|
Ivan Stefan (Bulgarian: Иван Стефан; in English also John Stephen) ruled as emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria for eight months from 1330 to 1331.
He was the eldest son of emperor Michael III Shishman and Anna Neda of Serbia, a daughter of King Stefan Uroš II Milutin of Serbia. Ivan Stephen was descendent to the Terter dynasty, the Asen dynasty and the Shishman dynasty, which were all of partial Cuman origin. After his father's accession to the throne in 1323 Ivan Stefan was associated as co-emperor. When Michael III Shishman divorced Anna Neda to marry Theodora Palaiologina, the daughter of Byzantine emperor Michael IX Palaiologos, in 1324, Ivan Stefan was exiled along with his mother and brother in a monastery.
In the summer of 1330 he became emperor of Bulgaria with the help of his uncle Stephen Dečanski. After he was deposed in a coup d'état by the Tarnovo nobility, he fled along with Anna Neda in the domains of his father's brother Belaur in Niš and later to Dubrovnik. He was later expelled from there by Stephen Dušan under the pressure of Ivan Alexander. Ivan Stefan probably died in Naples. | 
