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 Palaiologina Asenina
- Spouse
- Children
Irene Palaiologina Asenina was a daughter of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos. At the beginning of 1278 she was married to John Asen — the son of Tsar Mitso — whom Michael VIII raised up as Bulgarian tsar (Ivan Asen III); in 1279–1280 Irene was Bulgarian empress in Tarnovo.
Their brief reign ended in flight: in 1280 Ivan Asen III and Irene left Tarnovo and settled in Byzantium, on an estate near the Skamandros. There Irene became the foundress of the Byzantine branch of the family — mother of five sons (Michael, Andronikos, Isaac, Manuel and Constantine) and several daughters, from whom descended the entire Asanes (Asen) family in the Empire.
Through her children Irene found herself at the heart of high Byzantine politics. In 1303–1304 her daughter Maria was married to the Catalan leader Roger de Flor, and Irene herself stayed in the Catalan camp at Gallipoli. After the murder of Roger de Flor (1305), Pachymeres reports that around 1308 her brother, Emperor Andronikos II, ordered her confined in the palace on suspicion of inciting against him over the Catalan leader's death. The year and circumstances of her death are unknown; Manuel Philes dedicated an epitaph to her.
- “Ирина Палеологина Асенина … дъщеря на император Михаил VIII Палеолог … в началото на 1278 г. била омъжена за Йоан Асен, син на Мицо.”— Genealogy and Prosopography of the Asen Dynasty 1186–1460, p. 256