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Constantine VI (771-804) was the only child of Emperor Leo IV and Empress Irene. He was crowned co-emperor in 776, and became sole emperor in 780, aged only nine. Due to his young age, his mother Irene and her chief minister Staurakios ruled in his stead. However, even when Constantine was of age at sixteen, his mother still refused to hand over executive authority to him.
Constantine VI (771-804) was the only child of Emperor Leo IV and Empress Irene. He was crowned co-emperor in 776, and became sole emperor in 780, aged only nine. Due to his young age, his mother Irene and her chief minister Staurakios ruled in his stead. However, even when Constantine was of age at sixteen, his mother still refused to hand over executive authority to him.<br/><br/> Constantine was to marry Rotrude, the daughter of the future Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, in 788, but his mother broke off the engagement and instead supported Charlemagne's enemies. When Irene attempted to get official recognition as empress in 790, the plan backfired and Constantine was finally given the throne through military support, though his mother was still allowed to keep the title of empress.<br/><br/> Constantine soon proved he was not a capable leader however, suffering humiliating defeats at the hands of the Arabs and Bulgarians. When his uncle was favoured to replace him, he had his eyes put out and the tongues of his other uncles torn off. He became vastly unpopular, and in 797 was himself blinded and imprisoned by his mother's supporters. Irene was then crowned as Constantinople's first Empress Regnant. Constantine's date of death is unknown, though it was definitely before 805. Irene herself ruled until she was overthrown in 802, where she was then exiled to Lesbos and died the following year.
The London Underground (also known as the Tube or simply the Underground) is a public rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and parts of the home counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. <br/><br/> The system serves 270 stations and has 402 kilometres (250 mi) of track, 52% of which is above ground. The network is considered the oldest rapid transit system, incorporating the world's first underground railway, the Metropolitan Railway, which opened in 1863 and is now part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines; and the first line to operate underground electric traction trains, the City & South London Railway in 1890, now part of the Northern line.
Istanbul's Hagia Sophia (Greek) or Ayasofya (Turkish) was originally constructed as a main Eastern Orthodox church and served in this role from 537 CE until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 (except between 1204 and 1261 when it was converted by the Fourth Crusaders to a Roman Catholic cathedral).<br/><br/> When the Ottoman Turks under Mehmed II conquered Constantinople, the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque and Christian relics and art were either removed or plastered over. It remained a mosque for almost 500 years, before being converted into a museum between 1931 and 1935.<br/><br/> Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and influenced the design of numerous mosques in what is now Istanbul.