The Second Bulgarian Empire
The Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) was the medieval Bulgarian state that rose when the brothers Peter and Asen led an uprising against Byzantine rule and re-established a tsardom with its capital at Tarnovo. Over the next two centuries it grew into one of the dominant powers of the Balkans.
It reached its height under Ivan Asen II, whose victory at Klokotnitsa in 1230 carried Bulgarian rule from the Black Sea toward the Adriatic. Four dynasties held the throne in turn — the Asen, Terter, Smilets and Shishman houses — while Tarnovo became a centre of Orthodox learning, art and letters.
The fourteenth century brought fragmentation into the tsardoms of Tarnovo, Vidin and Dobruja, and mounting Ottoman pressure. The defeat on the Maritsa in 1371 sealed the empire's fate; with the fall of Tarnovo in 1393 and Vidin in 1396, the medieval Bulgarian state came to an end.
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Kaliman Asen II
Tsar · 1256–1256
Kaliman Asen II was a Bulgarian tsar of the Asen dynasty whose entire known reign fell in 1256. He belonged to a collateral male branch of the ruling house: his father was the sebastokrator Alexander, younger brother of Tsar Ivan II Asen. Since Ivan II Asen was a son of Ivan I Asen, Kaliman was a grandson of one of the founders of the restored Bulgarian Empire and a first cousin of his predecessor, Michael II Asen. This ancestry gave him a dynastic basis for claiming the crown, but the manner in which he acquired it—by killing Michael and seizing power—made his accession an act of violent usurpation as well as a contest between branches of the same family.
Kaliman's lineage connected him directly to the political tradition inaugurated at Tarnovo in 1186 by Ivan I Asen and Theodore-Peter. That tradition treated imperial authority as, in an important sense, the patrimony of the ruling family. The historical discussion quoted in the dossier recalls Michael Psellos's generalization that the Bulgarians chose leaders from the imperial race, while later formulations allowed the throne to pass to a ruler's son, brother, or other relative. Such principles did not establish an unambiguous order of primogeniture: they could legitimate several related claimants at once. Kaliman's brief career illustrates the resulting tension between membership in the imperial house, actual possession of the capital and crown, and acceptance by the political elite.
From history
September 25Battle of Nicopolis
1396Sultan Bayezid I crushed the combined Crusader army at Nicopolis. The defeat ended the last hopes of liberation and consolidated Ottoman dominance over the Balkans for centuries.
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The 13th-century Draganov Menaion is one of the earliest sources of Bulgarian church chant because it contains musical notation, not just liturgical texts.
Dragan Menaion
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View all →Boril — Internal Struggles (1207–1218)
Boril's reign (1207–1218) was marked by internal struggles and external conflicts that challenged the stability of the Second Bulgarian Empire. His attempts to continue the policies of his predecessor, Tsar Kaloyan, met with limited success, as he faced opposition from powerful nobles, territorial losses, and rising heretical movements within Bulgaria.
Dynasty and Marriage Policy
The dynasty and marriage policies of the Second Bulgarian Empire played a crucial role in shaping the political alliances and power dynamics of the region. The Asen dynasty strategically used marriages to forge ties with Byzantine, Serbian, and other noble families, influencing both internal governance and external relations from the 12th to the 15th centuries.
Diplomacy
Diplomacy was central to the survival and ambitions of the Second Bulgarian Empire from its restoration in 1185–1186 to the age of Ottoman conquest. Bulgarian rulers sought legitimacy from Rome, bargained with the Byzantine successor states, used dynastic marriages to secure frontiers and claims, negotiated commercial privileges with Adriatic and Italian maritime powers, and alternately resisted or accommodated Hungary, Serbia, the Latin Empire and the rulers of the Eurasian steppe. These policies could produce striking gains, as under Kaloyan, Ivan Asen II and Theodore Svetoslav, but they were repeatedly undermined by disputed successions, aristocratic separatism and the conversion of border appanages into independent states. By the later fourteenth century the diplomatic system once organized around rivalry with Byzantium had been overtaken by Hungarian intervention, maritime competition and, above all, Ottoman expansion.
Hesychasm and Monasticism
Fourteenth-century Bulgarian monasticism was transformed by hesychasm, a disciplined pursuit of inner stillness, unceasing prayer, and contemplation of the divine light. The movement entered Bulgaria through both Mount Athos and Gregory of Sinai’s community at Paroria, receiving decisive material support from Tsar Ivan Alexander. Under Theodosius of Trnovo, Kilifarevo became a nursery of ascetics, translators, churchmen, and opponents of heresy, while Euthymius of Trnovo carried its principles into patriarchal government and literary reform. Through mobile monks and ecclesiastical leaders such as Romylos of Vidin, Ephrem, Cyprian Tsamblak, and Gregory Tsamblak, the Bulgarian synthesis of hesychasm, monastic discipline, and corrected Slavonic learning spread into the wider Orthodox Slavic world.