Irene and Constantine VI: The New Helena
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- čas přidán 8. 06. 2024
- The first ten years of Constantine VI's reign were dominated by his mother and regent: Irene. She launched various campaigns, made conquests in the Balkans and ended the first period of Iconoclasm before being overthrown by her son.
Chapters:
00:00 Instroduction
00:29 Consolidating Power
02:29 Irene and Charlemagne
04:19 War in the East
05:23 The Expedition into Greece
07:30 The Grand Tour
08:33 The Second Council of Nicaea
11:44 Reverses
12:54 The End of the Regency
Leo IV:
• Leo IV: Leo The Khazar
Constantine VI:
• Constantine VI: The Bl...
Special thanks to Chrysa Sakel who created the pictures of Constantine V, Leo IV, Constantine V's Repair of the Aqueduct of Valens, Irene and the rough sketch of Constantine VI.
Bibliography:
Primary Sources
Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea, Translation by Richard Price.
Theophanes the Confessor, Chronographia, Translation by Cyril Mango and Roger Scott.
Scholarship
Brubaker, L. and Haldon J. (2011) Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era 680-850, A History, Cambridge.
Fine, J. V. A. Jr. (1983) The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century, (Michigan).
Herrin, J. (1987) The Formation of Christendom, London.
Treadgold, W. (1979) ‘The Bride-Shows of the Byzantine Emperors’ in Bruxelles 49, 395-413.
Treadgold, W. (1988) The Byzantine Revival 780-842, Stanford.
Email
easternromanhistory@gmail.com
Discord
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Music Credits:
'One Planet at a Time', 'Risk, Relief and Victory', 'Seraphim Unleashed', 'Rhiza's Offensive' and 'An Old Idea Made New' by Jeremy Soule from Supreme Commander by Gas Powered Games.
All images used are for educational purposes, if I have used a piece of art and you would like me to credit you, please contact me and I shall do so.
I am so glad this ended peacefully, I'm sure Irene and Constantine will be great friends from now on!
I don’t *see* any reason they won’t! 👀
Indeed, well one of them will live happily ever after... sort of.
Very interesting how Irene's regency was mostly successful, but when Constantine took over, things fell apart pretty quickly and the Romans got defeated multiple times by the Arabs and Bulgars in the early 790s, because he himself was not a competent field commander and would not leave the military to those who are, like Staurakios. Irene may have been power hungry and cruel (blinding your own son will certainly not earn you the mother of the year award) but she had more awareness than her son, about her own and the Empire's capabilities and limitations, so she was able to gain political and military victories to a certain extent, even if she was not a popular soldier Emperor like the earlier rulers of the Isaurian dynasty.
I know blinding your own son is not the nicest thing to do but he really was a bit of waste of space as a ruler.
@@EasternRomanHistory true. She could have just locked him up in his bedroom and forbid him from having supper tho. There are multiple ways to punish and remove a ruler, blinding just being one of the crueler methods.
@@byzansimp Its not quite that simple. Within a few months a plot would have formed to free him. Blinding had to be done to completely disqualify them otherwise they were always a threat.
Awesome, truly respect the effort and knowledge shed upon byzantine history on this channel, over the past few years just time and time again greatly impressed!! Thank you
man.....michael lanchanodrakon....
one of the most underrated generals of the Roman empire
The Isaurian William Marshal of sorts.
@@EasternRomanHistory defentiely .....he was one of the generals who won victories against the abbasid caliphate when they were strong and mighty.......a belisarius of his time
Speaking of Helena, I find her a pretty underrated character in the history of Christianity. Not only she was the mother of the legendary Constantine the Great, but also found the very cross on which Christ was crucified (hence the reason she is considered the patron saint of archaeology). In fact, there is a 1950 novel about her life written by Evelyn Waugh that I highly recommend.
I find it kind of funny that both Alexander and Constantine The Great were in a way ruled by their Greek mothers.
@@Constantine_Bush Alexander, at least, was lucky enough to get rid of his mother. Shame he had to die in order to achieve that...
Underrated? There are numerous statues and icons of her.
@@Michael_the_Drunkard But those satues and honors still don't make her justice. I think she deserves much more recognition, to be honest
@@OptimusMaximusNero I am 50/50 on this one.Women tend to love only their biological offspring and when reading their stories,we can recognize they were partial to their son's success,especially Olympia.
u deserve more views my friend
Great video!Continue the great work.
Great video, always happy to see you upload
Thank you very much.
greath job as always
Who does the art for these? It is very well done.
Chrysa Sakel, she illustrated the graphic novel Theophano: A Byzantine Tale.
@@EasternRomanHistory Wow I am definitely gonna get her 2 Byzantine books now
Mother of the year
Your maps are often very minimalist. Greece and the Slavic invasions seem very obscure during this period as to what was actually going on there, for how long, etc.
The map shows Patra as being lost, but I can't seem to find anything about a Slavic conquest of Patra or its abandonment (it doesn't appear to have ever been abandoned), and it was obviously a very important Roman/Byzantine city. Is it possible that maps of ancient polities don't adequately illustrate the political situation, and that even more so, maps for this period are based on hyperbolic language of Theophanes?
For the Balkans, the maps are minimalist in the seventh and eighth century because imperial control of the hinterlands of Greece and Macedonia was very limited. Even with villages of Greek inhabitants if the imperial government could not safely send tax-collectors, army recruiters, bishops or even the postal service to these areas then they were not part of the empire. Patra was abandoned in the late sixth century when it was attacked by the Slavs according to the Chronicle of Monemvasia and reoccupied under Nikephoros I so for roughly 200 years it was beyond imperial control. You are of course correct that ancient and medieval maps can never be pin point accurate as they have to be based on the available sources. Unfortunately, for this period thorough sources are rather scarce. But the sources we do have tell us quite a bit, for instance, the life of St Demetrius tells us that Thessalonica was an island in a Slavonic sea and corroberating with other sources we know that the city was essentially cut off from imperial rule by land and either had to be marched to in force or sail there by sea.
YESSSSS
Where did you find the picture you used for Irene?
It was not found but forged by an artist, details in the description.
Thank you very much! Love the video, Irene’s rule is one of the most overlooked periods in Eastern Roman History. Many people seem to forget that her regency was enormously successful, and even her sole rule was calmer than most.
How do you rank Leo VI and Irene?
I think they are both decent emperors, have you seen my Leo IV video?
@@EasternRomanHistory Yes.
@@EasternRomanHistory Was Irene a overhated emperor? I see lots of people hated her.
@@causantinthescot I think people either fixate on the fact that she blinded her own son, which is not exactly the way to win admirers or that Charlemagne was proclaimed emperor because of her seizure of power. However, if you look at her regency you can see that she managed to accomplish a considerable amount and was a far better stateswoman than her son.
@@EasternRomanHistory I see.
I would suggest using maps from the Byzantine dynasties wikipedias instead of those old maps, they are much more detailed in my opinion
Gosh, I had a look and they have certainly developed since last I looked. Thank you for the suggestion.
The wikipedia maps not only are ugly, but some of them are untrustworthy. Especially the one from the Komnenos era, which contradicts historical sources. Makes you vomit, when you see it.
@@Michael_the_Drunkard
The komnenos one is the only bad one, but you can look at the file history and look at when the picture actually was accurate. Idk why they changed it
The Sclaveneoii would also soon become the direct ancestors of the Southern Slavic nations we know today as, Northern Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Slovenia.
Indeed, Bulgaria is a slightly different one because the Turkic aristocracy merged with their slavic subordinates. It is not really until the tenth century that the Sclavenes formed what we would recognise as states.
"Thrace, Macedonia and Greece" this geographic definition of Greece stems from the Mycenean period and was outdated by the Hellenistic period. Thrace and Macedonia had become Greek centuries ago. When you speak about SOUTHERN Greece, say Thessaly, Peloponnese or Epirus instead. "Greece" is only sensible, when it is used in place of "southern Balkans".
Or Romania, which mean "The land of the Romans".
FACTS !!!! Even the Bulgarian sources say Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, Hellas separately sometimes, but they are ALWAYS referring to regions of the GREEKS !!!
And SHE is considered a saint in my and many other countries, go figure....(i am from Greece). Ahhh christianity is so funny