Irene, the Byzantine Emperor

Byzantine emperor constantine was a real liability to the byzantine empire. Supporters of irene, who had had enough of her son, caught up with him and he was held down and blinded. Unable to continue, now deformed, he disappeared from public life and may have died from his injuries soon after the assault. Irene would become the Byzantine emperor in her own right, refusing to be referred to as empress. She suffered the indignity of pope leo the third proclaiming charlemagne as the true roman emperor. There is a rumor that conside ration was given to a marriage between charlemagne and irene but this never happened.