page_title: Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria
section_title: Co-ruler
hierarchical_section_title: Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria / Uprising / Co-ruler
caption_attribution_description: English: Second Bulgarian Empire from 1185 to 1196 under the rule of tsar Peter IV and tsar Ivan Asen I. Български: Втората българска държава в периода 1185-1196 г. под управлението на царете Петър ІV и Иван Асен І. Основана на карта "Възстановяване и издигане на Българската държава (1185-1241)" в "Атлас по история на България за средните училища", Издателство "Картография", София, 1990 г.
context_page_description: Ivan Asen I, also known as Asen I or John Asen I was emperor of Bulgaria from 1187 or 1188 to 1196 as the co-ruler with his elder brother, Peter II. He was the son of a wealthy shepherd from the mountains of the Byzantine theme of Paristrion. All contemporaneous chronicles describe Asen I and his brothers as Vlachs.
  Asen and Peter went to see the Byzantine Emperor, Isaac II Angelos, in Thrace in 1185, to demand an estate in the Balkan Mountains. After the Emperor had refused them, the brothers persuaded their compatriots to rise up against the Byzantine Empire. Peter was crowned emperor before the end of the year. After Isaac II defeated them in early 1186, Asen and Peter fled over the Danube, but they returned in the autumn, accompanied by Cuman reinforcements. They captured Paristrion and began pillaging the nearby Byzantine territories.
  Asen became his brother's co-ruler in 1187 or 1188. Peter made a peace with the Byzantines, but Asen continued the fight. They divided their realm, with Asen receiving Tarnovo and its region. Asen made a series of raids against Byzantine territories and expanded his rule over the lands along the Struma River in the early 1190s.
context_section_description: Seals bearing the inscription Ivan "basileus" (or emperor) of the Bulgarians were found in Constantinople and other places. According to George Akropolites, "Asen ruled over the Bulgarian race as emperor for nine years" before he died in 1196. This suggests Asen became his brother's co-ruler in 1187 or 1188. The Byzantines launched a series of unsuccessful campaigns against the rebellious Bulgarians and Vlachs, but they could not prevent Peter and Asen from securing their rule in Paristrion. Isaac II personally led his troops against the brothers' realm and laid siege to Lovech in the spring of 1188. Although he could not occupy the fortress, the Byzantines captured Asen's wife, Helen, and his younger brother, Kaloyan. He was held hostage in Constantinople for years.
  The arrival of the crusader army of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, in the Balkan Peninsula in July 1189 enabled Peter and Asen to occupy new territories of the Byzantine Empire. One of the chronicles of Barbarossa's crusade, The History of the Expedition of the Emperor Frederick, explicitly mentions that they seized "the region where the Danube flows into the sea" (present-day Dobruja) and parts of Thrace. When writing of the negotiations between Barbarossa and the brothers' envoys during the march of the crusaders across the Balkans, primary sources mention only Peter, suggesting he was regarded as the senior ruler of Bulgaria. The crusaders left the Balkans for Asia Minor in March 1190.
  Shortly after the crusaders' departure, Isaac II Angelos moved into the lands under the rule of Peter and Asen. He could not defeat the Vlachs and Bulgarians, because they avoided a pitched battle, forcing the Emperor to start to retreat. The imperial army was ambushed and defeated at a mountain pass. The victorious Vlachs and Bulgarians, along with their Cuman allies, launched new raids against Thrace, pillaging Anchialos (now Pomorie in Bulgaria) and other towns. Isaac II defeated the Cumans near Adrianople (now Edirne in Turkey) in April 1191. Thereafter his cousin, Constantine Angelos Doukas, routed Peter and Asen's troops in a series of battles.
  A eulogy delivered in praise of Isaac II in 1193 referred to Asen as a "reckless and obdurate rebel", surrounded by "imperial traps", while describing Peter as a "stumbling block" and an "adverse wind" to his brother. The speech shows, Byzantine intrigues stirred up a conflict between the brothers in 1192. Madgearu says, Peter was allegedly willing to make peace with the Byzantines, but Asen wanted to continue the war. Akropolites knew that Peter moved from Tarnovo to Preslav at an unspecified date, a region known as "Peter's land" even in the 13th century. Historians Madgearu and Paul Stephenson agree, the sources provide evidence the brothers divided their realm around 1192, with Asen retaining Tarnovo and its region.
  After Constantine Angelos Doukas was blinded during the rebellion against Isaac II, the Vlachs and the Bulgarians resumed their attacks against the Byzantine Empire. The Emperor dispatched Alexios Gidos and Basil Vatatzes to wage war against the invaders, but their united armies were almost annihilated in the Battle of Arcadiopolis. Peter and Asen conquered new territories in Thrace, including Plovdiv.
  Isaac II decided to launch a new campaign to recover Thrace himself. While he was mustering his troops at Kypsela, his brother, Alexios, captured and blinded him on 8 April 1195. Alexios III sent envoys to Peter and Asen, proposing to make peace with them. The brothers refused the new emperor's proposal. Asen moved into Byzantine territory and defeated Alexios Aspietes. He captured the Byzantine fortresses along the River Struma leaving Vlach and Bulgarian troops to garrison them.
  A new Byzantine army, under the command of the Emperor's son-in-law, Isaac Komnenos, launched a counterinvasion. Asen's Vlach, Bulgarian and Cuman troops surrounded the invaders and defeated them near Serres. Komnenos was captured by a Cuman warrior who secretly tried to hold him to ask for a huge ransom from the Emperor. 
caption: Second Bulgarian Empire from 1185 to 1196, according to a Bulgarian historical atlas. The theory that Bulgaria included Oltenia and Muntenia, as it is presented on the map, is not universally accepted by historians.[39]
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