Fruzhin ( bg, Фружин; also transliterated ''Fružin'' or ''Frujin''; c. 1380s - c. 1460) was a 15th-century

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

n noble who fought actively against the Ottoman conquest of the Second Bulgarian Empire. A son of one of the last Bulgarian

tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

s, Ivan Shishman of the

Tarnovo Veliko Tarnovo ( bg, Велико Търново, Veliko Tărnovo, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a town in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. Often referred as the "''City of the Tsars''", Veliko Tarnovo ...

Tsardom, Fruzhin co-organized the so-called Uprising of Konstantin and Fruzhin along with Constantine II of

Vidin Vidin ( bg, Видин, ; Old Romanian: Diiu) is a port city on the southern bank of the Danube in north-western Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Romania and Serbia, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as ...

, the last Bulgarian monarchs. Fruzhin was mainly based in the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...

, where he was the ruler of

Temes County County of Temes ( Hungarian: ''Temes'', Romanian: ''Timiș'', Serbian: ''Тамиш'' or ''Tamiš'', German: ''Temes'' or ''Temesch'') was an administrative county ( comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now in southwestern Roma ...

. Neither Fruzhin's birthdate nor his biography prior to the

Fall of Tarnovo The siege of Tarnovo occurred in the spring of 1393 and resulted in a decisive Ottoman victory. With the fall of its capital, the Bulgarian Empire was reduced to a few fortresses along the Danube. Origins of the conflict Tarnovo exceeded al ...

to the Ottomans in 1393 are known, but from his involvement in the 1404 uprising, the former can be narrowed down to the 1380s, the same decade his parents married, and there's no mention of him having been a bastard. He had a brother,

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

, who converted to Islam after the Ottoman conquest, adopting the name ''Iskender'' and becoming governor of

Samsun Samsun, historically known as Sampsounta ( gr, Σαμψούντα) and Amisos (Ancient Greek: Αμισός), is a city on the north coast of Turkey and is a major Black Sea port. In 2021, Samsun recorded a population of 710,000 people. The cit ...

and then

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...

, where he died in 1418. As the capital Tarnovo was captured by the Ottomans, Fruzhin fled initially to the domains of his uncle

Ivan Sratsimir Ivan Sratsimir (), or Ivan Stratsimir ( bg, Иван Страцимир), was emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria in Vidin from 1356 to 1396. He was born in 1324 or 1325, and he died in or after 1397. Despite being the eldest surviving son of Ivan Alexand ...

at Vidin, in the Bulgarian northwest. He settled in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

under Sigismund I some time after that. Sigismund accepted Fruzhin to his court and recognized his claim to the Bulgarian throne. In Hungary he stay a member of the Order of the Dragon with some other famous nobleman like Filipo Skolari, Vlad Dracula and Skenderbeg. Ecumenical Patriarch

Joseph II of Constantinople Joseph II (1360 – 10 June 1439) was Patriarch of Constantinople from 1416 to 1439, of Bulgarian origin. Born the (possibly illegitimate) son of Ivan Shishman of Bulgaria in 1360, little is known of his early life before he became a monk on Mo ...

may also have been an illegitimate half-brother of Fruzhin's. Cetatea

Probably in 1404, Fruzhin headed an anti-Ottoman revolt in the Bulgarian lands along with his cousin Constantine II, Ivan Sracimir's son and last reigning Bulgarian monarch at Vidin. Despite conflicting historical details regarding the span and size of the revolt, there are hints that Constantine and Fruzhin managed to restore their rule over at least a part of the Bulgarian lands. However, the uprising was crushed (probably in 1413 or 1418) and Fruzhin returned to Hungary. In 1425, Fruzhin participated in Hungarian service in a joint Hungarian and

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and s ...

n raid of the cities of

, Oryahovo and Silistra on the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...

along with Dan II and Filipo Scolari. Sigismund rewarded Fruzhin's military service with a noble title, entrusting him with the governance of Temes County and presenting him with a personal domain at Lippa. Fruzhin visited the

Republic of Ragusa hr, Sloboda se ne prodaje za sve zlato svijeta it, La libertà non si vende nemmeno per tutto l'oro del mondo"Liberty is not sold for all the gold in the world" , population_estimate = 90 000 in the XVI Century , currency = ...

(

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik (), historically known as Ragusa (; see notes on naming), is a city on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia, in the southeastern semi-exclave of Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterran ...

) and the leaders of the Albanian revolt, in 1435 on a secret diplomat mission of Sigismund. In 1444, he participated in

Władysław III of Poland Władysław III (31 October 1424 – 10 November 1444), also known as Ladislaus of Varna, was King of Poland and the Supreme Duke (''Supremus Dux'') of Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1434 as well as King of Hungary and Croatia from 1440 until h ...

Crusade of Varna The Crusade of Varna was an unsuccessful military campaign mounted by several European leaders to check the expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Central Europe, specifically the Balkans between 1443 and 1444. It was called by Pope Eugene IV on ...

, an attempt to drive the Ottoman Turks away from Bulgaria and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. The campaign ended in disaster, as Władysław III died in the

Battle of Varna The Battle of Varna took place on 10 November 1444 near Varna in eastern Bulgaria. The Ottoman Army under Sultan Murad II (who did not actually rule the sultanate at the time) defeated the Hungarian– Polish and Wallachian armies commanded ...

at the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

, and Fruzhin is not mentioned in any later historical sources. Fruzhin died in Brașov in 1460. Fruzin Konstantin II coats

References

{{reflist Medieval Bulgarian royalty Bulgarian princes 1460s deaths 14th-century births 14th-century Bulgarian people 15th-century Bulgarian people Medieval Bulgarian military personnel Medieval Hungarian nobility Sratsimir dynasty Bulgarian expatriates in Hungary Bulgarian people of Serbian descent