Theodore Svetoslav of Bulgaria

Theodore Svetoslav (, Todor Svetoslav and also Теодор Светослав, Teodor Svetoslav) ruled as emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria from 1300 to 1322. The date of his birth is unknown. He captured northeast fortresses and expanded the territory of the Bulgarian Empire. Apart from his external and economic successes, Theodore Svetoslav dealt with the separatists among the nobility including his uncle. He persecuted the traitors who he thought were responsible for the Mongol interference and even the Patriarch, Joachim III, was executed. Early life Theodore Svetoslav was the son of George Terter I by his first wife, Maria. Given the rarity of the name Svetoslav in Bulgaria and its ample use among the Rjurikid princes, Plamen Pavlov has proposed that Maria was the daughter of Jakov Svetoslav by his wife, an unnamed granddaughter of Ivan Asen II. Soon after the accession of Ivan Asen III in 1279 his father divorced his mother in order to marry the sister of the new emperor. Maria and Theodore Svetoslav were sent to the Byzantine Empire as hostages, and settled in Nicaea.