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 Attilas 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 Empires 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 10181019 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 Dobruda, coincided with the initial stages of the Ottoman conquest. Tărnovo fell to the Ottomans in 1393, Nikopol and Dobruda in 1395, and the last remnants of the medieval Bulgarian state in the West disappeared in 1422 (Tjutjundiev and Pavlov, Bălgarskata dărava i osmanskata ekspanzija 13691422, 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.
|
Kings (Kanas) of the Bulgars, Emperors of Bulgaria 913 |
|
629?665 |
KURT (Kubrat) |
Descendant of Irnik son of Attila; (born 605) defeated
Avars 632 |
665668 |
BEZMER (Batbajan) |
Son of Kurt |
668694 |
ISPERIH (Asparuh) |
Son of Kurt; (born 633) crossed into Moesia 680 |
694715 |
TERVEL |
Son of Isperih; named Caesar 705 |
715721 |
TVIREM (Kormesij?) |
Son of Tervel |
721737 |
SEVAR |
Son of Tervel |
737754 |
KORMISO |
Usurper |
754760 |
VINEH |
Son of Kormiso; murdered |
760763 |
TELEC |
Usurper; murdered |
763765 |
SABIN |
Husband of daughter of Kormiso; fled to Byzantium |
765765 |
UMOR |
Son of Vineh (?); fled to Byzantium |
765766 |
TOKTU |
Usurper; murdered |
766767 |
PAGAN |
Usurper; murdered |
767777 |
TELERIG Teofilakt |
Usurper; fled to Byzantium |
777797 |
KARDAM |
Usurper |
797814 |
KRUM |
Son of Kardam (?) |
814831 |
OMURTAG |
Son of Krum |
831836 |
MALAMIR |
Son of Omurtag |
836852 |
PRESIAN I (Svinica) |
Son of Omurtag |
852889 |
BORIS I Mihail |
Son of Presian I; abdicated, died 907 |
889893 |
VLADIMIR (Rasate) |
Son of Boris I; deposed and blinded by father |
893927 |
SIMEON I the Great |
Son of Boris I; Emperor 913 |
927969 |
PETĂR I |
Son of Simeon I; abdicated, died 970 |
969977 |
BORIS II |
Son of Petăr I; in Byzantine captivity 971, killed
during escape |
977997 |
ROMAN SIMEON |
Son of Petăr I; in Byzantine captivity 991 or 1002 |
9971014 |
SAMUIL |
Son of count Nikola |
10141015 |
GAVRIL RADOMIR |
Son of Samuil; murdered by cousin Ivan Vladislav |
10151018 |
IVAN VLADISLAV |
Son of Aron brother of Samuil; killed at siege of
Durazzo |
10181018 |
PRESIAN II |
Son of Ivan Vladislav; surrendered to Byzantium, died
1060/61 |
10181185 |
|
To Byzantium (with partial independence during
rebellions) |
10401041 |
PETĂR II Deljan |
Son of Gavril Radomir; deposed and blinded by cousin
Alusian |
10411041 |
ALUSIAN |
Son of Ivan Vladislav; surrendered to Byzantium |
10411041 |
PETĂR II Deljan |
Restored; captured by Byzantium, died in captivity |
10721072 |
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 |
11851197 |
PETĂR IV |
Todor, rebel leader against Byzantium; murdered |
11891196 |
IVAN ASEN I |
Brother of Petăr IV; murdered by general Ivanko |
11961207 |
IVAN I (Kalojan) |
Brother of Petăr IV; murdered by general
Manastăr |
12071218 |
BORIL |
Son of sister of Petăr IV; deposed and blinded by
Ivan Asen II |
12181241 |
IVAN ASEN II |
Son of Ivan Asen I |
12411246 |
KALIMAN ASEN I |
Son of Ivan Asen II |
12461256 |
MIHAIL ASEN I |
Son of Ivan Asen II; murdered by cousin Kaliman Asen |
12561256 |
KALIMAN ASEN II |
Son of Aleksandăr son of Ivan Asen I; murdered |
12561261 |
MICO ASEN |
Husband of Marija daughter of Ivan Asen II; fled to
Byzantium, died /1277 |
12571277 |
KONSTANTIN I Tih |
Husband of Eirēnē daughter of Theodōros
II by Elena daughter of Ivan Asen II; killed against Ivajlo |
12771279 |
MIHAIL ASEN II |
Son of Konstantin I; co-ruler c1272; deposed by Ivan
Asen III, died 1302/ |
12781279 |
IVAJLO |
Rebel leader; married Maria Kantakouzēna widow of
Konstantin I; deposed, murdered 1280/81 |
12791280 |
IVAN ASEN III |
Son of Mico Asen; fled to Byzantium, died 1303 |
12801292 |
GEORGI TERTER I |
Husband of Marija daughter of Mico Asen; fled to
Byzantium, died 1308/09 |
12921298 |
SMILEC |
Nominee of the Mongol khan Nogay |
12981300 |
IVAN II |
Son of Smilec; fled to Byzantium, died c1330 |
12991300 |
ČAKA |
Son of Nogay; husband of Elena daughter of Georgi
Terter I; murdered by Todor Svetoslav |
13001321 |
TODOR SVETOSLAV |
Son of Georgi Terter I |
13211323 |
GEORGI TERTER II |
Son of Todor Svetoslav |
13231330 |
MIHAIL ASEN III iman |
Son of despot iman of Vidin by Sevina daughter of
Petăr by Anna Teodora daughter of Ivan Asen II; killed against Serbia |
13301331 |
IVAN STEFAN |
Son of Mihail Asen III; co-ruler 13231324; deposed,
died 1343/ |
13311371 |
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 |
13561397 |
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 1336/371349;
killed against the Ottomans |
13711395 |
IVAN IMAN |
Son of Ivan Aleksandăr; co-ruler c1356; in
Tărnovo; executed by the Ottomans |
13971422 |
KONSTANTIN II |
Son of Ivan Sracimir; co-ruler 1395; in Vidin; deposed
by the Ottomans, died in Serbia 1422 |
14221877 |
|
To Ottoman Empire |
|
Princes of Bulgaria 1878, Kings of the Bulgarians
1908 |
|
18781886 |
ALEKSANDĂR I |
Son of prince Alexander of Battenberg; abdicated, died
1894 |
18871918 |
FERDINAND I |
Son of prince August of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; King 1908;
abdicated, died 1948 |
19181943 |
BORIS III |
Son of Ferdinand I |
19431946 |
SIMEON II |
Son of Boris III; deposed by the Communists |