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See also: Ecumenical Patriarch Constantine VI of Constantinople.
Constantine VI (
Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Ϛ΄,
Kōnstantinos VI;
771–797) was
Byzantine Emperor from 780 to 797.
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 at the age of nine under the regency of Irene in 780.
In 782 he was betrothed to
Rotrude, a daughter of the
Frankish King
Charlemagne by his third wife
Hildegard. Irene herself broke off the engagement in 788. In 787 Constantine had signed the decrees of the
Second Council of Nicaea, but he appears to have had
iconoclast sympathies. By then Constantine had turned 16 years old, but his mother did not relinquish executive authority to him.
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
Armenians in the army rebelled against Irene. Nevertheless, she was allowed to keep the title of Empress, which was confirmed in 792.
The weakness of Constantine caused dissatisfaction among his supporters. He showed unheroic behaviour after the defeats at the hands of
Kardam of Bulgaria in 791 and 792. A movement 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 brothers cut off. His former Armenian supporters revolted after he had blinded their general Alexios Mosele. He crushed this revolt with extreme cruelty in 793.
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 possibly illegal act, although the
Patriarch ignored it. By his actions Constantine had lost all support, both of the ruling orthodox and the iconoclast opposition.
In 797 Constantine was captured and blinded by the supporters of his mother, who had organized a conspiracy. According to most contemporary accounts, he died from his wounds a few days later, leaving Irene to be crowned as first Empress regnant of Constantinople. Pretenders to the throne claiming to be Constantine VI later appeared during the reign of
Michael II.
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