WI Charlemagne marries Empress Irene?

In 802 the newly crowned Emperor Charlemagne proposed marriage to Empress regnant of the Eastern Roman Empire Irene...
Charlemagne was aiming to legitimise his Title by marrying Irene...
Empress Irene was fond of the idea but a coup of Patricians, Generals and high ranking Imperial servants lead by Eunuch Aetius (who was trying to secure the throne for his brother Leo but he failed...) who thought Charlemagne as an usurper of the Imperial Title and a Barbarian deposed Irene and exiled her to a convent replacing her with the Patrician Nicephorus as Nicephorus I Emperor of the Romans... Nicephorus concluded a treaty with Charlemagne known as "Pax Nicephori" which refused recognition on Charlemagne's Imperial Title and transfered Venice under Byzantine control...
WI Irene and Charlemagne were married? How is that altering Byzantine and European History? Any thoughts?
 
The problem I see is the Franks' inheritence traditions that saw Charlemange's empire split between his sons. Maybe marrying Irene would break that tradition, even if only for a while. Perhaps an earlier Varangian gaurd would keep Irene on the throne, apart from her internal violence she was a capable enough ruler. ________________ Any alliance between these two powers would be mutually beneficial since they squeezed several threats between, them more or less.
 
If they get married, she doesn't go to a convent, she gets exiled to the barbarian West. And if she doesn't leave she loses her eyes and tongue, if their feeling generous. This is not going to happen. There is no chance. Period. ASB's would have a hard time.
 

Philip

Donor
If they get married, she doesn't go to a convent, she gets exiled to the barbarian West. And if she doesn't leave she loses her eyes and tongue, if their feeling generous. This is not going to happen. There is no chance. Period. ASB's would have a hard time.

Even if it did, Charlemagne's empire is still going to fall apart. When he dies, there will be nothing to hold the empire together.
 
Would Charlemange be proposing a union of his and Irene's empires, or just an alliance of convenience? I don't think it is beyond the realms of possibility for people as capable as Charles and Irene to organise a marriange alliance of convenience, and make it last for a decade or so until Charles' death. __________ Is there a convenient 'other' that the two empires could gang up on and defeat between 802 and 814 to show the value of such an alliance?
 
Actually Charlemagne with his marriage proposal tried to legitimise his newly acquired Title... In 476 when Western Empire fell Odoacer sent the Imperial Regalia to Eastern Emperor and recognised him as Emperor of East and West... By marrying Empress Irene Charlemagne would have held the Imperial Title matrimonial and legal since the title Emperor of the West was attached to the Byzantine Emperor since 476...
 
I thought Charlemange played down the Imperial title so not to annoy the Byzantines. If this was the case why did he need to legitimise the title by marrying Irene?
 
First of the opposition towards the marrige came not only from the Byzantine Court, but also the Carolingian one. both parties supporters regarded the other as a usurper. And it was merely a rumour anyway.

Secondly, at this point in time Irene was so unpopular amongst her own officials that a palace coup would have been virtualy inevitable at the mere mention of the idea. Sophisticated Byzantine officials would have been horrified at the prospect of having to submit to rule by a hairly, uncouth, uneducated, axe-wielding savage whose ancestors had only recently emerged from the northern forests. Should Irene actualy accept such an offer then she would be overthrown slightly earlier then IOTL.
 
First of the opposition towards the marrige came not only from the Byzantine Court, but also the Carolingian one. both parties supporters regarded the other as a usurper. And it was merely a rumour anyway.

Secondly, at this point in time Irene was so unpopular amongst her own officials that a palace coup would have been virtualy inevitable at the mere mention of the idea. Sophisticated Byzantine officials would have been horrified at the prospect of having to submit to rule by a hairly, uncouth, uneducated, axe-wielding savage whose ancestors had only recently emerged from the northern forests. Should Irene actualy accept such an offer then she would be overthrown slightly earlier then IOTL.

Actually Irene had just accepted the proposition and thats what provoked the coup...
Besides Byzantines hated Franks and vice versa... Byzantines despised Franks's Barbarian ancestry and Franks considered the Roman throne vacant since a woman was occupying it...
 
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