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.
Marco de Bernardo Asen
- Parents
Marco de Bernardo Asen was a son of Irene Asenina and the Venetian Paolo de Bernardo. By origin he belonged to the so-called gasmouloi — descendants of mixed marriages between Italians and Greek women.
Born probably around 1370–1375, he remained a Byzantine subject, unlike his father, who was a "civis Veneciarum." He is known from a document of 1395 in which he acknowledges a sum received and acts on the basis of a power of attorney from his mother Irene.