High Middle Ages · Europe · Politics
1186
Vlachs and Bulgarians rebel
1186
Theodor and Asen, two brothers from the Balkan Vlach-Bulgarian population, rose against Isaac II Angelos's taxation demands at Tarnovo. Their rebellion coalesced into the Second Bulgarian Empire, which the Byzantines would spend the next fifteen years failing to put down. The brothers fortified Tarnovo on its dramatic hilltop position above the Yantra River, making it one of the most defensible capitals in southeastern Europe.