formally revived the veneration of icons and reunited the Eastern church with that of Rome. (See Seventh Ecumenical Council.) While this greatly improved relations with the Papacy, it did not prevent the outbreak of a war with the Franks, who took over Istria and Benevento in 788. In spite of these reverses, Irene's military efforts met with some success: in 782 her favoured courtier Staurakios subdued the Slavs of the Balkans and laid the foundations of Byzantine expansion and re-Hellenization in the area. Nevertheless, Irene was constantly harried by the Abbasids, and in 782 and 798 had to accept the terms of the respective Caliphs Al-Mahdi and Harun al-Rashid. Fall and return to throne As Constantine approached maturity he began to grow restless under the autocratic sway of his mother. Although Constantine VI had reached the age of majority, Irene continued to administer the affairs of state in his place and was autocratess of the Romans. Constantine no longer accepted his secondary status and attempted to free himself by force, but this attempt was met and crushed by the Empress, who demanded that the oath of fidelity should thenceforward be taken in her name alone. Irene also tried to convince the army to legitimize her absolute power over the state. The discontent which this caused swelled into open resistance in 790, and the soldiers, headed by the army of the Armeniacs, formally proclaimed Constantine VI as the sole ruler. As an attempt to restore order to the state, Constantine, in a hollow semblance of friendship, restored Irene's titles and confirmed her position as ruler on 15 January 792. As a result, the Irene-Constantine duumvirate began. However, the rivalry remained, Irene's faction also returned, with her powerful eunuch minister Staurakios once again at the helm, they began to take revenge on anyone who had opposed them in the past or present. In 797 Irene, by cunning intrigues with the Nobles, officers, bishops and courtiers, organized a conspiracy against Constantine. He was forced to flee to the provinces for aid, but even there participants in the plot threatened him. Seized by his attendants (his mother's allies) on the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus, Constantine was carried back to the palace at Constantinople and was blinded on 19 August. It is unknown whether he managed to survive this event. Although it is often asserted that, as monarch, Irene called herself "basileus" (βασιλεύς), 'emperor',