Constantine II of Bulgaria

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Constantine II
Emperor of Bulgaria
Reign1397 – 1422
PredecessorIvan Sratsimir
SuccessorAlexander I (as prince of Bulgaria after the Treaty of Berlin 1878)
Born1369
Vidin, Tsardom of Bulgaria
Died17 September 1422(1422-09-17) (aged 52–53)
Belgrade
HouseSratsimir
FatherIvan Sratsimir
MotherAnna Basarab

Constantine II (Bulgarian: Константин, romanizedKonstantin) ruled as emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria in Vidin from 1397 to 1422. He was born in the early 1370s and died in exile at the Serbian court on 17 September 1422. Constantine II claimed the title Emperor of Bulgaria and was accepted as such by foreign governments, but he is often omitted from listings of rulers of Bulgaria.

Life

Constantine II Asen was the son of

Nicolae Alexandru of Wallachia. He was crowned co-emperor by his father in or before 1395 when he was sent on a mission to the old Bulgarian capital Tarnovo
.

Very little is known about Constantine II's circumstances after his father's arrest and imprisonment by Sultan Bayezid I in 1396. At that time, Ivan Stratsimir was contributing with soldiers to assist the Christian nations' bid to resist the advance of the Ottoman Empire. Following the Battle of Nicopolis, Vidin finally fell under the sphere of the Ottomans led by Bayezid I.[1][2]

Some Bulgarian historians suppose that

Ottoman Sultan Musa
.

The Bulgarians attempted to make up for their losses by siding with Musa's brother and rival Sultan Mehmed I, but the latter's victory did little to improve their situation. After Mehmed I's victory in 1413, Constantine II spent much of his life in Hungary and Serbia. His last possessions in Bulgaria were annexed by the Ottomans under Murad II in 1422, and shortly afterwards Constantine II died at the Serbian court on September 17, 1422.

Constantine II was the last emperor of Bulgaria, and his dispossession and death in 1422 marks the end of the

Ottoman conquest had begun in earnest half a century earlier, in 1369, and their rule lasted until 1878
.

coat of arms on last bulgarian rulers Fruzhin and Konstantin II Asen in Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München

Honours

Konstantin Buttress on Nordenskjöld Coast in Graham Land, Antarctica
is named after Constantine II of Bulgaria.

Notes

References

  • John V.A. Fine, Jr., The Late Medieval Balkans, Ann Arbor, 1987.
  • Ivan Tjutjundžiev and Plamen Pavlov, Bălgarskata dăržava i osmanskata ekspanzija 1369–1422, Veliko Tărnovo, 1992.
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Ivan Sratsimir
Emperor of Bulgaria
1397–1422
Vacant
Annexation by
Alexander

as Prince of Bulgaria