Ivanko killed Ivan Asen I, ruler of the renascent Second Bulgarian Empire

Second Bulgarian Empire

The Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state which existed between 1185 and 1396 . A successor of the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th-early 15th century...

, 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 according to the terminology used by Niketas Choniates, married Theodora Angelina

Theodora Angelina (daughter of Isaac Komnenos)

Theodora Angelina was the only daughter of Anna Angelina and the sebastocrator Isaac Comnenus . Her maternal grandparents were Byzantine emperor Alexius III Angelus and Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamaterina....

, the daughter of Anna Angelina

Anna Angelina

Anna Komnene Angelina or Comnena Angelina was a daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos and of Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera....

 and the sebastokrator

Sebastokrator

Sebastokratōr was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used by other rulers whose states bordered the Empire or were within its sphere of influence. The word is a compound of "sebastos" Sebastokratōr was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used...

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 Alexios III Angelos

Alexios III Angelos

Alexios III Angelos was Byzantine Emperor from 1195 to 1203.- Early life:Alexios III Angelos was the second son of Andronikos Angelos and Euphrosyne Kastamonitissa. Andronicus was himself a son of Theodora Komnene, the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina. Thus...

, 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

Alexios Palaiologos (despot)

Alexios Palaiologos was a Byzantine nobleman, son-in-law of Emperor Alexios III Angelos and his heir-apparent from 1199 to his death. Throughout this time, he was actively involved in the suppression of several revolts and riots against the emperor...

 and Theodore Laskaris

Theodore I Laskaris

Theodoros I Komnenos Laskaris was emperor of Nicaea .-Family:Theodore Laskaris was born to the Laskaris, a noble but not particularly renowned Byzantine family of Constantinople. He was the son of Manuel Laskaris and wife Ioanna Karatzaina . He had four older brothers: Manuel Laskaris Theodoros...

marched against Ivanko in 1200, and he was eventually captured when Alexios Palaiologos promised not to harm him in a peace council but then took him prisoner.

Sources

• O city of Byzantium: annals of Niketas Choniates tr. Harry J. Magoulias (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1984) 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