Ivan Vladislav of Bulgaria

Ivan Vladislav (Church Slavonic: Їѡаннъ Владиславъ; Bulgarian: Иван/Йоан Владислав. The year of his birth is unknown; he was born at least a decade before 987, but probably not much earlier than that. Died at the Battle of Dyrrhachium (present-day Durrës in Albania), the major Byzantine stronghold in the western Balkans. Last Emperor (Tsar) of the First Bulgarian Empire from August or September 1015 to February 1018. Saved from death by his cousin Gavril Radomir, the Bulgarian Emperor, in 976, Ivan Vladislav murdered him in October 1015 and seized the Bulgarian throne. Due to the desperate situation of the country following the decades-long war with the Byzantine Empire, and in an attempt to consolidate his position, he tried to negotiate truce with the Byzantine emperor Basil II. After the failure of the negotiations he continued the resistance, attempting unsuccessfully to push the Byzantines back. During his period of rule, Ivan Vladislav tried to strengthen the Bulgarian army, reconstructed many Bulgarian fortresses and even carried out a counter-offensive, but he died at the Battle of Dyrrhachium in 1018. After his death his widow, Empress Maria, the Patriarch and most of the nobility finally surrendered to Basil II, who soon suppressed the last remnants of resistance and brought about the end of the First Bulgarian Empire. Maria and Ivan Vladislav had several children, including: Presian, later Byzantine Magistros. Alusian, Byzantine Patrikios in 1019, Strategos of Theodosiopolis in Anatolia, briefly Emperor of Bulgaria in 1041. Aaron, Byzantine General. Trayan / Troianus, father of Maria of Bulgaria, who married Andronikos Doukas. Catherine (Ekaterina), who married the future Byzantine Emperor Isaac I Komnenos.