Turnovo Kingdom

a feudal state that existed in the second half of the 14th century in central and eastern Bulgaria, with its capital at Turnovo. The Turnovo Kingdom represented the greater part of what had been the Second Bulgarian Kingdom (mid-14th century), after the creation of the Vidin Kingdom in the northwestern part of Bulgaria and the principality of Dobrudzha (Dobrotitsa) in the northeastern part. In the 1360’s, Byzantium seized its cities on the Black Sea coast; and in 1364, from 1371 to 1375, and in 1388, Turkish troops conquered most of the other cities, forcing Turnovo to acknowledge vassalage to the Ottoman Empire in 1388. In 1393 the kingdom was finally destroyed when the army of the Turkish sultan Bayazid I captured the capital city and Nikopol, which was the last stronghold of King Ivan Shishman.