Michael II. Assen

Michael II. Assen, fresco in the Agii Taxiarhes Mitropiliteos church in Kastoria

Michael II. Assen ( Bulgarian Михаил II Асен , scientific transliteration Michail Asen ; * around 1238 in Tarnowo , † 1256 near Tarnowo) was Bulgarian tsar from the Assen dynasty between 1246 and 1256 . He was the son of Tsar Ivan Assen II from his third marriage to Irene Komnene , daughter of Emperor Theodoros I Angelos Komnenos Dukas .

Life

Michael II came to the throne after a group of Boljars around his mother Irene Komnene overthrew the minor Tsar Kaliman I Assen and had him murdered. The first years of his rule, from 1246 to 1252, Michael II. Assen was under a reign led by his mother Irene and supported by other Boljar families. This increased the Byzantine influence at the Bulgarian court, which not all Boljars were well known for.

After a declaration of war in 1248 by the Emperor of Nikaia , Johannes III. Dukas Batatzes , who saw in the father of Irene Komnene Theodoros I Angelos Komnenos a pretender for the Byzantine throne, Bulgaria lost a number of important fortresses, including those of Serres , Velbuschd , Melnik , Skopje , Prilep and Zepina (today Dorkowo ). Due to internal disputes, the reign reacted quite late and could only negotiate a peace when the Bulgarian empire lost a large part of its territory. The Magyars who conquered the region around Belgrade and Branicevo also took advantage of this weakness . This led to the removal of the unpopular Irene from the reign. She then entered a monastery.

After the death of Emperor Johannes III. Dukas Batatzes in 1254, Michael II. Assen marched with his army into Thrace and after the Battle of Adrianople in 1254 took the fortresses Stanimaka , Krichim , Zepina, Peruschtsiza and the eastern Rhodope Mountains . In 1255 the new Nicean emperor Theodor II Laskaris led his army from Asia Minor across the Bosporus to Thrace. In the following battle, Michael II Assen was defeated. His hopes to win the influential Boljar Rostislav , who was also his father-in-law, to his side were unsuccessful. Rostislav was able to negotiate his own contract with the Byzantines, which put the Bulgarian tsar in a difficult position. In the peace that followed, dictated by Theodore II, Bulgaria lost not only the lands it had regained in 1254, but all of Thrace, with the exception of the coastal cities. In 1256 Michael II Assen was killed in a Boljar conspiracy while hunting near Veliko Tarnovo.

family

Michael II Assen married in 1255 Elisaveta, a daughter of the powerful Boljar Rostislav. It is not known if they had children.

literature

• Constantin Jos. Jireček : History of the Bulgarians. F. Tempsky publishing house, Prague 1876; Olms, Hildesheim / New York 1977, ISBN 3-487-06408-1 .
• 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 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Kaliman I. Assen	Tsar of Bulgaria 1246–1256	Kaliman II. Assen