Ivaylo, also spelled Ivailo, , nicknamed
Bardokva ("radish" or "lettuce" in Bulgarian) or
Lakhanas (, "cabbage") in
Greek, was a rebel leader and emperor (
Tsar) of
Bulgaria. In 1277, he spearheaded a
peasant uprising and forced the nobles to accept him as emperor. He reigned as emperor from 1278 to 1279, scoring victories against the
Byzantines and the
Mongols, but beset by foreign and domestic enemies, which included the Bulgarian nobility, he was forced into exile among the Mongols, where he presented himself as a dethroned vassal. The Mongols then killed him in 1280 as an enemy of the Byzantine emperor
Michael VIII Palaeologus. His career as a monarch has been used as an example of early, anti-feudal class warfare by
Marxist historians and as translated through folk songs, traditions and legends served as inspiration to Bulgarian guerrilla (
hajduk) freedom fighters during the Ottoman period of Bulgarian history.