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.