Early Rule
He was a son of Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria and Elena (religious name Evgenija). Elena, who survived until after 1235, is sometimes alleged to be a daughter of Stefan Nemanja of Serbia, but this relationship is questionable and would have caused various canonical impediments to marriages between various descendants. Ivan Asen II's father was one of the two founders of the Asen dynasty and the Second Bulgarian Empire. Under Ivan Asen II's rule, the empire would become the dominant force in the Balkans for about a decade, 1230–1241.
After the death of his uncle Kaloyan in 1207, Ivan Asen's cousin, Boril, usurped the throne and forced him to flee to the Rus principality of Galicia-Volhynia. With its support Ivan Asen returned to Bulgaria in 1218 to successfully overthrow his cousin and be crowned as emperor. Having established himself on the throne, Ivan Asen II set about recovering the losses sustained by Bulgaria during the reign of Boril.
Read more about this topic: Ivan Asen II Of Bulgaria
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or rule:
“...to many a mother’s heart has come the disappointment of a loss of power, a limitation of influence when early manhood takes the boy from the home, or when even before that time, in school, or where he touches the great world and begins to be bewildered with its controversies, trade and economics and politics make their imprint even while his lips are dewy with his mother’s kiss.”
—J. Ellen Foster (1840–1910)
“Rules and particular inferences alike are justified by being brought into agreement with each other. A rule is amended if it yields an inference we are unwilling to accept; an inference is rejected if it violates a rule we are unwilling to amend. The process of justification is the delicate one of making mutual adjustments between rules and accepted inferences; and in the agreement achieved lies the only justification needed for either.”
—Nelson Goodman (b. 1906)