Founder of the Asen Dynasty

Peter II, born Theodor, also known as Theodor-Peter, was the first emperor or tsar of the restored Bulgarian Empire from 1185 to 1197. He hails from the Byzantine theme of Paristrion, although his exact place and date of birth are unknown.

He and his younger brothers, Asen and Kaloyan, were mentioned as Vlachs in most foreign contemporaneous sources but they were probably of a mixed Vlach, Bulgarian, and Cuman origin. In 1185, Theodor and Asen approached the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos in Thrace, demanding an estate in the Balkan Mountains. After the Emperor refused and humiliated them, they decided to incite a rebellion, taking advantage of the discontent that a new tax had caused among the Bulgarians and Vlachs. To convince their compatriots to join them, they had native prophets declare that Saint Demetrius of Thessalonica had abandoned the Romans in favour of the Bulgarians and Vlachs. Before the end of the year, Theodor was crowned Emperor of Bulgaria, taking the name Peter and adopting the insignia used only by emperors.

The Byzantine army defeated the rebels, forcing Theodor-Peter and Asen to flee to the Cumans in April 1186. Returning in the autumn at the head of Cuman troops, they took control of Paristrion, firmly establishing the new state, regarded as the successor to the First Bulgarian Empire. The brothers made regular raids against nearby Byzantine territories in the early 1190s. Conflicts between Isaac II and the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa during the Third Crusade enabled Peter to conquer new territories in 1190. Peter and Asen divided their realm around 1192, with Peter receiving Preslav and the north-eastern region. After Asen was murdered by a boyar in 1196, Peter appointed Kaloyan as his co-ruler in Asen's place. Peter was also murdered the following year.

Early life

He was apparently the eldest son of a wealthy shepherd from the Haemus Mountains, according to Madgearu. On the other hand, no source records that he or his brother, Asen, owned cattle. Madgearu says, they may have administered an imperial horse farm, adding that their estates were most probably located near Tarnovo. Historian Ivan Dujcev writes that the brothers were local chieftains in the Balkan Mountains.

Theodor-Peter and his brothers were mentioned as Vlachsin sources written in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, but their ethnicity is subject to scholarly debates. The presence of many ethnic groups in the lands to the south of the Lower Danube in the 12th century is well documented, thus they were most likely of mixed Vlach, Bulgarian and Cuman origin. However, they chose to identify themselves as Bulgarians.

Theodor-Peter and Asen approached the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos near Kypsela in Thrace (now İpsala in Turkey) in late 1185. They asked the emperor to recruit them in the imperial army and to grant them "by imperial rescript a certain estate situated in the vicinity of Mount Haimos, which would provide them with a little revenue", according to the Byzantine historian, Niketas Choniates. Choniates' words show that the brothers wanted to receive a pronoia grant (that is, the revenues from an imperial estate in exchange for military service). According to a scholarly theory, the brothers actually tried to convince the emperor to make them the autonomous rulers of Moesia, because Choniates notes that at a later stage of their rebellion, they "were not content merely to preserve their own possessions and to assume control of the government" of Moesia. Whatever their request was, Isaac II refused them. Asen was also "struck across the face and rebuked for impudence" at the command of the emperor's uncle, John Doukas.

Last years

Asen was murdered in Tarnovo by the boyar Ivanko in the fall of 1196. Theodor-Peter soon mustered his troops, hurried to the town and laid siege to it. Ivanko sent an envoy to Constantinople, urging the new Byzantine Emperor, Alexios III Angelos, to send reinforcements to him. The emperor dispatched Manuel Kamytzes to lead an army to Tarnovo, but fear of an ambush at the mountain passes led to an outbreak of mutiny and the troops forced him to return. Ivanko realized that he could not defend Tarnovo any more and fled from the town to Constantinople. Theodor-Peter entered Tarnovo. After making his younger brother Kaloyan the ruler of the town, he returned to Preslav.

Theodor-Peter was murdered "in obscure circumstances" in 1197. He was "run through by the sword of one of his countrymen", according to Choniates' record. Historian István Vásáry writes, Theodor-Peter was killed during a riot; Stephenson proposes, the native lords got rid of him, because of his close alliance with the Cumans.