Leo V the Armenian
Leo V restarted the Byzantine war on religious images and was murdered in a chapel on Christmas morning. He was a general of Armenian descent who commanded the Anatolic theme, and he took the throne in July 813 after the defeat at Versinikia — a battle in which his own wing had withdrawn without fighting, which contemporaries and most historians since have read as arranged. Michael I abdicated and Leo was crowned. His first problem was Krum of Bulgaria, who was outside the walls of Constantinople within weeks. Leo attempted to have him assassinated during a parley, failed, and was saved when Krum died of a haemorrhage in April 814; he then destroyed a Bulgarian force at Mesembria and obtained a thirty-year peace. His second decision was the one he is known for. He concluded that the emperors who had opposed icons had won battles and those who venerated them had lost them, appointed a commission to search the archives, and had a synod in 815 reinstate the iconoclast rulings of 754. The patriarch Nikephoros was deposed and Theodore of Stoudios exiled, and the persecution that followed was real but milder than that of the eighth century. He was efficient, suspicious and personally austere. He had his old comrade Michael the Amorian condemned to death for conspiracy, and postponed the execution over Christmas at his wife's urging. Michael's supporters entered the chapel disguised as choristers on 25 December 820 and cut Leo down at the altar. Michael the Amorian was brought from the dungeon to the throne on the same morning with the fetters still on his legs, because nobody could find the key. He reigned for nine years and founded a dynasty.
- Lived: 775 CE – 820 CE
- Nationality: Byzantine
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state, military_leader
