Tsar Smilets

Smilets was tsar of Bulgaria from 1292 to 1298. He came from the noble principality of Sredna Gora, whose feudal possessions stretched from Sliven to its capital, Kopsis. Smilets represented the Smilets dynasty, which came to power after George I Terter’s abdication.

After George I Terter fled to Constantinople, Smilets took the throne with the consent of the Tatar leader Nogai, whose influence over Bulgaria had continued since the reign of Constantine Tikh. Tatar attacks continued during Smilets’s reign, and he attempted to wage war against Byzantium, but without success.

Around 1296, Smilets concluded an important alliance by marrying his daughter Theodora to the Serbian heir Stefan Dečanski. This marriage strengthened ties between the Bulgarian and Serbian courts.

Smilets had three children: his son Ivan IV Smilets, who succeeded him on the throne, and two daughters—Marina, who married Aldimir Terter, despot of Kran, and Theodora, who married the Serbian king Stefan Uroš III Dečanski and became the mother of Tsar Stefan Dušan.

Smilets died in November 1298 or later. After his death, his son Ivan IV Smilets remained on the throne, ruling from the autumn of 1299 until 1300. The Byzantine historian George Pachymeres remarks that “After Chaka, Smilets disappears”.