Michail Asen ( bg, Михаил Асен) (c. 1322–1355) was the eldest son of
Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria
Ivan Alexander ( bg, Иван Александър, transliterated ''Ivan Aleksandǎr'', ; original spelling: ІѠАНЪ АЛЄѮАНдРЪ), also sometimes Anglicized as John Alexander, ruled as Emperor (''Tsar'') of Bulgaria from 1331 to 1371, ...
from his marriage with
Theodora of Wallachia.
After his father acceded to the throne in 1331, the young prince was proclaimed co-Emperor. He was to succeed his father under the name Michael IV Asen. The heir to the throne was the pride of the royal family and was said to possess "all virtues". He married
Maria, renamed Irina, the daughter of
Andronikos III Palaiologos.
In 1354–1355 the
Ottoman Turks invaded Bulgaria and headed towards
Plovdiv and
Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...
. It is mentioned in an anonymous
Bulgarian chronicle that Michail Asen gathered the Bulgarians and engaged the Turks near Sofia. The Bulgarians were defeated and suffered heavy casualties including Michail himself. But the battle was not in vain: the Ottomans failed to capture the cities and did not attack the country up to 1370.
[Andreev, Bǎlgarija prez vtorata četvǎrt na XIV v., pp. 67–75.] In the Bulgarian folklore is mentioned that the son of the Emperor perished with the death of the brave.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Michael Asen Iv Of Bulgaria
Bulgarian princes
1322 births
1355 deaths
14th-century Bulgarian people
Medieval Bulgarian military personnel
Sratsimir dynasty
Bulgarian military personnel killed in action
Sons of emperors