Konstantin Tih

Konstantin Tih (Константин Тих; 1257–77) or Constantine I (Константин I), was the emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria from 1257 to 1277. His father is believed to have been a boyar named Tihomir (Tih) or Ivan Tihomir, a boyar in Skopje. His maternal grandfather was Serbian ruler Stefan Nemanja. He was elected by the boyars to replace the ineffective Mitso Asen as emperor of Bulgaria in 1257, when he married Irene of Nicaea, a daughter of emperor Theodore II Doukas Laskaris by Elena of Bulgaria, the daughter of Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria. To reinforce his position as a legitimate ruler, he adopted the name Asen from his wife. By 1261 Mitso was decisively defeated and sought asylum with Michael VIII Palaiologos, the emperor of Nicaea.

From 1259 to 1261 Constantine was also engaged in a war against Béla IV of Hungary. An initial Hungarian incursion in 1259 resulted in Constantine's ephemeral reconquest of the banate of Severin in 1260. Under the leadership of the future king Stephen V of Hungary, the Hungarians recovered Severin and captured Bulgarian Vidin and Lom in 1261. The Bulgarians recovered their losses under the leadership of the Rus' prince Yakov Svetoslav, who was invested with practically autonomous possession of Vidin and maintained contacts with both Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The deposition and blinding of the minor Nicaean emperor John IV Doukas Laskaris by Michael VIII in 1261 pitted Constantine, as the brother-in-law of the deposed emperor, against Michael VIII. In 1264 Constantine participated in a Mongol raid into Byzantine territory, but his success did nothing to improve Bulgaria's position.

After the death of Irene in 1268, Constantine sought a reconciliation with Michael VIII by marrying his niece, Maria Kantakouzene in 1269. However, quarrels over the surrender of Maria's promised dowry, Mesembria (Nesebăr), soured the improved relationship. The Bulgarian government entered into an alliance with King Charles I of Sicily who was planning a campaign against Michael VIII with the object of restoring the Latin Empire. Michael VIII struck back by marrying his illegitimate daughter, Euphrosyne, to Nogai Khan of the Golden Horde, who pillaged Bulgaria as a Byzantine ally in 1274. Michael VIII's attempt at church union with Rome at the Second Council of Lyons in the same year exacerbated the conflict between Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire, as the Bulgarian empress and her mother were among that part of the Byzantine aristocracy that was most opposed to the union.

In the last years of his reign, Constantine I was partly paralyzed from a fall off his horse and suffered from unspecified ailments. The government was firmly in the hands of Maria Kantakouzene, who crowned their son Michael co-emperor soon after his birth in about 1272. She presided over relations with the Byzantine Empire in the 1270s and engineered first the submission and then the murder (by poisoning) of the despotēs Yakov Svetoslav of Vidin in 1276.

Due to the expensive and unsuccessful wars, repeated Mongol raids, and economic instability (Constantine was the first Bulgarian ruler to mint his own coins on a vast scale), the government was faced with a revolt in 1277. The social and economic aspects of this movement have been stressed by Marxist historians, but its true character is elusive. What is clear is that a swineherd or swine-owner named Ivaylo became a leader of the discontented and attracted many (presumably mostly lower-class) followers, asserting his control over a significant area. Constantine set out against Ivaylo with his guard, but was decisively defeated and slain in his chariot.

Family
Constantine I was married three times. The names of his first wife and children are unknown. By his second wife, Irene of Nicaea, Constantine had no children. By his third wife, Maria Kantakouzene, he had Michael, who succeeded as co-emperor of Bulgaria 1277–1279.