RULERS OF BULGARIA (BĂLGARIJA): HISTORICAL NOTE

 

The Bulgars are now shown to have been an East Iranian tribe whose original, pre-Slavic language has its closest parallels with the languages spoken by various Indo-European groups inhabiting certain mountain valleys in the Pamirs and the Caucasus (P. Dobrev, Ezikăt na asparuhovite i kuberovite bălgari, 1995).  The Bulgars employed a 12-year cyclical calendar common throughout the East, which, compared with the testimony of Byzantine sources, has allowed the accurate dating of their early kings followed here (P. Dobrev, Preotkrivaneto na prabălgarskija kalendar, 1994).  After making their way into the Eurasian steppes, the Bulgars were somehow co-opted into the empire of Attila, and their later rulers traced their descent from his son Irnik (Hernak).  After Attila’s death in 453, together with various Turkic remnants of his confederation, the Bulgars withdrew to the northern and eastern coasts of the Black Sea.  In the mid-6th century the rulers of the Kutrigurs and Utigurs harassed the Byzantine Empire, but then quarreled with each other, falling under the supremacy of the Avars in the West and the Western Turks in the East.  In the early 7th century Kubrat emerged as the Empire’s ally against Avars and the Persians, but after his death in 665 the division among his sons and the attack of the Khazars put an end to his nascent state.  At the head of both Turkic Onogundurs and Bulgars proper Asparuh and Kuber migrated westward, the former towards the Lower Danube, the latter to the Avar-held Carpathian Basin.  In 680 Asparuh crossed the Danube into Byzantine territory and, having defeated Emperor Kōnstantinos IV, settled in Moesia, laying the foundation of the Bulgarian state.  In part subjugating and in part co-opting the local Slavs, the Bulgars expanded across the eastern Balkans.  After the conversion to Christianity of Boris I in 864, the distinction between the Slavs within the Bulgarian state and the Bulgars proper gradually disappeared.  While the name Bulgaria survived for the state, the vernacular became Slavic. 

Following the adoption of Christianity, Simeon I sought to emphasize his independence towards the Byzantine Empire by obtaining from it the title of Emperor (цар) in 913 (which was finally conceded, albeit reluctantly, in 927).  Simeon I and his son Petăr I also obtained an independent patriarch for the Bulgarian Church at the new capital Preslav.  Russian and Byzantine invasions led to Byzantine occupation of eastern Bulgaria in 971, but the Bulgarian state survived under the leadership of Samuil, who temporarily recovered much of the lost grounds.  In 1018–1019 the Byzantine Emperor Basileios II completed the subjugation of Bulgaria, which remained under Byzantine domination until the rebellion of Petăr IV and Ivan Asen I in 1185.    Under Kalojan and Ivan Asen II the restored Bulgarian state expanded, defeating all Balkan rivals and, under the latter, the Bulgarian patriarchate was restored at Tărnovo.  Usurpations, civil wars, and foreign invasions plagued Bulgaria in the second half of the 13th century, but Todor Svetoslav finally restored order at the beginning of the 14th century.  In spite of a promising start, Ivan Aleksandăr was not able to arrest the devolution of central authority, to which he may have contributed by conferring imperial status and territorial principalities to his several sons.  This, and the growing autonomy of hereditary lords like those of Wallachia and Dobrudža, coincided with the initial stages of the Ottoman conquest.  Tărnovo fell to the Ottomans in 1393, Nikopol and Dobrudža in 1395, and the last remnants of the medieval Bulgarian state in the West disappeared in 1422 (Tjutjundžiev and Pavlov, Bălgarskata dăržava i osmanskata ekspanzija 1369–1422, 1992).

The Ottoman domination ended in 1877 when outrage over the brutal suppression of local rebellions led to a final Russo-Turkish war.  Since the Powers feared that Bulgaria would become a Russian satellite (which may well have been the plan), the Congress of Berlin vetoed the creation of a large Bulgarian state and, returning much of the territory under direct Ottoman rule, set up two dependant principalities in the remainder: Bulgaria (Sofia and Moesia), and Eastern Rumelia (the Bulgarian part of Thrace).  In 1878 Aleksandăr I of Battenberg was elected Prince of Bulgaria, and in 1885 he re-annexed Eastern Rumelia by supporting its rebellion against Ottoman control.  Russian pressure forced him to abdicate in 1886 and in 1887 Ferdinand I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was elected his successor.  In 1908 Ferdinand I proclaimed himself completely independent from the Ottoman Empire and took the traditional title of car (цар) or emperor, but was recognized internationally only as king.  Success in the First Balkan War (1912) was followed by failure in the Second (1913) over Macedonia and Thrace.  Seeking revenge in the First World War, Bulgaria met with disaster again, and Ferdinand I was forced to abdicate in 1918.  His son and successor Boris III survived the reign of terror of the Agricultural party and the reactionary coups of the military, ultimately taking matters into his own hands.  In the Second World War the Bulgarian government chose to join the Axis and secure territorial gains rather than face destruction, which consequently came from the hands of the Soviets and their Communist prot้g้s in 1944.  The monarchy was abolished in a sham referendum in 1946 and the minor Simeon II (king since 1943) was sent into exile.

 

RULERS OF BULGARIA (BĂLGARIJA): LIST

 

 

Kings (Kanas) of the Bulgars, Emperors of Bulgaria 913

629?–665

KURT (Kubrat)

Descendant of Irnik son of Attila; (born 605) defeated Avars 632

665–668

BEZMER (Batbajan)

Son of Kurt

668–694

ISPERIH (Asparuh)

Son of Kurt; (born 633) crossed into Moesia 680

694–715

TERVEL

Son of Isperih; named Caesar 705

715–721

TVIREM (Kormesij?)

Son of Tervel

721–737

SEVAR

Son of Tervel

737–754

KORMISOŠ

Usurper

754–760

VINEH

Son of Kormisoš; murdered

760–763

TELEC

Usurper; murdered

763–765

SABIN

Husband of daughter of Kormisoš; fled to Byzantium

765–765

UMOR

Son of Vineh (?); fled to Byzantium

765–766

TOKTU

Usurper; murdered

766–767

PAGAN

Usurper; murdered

767–777

TELERIG Teofilakt

Usurper; fled to Byzantium

777–797

KARDAM

Usurper

797–814

KRUM

Son of Kardam (?)

814–831

OMURTAG

Son of Krum

831–836

MALAMIR

Son of Omurtag

836–852

PRESIAN I (Svinica)

Son of Omurtag

852–889

BORIS I Mihail

Son of Presian I; abdicated, died 907

889–893

VLADIMIR (Rasate)

Son of Boris I; deposed and blinded by father

893–927

SIMEON I the Great

Son of Boris I; Emperor 913

927–969

PETĂR I

Son of Simeon I; abdicated, died 970

969–977

BORIS II

Son of Petăr I; in Byzantine captivity 971, killed during escape

977–997

ROMAN SIMEON

Son of Petăr I; in Byzantine captivity 991 or 1002

997–1014

SAMUIL

Son of count Nikola

1014–1015

GAVRIL RADOMIR

Son of Samuil; murdered by cousin Ivan Vladislav

1015–1018

IVAN VLADISLAV

Son of Aron brother of Samuil; killed at siege of Durazzo

1018–1018

PRESIAN II

Son of Ivan Vladislav; surrendered to Byzantium, died 1060/61

1018–1185

 

To Byzantium (with partial independence during rebellions)

1040–1041

PETĂR II Deljan

Son of Gavril Radomir; deposed and blinded by cousin Alusian

1041–1041

ALUSIAN

Son of Ivan Vladislav; surrendered to Byzantium

1041–1041

PETĂR II Deljan

Restored; captured by Byzantium, died in captivity

1072–1072

PETĂR III

Konstantin Bodin, son of Mihailo I of Zeta by Neda daughter of Jovan Vladimir by Teodora Kosara daughter of Samuil; captured by Byzantines, died 1101/08

1185–1197

PETĂR IV

Todor, rebel leader against Byzantium; murdered

1189–1196

IVAN ASEN I

Brother of Petăr IV; murdered by general Ivanko

1196–1207

IVAN I (Kalojan)

Brother of Petăr IV; murdered by general Manastăr

1207–1218

BORIL

Son of sister of Petăr IV; deposed and blinded by Ivan Asen II

1218–1241

IVAN ASEN II

Son of Ivan Asen I

1241–1246

KALIMAN ASEN I

Son of Ivan Asen II

1246–1256

MIHAIL ASEN I

Son of Ivan Asen II; murdered by cousin Kaliman Asen

1256–1256

KALIMAN ASEN II

Son of Aleksandăr son of Ivan Asen I; murdered

1256–1261

MICO ASEN

Husband of Marija daughter of Ivan Asen II; fled to Byzantium, died /1277

1257–1277

KONSTANTIN I Tih

Husband of Eirēnē daughter of Theodōros II by Elena daughter of Ivan Asen II; killed against Ivajlo

1277–1279

MIHAIL ASEN II

Son of Konstantin I; co-ruler c1272; deposed by Ivan Asen III, died 1302/

1278–1279

IVAJLO

Rebel leader; married Maria Kantakouzēna widow of Konstantin I; deposed, murdered 1280/81

1279–1280

IVAN ASEN III

Son of Mico Asen; fled to Byzantium, died 1303

1280–1292

GEORGI TERTER I

Husband of Marija daughter of Mico Asen; fled to Byzantium, died 1308/09

1292–1298

SMILEC

Nominee of the Mongol khan Nogay

1298–1300

IVAN II

Son of Smilec; fled to Byzantium, died c1330

1299–1300

ČAKA

Son of Nogay; husband of Elena daughter of Georgi Terter I; murdered by Todor Svetoslav

1300–1321

TODOR SVETOSLAV

Son of Georgi Terter I

1321–1323

GEORGI TERTER II

Son of Todor Svetoslav

1323–1330

MIHAIL ASEN III Šišman

 

Son of despot Šišman of Vidin by Sevina daughter of Petăr by Anna Teodora daughter of Ivan Asen II; killed against Serbia

1330–1331

IVAN STEFAN

Son of Mihail Asen III; co-ruler 1323–1324; deposed, died 1343/

1331–1371

IVAN ALEKSANDĂR Asen

Son of despot Sracimir of Krăn by Petrica sister of Mihail Asen III

 

MIHAIL ASEN IV

Son of Ivan Aleksandăr; co-ruler 1332/36–/1355; killed against the Ottomans

1356–1397

IVAN SRACIMIR

Son of Ivan Aleksandăr; co-ruler 1336/37; in Vidin; deposed by the Ottomans

 

IVAN ASEN IV

Son of Ivan Aleksandăr; co-ruler 1336/37–1349; killed against the Ottomans

1371–1395

IVAN ŠIŠMAN

Son of Ivan Aleksandăr; co-ruler c1356; in Tărnovo; executed by the Ottomans

1397–1422

KONSTANTIN II

Son of Ivan Sracimir; co-ruler 1395; in Vidin; deposed by the Ottomans, died in Serbia 1422

1422–1877

 

To Ottoman Empire

 

Princes of Bulgaria 1878, Kings of the Bulgarians 1908

1878–1886

ALEKSANDĂR I

Son of prince Alexander of Battenberg; abdicated, died 1894

1887–1918

FERDINAND I

Son of prince August of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; King 1908; abdicated, died 1948

1918–1943

BORIS III

Son of Ferdinand I

1943–1946

SIMEON II

Son of Boris III; deposed by the Communists