Vitleem

Vitleem (Bethlehem) is a figure with a name unusual for a Bulgarian, mentioned in two letters of November 1204 exchanged with Pope Innocent III. In the letter of Tsar Kaloyan himself it is reported that two boys — Basil and Bethlehem — had set out for Rome to learn Latin well, their knowledge then to serve the Bulgarian royal chancery.

The more important clarification was made by Archbishop Basil, who told the pope something Kaloyan had passed over in silence: one child (Basil) was the son of the priest Constantine, while the other — Bethlehem — was the son of the king ("alius vero regis"). The sources thus suggest that Vitleem was an illegitimate son of Kaloyan.

Apart from this brief episode from the time of the union with the Roman Church, the sources report nothing further about Vitleem's later fate.