Background
He was the son of an unnamed sister of his predecessor Kaloyan.
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Boril Bulgaria
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Career
Boril married Kaloyan"s widow, a Cuman princess, whose name is not recorded, unless she is the Anna (nun Anisija) mentioned in the Synodik of the Bulgarian Church. Boril"s attempt to pursue Kaloyan"s foreign policy failed. To worsen the situation the Latin emperor Henry of Flanders defeated Boril in 1208 at Plovdiv despite the initial success in the battle of Boruy.
Thus Northern Thrace and the Rhodope fortresses fell in Latin hands.
Meanwhile, Boril encountered new internal resistance in the rebellion of four Bulgarian noblemen in Vidin 1211 (or 1213 according to some sources). Boril couldn"t deal with it on his own, and there was no help to be seen from Serbs or Latins, nor from the boyars torn into fractions.
The only way out for Boril was to call for Hungarian aid. So an army led by Count Joachim of Sibiu crushed the rebels and seized Vidin.
Boril had to cede the area of Belgrade to the Kingdom of Hungary as the price for Hungarian support.
Soon after this, Boril may have married a daughter of Andrew II of Hungary, but there is little evidence for this union. Another marriage was projected between Boril"s daughter and Andrew II"s son, the future Béla IV of Hungary in 1214, but it was never carried out. With the death of Henry in 1216 and the departure of Andrew II on the Fifth Crusade, Boril was left essentially without strong supporters.
In 1217 or 1218 Ivan Asen, Boril"s cousin, returned from exile and defeated Boril, who locked himself up in Tărnovo.
After a siege of perhaps seven months (rather than the "seven years" of the Byzantine sources), Boril fled the capital, which surrendered to Ivan Asen. Boril was captured during his escape, and was blinded and relegated to a monastery.
By his first (?) wife, Kaloyan"s Cuman widow, Boril had one unnamed daughter, who was engaged to be married to the future Béla IV of Hungary. Boril may have married as his second (?) wife an unnamed daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary.
Membership
From the beginning of his reign, he was opposed by members of his family.
