Family Tree of the Second Bulgarian Empire
23 reigning rulers across four dynasties — with their consorts, kin and the family's Byzantine branch
The Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) was ruled by four successive dynasties — the Asen, Terter, Smilets and Shishman houses — from the uprising of the brothers Peter and Asen against Byzantium to the fall of Tarnovo to the Ottomans. This family tree charts every tsar and their relatives across those two centuries, together with the Asens in Byzantium: the descendants of Ivan Asen III, who lived on in Constantinople as the noble Asanes family. Switch between the houses with the tabs, expand a branch to follow a line, and select any name for their reign, family ties and the primary sources behind each fact.
Alexios Asen
Alexios Asen is known from two documents issued at Serres (1365 and 1375). In 1365 he was at the court of the former Serbian empress Elena (the nun Elisaveta), who governed the region of Serres, as a member of her tribunal — a presence owed to their kinship. This link is a vivid witness to the closeness between the house of Ivan Alexander and the Asens in Byzantium, descendants of a common root.
After the abolition of Serbian rule at Serres (1371) Alexios remained in the city, now in the service of Emperor John V Palaiologos. After 1375 his traces are lost.