Prienensid dynasty

The Prienensid dynasty is a term used by historians to denote the first three Tsars of the Second Bulgarian Empire, although they never used this family name themselves. The dynasty was founded by Ivan I, an Armeno-Roman general who claimed the vacant Bulgarian throne in the summer of 1183. Ivan was able to secure the loyalty of the local aristocracy through military success and the granting of a Bulgarian Patriarchate by Patriarch Michael I of Paris in 1198. He died in plague in 1201, however, with both of his sons young children without native ties to Bulgaria, prompting a revolt of the aristocracy in 1210 against the elder, Ivan II. The dynasty ended with John's younger son Symeon II, who died in 1226, although future Bulgarian monarchs would continue to descend from him through the line of his daughter Maria.