Nicaea (787), she was recognized as a saint by the Greek Orthodox Church. |
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