Constantine was surnamed Tikh, and claimed to have been a granson of the Serbian King Stefan Nemanja. The circumstances of his rise to the Bulgarian throne are unknown, but he adopted the name Asen, the royal name of the previous Tsars upon his marriage to Eirene Doukaina Laskarina, a daughter of Theodore II Laskaris of Nicaea and granddaughter of Ivan II Asen. He was the fist Tsar to have many coins struck in his own name, rather than imitating Byzantine models. He was killed in battle against a usurper in 1277.

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