House of Shishman
The house Schischman ( Bulgarian Шишман ) was a Bulgarian Boljarenfamilie who asked the Tsar of Bulgaria 1323-1396. Their relatives were also called Schischmaniden. The House of Shishmanovtsi provides a collateral line of the house Asen (also called Asanes ) dar.
Progenitor is the despot Schischman, founder of the Despotate of Vidin. His son Mikhail Schischman 1323 was elected by the Supreme Council of the Boljaren ( nobles below the rank of a Tsar ) for Tsar of the Bulgarians. His son Ivan Stefan was able to hold as successor just one year, then was replaced by his cousin Ivan Alexander, who was descended in the female line of Schischman. On Ivan Alexander, his son Ivan Schischman which the Turks had to submit and was killed in 1395 in prison followed. The family dispersed, then in Hungary, Italy, but also in the Byzantine and Ottoman Empire.