— Name of a Bulgarian dynasty (1186–1258) founded by the three brothers A.: John, Peter, and John, who established the Second Bulgarian Empire (1186–1396) by revolting against Byzantium with the aid of the Cumans, Vlachs, and Bulgarians. Although the name appears to be Turkic, the A. family was at least linguistically Vlach (Rumanian). The kingdom of the Bulgarians and Vlachs restored the ancient Bulgarian Empire at the time of the Third Crusade, to which they proposed an alliance against the Byzantines. Indeed, they separated from their Church to unite with Rome, which granted the A.s the title of king and a primate in their capital of Tirnovo. This union took place under John, or Ioannitza, or Kalojan (1196–1207), while the Fourth Crusade was conquering Constantinople (1204). However, when the Latins rejected the alliance in 1205, John I Asen defeated Baldwin, the first Latin emperor. The union with the Roman See lasted only until the second A., John II (1218–41), who finally broke ties with Rome (1237), abandoning the Hungarian-Latin alliance in favor of the Greek one, and perhaps dragging into separation from Rome the Rumanians north of the Danube, whose principalities were about to emerge at the end of the century. The A. dynasty ended in struggles against the Greeks and Serbs with Coloman II (1257–58).
Frédéric Tailliez