Kaloyan

Kaloyan

 or Kalojan

(died Oct. 1207, near Thessaloníki) Tsar of Bulgaria (1197–1207). The younger brother of the founders of the Second Bulgarian Empire, Kaloyan sought to maintain Bulgarian independence. Although he recognized papal authority and was crowned by papal legates in 1204, Kaloyan reverted to Orthodoxy not long after his coronation. He proposed an alliance with the armies of the Fourth Crusade but then led a Bulgarian-Greek uprising in the Balkan Peninsula that defeated the Crusaders at Adrianople (1205) and resulted in the capture of Baldwin I, the Latin emperor. Kaloyan's success against the Crusaders contributed to the ultimate demise of the Latin empire of Constantinople. He died besieging Thessaloníki during his continuing struggle to expanded the empire.