Konstantin Tich Assen

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Konstantin Tich with his wife Irina Assenina ( Church of Boyana ).
Bronze coin from the time of Tsar Konstantin Tich
Expansion of Bulgaria under Tsar Konstantin Tich Assen

Konstantin Tich Assen ( Bulgarian Константин I. Тих Асен , scientific transliteration Konstantin Tich Asen; * 1st half of the 13th century; † 1277 in Bulgaria ) was Tsar of Bulgaria from 1257 to 1277 . He succeeded Tsar Mizo Assen on the throne.

Life

Konstantin Tich came from an influential Boljar family . He probably owes his nickname Tich to his father, the despot Tichomir . Before he came to power, he rose to one of the most influential boyars in south-east Bulgaria's center of Skopje in the Bulgarian civil war and became the most dangerous opponent of Tsar Mizo Assen. After the latter could not hold his rule and fled via Mesembria to Constantinople , Constantine was crowned tsar in 1257 after his election by the council of boyars. In the same year his first wife died. In order to strengthen his power within Bulgaria, he married Irina (or Irene) Laskarina Assenina von Nikaia , daughter of Emperor Theodor II. Dukas Laskaris and Elena of Bulgaria († 1258) and maternal granddaughter of the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Assen II. ( † 1241) a. Subsequently, he also took over the traditional family name and called himself Konstantin Tich Assen .

Between 1259 and 1261, Tsar Constantine was involved in a war with the Magyars under Béla IV . He was able to conquer the Banat from Severin in 1260. However, when the Magyars under King Stephen V took the territories including the fortresses Vidin and Lom , Constantine allied himself with the boyar Jakob Swetoslaw and repulsed the former. Tsar Konstantin Jakob appointed Svetoslaw despot of Vidin for his assistance against the Magyars and in the domestic political struggles against Mizo Assen, who still owned large estates in the east.

He also tried to secure his position within the Bulgarian empire based on Byzantium ; however, the Bulgarian tsar also got involved in the political intrigues of Constantinople. After the belittling and dazzling of the Byzantine emperor John IV (brother of the wife of Constantine) by Michael VIII Palaeologus , Constantine took the side of the former and attacked Byzantium in 1261. In the ensuing fighting, Constantine lost not only the coastal cities of Mesambria and Anchialo , but also all of Thrace. In 1264 Tsar Constantine attacked again, this time allied with the Tatar Berke Khan . The Tsarina Irina died in 1268. In order to consolidate a peace treaty with Byzantium, in which Michael VIII Palaiologos assured the return of the territories lost in 1261, Tsar Constantine married Maria Palaiologina , a niece of Emperor Michael VIII in 1269 .

After the Byzantine emperor repeatedly delayed his promise to return the lands, Tsar Constantine attacked Constantinople again. The Bulgarian Tsar then entered into an alliance with Charles I of Naples, who planned a campaign against Michael VIII, the reconquest of Constantinople and the restoration of the Latin Empire . However, even this move by Constantine was unsuccessful, instead the Byzantine diplomacy was able to win over Nogai Khan , one of the leaders of the Golden Horde . From 1274 onwards, regular attacks and devastation by the Tatars in northern Bulgaria followed, against which Constantine could not oppose. When Michael VIII Palaeologus entered into an ecclesiastical union with Rome after the Second Council of Lyon in 1274 , the alliance between the Bulgarian Tsar and Charles I of Naples broke up under pressure from the Pope.

The last years of his reign were marked by Constantine's illness and the increased influence in politics by his wife Maria, who was a niece and opponent of Emperor Michael VIII of Byzantium because of his ecclesiastical union with Rome. Before 1272 she had her son Michael Tich Assen crowned Mitzar. Maria is also credited with the poisoning of the strengthened despot Jakob Swetoslaw, in whom she saw a danger to her power.

When the constant Tatar attacks, the ongoing intrigues of the boyars, with or without Byzantine help, and the high tax burden triggered a popular revolt led by Ivajlo , Constantine was no longer in control of the situation. The peasant uprising grew into a civil war between the nobility and peasants, at the end of which Tsar Konstantin Tich Assen was killed in a skirmish with Iwajlo in 1277. His wife Maria Palaiologos was able to maintain the position of her son, who had become tsar through the death of his father, against Iwajlo for a few months. In the end, however, Maria Iwajlo married and ruled with him until he was murdered by the Tatars in a battle in 1280. After his murder, Maria and Michael fled to Constantinople via Adrianople .

family

Constantine was married a total of three times. It is not known whether he had children from his first wives. From his marriage to Maria Palaiologos Konstantin Tich Assen had a son named Michail Assen II (* 1270; † around 1300), who was declared porphyrogennētos at his birth .

  1. Konstantin Tich Assen ⚭ NN.
  2. Konstantin Tich Assen ⚭ 1258 Irene Doukaina Laskarina Assenina von Nikaia († 1269/70), daughter of Theodor II. Dukas Laskaris and Elena Assenina of Bulgaria
    1. Daughter ⚭ Smilez († 1298), Tsar of the Bulgarians (1292–1298)
      1. Theodora († 1322) ⚭ 1293 Stefan Uroš III. Dečanski
      2. Daughter ⚭ Eltimir , brother of Georgi I Terter and Despot von Kran
  3. Konstantin Tich Assen ⚭ 1269/70 Maria Palaiologa Kantakuzenos († 1280)
    1. Michael Tich Assen (* approx. 1270; † after 1302) Tsar of the Bulgarians, under the reign of Maria Palaiologos

See also: List of the rulers of Bulgaria , Boyana Church

literature

  • I. Božilov: Konstantin Tich Asen. In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . Vol. 5, Col. 1379.
  • John VA Fine, Jr .: The late medieval Balkans. A critical survey from the late twelfth century to the Ottoman conquest. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 1987, ISBN 0-472-10079-3 .
  • Detlef Kulman: Konstantin Asen , in: Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte Südosteuropas . Vol. 2. Munich 1976, p. 455 f.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Miroslav Marek: Tich family . December 8, 2003
predecessor Office successor
Mizo Assen Tsar of Bulgaria
1257 - 1277
Ivajlo