Ivanko ( bg, Иванко) killed

Ivan Asen I Ivan Asen I, also known as Asen I or John Asen I ( bg, Иван Асен I; died in 1196), was emperor or tsar of Bulgaria from 1187/1188 to 1196 as co-ruler with his elder brother, Peter II. Hailing from the Byzantine theme of Paristrion, his ...

, ruler of the renascent

Second Bulgarian Empire The Second Bulgarian Empire (; ) was a medieval Bulgarian state that existed between 1185 and 1396. A successor to the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Tsars Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conque ...

, in 1196. The murder occurred when Asen angrily summoned Ivanko to discipline him for having an affair with his wife's sister. In 1197 Ivanko, who was a

Vlach "Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Easter ...

according to the terminology used by

Niketas Choniates Niketas or Nicetas Choniates ( el, Νικήτας Χωνιάτης; c. 1155 – 1217), whose actual surname was Akominatos (Ἀκομινάτος), was a Byzantine Greek government official and historian – like his brother Michael Akominatos, w ...

, married Theodora Angelina, the daughter of

Anna Angelina Anna Komnene Angelina or Comnena Angelina (c. 1176 – 1212) was an Empress of Nicaea. She was the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos and of Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera. Life Her first marriage was to the '' sebastokratōr'' I ...

and the ''

sebastokrator ''Sebastokrator'' ( grc-byz, Σεβαστοκράτωρ, Sevastokrátor, August Ruler, ; bg, севастократор, sevastokrator; sh, sebastokrator), was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used by other rulers wh ...

'' Isaac Komnenos. Theodora's father had died in Bulgarian captivity not many months earlier. Ivanko, who adopted the Greek name Alexios, fought at first for his grandfather-in-law, the

Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as ...

Alexios III Angelos Alexios III Angelos ( gkm, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός Ἄγγελος, Alexios Komnēnos Angelos; 1211), Latinized as Alexius III Angelus, was Byzantine Emperor from March 1195 to 17/18 July 1203. He reigned under the name Alexios Komnen ...

, but afterwards turned against him. He captured the general Manuel Kamytzes in 1198; Kamytzes was ransomed by his son-in-law, Ivanko's rival, Dobromir. The emperor's sons-in-law Alexios Palaiologos and Theodore Laskaris marched against Ivanko in 1200, and he was eventually captured when Alexios promised not to harm him in a peace council but then took him prisoner.

Sources

* pp. 257–259, 281-285. *Robert Lee Wolff, "The `Second Bulgarian Empire'. Its Origin and History to 1204". ''Speculum'', Vol. 24, No. 2 (Apr., 1949), pp. 167–206. Published by: Medieval Academy of America {{Rebellion and secession in Byzantium, 1182–1205 12th-century births 13th-century deaths 12th-century murderers 12th-century Bulgarian people 13th-century Bulgarian people Regicides Bulgarian people of the Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars Medieval Bulgarian military personnel Medieval assassins