Tsar John Alexander stood at Bulgaria’s helm from 1331 to 1371. It was during his rule that the country was given some breathing space, He was not lucky in the wars he waged but neither did he suffer any particular defeat. Bulgarian territories were part of international trade. There was a special “Frankish” neighbourhood in the capital inhabited by foreign merchants. Jews who had probably come a century or two before that from Byzantium also lived separately. The most active merchants were those from Ragusa /Dubrovnik/, on the Adriatic Sea, who crossed the peninsula far and wide. As the items they imported and exported were interesting, the tsar had given them special grants specifying their privileges.
Continue reading The Decline of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom part II

There were quite a few great feudal lords who looked at the crown with envy and who thought their rights over it were no less than those of the brothers. The two elder brothers were murdered by plotting boyars. The throne was taken by Kaloyan, who dealt with any resistance mercilessly. He was also helped by chance.

The reconstructed head of Tsar Kaloyan
In the fall of 1972 a medieval burial of an aristocrat was discovered during excavations in Veliko Tarnovo. One could not but be impressed by the enormous height of the man - nearly two metres - something quite unusual for that age. There was a heavy gold ring inscribed Ring of Kaloyan on his hand. The deceased was dressed in robes of purple, the colour of royalty in the middle ages, embroidered with pearls. The head was covered with a cap also decorated with gold, and there were red boots on his feet. The age of the deceased was presumed to be between 35 and 40.

Continue reading The Rise of Bulgaria from the middle of the 12th century part II

The situation was aggravated additionally around the middle of the 12th century. On several occasions Byzantium was badly shaken by attacks from the east and from the west. The march of the Normans from South Italy, who were trying to establish a foothold on the Peninsula and who left a broad belt of plunder in their wake, was catastrophic for the southewestern Bulgarian territories.

As if that was not enough, the incumbent Emperor Isaac II Angelos decided to marry, and as if to ensure the joyous participation of the populace in his matrimonial plans he could not think of anything better but to impose an additional tax. He might have got away with these plans if they had not coincided with a small incident. Two Bulgarian boyars, Peter and Assen, who held the small but strategically important fort of Tarnovo in northern Bulgaria, and were probably a distant offshoot of the ruling dynasty in Preslav, visited the emperor to request additional landholdings. He sent them away with ridicule and even “regally” ordered them beaten up a bit. It turned out that his visitors were not the type to forgive easily and they raised the banner of revolt over their fort in 1185.

Continue reading The Rise of Bulgaria from the middle of the 12th century part I

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.
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Byzantium sensed Bulgaria’s weakening and, although an open attack was to be feared, it had nothing against someone else being its cat’s paw. Thus the prince of Kievan Rus’ was encouraged to attack Bulgaria. At that time, Tsar Peter had already passed away, and it is widely known that the change of guard presents the best time for attack. Pagan Russian hordes came and galloped through the eastern Bulgarian territories. They liked the fertile and sunny land, however, and Prince Sviatoslav declared he intended to move his capital to the mouth of the Danube. Byzantium had not counted on such a turn and had to resort to its favorite tactics yet again. This time it was the Pechenegs who were driven to attack the Russians and the Bulgarians helped in this respect. Sviatoslav returned to defend his capital, where he was surprised by his enemies one night and lost his life.

Bulgaria was in chaos and its southern neighbour took the opportunity. The Byzantine army crossed the passes of the Balkan range, took the capital of Great Preslav without any particular resistance, subjected it to plunder, took the Bulgarian tsar prisoner and had him marched through the streets of Constantinople in his ceremonial clothes as a sign of his subjugation. It seemed yet again, as it had happened on so many occasions, that the patience, cunning, and why not even the military might of the Byzantine Empire, had prevailed over a small barbarian state.
Continue reading The Decline of the First Bulgarian Kingdom part I

The victory of the Bulgarians over the Avars also marked the triumph of the ideas of sobriety. According to the chronicles, Krum, filled with apprehension, asked the defeated what they thought was the reason for their downfall. Their answer was that their state had declined because of lies, theft, and drunkenness. Krum introduced severe laws in order to avoid this very end. Legislation provided terrible punishment for criminals, and vineyards were uprooted so their fruit could not be made into enticing juice. judging by subsequent information, as with later reformations of this type, the restrictions were met only with the insatiable thirst for wine and fell through soon after.While the emperor inspected his farthest eastern borders, Krum took the chance, invaded the empire, and took the city of Serdica in 809. Centuries later it was to become the capital of the state under the name of Sofia. The conquest was accompanied with the then customary plunder and atrocities, which did not surprise anyone. The valley of the river Strouma also became part of the Bulgarian state.
Continue reading The Rise of the First Bulgarian Kingdom part I