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.
Irene Laskarina
- Parents
- Spouse
Irene Laskarina was the first-born daughter of the Nicaean emperor Theodore II Laskaris and Elena Asenina, daughter of Tsar Ivan Asen II — and thus a granddaughter of the Bulgarian tsar. After his accession Konstantin Tih parted with his first, unnamed wife, sent her as a hostage to Nicaea and married Irene; this marriage to a descendant of the Asens bound him to the dynasty and justified the name "Asen" that he adopted.
According to Pachymeres, Irene bore a strong hatred for Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos over the disinheriting and blinding of her brother John IV Laskaris, and through this she exerted a powerful influence on the political decisions of the Bulgarian tsar. She died around 1268, after which Konstantin Tih entered into a new marriage with Maria Palaiologina Kantakouzene.