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Tsar Ivan Shishman, son of Tsar Ivan Alexander, was the ruler of the Turnovo Kingdom. His half-brother (also son of Ivan Alexander), Ivan Sratsimir ruled over the Vidin Kingdom.

Late 14th century was the period of Bulgaria shredded into smaller kingdoms and counties, which made it weaker and more accessible to the incoming invasion of the Ottoman Turks (they invaded Turnovo in 1393, and the whole of Bulgaria in 1396).

Ivan Shishmans contemporaries gave different stories about his death. The most probable seems the information of the Bulgarian Anonymous Chronicles from the 15th century, according to which Tsar Ivan Shishman was decapitated near Nikopol on June 3rd, 1395. The presence of his image in icons in numerous Revival-period churches serves to prove the tendency towards the so-called "canonization by the people themselves" .