Ivan Stephen of Bulgaria
Ivan Stephan ( Bulgarian Иван Стефан, † probably in 1373 in Naples) was Tsar of the Bulgarians from 1330 to 1331 He was the son of Tsar Michael III. . Schischman Asen and Anna Neda of Serbia, a daughter of King Stefan Uroš II Milutin. After ascending the throne of his father in 1323 Ivan Stephan was appointed co-emperor.
When Michael III. parted from Anna Neda in order to marry Theodora Palaiologina ( 1324 ), the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Michael IX. , Ivan Stephan went with his mother and his brothers to Serbia into exile. After Michael Asen Tods 1330 at the Battle of Welbaschd (now Kyustendil ) took King Stephen Uroš III. Decanski of Serbia as an opportunity to try a conquest of Bulgaria. When he met with determined resistance, he insisted only that his nephew Ivan Stephan was recognized as Tsar.
Although Ivan Stephan was no longer a minor at the time, he was under the influence of his mother. The new government faced an immediate crisis over, not so much from the defeat of Michael III. resulted, but from the change of relations with Byzantium. Emperor Andronikos III. Palaeologus was in Bulgaria when his sister Theodora Palaiologina and their sons were expelled from Veliko Tarnovo, and had no trouble to occupy the cities in Bulgarian Thrace in 1331. Ivan Stephen's inability to defend themselves against these losses led to a coup d'état, now him, his mother and his brothers forced to flee. The new Tsar Ivan Alexander was his cousin.
Ivan Stephen and Anna Neda fled to Serbia, but had to give way even in places as Serbia and Ivan Alexander in 1332 concluded an alliance, and went to Dubrovnik. Anna Neda tried the entire 1330s through to bring her son back to the throne, but broke down their revolt in 1337.
Ivan Stephan went with his mother to southern Italy, where he married an illegitimate daughter of Prince Philip I of Taranto (under the name Ludoviucs ); The marriage remained childless. In 1342 he accompanied John Cantacuzenus in his escape from Constantinople Opel. Twenty years later, in 1363, it is located in the Sienese captivity. He probably died in 1373 in Naples