Emperor Basil II defeats Tsar Samouil - 14th century miniature.
One of the greatest tragedies in Bulgarian history occurred in 1014. The Byzantine Emperor Basil the Macedonian (for then Macedonia was the name of the region we call Thrace today) organized a new march. Samouil, who was too elderly to fight himself, sent his army against the Byzantines. The Bulgarians built a fortified camp in a narrow valley between two mountain slopes along the Stroumeshnitsa River, a hundred kilometers or so to the north of Salonika. The Byzantine army had no choice but to try a frontal attack. Or at least that was what the Bulgarian commanders thought, not so their enemy. Bribed guides led numerous companies along goat tracks and the surprised Bulgarians were attacked both front and back. The defeat was absolute, and 14,000 men were taken prisoners. Quite familiar with the significance of psychological warfare, Basil II decided on a step with few analogues in world history. All 14,000 prisoners of war were blinded upon his order, one in each hundred being left with one eye to lead the rest. Several days later, an indescribable column of thousands of blind men in their prime reached Samouil’s capital. The heart of the ruler could not stand the sight. He suffered a heart attack and died several days later. The Byzantine was called some time after Basil Bulgaroctonos (Slayer of Bulgarians) a name with which he has remained in the annals of history. In spite of the defeat, desperate resistance continued for another four years, some of the boyars fighting heroically to the last man. Others, however, gave up their forts at their own volition. The Byzantines were more or less good at their word, preserving the privileges of the local aristocracy and incorporating it in their own. The more word about that circulated, the faster the speed of betrayal became. Samouil’s son showed fearless resistance but was murdered while hunting by the very cousin he had saved years before. The murderer, John Vladislav proclaimed him self tsar and continued the resistance. Albeit a better commander than the deceased, the stigma of fratricide always threw a black shadow on his thoughts and actions. And when he, too, was killed in one of the battles, the Bulgarians lost their will to fight. In 1018, Basil Bulgaroctonos made a stately entry into the Bulgarian capital Ochrid, the tsarina and the patriarch offering him the keys of the city as a sign of submission. Thus began a period of nearly two centuries in which the Bulgarians were denied their independence.The fact that the Bulgarians did not have their own state meant neither that their circumstances were worse than those of the population elsewhere in the empire, nor that they were subjected to some sort of particular persecution. Many of the aristocrats preserved their position. True, some were sent to serve and were presented with estates on the eastern borders of the empire to move them further from their native land, where it was presumed they could muster more faithful, but that was just standard precaution on the part of the authorities. The Bulgarians no longer had their own Patriarch - as it was unthinkable to have two patriarchs within one Eastern Orthodox state - but the Bulgarian Church with Ochrid as its centre retained a considerable measure of autonomy, and its archbishop bore the title of Archbishop of Bulgaria.
The Bitolja inscription
The question of the national identity of Samouil’s family and the character of the state he ruled has been the subject of political, rather than historical debate for several decades now.
The thesis that the state of Samouil was Macedonian and that he fought with the clear conscience of fighting for autonomy of the Macedonians from the Bulgarians was spread in Macedonia, first when it was still part of Yugoslavia, and then as an independent state. This argument is rather ridiculous and unbecoming of professionals, as contemporaries themselves have shown what they think about it. The last ruler of the First Bulgarian Kingdom, John Vladislav, restored the fort of Bitolja (in central Macedonia, today one of that country’s largest cities) and left a commemorative inscription on a stone slab which, by the way, reads:
“In the summer of 6523, from the creation of the world these walls were restored built and made by John, autocrat Bulgarian …made to provide shelter and salvation and life for the Bulgarians… This autocrat was Bulgarian by origin, grandson of Nikola and Rhipsimia the pious, son of Aaron, the brother of Samouil, tsar and autocrat…” As they say, to write further would be superfluous.In the first decades the Bulgarians, led by descendants of the traditional aristocracy, tried to rise up in arms and restore their independence on at least two occasions but both were crushed. After that it seemed they calmed down. The great problem was the nomadic hordes invading the empire. Thousands upon thousands of Pechenegs, Uzes, and Cumans overran and plundered the Bulgarian lands. Powerless to cope with their attacks, Byzantium followed the old practice of the Roman Empire and offered them to settle down and guard that territory from new invaders. The newcomers gradually blended in the Bulgarian sea but not without lending it their own social and cultural characteristics. The crusaders of the first and second crusade also passed through Bulgarian territories. They regarded the local population as schismatic and, as they were on their way to establish the “right faith”, they did not hesitate to rape and kill on their way.

Similar Topics from Ancient Bulgaria Archive

» Two seals from the First Bulgarian Kingdom were found at Veliki Preslav
» Western Bulgarian Outlands
» The Decline of the First Bulgarian Kingdom part I
» The Decline of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom part II
» The saint Dimiter church in Veliko Turnovo