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IRENE

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 792 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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IRENE , the name of several See also:

Byzantine empresses. I. IRENE (752--803), the wife of See also:Leo IV., See also:East See also:Roman See also:emperor. Originally a poor but beautiful Athenian See also:orphan, she speedily gained the love and confidence of her feeble See also:husband, and at his See also:death'in 78o was See also:left by him See also:sole See also:guardian of the See also:empire and of their ten-See also:year-old son See also:Constantine VI. Seizing the supreme See also:power in the name of the latter, Irene ruled the empire at ,her own discretion for ten years, displaying See also:great firmness and sagacity in her See also:government. Her most notable See also:act was the restoration of the orthodox See also:image-See also:worship, a policy which she always had secretly favoured, though compelled to abjure it in her husband's lifetime. Having elected Tarasius, one of her partisans, to the patriarchate (784), she summoned two See also:church See also:councils. The former of these, held in 786 at See also:Constantinople, was frustrated by the opposition of the soldiers. The second, convened at See also:Nicaea in 787, formally revived the See also:adoration of images and reunited the Eastern church with that of See also:Rome. As Constantine approached maturity he began to grow restive under her autocratic sway. An See also:attempt to See also:free himself by force was met and crushed by the empress, who demanded that the See also:oath of fidelity should thenceforward be taken in her name alone. The discontent which this occasioned swelled in 790 into open resistance, and the soldiers, headed by the Armenian guard, formally proclaimed Constantine VI. as the sole ruler.

A hollow semblance of friendship was maintained between Constantine and Irene, whose See also:

title of empress was confirmed in 792; but the See also:rival factions remained, and Irene, by skilful intrigues with the bishops and courtiers, organized a powerful See also:conspiracy on her own behalf. Constantine could only flee for aid to the provinces, but even there he was surrounded by participants in the See also:plot. Seized by his attendants on the See also:Asiatic See also:shore of the See also:Bosporus, the emperor was carried back to the See also:palace at Constantinople; and there, by the orders of his See also:mother, his eyes were stabbed out. An See also:eclipse of the See also:sun and a darkness of seventeen days' duration were attributed by the See also:common superstition to the horror of See also:heaven. Irene reigned in prosperity and splendour for five years. She is said to have endeavoured to negotiate a See also:marriage between herself and See also:Charlemagne; but according to See also:Theophanes, who alone mentions it, the See also:scheme was frustrated by See also:Aetius, one of her favourites. A projected See also:alliance between Constantine and Charlemagne's daughter, Rothrude, was in turn broken off by Irene. In 802 the See also:patricians, upon whom she had lavished every See also:honour and favour, conspired against her, and placed on the See also:throne Nicephorus, the See also:minister of See also:finance. The haughty and unscrupulous princess, " who never lost sight of See also:political power in the height of her religious zeal," was exiled to See also:Lesbos and forced to support herself by See also:spinning. She died the following year. Her zeal in restoring images andmonasteries has given her a See also:place among the See also:saints of the See also:Greek church. See E.

See also:

Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (ed. J. See also:Bury, See also:London, 189.6), vol. v.; G. See also:Finlay, See also:History of See also:Greece (ed. 1877, See also:Oxford,) vol. 1i.; F. C. See also:Schlosser, Geschichte der bilderstiirmenden Kaiser See also:des ostromischen Reiches (See also:Frankfort, 1812) ; J. D. Phoropoulos, Efpiep fi abroep6.m pa 'Pwµalwv (See also:Leipzig, 1887) ; J. B. Bury, The Later Roman Empire (London, 1889), ii.

480-498 ; C. Diehl, Figures byzantines (See also:

Paris, 1906), pp. 77-109. (M. O. B. C.) 2. IRENE (C., Io66–c. 1120), the wife of Alexius I. The best-known fact of her See also:life is the unsuccessful intrigue by which she endeavoured to divert the See also:succession from her son See also:John to Nicephorus See also:Bryennius, the husband of her daughter See also:Anna. Having failed to persuade Alexius, or, upon his death, to carry out a coup d'etat with the help of the palace See also:guards, she retired to a monastery and ended her life in obscurity. 3.

IRENE (d. 1161), the first wife of See also:

Manuel See also:Comnenus. She was the daughter of the See also:count of Sulzbach, and See also:sister-in-See also:law of the Roman emperor See also:Conrad II., who arranged her See also:betrothal. The marriage was celebrated at Constantinople in 1146 The new empress, who had exchanged her earlier name of Bertha for one 'more See also:familiar to the Greeks, became a devoted wife, and by the simplicity of her manner contrasted favourably with most Byzantine queens of the See also:age. H. v. Kap-Herr, See also:Die abendlandische Politik des Kaisers Manuel (See also:Strassburg, 1881).

End of Article: IRENE

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