Smilets

The Smilets were a short-lived imperial house of the Second Bulgarian Empire, founded by the nobleman Smilets, whose family held estates between the Balkan Mountains and Sredna Gora. In 1292 he took the throne at Tarnovo with the backing of Nogai Khan; his reign marked the height of Tatar overlordship over Bulgaria.

He married a Byzantine princess of the Palaiologos family, and around 1297 married their daughter Theodora to the Serbian king Stephen Dečanski; Theodora and Stephen's son was the future emperor Stephen Dušan. Smilets died in 1298 amid the invasion of the Mongol prince Chaka, and his young son Ivan II succeeded under his mother's regency.

Chaka seized Tarnovo in 1299 and the family fled into exile. Ivan II died as a monk in Byzantium before 1330, ending the male line; his sister Marina lived until 1355.