Fruzhin

Fruzhin (; also transliterated Fružin or Frujin; died ) was a 15th-century Bulgarian noble who fought actively against the Ottoman conquest of the Second Bulgarian Empire. A son of one of the last Bulgarian tsars, Ivan Shishman of the Tarnovo Tsardom, Fruzhin co-organized the so-called Uprising of Konstantin and Fruzhin along with Constantine II of Vidin, the last medieval Bulgarian monarch. Fruzhin was mainly based in the Kingdom of Hungary, where he was the ruler of Temes County.

Biography Neither Fruzhin's birthdate nor his biography prior to the Fall of Tarnovo to the Ottomans in 1393 are known, but from his involvement in the 1404 uprising, the former can be narrowed down to the 1380s, the same decade his parents married, and there is no mention of him having been a bastard. He had a brother, Alexander, who converted to Islam after the Ottoman conquest, adopting the name Iskender and becoming governor of Samsun and then Smyrna, where he died in 1418. As the capital Tarnovo was captured by the Ottomans, Fruzhin fled initially to the domains of his uncle Ivan Sratsimir at Vidin, in the Bulgarian northwest. He settled in Hungary under Sigismund I some time after that. Sigismund accepted Fruzhin to his court and recognized his claim to the Bulgarian throne.

In 1444, he participated in Władysław III of Poland's Crusade of Varna, an attempt to drive the Ottoman Turks away from Bulgaria and Europe. The campaign ended in disaster, as Władysław III died in the Battle of Varna at the Black Sea. The last son, Stanislav, is identified with the boyar Stanko Kusan who held Lovech against the Ottomans until 1446; if the two are identical, Kusan would represent not a family name but more likely a nickname, possibly indicating diminutive stature (; "short"). Further descendants of Fruzhin are attested living in Hungary until at least the late 16th century, prompting speculation that the pretender Ivan Shishman II may have been a genuine member of the Sratsimir dynasty.

Death Fruzhin died in Brașov in 1460.