Shishman of Vidin
| Shishman | |
|---|---|
| Despot of Vidin | |
| Reign | 1270s/1280s — before 1308/1313 |
| Successor | Michael Shishman |
| Spouse(s) | daughter of Anna–Theodora daughter of Serbian Grand Prince Dragoš |
| Issue | |
| Noble family | Shishman dynasty |
| Born | 13th century |
| Died | before 1308 or 1313 |
Shishman, Despot of Vidin (Bulgarian: Шишман; fl. 1270s/1280s — before 1308/1313) was a Bulgarian noble (boyar) who ruled a semi-independent realm based out of the Danubian fortress of Vidin in the late 13th and early 14th century. Shishman, who was bestowed the title of "despot" by Bulgarian emperor George Terter I, was a Cuman, and may have been established as lord of Vidin as early as the 1270s.
In 1291, he came under Tatar suzerainty and in 1292 he was in charge of an unsuccessful campaign against neighbouring Serbia. Even though the Serbs captured Vidin in their counter-offensive, perhaps thanks to Tatar influence Shishman was placed once more as the ruler of the region, this time as a Serbian vassal. However, he continued to rule his lands largely independently. As his son and successor as despot of Vidin Michael Shishman acceded to the Bulgarian throne in 1323, Shishman was the progenitor of the last medieval Bulgarian royal dynasty, the Shishman dynasty.
Shishman's early life and rise through the ranks of the Bulgarian nobility are poorly documented. However, he is considered to have been a descendant of the wave of Cumans that settled in Bulgaria after 1241, when ethnic conflicts with the Hungarians caused them to leave the Kingdom of Hungary. It has been accepted in Bulgarian historiography that Shishman's first wife was an unnamed daughter of Anna–Theodora and sebastokrator Peter and thus a granddaughter of Emperor Ivan Asen II (r. 1218–1241) of the Asen dynasty. In contemporary sources, Shishman is variously described as a prince (knyaz), king or even emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria, though his only official title was that of "despot".
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