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.
Michael Asen
- Parents
- Children
- Siblings
Michael Asen was a son of Despot Sratsimir and Keratsa Petritsa and a brother of Tsar Ivan Alexander. He bore the name Asen through his maternal line, which went back to Tsar Ivan Asen II.
The sources preserve no detail of his activity; he is known chiefly as the father of Shishman, mentioned around 1356–1357 as an administrative figure in the region of Yambol.
- “Михаил е брат на цар Иван Александър; син на Кера[ца] Петра (Петрица) [и деспот Срацимир].”— Genealogy and Prosopography of the Asen Dynasty 1186–1460, p. 184