Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria - Influence Over Serbia and Alliance With Nicaea

Influence Over Serbia and Alliance With Nicaea

Elated by his success, Ivan Asen II caused a memorial inscription to be set up on a column in the Church of the Forty Martyrs in his capital Tărnovo, in which he boasted of defeating and capturing Theodore with the help of the martyrs, of conquering his lands, and of even acquiring the obedience of the Latins of Constantinople. But this optimism was rather hasty. By 1231 the Latin regency had finalized negotiations with John of Brienne, the former king of Jerusalem, who was invited to step in as the guardian and co-emperor of Baldwin II at Constantinople. This action led to the breach of the alliance between Bulgaria and the Latin Empire, and the creation of an alternate alliance with the Empire of Nicaea.

In 1234 a Bulgarian-aided coup d'état in Serbia toppled Stefan Radoslav, a son-in-law of Theodore of Epirus, and replaced him with his brother Stefan Vladislav I, a son-in-law of Ivan Asen II. This has been seen as the extension of Bulgarian influence over Serbia, but the extent and nature of that relationship remains unclear. The two governments cooperated with each other and Stefan Vladislav did not long survive his father-in-law's death, being overthrown by his younger brother Stefan Uroš I in 1242. In 1235 uncle of the Serbian king, the Archbishop of Serbia Saint Sava died in Tarnovo, and in 1237 Ivan Asen II allowed his nephew to transfer the prized body back to Serbia.