Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria in the context of "Bulgaria"

Boril (Bulgarian: Борил) was the emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria from 1207 to 1218. He was the son of an unnamed sister of his predecessor, Kaloyan and Kaloyan's brothers, Peter II and Ivan Asen I, who had restored the independent Bulgarian state. After Kaloyan died unexpectedly in October 1207, Boril married his widow, a Cuman princess and seized the throne. His cousin, Ivan Asen, fled from Bulgaria, enabling Boril to strengthen his position. His other kinsmen, Strez and Alexius Slav, refused to acknowledge him as the lawful monarch. Strez took possession of the land between the Struma and Vardar rivers with the support of Stefan Nemanjić of Serbia. Alexius Slav secured his rule in the Rhodope Mountains with the assistance of Henry, the Latin Emperor of Constantinople.

Boril launched unsuccessful military campaigns against the Latin Empire and the Kingdom of Thessalonica during the first years of his reign. He convoked the synod of the Bulgarian Church in early 1211. At the assembly, the bishops condemned the Bogomils for heresy. After an uprising broke out against him in Vidin between 1211 and 1214, he sought the assistance of Andrew II of Hungary, who sent reinforcements to suppress the rebellion. He made peace with the Latin Empire in late 1213 or early 1214. After Henry died in 1216 and Andrew II left Hungary for a crusade, Ivan Asen returned to Bulgaria. He captured and blinded Boril in Tarnovo in 1218.

John Komnenos Doukas (Greek: Ιωάννης Κομνηνός Δούκας, Iōannēs Komnēnos Doúkas), Latinized as Comnenus Ducas, was ruler of Thessalonica from 1237 until his death in 1244.

John was the eldest son of Theodore Komnenos Doukas and Maria Petraliphaina. In 1230 his father was captured together with his family in the Battle of Klokotnitsa by Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria. When his sister Irene married Ivan Asen II in 1237, John was released from captivity together with his now blind father Theodore and his younger brother Demetrios. Theodore and his sons made their way back to Thessalonica and incited a revolt against Theodore's brother Manuel Komnenos Doukas who had ruled the city since 1230. Since Theodore was blind, he installed his son John as ruler and retired to Vodena.

42°25′N 25°52′E / 42.417°N 25.867°E / 42.417; 25.867Zagore (Bulgarian: Загоре [zɐˈɡɔrɛ]), also Zagorie (Загорие), Zagora (Загора), or Zagoriya (Загория), was a vaguely defined medieval region in what is now Bulgaria. Its name is of Slavic origin and means "beyond [i.e. south of] the [Balkan] mountains". The region was first mentioned as Ζαγόρια in Greek (in an Old Bulgarian translation it was rendered as Загорїа) when it was ceded to the First Bulgarian Empire by the Byzantine Empire during the rule of Tervel of Bulgaria in the very beginning of the 8th century (Byzantine–Bulgarian Treaty of 716). From the context, Zagore can be defined as a region in northeastern Thrace.

During the Second Bulgarian Empire, the region was also mentioned in Tsar Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria's post-1230 Dubrovnik Charter, which allowed Ragusan merchants to trade in the Bulgarian lands, among which "the whole Zagore" (пѡ всемѹ Загѡриѹ).

Irene Komnene Doukaina or Eirene Komnene Doukaina (Greek: Ειρήνη Κομνηνή Δούκαινα, Bulgarian: Ирина Комнина Дукина) was an Empress of Bulgaria during the Second Bulgarian Empire and Byzantine princess. She was the third wife of tsar Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria. She was the mother of tsar Michael Asen I of Bulgaria.