George I of Bulgaria

George Terter I
Tsar of Bulgaria
Anna
House	Terter

George Terter I (

. The date of his birth is unknown, and he died in 1308/1309.

Early life

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The antecedents of George Terter I are unclear, but the Byzantine sources testify that he was of Bulgarian and Cuman descent, something corroborated by his double name, which recalls the name of the Cuman clan Terteroba. George Terter I had at least one brother, named Aldimir (Eltimir), who was made a despot by either his older brother or by the regency for Ivan II.

When

. George Terter was accordingly made a despot, the highest rank in the Byzantino-Bulgarian court hierarchy.

Reign

The continued success of

in 1284.

Since the death of the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1282, George Terter I re-opened negotiations with the Byzantine Empire and sought the return of his first wife. This was eventually accomplished by treaty, and the two Marias exchanged places as empress and hostage. Theodore Svetoslav also returned to Bulgaria after a successful mission of Patriarch Joachim III and was made co-emperor by his father, but after another Mongol invasion in 1285, he was sent off as a hostage to Nogai Khan. Theodore Svetoslav's other sister, Helena, was also sent to the Horde, where she married Nogai's son Chaka.

Exile and death

The reasons for his exile are not very clear. According to George Pachymeres, after an attack by

. George Terter I passed the next decade of his life in obscurity. In 1301 his son Theodore Svetoslav, already emperor of Bulgaria, defeated a Byzantine army and captured thirteen high-ranking officers, whom he exchanged for his father.

In Bulgaria George Terter I was not associated in power by his son, but he was confined to luxurious life in a city chosen by his son. An inscription from a rock-cut church near Ivanovo laconically mentions the death of "emperor Gergi" in the year 1308/1309.

Family

George Terter I was married twice. By his first wife, a Bulgarian named Maria, he had two children:

1. Theodore Svetoslav, emperor of Bulgaria 1300–1322
2. Elena, married to Chaka, tsar of Tarnovo 1299–1300.

By his second wife, Maria (

, George Terter had one daughter:

1. Ana Terter, who married first Stefan Uroš II Milutin of Serbia, and then Demetrios Doukas Komnenos Koutroules.

References

• John V. A. Fine, Jr., The Late Medieval Balkans, Ann Arbor, 1987.

External links

Preceded by Ivan Asen III

Tsar of Bulgaria 1280–1292

Succeeded by Smilets