Asen dynasty

Coat of arms of Tsar Ivan Asen II
Monument to the Asen dynasty in their capital Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, sculptor prof. Krum Damianov

The House of Asen, also Asen dynasty or the Asenids (Bulgarian: Асеневци, Asenevtsi, Romanian: Asănești), founded and ruled a medieval Bulgarian state, called in modern historiography the Second Bulgarian Empire, between 1185 and 1280.

The Asen dynasty rose as the leaders of Bulgaria after a rebellion against the Byzantine Empire at the turn of the year 1185/1186 caused by the increase in the Imperial taxes.

Some members of the Asen family entered Byzantine service in the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries. The name also occurs as a family name in modern Greek, and could go back to the same name. Their origin is obscure.[1]

  1. ^ Frederick B. Chary, History of Bulgaria, The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations, ABC-CLIO, 2011, ISBN 0313384479, p. 12.