Founder of the Asen Dynasty

Kaloyan or Kalojan, also known as Ivan I, Ioannitsa or Johannitsa, the Roman Slayer, was emperor or tsar of Bulgaria from 1196 to 1207. He was the younger brother of Theodor and Asen, who led the anti-Byzantine uprising of the Bulgarians and Vlachs in 1185. The uprising ended with the restoration of Bulgaria as an independent state.

Kaloyan, who was still a teenager in 1188, must have been born around 1170, according to historian Alexandru Madgearu. He was baptised Ivan (or John), but he was called Johannitsa ("Little Ivan") because Ivan was also the baptismal name of his elder brother Asen. Kaloyan derived from the Greek expression for John the Handsome (Kallos Ioannis). His Greek enemies also called him Skyloioannes ("John the Dog"), which gave rise to references to Tsar Skaloyan or Scaluian in frescos in the Dragalevtsi Monastery and the Sucevița Monastery.

After the Byzantines captured Asen's wife, Kaloyan was sent as a hostage to Constantinople in exchange for her in the spring of 1188. The date of his release is not known, or said to be about 1189 when he escaped. He was back in his homeland when a boyar, Ivanko, murdered Asen in Tarnovo in 1196. Ivanko attempted to obtain the throne with Byzantine support, but Theodor-Peter forced him to flee to the Byzantine Empire.

Theodor, crowned Emperor Peter II, made him his co-ruler after Asen was murdered in 1196. A year later, Peter was also murdered, and Kaloyan became the sole ruler of Bulgaria.

After the successful siege of Varna in 1201 against the Byzantine Empire, the defenders and governors of the city were tied and thrown into the moat of the fortress walls and covered with dirt by the Bulgarians. After they were buried alive in this way, Kaloyan declared himself a Bulgarian avenger, adopting the moniker "the Romanslayer" by analogy with the emperor Basil II the Bulgar Slayer, who defeated and blinded a Bulgarian army of 15,000 people.

To obtain an imperial title from the Holy See, Kaloyan entered into correspondence with Pope Innocent III, offering to acknowledge papal primacy. His expansionist policy brought him into conflict with the Byzantine Empire, Hungary, and Serbia. In 1204, King Emeric of Hungary allowed the papal legate who was to deliver a royal crown to Kaloyan to enter Bulgaria only at the Pope's demand. The legate crowned Kaloyan "king of the Bulgarians and Vlachs" on 8 November 1204, but Kaloyan continued to style himself as tsar (emperor).

Kaloyan took advantage of the disintegration of the Byzantine Empire after the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders or "Latins" in 1204. He captured fortresses in the themes of Macedonia and Thrace and supported the local population's riots against the Crusaders. He defeated Baldwin I, Latin Emperor of Constantinople, in the Battle of Adrianople on 14 April 1205. Baldwin was captured and later died in Kaloyan's prison. Kaloyan launched new campaigns against the Crusaders and Romans, destroying dozens of fortresses. He died under mysterious circumstances during the siege of Thessalonica in 1207.

Death

Kaloyan died during the siege of Thessalonica in October 1207, but the circumstances of his death are uncertain. Historian Akropolites (1217/20-1282) stated that he died of pleurisy. He also recorded a rumour claiming that Kaloyan's "death was caused by divine wrath; for it seemed to him that an armed man appeared before him in his sleep and struck his side with a spear".

Legends about Saint Demetrius of Thessalonica's intervention on behalf of the besieged town were recorded shortly after Kaloyan's death. Robert of Clari wrote before 1216 that the saint himself came to Kaloyan's tent and "struck him with a lance through the body", causing his death. Stefan Nemanjic wrote down the same legend in 1216 in his hagiography of his father, Stefan Nemanja. John Staurakios, who compiled the legends of Saint Demetrius in the late 13th century, recorded that a man riding on a white horse struck Kaloyan with a lance. Kaloyan, continued Staurakios, associated the attacker with Manastras, the commander of his mercenaries, who thus had to flee before Kaloyan's death. The legend was depicted on the walls of more than five Orthodox churches and monasteries. For instance, a fresco in the Decani Monastery depicts Saint Demetrius slaying Tsar Skaloyan.

The contradictory records of Kaloyan's death gave rise to multiple scholarly theories, many of them accepting that he was murdered. Madgearu says Kaloyan was actually murdered by Manastras, who had most probably been hired by Kaloyan's wife and nephew, Boril. Historians Genoveva Cankova-Petkova and Francesco Dall'Aglia also write that Manastras killed Kaloyan, but they assume that the Greeks had persuaded him to turn against the tsar.

Grave

The location of Kaloyan's grave is unknown. According to the late 13th-century version of the Life of Saint Sava of Serbia, Kaloyan's body was embalmed and delivered to Tarnovo. However, the older version of the same legend, recorded in 1254, does not mention this episode. A golden ring, which was found in a grave near the Church of the Holy Forty Martyrs in Tarnovo in 1972, bears the Cyrillic inscription Kaloianov prasten ("Kaloyan's ring"). Historian Ivan Dujcev stated that the ring proved that Kaloyan's remains were transferred to the church, which was built in 1230. The identification of the grave as Kaloyan's burial place is controversial, because the ring bearing his name cannot be dated to before the 14th century. Furthermore, the graves of all other royals who were buried in the same place are located within the church, suggesting that the ring was not owned by Kaloyan, but by one of his 14th-century namesakes.

Family

Kaloyan's wife was a Cuman princess. She gave birth to Kaloyan's only known daughter (whose name is unknown). According to gossip recorded by Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Kaloyan's wife tried to seduce the Latin Emperor Baldwin who had been imprisoned in Tarnovo. However, the gossip continued, Baldwin refused her, for which she accused him of having tried to seduce her. Outraged by his wife's claim, Kaloyan had Baldwin executed and fed his corpse to the dogs. Based on the story of Potiphar and his wife, the rumour is obviously unreliable, according to Madgearu. After Kaloyan's death, his widow married his successor, Boril. Boril gave Kaloyan's daughter in marriage to the Latin Emperor Henry in 1211.