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.
Theodora Asenina
- Parents
Theodora Asenina was a daughter of Paul Asen and a sister of Matthew Asen. In 1441, during her family's stay in Mesembria, she married — according to Sphrantzes, against the will of her whole family — Despot Demetrios Palaiologos, the fifth son of Emperor Manuel II.
This marriage bound the Asen family to one of the last claimants of the Byzantine throne and raised up her brother Matthew as Despot Demetrios's closest companion. Theodora's fate shared in the downfall of Demetrios's house after the Ottoman conquest of the Morea (1460).