User:Блѫгаринъ/sandbox

Kaloyan's son is a member of the Asen dynasty, named either Vasiliy or Vitleem (Василий; Витлеем; Basilius; Bethlehem; Basil; Bethlehem). It is not certain whether he was a legitimate son of Tsar Kaloyan.

Son of the Tsar
He is mentioned in a letter of Archbishop Basil I of Bulgaria to Pope Innocent III from the year 1204. His name is extrapolated from a previous letter to the Pope by Tsar Kaloyan, also from 1204.

1. Excerpt from the letter of Tsar Kaloyan to Pope Innocent III: ''To Your Great Holiness, I sent two boys – one is called Basil, and the other Bethlehem. Let them be given by your command to learn in the school the Latin script, because we have no grammarians here who can translate the letters you send us. And when they are studied, let them be returned to my Imperial Majesty.''

2. Excerpt from the letter of Archbishop Basil to Pope Innocent III: Let Your Great Holiness know that by order of the Lord Emperor we are escorting to you two boys – one is the son of the presbyter Constantine, and the other of the king, so that they can study by order of Your Holiness the Latin script, and whatever you can do in honour of the Emperor, do it.

Name
There are two views about his name:

1. According to one view, due to the similarity in the wording of the two letters, which name belongs to whose son is determined by the order of their mention in the letters, therefore Basil is the son of the presbyter Constantine, and Bethlehem is the son of Tsar Kaloyan.

2. The other view is that, despite the similarity in the wording of the two letters, it is not certain whether the order of their mention in them is the same, and that the name Basil is more suitable for a tsar's son, and the name Bethlehem for a priest's son, which means that most likely the name of Tsar Kaloyan’s son was Basil.

Family
Father: Tsar Kaloyan.

Mother: Anna.

Sister: Daughter of Kaloyan and Anna. She was Empress of the Latin Empire, married to Latin Emperor Henry of Flanders.

Half-sister: Anna’s daughter from her second marriage to Tsar Boril.