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second bulgarian empire - Decline
Picture of Constantine Tikh, emperor of Bulgaria (1257–1277)
Picture of Tsar Ivan Alexander (1331–1371), an illustration from the Four Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander (Tetraevangelia of Ivan Alexander), ca. 1356, the British Library
Under Ivan Asen II's successors, Bulgaria once again declined. The Mongols raided the Balkans in the early 13th century, devastating Bulgaria in 1242, and Bulgaria was forced to pay tribute to the Khans of the Golden Horde. After 1246 the Empire Nicaea annexed Macedonia, Rhodope mountains and part of Thrace. The Hungarian kingdom occupied the province of Belgrade. Gradually Bulgaria lost control and traditional significant political influence over Wallachia, where the power of the regional nobles was strengthened and subsequently were established local principalities. By the reign of Michael II Asen 1246–1256, Bulgaria was reduced to a small state on the south bank of the lower Danube. Under Constantine I Tikh the country lost Macedonia and the crisis drove to peasant war, raised by the swineherd Ivailo, who managed to sit on the Bulgarian throne from 1277 to 1280. Ivailo achieved great military success against the external enemies: defeated the Byzantines in two major battles and temporarily drove away the Tatars from the northeastern parts of the Empire. However, he failed to cope with the aristocracy and was later killed. The Tatar hegemony continued to 1300, when their khan Toktu ceded Bessarabia the new Bulgarian Emperor Theodore Svetoslav and stopped taking tribute. This had positive economic effect. During the reign of Theodore Svetoslav Bulgaria regained much of its former strength and prestige. After a successful war against Byzantium he signed peace with continued to his death in 1322.