The 1331 coup put King Ivan Alexander to the Bulgarian throne. He had two marriages to the Wallach Princess Theodora and to the newly converted Theodora (Sarah). Born in 1324 or 1325, Ivan Sratsimir was King Ivan Alexander's second son. In 1350 or 1351 King Ivan Alexander divorced Ivan Sratsimir's mother and proclaimed his first son from his second marriage, Ivan Shishman, heir to the throne. The king's good relations with his second son failed, and in 1356 Ivan Sratsimir proclaimed himself independent ruler of Bdin with the title "king of the Bulgarians and the Greeks", to which King Ivan Alexander passed his silent consent.
In 1365-1369 the Bdin kingdom was taken over by the Hungarians, and King Ivan Sratsimir and his family were exiled in Humnik. After his return' supported by his father, he continued his policy of independence, especially after King Ivan Alexander's death in 1371.
King Ivan Sratsimir was consecutively Hungarian and Turkish vassal. He joined the Hungarian king Sigizmund V's Crusades, betraying the Turkish garrison in Bdin. After the Crusades' defeat at Nikopol on 25 September 1396, Ivan Sratsimir's kingdom was taken by the Turks in 1397. The king was sent to Bayazid's capital city of Bursa in Asia Minor and probably his days ended there.
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