II married Euphrosyne, a daughter of Constantine VI and Maria of Amnia. This marriage was probably intended to strengthen Michael's position as Emperor, but it incurred the opposition of the clergy, as Euphrosyne had previously become a nun. Michael II died on 2 October 829 from kidney failure. Because of his Judeo-Christian origin and iconoclasm, Michael II was not popular among Orthodox clergy, who depicted him as an ignorant and poorly educated peasant, but Michael II was a competent statesman and administrator. Though the civil war his accession precipitated gravely weakened the imperial government, by the end of his reign he had begun a restoration of the Byzantine military. The system of government and military built by Michael II enabled the Empire under his grandson Michael III to gain the ascendancy in their struggles with the Abbasids and to withstand all the vicissitudes of Byzantine palace life. Michael II's direct descendants, the Amorian dynasty followed by the so-called Macedonian dynasty, ruled the Empire for more than two centuries, inaugurating the Byzantine Renaissance of the 9th and 10th centuries. See also List of Byzantine emperors Footnotes References . 9th-century Byzantine emperors Phrygian dynasty Byzantine Jews 770 births 829 deaths Byzantine Iconoclasm People from Amorium Protostratores 810s in the Byzantine Empire 820s in the Byzantine Empire