Ivan Shishman of Bulgaria
Ivan Shishman of Bulgaria ruled as emperor of Bulgaria in Tarnovo from 1371 to 3 June 1395. The authority of Ivan Shishman was limited to the central parts of the Bulgarian Empire.
In the wake of the death of Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Empire was subdivided into three kingdoms among his sons, with Ivan Shishman taking the Tarnovo Kingdom situated in central Bulgaria and his half brother Ivan Sratsimir of Bulgaria holding the Vidin Tsardom. Although his struggle to repel the Ottomans differentiated him from the other rulers on the Balkans like the Serbian despot Stephan Lazarevic who became a loyal vassal to the Ottomans and paid annual tribute and participated in all of the Ottoman campaigns subsequent to the battle of Kosovo, contributing a 5000 strong contingent of christian knights. Although Ivan Shishman has been categorized as indecisive and inconsistent in his policy in the past, this was done with little regard for an understanding of the context of the conditions and limited resources that this ruler had at his disposal. It is notable that Ivan Shishman is the only Balkan ruler for whom there is no evidence of tribute paid to the Ottoman Empire or any military aid provided. Based on historical evidence and the numerous folk songs of the region glorifying his struggle against the Ottoman invaders, the image of Ivan Shishman is one of fierce and concerted resistance to the Ottoman incursions.
Regardless, in 1393 the Ottoman Turks seized the capital Tarnovo. Two years later, Sultan Bayezid I captured Nicopolis with a surprise approach from the north of the fortress after two failed campaigns in Hungary and Wallachia, summoning Ivan Shishman on the false pretense of a discussion and had him executed by beheading.
Despite the military and political weakness, during his rule Bulgaria remained a major cultural center and the ideas of Hesychasm dominated the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Evtimiy of Tarnovo became the most prominent cultural figure of the country. A number of texts were written or translated and an orthographic reform of the Bulgarian language was issued with synchronised rules. After the fall of Bulgaria, a number of scholars found refuge in the other Orthodox countries and brought the achievements of the Bulgarian culture to them.
His reign was inextricably connected to the fall of Bulgaria under Ottoman domination. In Bulgarian folklore Ivan Shishman is portrayed as a legendary and heroic ruler who desperately fought against the overwhelming Ottoman forces. There are numerous sites, geographical features and fortresses named after him throughout Bulgaria.
Biography
Early life
Born in 1350 or 1351, Ivan Shishman was the eldest son of emperor Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria and his second wife Sarah–Theodora, a Jewish convert to the Eastern Orthodox Church. His birth brought up the issue of the succession to the Bulgarian throne. Ivan Shishman had two elder brothers by the Ivan Alexander's first wife, Theodora of Wallachia. The eldest one, Michael Asen IV of Bulgaria, was proclaimed successor to the throne and co-emperor shortly after Ivan Alexander's accession to the throne. However, Michael Asen's early death in battle against the Ottomans in 1355 put forward the question of succession once more. It is likely that Sarah–Theodora pressured Ivan Alexander to select her own son as his successor, although Ivan Sratsimir of Bulgaria would have come next under the majorat system. The issue was decided in Ivan Shishman's favour because the latter was born in the purple, thus making him eligible as successor. By the end of 1355, Ivan Shishman had been proclaimed heir to the throne and co-emperor.These events led to a conflict with Ivan Sratsimir, who was in turn given the rule of Vidin, probably as a compensation. Another indirect piece of evidence for the feud is the fact that Ivan Sratsimir's portrait not included in the Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander, where the whole family of the emperor was otherwise presented. In 1356 Ivan Sratsimir proclaimed himself emperor of Vidin. Together with his father and younger brother Ivan Asen V of Bulgaria, Ivan Shishman presided over the church synods at Tarnovo in the late 1360s.
Emperor of Bulgaria
Reign before 1388
Ivan Shishman was proclaimed emperor after the death of his father on 17 February 1371, when he was in his early 20s. Ivan Shishman inherited only parts of his father's realm: he ruled the lands between the Iskar River and Silistra, the valley of Sofia, parts of the Rhodope mountains and northern Thrace. To the west, the areas centred around Vidin recognised Ivan Sratsimir as emperor of Bulgaria, while to the east, the Principality of Karvuna, encompassing the coastal strip between the Danube Delta and Cape Emine and under the rule of despot Dobrotitsa, did not recognise the authority of the emperor of Tarnovo either. Contemporary chroniclers such as Johann Schiltberger speak of three regions, all of which were called Bulgaria. Thus, the country was divided on the eve of the Ottoman invasion, despite Ivan Shishman's claims in his royal charters. In these, he styled himself as a primary emperor in an attempt to emphasise the existence of a hierarchy among the rulers of the three Bulgarias. However, that hierarchy remained only in paper; to further assert their independence from Tarnovo, both Ivan Sratsimir and Dobrotitsa separated their dioceses from the Bulgarian Patriarchate in Tarnovo. According to Fine, immediately after the death of Ivan Alexander, Ivan Sratsimir tried to conquer the whole of Bulgaria. He was able to capture Sofia and managed to hold the city for one or two years. The rivalry between the two brothers for Sofia had a strong tradition in the Bulgarian historiography since the time of Konstantin Jireček, but it has been dismissed by many modern Bulgarian historians.Only a few months after the ascension of Ivan Shishman to the throne, on 26 September 1371, the Ottoman Turks defeated a large Christian army led by the Serbian brothers Vukašin of Serbia and Uglješa Mrnjavčević in the Battle of Maritsa. Although Uglješa had tried to create a broad coalition that would include Bulgaria, Ivan Shishman, who had to strengthen his own authority, did not join. After their victory at Maritsa, the Turks immediately turned on Bulgaria. Ottoman sultan Murad I forced Ivan Shishman to retreat to the north of the Balkan Mountains and conquered northern Thrace, the Rhodopes, Kostenets, Ihtiman and Samokov. Unable to resist the attacks, Ivan Shishman had to negotiate with the Ottomans in 1373. He was forced to become an Ottoman vassal and to allow his sister Kera Tamara, who was known for her beauty, to become a wife of Murad I. Under this agreement, Bulgaria regained some of the conquered territories such as Ihtiman and Samokov and began nearly ten years of uneasy peace with the Turks. Despite the vassalage and the peace treaty, Ottoman raids were renewed in the beginning of the 1380s and culminated in 1385 with the fall of Sofia, the last stronghold of Ivan Shishman to the south of the Balkan Mountains.
In the meantime, Ivan Shishman was engaged in a war against the voivode of Wallachia, Dan I of Wallachia, between 1384 and 1386. There are few details about that war, only a brief note in the Anonymous Bulgarian Chronicle that Dan I died on 23 September 1386 after being poisoned. The war was linked to the hostilities between Ivan Shishman and Ivan Sratsimir, who had the support of the Wallachian rulers and was married to Anna of Wallachia of the House of Basarab.
Fall of Bulgaria
In 1387, the united forces of the Principality of Serbia and the Kingdom of Bosnia managed to defeat the Ottomans in the Battle of Pločnik. Encouraged by the Christian success, Ivan Shishman immediately invalidated his vassalage to Murad I and refused to send troops in his support in 1388. The Ottomans reacted by sending a 30,000-strong army, under the command of the Grand Vizier Çandarlızade Ali Pasha, to the north of the Balkan Mountains. The Ottoman troops seized the fortresses of Shumen, Madara, Venchan and Ovech. Ivan Shishman left Tarnovo and headed to Nikopol, where he was besieged and forced to ask for peace. The Ottomans requested that he reconfirm his vassalage in addition to surrendering Silistra, at the time the most populous Bulgarian city along the Danube. However, Ivan Shishman, reassured by his neighbours that he would receive support and the preparations of Serbia for war, not only refused to let the Ottomans in the city but also strengthened its walls. Ali Pasha crossed the Balkan Mountains for a second time to consecutively capture Shumen, Cherven, Svishtov and once again besiege Ivan Shishman in Nikopol. Surprised by the swift Ottoman response and having not received the promised assistance, the Bulgarian emperor had to ask for peace. His pleas were accepted, but the terms were harsher than the original: not only Silistra was to be surrendered, but Ottoman garrisons were to be stationed in other Bulgarian cities, most notably Shumen and Ovech.After the defeat of the Serbs and Bosniaks in the Battle of Kosovo on 15 June 1389, Ivan Shishman had to seek help from Hungary. During the winter of 1391–1392, he entered into secret negotiations with the King of Hungary Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, who was planning a campaign against the Turks. The new Ottoman sultan Bayezid I pretended to have peaceful intentions in order to cut off Ivan Shishman from his alliance with the Hungarians. However, in the spring of 1393 Bayezid gathered a large army from his dominions in the Balkans and Asia Minor and attacked Bulgaria. The Ottomans marched to the capital Tarnovo and besieged it. The defence of the capital was led by Patriarch Evtimiy of Tarnovo because Ivan Shishman was located in Nikopol, presumably for better communication with Sigismund. After a three-month siege, Tarnovo fell on 17 July. According to the contemporary Bulgarian scholar and cleric Gregory Tsamblak, the city was not captured because of the Ottoman military strength but due to treason. The Ottoman campaign of 1393 devastated Bulgaria; in the wake of that invasion, the lands of Ivan Shishman were limited to Nikopol and several towns along the Danube. Upon his return from Wallachia after the Battle of Rovine in 1395, Bayezid I attacked and captured Nikopol and, according to the Anonymous Bulgarian Chronicle, murdered Ivan Shishman on 3 June 1395. A Byzantine chronicle gives the date as 29 October. However, some sources suggest that the Bulgarian ruler was captured and died in prison.