Shishman of Vidin

[3][4] In contemporary sources, Shishman is variously described as a prince (knyaz), king or even emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria, though his only official title was that of "despot".

[8] Bulgarian historian Yordan Andreev estimates the lands ruled by Shishman to have extended from the Iron Gates gorge of the Danube in the west to the towns of Lom and Vratsa in the east.

[5] In 1285, increasing Tatar pressure from the northeast had forced the Second Bulgarian Empire to come under the political dependence of Nogai Khan, the ruler of the Golden Horde.

[9] At the time Shishman's realm centred at Vidin was largely independent from the Bulgarian tsars in Tarnovo, though he retained a degree of loyalty to Bulgaria and maintained friendly relations with Serbia.

After attempting to conquer the fortress of Ždrelo to no avail[1] and burning the Žiča monastery, Shishman's troops returned to Vidin without any territorial gains.

[5][11] Although Shishman's realm was nominally a Serbian client state for an unknown time, he retained his prior semi-independence and he was completely in charge of his lands.

[14] He was succeeded as ruler of Vidin by his son Michael, who in 1323 was elected to the Bulgarian throne due to the childless death of Emperor George Terter II (r. 1321–1322).

Besides Michael, Shishman's other progeny included Belaur, another despot of Vidin, and Keratsa Petritsa, the mother of Bulgarian emperor Ivan Alexander (r.

[5] Bulgarian historian Ivan Bozhilov classifies all of Shishman's known children as descendants of the Asen dynasty, thus indicating that they were born to his first wife, the daughter of Anna–Theodora.