On June 24, 1241, Tsar Ivan Asen II dies. According to sources, the Bulgarian ruler died around the feast of St. John (June 24).
Tsar Ivan Asen II (1218 - 1241) was a great diplomat and politician, son of Tsar Asen I. Due to the persecution of the supporters of the Asen family, undertaken by Tsar Boril after the usurpation of the Bulgarian throne (1207), Ivan Asen II was forced to seek salvation together with his younger brother Alexander outside the borders of Bulgaria. He first settled with the Cumans, and from there he moved to the Galicia-Volhynia Principality, recalls "Wikipedia".
Taking advantage of the sharp dissatisfaction with the rule of Boril, in 1218 he invaded Bulgaria and with the help of Russian troops took the throne. As a ruler, he showed exceptional qualities. He established a strong central authority and put an end to internal strife. He strove to maintain peaceful relations with neighboring states. He established friendly relations with the Hungarians by marrying the daughter of the Hungarian King Andrew II - Anna, and in return received the Belgrade and Branichev regions, which had been torn away from the Bulgarian state during the reign of Boril.
Tsar Ivan Asen II concluded a treaty with the Epirus despot Theodore Komnenos, who, in his quest to expel the Latins from Constantinople, also needed peace with the Bulgarians.
He established peaceful relations with the Latins and the Serbs.
Tsar Ivan Asen II also proved to be an experienced commander.
Challenged by Theodore Komnenos, who in 1224 proclaimed himself emperor and in 1230 violated the treaty with the Bulgarian ruler and entered the southeastern borders of Bulgaria, the Bulgarian ruler inflicted a complete defeat on him in the Battle of Klokotnik in 1230.
Theodor Komnenos himself was captured and taken to Tarnovo. As a result of this victory, he annexed part of the lands of the Epirus state to Bulgaria and it reached its greatest expansion. Its borders abutted the Black, Aegean and Adriatic Seas. It became the largest and strongest state on the Balkan Peninsula. The territorial expansion of the Bulgarian state caused serious concerns among the Latins. In order to prevent the danger of their possible invasion, Tsar Ivan Asen II began negotiations with the Nicaeans.
In 1232, under the influence of the Pope, the Magyars undertook a campaign to the east, but were repelled by the Bulgarian troops. In 1233 Tsar Ivan Asen II broke the union with the Pope, established in 1204 by Tsar Kaloyan, since the Roman Curia was the patron of the Latins. After establishing a military alliance with the Nicaeans in 1235, he undertook a joint campaign against the Latin Empire, which ended unsuccessfully. Soon after, fearing an upcoming crusade, Tsar Ivan Asen II broke off his relations with the Nicaeans and changed his hostile position towards the Latins. After the crusade of 1239 barely touched the borders of the Bulgarian state, Tsar Ivan Asen II tried to improve his relations with the Nicaeans again, but soon died.
Thus, in less than a quarter of a century, without waging many wars, Tsar Ivan Asen II left behind a state that was huge in its territorial dimensions. Bulgaria became the most significant factor on the Balkan Peninsula. Although during most of his reign, Tsar Ivan Asen II paid more attention to his relations with neighboring countries, he also contributed a lot to the development of the country's internal political life.
During his time, a real economic and cultural flourishing occurred. Bulgaria's trade relations with neighboring Balkan countries increased. Bulgarian merchants also established direct contact with the Adriatic republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik). The revival in economic life caused a great need for money. This led to the minting of Bulgarian coins - copper, silver and gold, carried out for the first time in the history of the Bulgarian state. After the union with the Pope was broken, Tsar Ivan Asen II resumed the Bulgarian Patriarchate (1235). With a number of letters, he provided generous donations to a large number of Bulgarian churches and monasteries.
During his stay in the Galicia-Volhynia Principality
Ivan - Asen married Anna,
from whom he had two daughters (the name of only one of them is known - Maria). From his marriage to the Hungarian princess Anna - Maria (concluded in 1221) he had four children: Elena, Tamara, Kaliman and a child whose gender and name are unknown. More recent research suggests that Theodore Komnenos proclaimed himself emperor in 1228 (or 1227), placing the alliance between the Kingdom of Epirus and Bulgaria in the period after the coronation.
The union was sealed by a dynastic marriage between the daughter of the Bulgarian king Maria and Despot Manuel, brother of the Thessalonian emperor. In 1228, the Latin emperor Robert de Courtenay died and his minor brother Baldwin II was proclaimed emperor. In science, there is a thesis that the Latin barons offered the Bulgarian king a dynastic marriage between the minor Baldwin and the daughter of Ivan Asen II. It is in the context of these Bulgarian-Latin negotiations that the reason for the sudden campaign of Theodore Komnenos against Bulgaria, which ended with his defeat at Klokotnitsa (March 9, 1230), must be sought.
There are also opinions that categorically reject the thesis of a Bulgarian-Latin union, but accept that in reality in 1228 the Latin barons undertook a diplomatic move to neutralize the Bulgarian-Epirian alliance.
Tsar Ivan Asen II annexed a large part of Thrace, Macedonia, Great Wallachia and Albania to the Bulgarian territories. In 1231, Jean de Brienne was proclaimed Latin Emperor, and Tsar Ivan Asen II sought rapprochement with the Empire of Nicaea. More recent research suggests that Tsar Ivan Asen broke the union with Rome as early as 1231 and that the Hungarian invasions of the Belgrade and Braničevo regions (1232) were inspired by Pope Gregory IX. The defeat of Theodore Comnenus at Klokotnitsa also led to the dethronement by the Serbian authorities of his son-in-law, the Serbian king Radoslav (1227 - 1233) and the placing on the throne of his brother Stefan Vladislav (1233 - 1243), who was married to the daughter of the Bulgarian king.
In 1235, the Bulgarian-Nicaean union was sealed by a dynastic marriage
between the eight-year-old Helena and the eleven-year-old son of John Vatatsi - Theodore Laskaris. According to the clauses of the treaty, the Nicaean emperor must assist in the restoration of the Bulgarian patriarchate. In 1235 At the Council of Lampsacus, Archbishop Joachim was ordained Bulgarian Patriarch under the name Joachim I.
In the summer of 1235, Bulgarians and Nicenes undertook an unsuccessful siege of Constantinople. The death of Jean de Brienne in 1237 led to the conclusion of an anti-Nicaean Bulgarian-Latin alliance, a manifestation of which was the siege of the fortress of Tsurulum (Çorlu). The plague epidemic in Tarnovo, as well as the death of the Bulgarian queen and one of the children of Ivan Asen II, led to the renewal of allied relations with the Empire of Nicaea.
According to the sources, Ivan Asen II died around the feast of St. John (June 24) 1241. In 1230, Ivan Asen visited Mount Athos and issued a chrysovul for the Athos monastery of Vatopedi. The Zograf Monastery was also richly endowed. In the same year, the Bulgarian king issued a charter (the Dubrovnik Charter) by which Dubrovnik merchants received the right to free trade in Bulgarian lands.