Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria - Initial Relations With Neighbouring Powers

Initial Relations With Neighbouring Powers

The return of Andrew II of Hungary from the Fifth Crusade in 1218 provided an opportunity to establish a marriage alliance and to obtain (probably in 1221) the return of the disputed territories of Belgrade on the Danube as the dowry of Princess Anna Maria of Hungary. Ivan Asen II also made an alliance with Theodore Komnenos Doukas of Epirus to his south, although the latter had expanded his control over various Bulgarian-inhabited territories, including Ohrid. The alliance was cemented with the marriage of Ivan Asen II's daughter to Theodore's brother Manuel.

After the death of the Latin Emperor Robert of Courtenay in 1228, the barons in Constantinople considered Ivan Asen II as a possible choice of regent or guardian of the minor Baldwin II. By this time Theodore of Epirus had reconquered Thessalonica from the Latin Empire in 1224, had himself crowned emperor there by the autocephalous archbishop of Ohrid, had taken Adrianople and was poised to strike at Constantinople itself. Fearing Ivan Asen II's intervention in the Latin Empire, Theodore diverted his army, including many western mercenaries, northwards into Bulgaria in 1230. According to tradition, Ivan Asen II had the text of the broken treaty carried like a standard on a spear, and managed to decisively defeat and capture Theodore in the battle of Klokotnitsa. This victory allowed Ivan Asen II to sweep into Theodore's lands and to conquer the Epirote possessions from the Black Sea and Adrianople in the east to the Adriatic and Durazzo in the west.

Further south Epirus proper and the region of Thessalonica were left to Ivan Asen II's son-in-law Manuel, who governed from Thessalonica with the title of despot. The success of Ivan Asen II was due as much to his effective defeat of Theodore's army as to his humane treatment of the prisoners of war (recorded by the Byzantine historians), whom he released and allowed to return home unharmed. This restraint made it possible to readily obtain the submission of most of Theodore's fortresses.