191-448: Bulgarian Tsardom may refer to: First Bulgarian Empire or First Bulgarian Tsardom Second Bulgarian Empire or Second Bulgarian Tsardom Kingdom of Bulgaria , or Third Bulgarian Empire or Third Bulgarian Tsardom See also [ edit ] Tsardom of Bulgaria Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
382-725: A 30-year peace treaty with the Byzantines establishing the border along the Erkesia trench between Debeltos on the Black Sea and the valley of the Maritsa River at Kalugerovo , thus allowing both countries to restore their economies and finance after the bloody conflicts in the first decade of the century. To the west the Bulgarians were in control of Belgrade (whose modern name was first known as Alba Bulgarica ) by
573-614: A Central European nation and an ethnic group native to Hungary (Hungarian: Magyarország ) and historical Hungarian lands (i.e. belonging to the former Kingdom of Hungary ) who share a common culture , history , ancestry , and language . The Hungarian language belongs to the Uralic language family , alongside, most notably, Finnish and Estonian . There are an estimated 14.5 million ethnic Hungarians and their descendants worldwide, of whom 9.6 million live in today's Hungary. About 2 million Hungarians live in areas that were part of
764-471: A bitter war after resolving to discontinue paying an annual tribute to Bulgaria. However, the military and ideological initiative was held by Simeon I, who was seeking casus belli to fulfil his ambition to be recognized as Emperor (in Bulgarian, Tsar ) and to conquer Constantinople, creating a joint Bulgarian–Roman state. In 917, the Bulgarian army dealt a crushing defeat to the Byzantines at
955-526: A bill granting dual citizenship to ethnic Hungarians living outside of Hungary. Some neighboring countries with sizable Hungarian minorities expressed concerns over the legislation. Modern Hungarians stand out as linguistically isolated in Europe, despite their genetic similarity to the surrounding populations. The population of the Carpathian Basin has the common European gene-pool which formed in
1146-690: A confederation of seven tribes . According to genetic study, the proto-Ugric groups were part of the Scytho-Siberian societies in the late Bronze Age to early Iron Age steppe-forest zone in the northern Kazakhstan region, near of the Mezhovskaya culture territory. The ancestors of the Hungarian conquerors lived in the steppe zone during the Bronze Age together with the Mansis . During
1337-475: A discrete ethnic group or people for centuries before their settlement in the Carpathian basin. Instead, the formation of the people with its distinct identity was a process. According to this view, Hungarians as a people emerged by the 9th century, subsequently incorporating other, ethnically and linguistically divergent, peoples. During the 4th millennium BC, the Uralic -speaking peoples who were living in
1528-550: A heart attack at the grisly sight and died two days later, on 6 October. Resistance continued for four more years under Gavril Radomir (r. 1014–1015) and Ivan Vladislav (r. 1015–1018), but after the demise of the latter during the siege of Dyrrhachium the nobility surrendered to Basil II and Bulgaria was annexed by the Byzantine Empire. The Bulgarian aristocracy kept its privileges, although many noblemen were transferred to Asia Minor , thus depriving
1719-596: A higher affinity with modern day Bashkirs and Volga Tatars as well as to two specimens of the Pazyryk culture , while their mtDNA has strong links to the populations of the Baraba region , Inner Asia , Eastern Europe , Northern Europe and Central Asia . Modern Hungarians also display genetic affinity with historical Sintashta samples. Archeological mtDNA haplogroups show a similarity between Hungarians and Turkic-speaking Tatars and Bashkirs , while another study found
1910-579: A liberator, but Boris II was promptly forced to ritually abdicate in Constantinople. Although at the time the Byzantines controlled only the eastern regions of the country, Bulgaria was proclaimed a Byzantine province. The lands to the west of the Iskar River remained free and the Bulgarians were able to regroup headed by the four Cometopuli brothers. By 976, the youngest of them, Samuel , concentrated all power in his hands following
2101-741: A link between the Mansi and Bashkirs, suggesting that the Bashkirs are a mixture of Turkic, Ugric and Indo-European contributions. The homeland of ancient Hungarians is around the Ural Mountains , and the Hungarian affinities with the Karayakupovo culture is widely accepted among researchers. A full genome study found that the Bashkirs display, next to their high European ancestry, also affinity to both Uralic-speaking populations of Northern Asia, as well as Inner Asian Turkic groups, "pointing to
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#17327655920452292-527: A marriage between his son and heir Gavril Radomir and Stephen's daughter, but eventually Gavril Radomir expelled his wife, and in 1004 Hungary participated with the Byzantine forces against Bulgaria. After 1000 the tides of the war turned in favor of the Byzantines under the personal leadership of Basil II, who launched annual campaigns of methodical conquest of the Bulgarian cities and strongholds that were sometimes carried out in all twelve months of
2483-762: A matter of debate among scholars. In Hungary , a legend developed based on medieval chronicles that the Hungarians, and the Székely ethnic group in particular, are descended from the Huns. However, mainstream scholarship dismisses a close connection between the Hungarians and Huns. A genetic study published in Scientific Reports in November 2019 led by Neparáczki Endre had examined the remains of three males from three separate 5th century Hunnic cemeteries in
2674-732: A member of the Uralic family , which originated either in the Oka-Volga region, the Southern Uralic, or Western Siberia. Recent linguistic data support an origin somewhere in Western Siberia. Ugric diverged from its relatives in the first half of the 1st millennium BC. The ancient Ugrians are associated with the Mezhovskaya culture , and were influenced by the Iranian Sarmatians and Saka , as well as later Xiongnu . The Ugrians also display genetic affinities to
2865-585: A mismatch of their cultural background and genetic ancestry and an intricacy of the historic interface between Turkic and Uralic populations ". The homeland of the proto-Uralic peoples may have been close to Southern Siberia, among forest cultures in the Altai-Sayan region and may be linked to an ancestry maximized in the early Tarim mummies . The arrival of the Indo-European Afanasievo culture and Northeast Asian tribes may have caused
3056-522: A number of fortresses, but after his death the empire was unable to face the threat of the Slavs due to the significant reduction of revenue and manpower. The Slavs , of Indo-European origin, were first mentioned in written sources to inhabit the territories to the north of the Danube in the 5th century AD, but most historians agree that they had arrived earlier. The group of Slavs that came to be known as
3247-420: A period of 40 years of peaceful relations between the two powers. During the first years of his reign, Peter I faced revolts by two of his three brothers, John in 928 and Michael in 930, but both were quelled. During most of his subsequent rule until 965, Peter I presided over a Golden Age of the Bulgarian state in a period of political consolidation, economic expansion and cultural activity. Despite
3438-520: A process of centralisation. As Bulgaria's territory steadily expanded, measures against tribal autonomy were deemed necessary in order to achieve more effective control and to prevent separatism. When in the 820s some Slavic tribes in western Bulgaria, the Timochani, Branichevtsi and Abodriti sought overlordship from the Franks, Khan Omurtag replaced their chieftains with his own governors. The country
3629-404: A result of the victory, the crisis was finally overcome, and Bulgaria entered the new century stable, stronger, and consolidated. During the reign of Krum (r. 803–814) Bulgaria doubled in size and expanded to the south, west and north, occupying the vast lands along the middle Danube and Transylvania , becoming European medieval great power during the 9th and 10th century along with
3820-570: A separate class. The original Bulgar titles and many of the institutions from the pagan era were preserved after the Christianisation of Bulgaria until the very fall of the First Empire. The beginning of the 9th century was marked with a process of incorporation of both Slavs and Byzantine Greeks in the ranks of the Bulgarian nobility and privileged classes, which increased the power of the monarch that had been previously curtailed by
4011-924: A serious demographic crisis began to develop in Hungary and its neighbours. The Hungarian population reached its maximum in 1980, then began to decline. For historical reasons (see Treaty of Trianon ), significant Hungarian minority populations can be found in the surrounding countries, most of them in Romania (in Transylvania ), Slovakia , and Serbia (in Vojvodina ). Sizable minorities live also in Ukraine (in Transcarpathia ), Croatia (primarily Slavonia ), and Austria (in Burgenland ). Slovenia
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#17327655920454202-664: A study by Pamjav, the area of Bodrogköz suggested to be a population isolate found an elevated frequency of Haplogroup N: R1a-M458 (20.4%), I2a1-P37 (19%), R1a-Z280 (14.3%), and E1b-M78 (10.2%). Various R1b-M343 subgroups accounted for 15% of the Bodrogköz population. Haplogroup N1c-Tat covered 6.2% of the lineages, but most of it belonged to the N1c-VL29 subgroup, which is more frequent among Balto-Slavic speaking than Finno-Ugric speaking peoples. Other haplogroups had frequencies of less than 5%. Among 100 Hungarian men, 90 of whom from
4393-578: A variety of internal factors, Boris I converted to Christianity in 864, assuming the title Knyaz (Prince). Taking advantage of the struggle between the Papacy in Rome and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople , Boris I brilliantly manoeuvred to assert the independence of the newly established Bulgarian Church . To check the possibility of Byzantine interference in
4584-546: A village that allowed performance of pagan rituals should be transferred in its entirety to the Church, and, should a rich landowner perform them, his lands were to be sold, and the revenue shared among the poor. After the formation of the Bulgarian state the ruling elite harboured deep distrust towards the Byzantines, against whose perfidy and sudden attacks they had to maintain constant vigilance in all directions. The Byzantine Empire never relinquished its claim over all lands to
4775-614: Is a genetic continuity from the Bronze Age , a continuous migration of the Steppe folks from east to the Carpathian Basin. Other studies point out that the Hungarian conqueror group and the local population started admixing only on the second half of the 10th century, and that research done of the first and second generation cemeteries in the Carpathian basin show uniparental lineages can be derived from Iron Age Sargat culture 's population, suggesting "only limited interaction with
4966-676: Is also host to a number of ethnic Hungarians, and Hungarian language has an official status in parts of the Prekmurje region. Today more than two million ethnic Hungarians live in nearby countries. There was a referendum in Hungary in December 2004 on whether to grant Hungarian citizenship to Hungarians living outside Hungary's borders (i.e. without requiring a permanent residence in Hungary). The referendum failed due to insufficient voter turnout . On 26 May 2010, Hungary's Parliament passed
5157-632: Is descended from previous peoples of the Carpathian Basin, and a large number of people survived to the 10th century from the previous Avar period. An important segment of this Avar era Hungarians is that the Hungarian county system of King Saint Stephen I may be largely based on the power centers formed during the Avar period. Based on DNA evidence, the Proto-Hungarians admixed with Sarmatians and Huns , this three genetic components appear in
5348-422: Is difficult to estimate. Vasil Zlatarski and John Van Antwerp Fine Jr. suggest that they were not particularly numerous, numbering some 10,000, while Steven Runciman considers that the tribe must have been of considerable dimensions. The Bulgars settled mainly in the north-east, establishing the capital at Pliska , which was initially a colossal encampment of 23 km protected with earthen ramparts. To
5539-588: Is further confirmed in the Responsa Nicolai ad consulta Bulgarorum (Responses of Pope Nicholas I to the Questions of the Bulgarians), where Boris I wrote about primates and mediocres seu minores . Another privileged group were the tarkhans , although from the surviving inscriptions it is impossible to determine whether they belonged to the boilas or to the bagains , or were
5730-618: Is no trace of massacres and mass graves, it is believed to have been a peaceful transition for local residents in the Carpathian Basin. The Hungarian conquerors together with the Turkic-speaking Kabars integrated the Avars and Onogurs . In 862, Prince Rastislav of Moravia rebelled against the Franks , and after hiring Hungarian troops, won his independence; this was the first time that Hungarians expeditionary troops entered
5921-495: Is possible that they became its ethnic majority. In the Early Middle Ages , the Hungarians had many names, including "Węgrzy" (Polish), "Ungherese" (Italian), "Ungar" (German), and "Hungarus". In the Hungarian language, the Hungarian people name themselves as "Magyar". "Magyar" possibly derived from the name of the most prominent Hungarian tribe , the "Megyer". The tribal name "Megyer" became "Magyar" in reference to
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6112-549: Is uncommon among most Uralic-speaking populations. In the case of the Southern Mansi males, the most frequent haplogroups were N1b-P43 (33%), N1c-L1034 (28%) and R1a-Z280 (19%).The Konda Mansi population shared common haplotypes within haplogroups R1a-Z280 or N-M46 with Hungarian speakers, which may suggest that the Hungarians were in contact with the Mansi people during their migration to the Carpathian Basin. According to
6303-481: The Bronze Age through the admixture of three sources: Western Hunter-Gatherers , who were the first Homo sapiens appearing in Paleolithic Europe , Neolithic farmers originating from Anatolia , and Yamnaya steppe migrants that arrived in the late Neolithic to early Bronze Age. This common European gene pool in the Carpathian Basin, has been overlaid by migration waves originating from the east since
6494-704: The Burzyansky and Abzelilovsky districts of the Republic of Bashkortostan in the Volga-Ural region, revealed them to belong to the R1a subclade R1a-SUR51 , which is shared in significant amounts with the historical Magyars and the royal Hungarian lineage, and representing the closest kin to the Hungarian Árpád dynasty , whose ancestry is traced to 4500 years ago, in modern day Northern Afghanistan . In turn, R1a-SUR51's ancestral subclades R1a-Y2632 are found among
6685-763: The Carpathian Basin , a geographically unified but politically divided land, after acquiring thorough local knowledge of the area from the 860s onwards. After the end of the Avar Kaganate (c. 822), the Eastern Franks asserted their influence in Transdanubia , the Bulgarians to a small extent in the Southern Transylvania and the interior regions housed the surviving Avar population in their stateless state. The downfall of
6876-621: The Chatalar Inscription : The Kanasubigi Omurtag is a divine ruler in the land where he was born. ... May God [ Tangra ] grant that the divine ruler may press down the [Byzantine] emperor with his foot so long as the Ticha flows... The second most important post in Bulgaria after the monarch was the kavhan , monopolised by the members of the tentatively known "Kavhan family". The kavhan had broad powers and commanded
7067-520: The Council of Preslav where it was decided that the capital of Bulgaria was to be moved from Pliska to Preslav , the Byzantine clergy was to be banished from the country and replaced with Bulgarian clerics, and Old Bulgarian language was to replace the Greek in liturgy. Bulgaria was to become the principal threat to the stability and security of the Byzantine Empire in the 10th century. The decisions of
7258-925: The Great Hungarian Plain , (including Cuman descendants from Kunság region) the following haplogroups and frequencies are obtained: 30% R1a, 15% R1b, 13% I2a1, 13% J2, 9% E1b1b1a, 8% I1, 3% G2, 3% J1, 3% I*, 1% E*, 1% F*, 1% K*. The 97 Székelys belong to the following haplogroups: 20% R1b, 19% R1a, 17% I1, 11% J2, 10% J1, 8% E1b1b1a, 5% I2a1, 5% G2, 3% P*, 1% E*, 1% N. It can be inferred that Szekelys have more significant German admixture. A study sampling 45 Palóc from Budapest and northern Hungary, found 60% R1a, 13% R1b, 11% I, 9% E, 2% G, 2% J2. A study estimating possible Inner Asian admixture among nearly 500 Hungarians based on paternal lineages only, estimated it at 5.1% in Hungary, at 7.4 in Székelys and at 6.3% at Csángós . An analysis of Bashkir samples from
7449-656: The Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin when the Hungarian conquerors lived on the steppes of Eastern Europe east of the Carpathian Mountains , written sources called the Hungarians: "Ungri" by Georgius Monachus in 837, "Ungri" by Annales Bertiniani in 862, and "Ungari" by the Annales ex Annalibus Iuvavensibus in 881. The Magyars/Hungarians probably belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance, and it
7640-731: The Hungarian diaspora ( Hungarian : magyar diaszpóra ). Furthermore, Hungarians can be divided into several subgroups according to local linguistic and cultural characteristics; subgroups with distinct identities include the Székelys (in eastern Transylvania as well as a few in Suceava County , Bukovina ), the Csángós (in Western Moldavia ), the Palóc , and the Matyó . The Hungarians' own ethnonym to denote themselves in
7831-682: The Indo-Iranian Andronovo culture and Baikal-Altai Asian cultures. In the 4th and 5th centuries AD, the Hungarians were an "[e]thnically mixed people" who moved to the west of the Ural Mountains, to the area between the southern Ural Mountains and the Volga River , known as Bashkiria ( Bashkortostan ) and Perm Krai . In the early 8th century, some of the Hungarians moved to the Don River , to an area between
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8022-410: The Iron Age , the Mansis migrated northward, while the ancestor of Hungarian conquerors remained at the steppe-forest zone and admixed with the Sarmatians . Later the ancestors of the Hungarian conquerors admixed with the Huns , this admixture happened before the arrival of the Huns to the Volga region in 370. The Huns integrated local tribes east of the Urals, among them Sarmatians and the ancestors of
8213-423: The Iron Age . According to genetic studies, the Carpathian Basin was continuously inhabited from at least the Bronze Age. There is a genetic continuity from the Bronze Age , a continuous migration of the Steppe folks from east to the Carpathian Basin. The foundational population of the Carpathian Basin carrying the common European gene pool remained in a significant majority throughout the migratory periods in
8404-419: The Khazars in the east but after his demise Old Great Bulgaria disintegrated under strong Khazar pressure in 668 and his five sons parted with their followers. The eldest Batbayan remained in his homeland as Kubrat's successor and eventually became a Khazar vassal. The second brother Kotrag migrated to the middle Volga region and founded Volga Bulgaria . The third brother Asparuh led his people west to
8595-413: The Pannonian Basin . They were found to be carrying the paternal haplogroups Q1a2 , R1b1a1b1a1a1 and R1a1a1b2a2 . In modern Europe, Q1a2 is rare and has its highest frequency among the Székelys . It is believed that conquering Magyars may have absorbed Avar, Hunnish and Xiongnu influences. Hungarian males possess a high frequency of haplogroup R1a-Z280 and a low frequency of haplogroup N-Tat, which
8786-458: The Pannonian Steppe and surrounding regions, giving rise to modern Hungarians and Hungarian culture . " Hungarian pre-history ", i.e. the history of the "ancient Hungarians" before their arrival in the Carpathian basin at the end of the 9th century, is thus a "tenuous construct", based on linguistics, analogies in folklore, archaeology and subsequent written evidence. In the 21st century, historians have argued that "Hungarians" did not exist as
8977-431: The Pazyryk culture people, the earliest Uralic-speakers can be associated with an Ancient Northern East Asian lineage maximized among modern Nganasans and a Bronze Age specimen from Krasnoyarsk in southern Siberia (Krasnoyarsk_Krai_BA; kra001). This type of ancestry later dispersed along the Seima-Turbino route westwards. They may also stood in contact with other Ancient Northeast Asians (partially linked to
9168-583: The Pazyryk culture . They arrived into Central Europe by the historical Magyar or Hungarian "conquerors", in the Hungarian landtaking . The historical Magyar conquerors were found to show significant affinity to modern Bashkirs , and stood also in contact with other Turkic peoples (presumably Oghuric speakers), Iranian peoples (especially Jaszic speakers), and Slavs . The historical Magyars created an alliance of steppe tribes, consisting of an Ugric/Magyar ruling class, and formerly Iranian but also Turkic (Oghuric) and Slavic speaking tribes, which conquered
9359-462: The Pechenegs around 854. The new neighbours of the Hungarians were the Varangians and the eastern Slavs . From 862 onwards, the Hungarians (already referred to as the Ungri ) along with their allies, the Kabars, started a series of looting raids from the Etelköz into the Carpathian Basin, mostly against the Eastern Frankish Empire (Germany) and Great Moravia , but also against the Balaton principality and Bulgaria . The Hungarians arrived in
9550-465: The Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region during the 7th century. They became known as nomadic equestrians in the Volga-Ural region, but some researchers say that their ethnic roots can be traced to Central Asia . They spoke a form of Turkic as their main language. The Bulgars included the tribes of Onogurs , Utigurs and Kutrigurs , among others. The first clear mention of the Bulgars in written sources dates from 480, when they served as
9741-414: The Roman Empire by the 1st century AD. The decline of the Roman Empire after the 3rd century AD and the continuous invasions of Goths and Huns left much of the region devastated, depopulated and in economic decline by the 5th century. The surviving eastern half of the Roman Empire, called by later historians the Byzantine Empire , could not exercise effective control in these territories other than in
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#17327655920459932-416: The Saka population of the Tien Shan , date: 427-422 BC. Historical Magyar conquerors had around ~37.5% Haplogroup N-M231 , as well as lower frequency of Haplogroup C-M217 at 6.25% with the remainder being Haplogroup R1a and Haplogroup Q-M242 . Modern Hungarians show relative close affinity to surrounding populations, but harbour a small "Siberian" component associated with Khanty/Mansi, as well as
10123-421: The Second Arab Siege of Constantinople , where the Bulgarian army broke the siege and destroyed the Arab army , thus preventing an Arab invasion of Southeastern Europe. Byzantium had a strong cultural influence on Bulgaria, which also led to the eventual adoption of Christianity in 864. After the disintegration of the Avar Khaganate , the country expanded its territory northwest to the Pannonian Plain . Later
10314-403: The Second Bulgarian Empire . The First Bulgarian Empire was a hereditary monarchy. The monarch was the commander-in-chief of the armed forces , a judge, and a high priest during the pagan period. He guided the external policy of the country and could conclude treaties personally or through authorised emissaries. In the pagan period the title of the ruler was Khan . After 864 Boris I adopted
10505-467: The Turkic people . The obscure name kerel or keral , found in the 13th-century work The Secret History of the Mongols , possibly referred to Hungarians and derived from the Hungarian title király 'king'. The historical Latin phrase " Natio Hungarica " ("Hungarian nation") had a wider and political meaning because it once referred to all nobles of the Kingdom of Hungary , regardless of their ethnicity or mother tongue. The origin of Hungarians,
10696-514: The Volga Tatars show the smallest genetic distance to the entire Conqueror population" and "a direct genetic relation of the Conquerors to Onogur - Bulgar ancestors of these groups is very feasible." Genetic data found high affinity between Magyar conquerors, the historical Bulgars , and modern day Turkic-speaking peoples in the Volga region, suggesting a possible language shifted from an Uralic (Ugric) to Turkic languages. Hunnish origin or influences on Hungarians and Székelys have always been
10887-455: The battle of Achelous , resulting in Bulgaria's total military supremacy in the Balkans. In the words of Theophanes Continuatus "a bloodshed occurred, that had not happened in centuries", and Leo the Deacon witnessed piles of bones of perished soldiers on the battlefield 50 years later. The Bulgarians built on their success with further victories at Katasyrtai in 917, Pegae in 921 and Constantinople in 922. The Bulgarians also captured
11078-411: The demonym Bulgarian gained prevalence and became permanent designations for the local population, both in literature and in common parlance. The development of Old Church Slavonic literacy had the effect of preventing the assimilation of the South Slavs into neighbouring cultures, while stimulating the formation of a distinct Bulgarian identity. After the adoption of Christianity, Bulgaria became
11269-508: The 10 comitati . They were further divided into župi , that in turn consisted of zadrugi . The comita was appointed by the monarch, and was assisted by a tarkhan . The former had many civil and administrative functions, while the latter was responsible for military affairs. One of the few comitati known by name was Kutmichevitsa in south-western Bulgaria, corresponding to modern western Macedonia, southern Albania and north-western Greece. The first known written Bulgarian law code
11460-418: The 560s subjugating various Bulgar and Slavic tribes in the process. Consumed in bitter wars with the Persian Sasanian Empire in the east, the Byzantines had few resources with which to confront the Slavs. The Slavs came in large numbers and the lack of political organisation made it very difficult to stop them because there was no political leader to defeat in battle and thereby force their retreat. As
11651-408: The 670s they crossed the Danube into Scythia Minor , nominally a Byzantine province, whose steppe grasslands and pastures were important for the large herd stocks of the Bulgars in addition to the grazing grounds to the west of the Dniester River already under their control. In 680 the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IV (r. 668–685), having recently defeated the Arabs , led an expedition at
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#173276559204511842-475: The 820s, and the northwestern boundaries with the Frankish Empire were firmly settled along the middle Danube by 827. To the north-east Omurtag fought the Khazars along the Dnieper River, which was the easternmost limit of Bulgaria. Extensive building was undertaken in the capital Pliska, including the construction of a magnificent palace, pagan temples, ruler's residence, fortress, citadel, water-main, and bath, mainly from stone and brick. In 814 Omurtag began
12033-584: The 9th and 10th century, Bulgaria at the height of its power spread from the Danube Bend to the Black Sea and from the Dnieper River to the Adriatic Sea and became an important power in the region competing with the Byzantine Empire. As the state solidified its position in the Balkans, it entered into a centuries-long interaction, sometimes friendly and sometimes hostile, with the Byzantine Empire. Bulgaria emerged as Byzantium's chief antagonist to its north, resulting in several wars . The two powers also enjoyed periods of peace and alliance, most notably during
12224-405: The Avar Khaganate at the beginning of the 9th century did not mean the extinction of the Avar population, contemporary written sources report surviving Avar groups. According to the archaeological evidence, the Avar population survived the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin . In this power vacuum, the Hungarian conqueror elite took the system of the former Avar Kaganate, there
12415-411: The Avar period, arriving in multiple waves. The ruling elite of the Avars originated from the Rouran Khaganate in Mongolia, but a significant portion of the masses they brought in consisted of mixed-origin populations that had emerged in the Pontic-Caspian steppe during the Hunnic era. Foundation of the Hungarian state is connected to the Hungarian conquerors , who arrived from the Pontic steppes as
12606-446: The Bulgarian court in Pliska and had them all executed. The next year Constantine V died during a retaliatory campaign against Bulgaria. Despite being able to defeat the Bulgarians several times the Byzantines were able neither to conquer Bulgaria, nor to impose their suzerainty and a lasting peace, which is a testimony to the resilience, fighting skills and ideological coherence of the Bulgarian state. The devastation brought to
12797-438: The Bulgarian domination of the Balkans, restored the status of Bulgaria as a most favoured nation, abolished the commercial restrictions and obliged the Byzantine Empire to pay annual tribute. The peace treaty remained in force until 912 although Simeon I did violate it following the sack of Thessaloniki in 904, extracting further territorial concessions in Macedonia . In 913 the Byzantine emperor Alexander provoked
12988-441: The Bulgarian elite. It is likely that the relationship between the politically dominant Bulgars and the more numerous Slavs was the main issue behind the struggle but there is no evidence about the aims of the rival factions. Zlatarski speculates that the old Bulgar military aristocracy was leaning towards war while other Bulgars supported by the majority of the Slavs were inclined for peace with Byzantium. The internal instability
13179-415: The Bulgarians confronted the advance of the Pechenegs and Cumans , and achieved a decisive victory over the Magyars , forcing them to establish themselves permanently in Pannonia . The ruling Bulgars and other non-Slavic tribes in the empire gradually mixed and adopted the prevailing Slavic language , thus gradually forming the Bulgarian nation from the 7th to the 10th century. Since the 10th century,
13370-414: The Bulgarians of their natural leaders. Although the Bulgarian Patriarchate was demoted to the Archbishopric of Justiniana Prima and all Bulgaria (Archbishopric of Ohrid) , it retained its sees and enjoyed a privileged autonomy. Despite several major attempts at restoring its independence, Bulgaria remained under Byzantine rule until the brothers Asen and Peter liberated the country in 1185, establishing
13561-402: The Bulgarians took most of Macedonia , and the borders of the country reached the Adriatic Sea near Valona and Aegean Sea . Byzantine historians do not mention any resistance against the Bulgarian expansion in Macedonia, leading to the conclusion that the expansion was largely peaceful. With this, Bulgaria had become the dominant power in the Balkans. The advance further west was blocked by
13752-639: The Bulgarians were decisively defeated at Kleidion . Some 14,000 Bulgarians were captured; it is said that 99 out of every 100 men were blinded, with the remaining hundredth man left with one eye so as to lead his compatriots home, earning Basil II the moniker "Bulgaroktonos", the Bulgar Killer. When the returning men arrived in Samuel's residence in Prespa , the Bulgarian Emperor suffered
13943-625: The Bulgarians, the prospect of the Byzantines losing all their Balkan themes was quite real. Threatened by an alliance between the Byzantines and the Serbian state of Duklja , in 997 Samuel defeated and captured its Prince Jovan Vladimir and took control of the Serb lands. In 997, following the death of Roman, the last heir of the Krum's dynasty , Samuel was proclaimed Emperor of Bulgaria. He established friendly relations with Stephen I of Hungary through
14134-460: The Bulgars and the local Slavs is a matter of debate depending on the interpretation of the Byzantine sources. Vasil Zlatarski asserts that they concluded a treaty, but most historians agree that they were subjugated. The Bulgars were superior organisationally and militarily and came to politically dominate the new state, but there was cooperation between them and the Slavs for the protection of
14325-764: The Bulgars occasionally raided the Byzantine Empire, but in the second half of the century the Kutrigurs were subjugated by the Avar Khaganate and the Utigurs came under the rule of the Western Turkic Khaganate . As the power of the Western Turks faded in the 600s the Avars reasserted their domination over the Bulgars. Between 630 and 635 Khan Kubrat of the Dulo clan managed to unite
14516-622: The Bulgars were forced to retreat. The Bulgarians suffered a brutal invasion by Sviatoslav I Igorevich, the Grand-Prince of the Kievan Rus between 967 and 969, that saw the empire vassalised to the Rus. Sviatoslav was killed in 972 however, seeing the empire able to briefly recover, but was unable to reclaim lost territories north of the Danube, in Thrace and Southern Macedonia. Their old rivals,
14707-608: The Byzantine Emperor was bound to enforce the imperial sovereignty over them. This led to more than 40 years of increasingly bitter warfare. A capable general and good politician, at first Samuel managed to turn the fortunes to the Bulgarians. The new Byzantine Emperor Basil II was decisively defeated in the Battle of the Gates of Trajan in 986 and barely escaped with his life. The Byzantine poet John Geometres wrote of
14898-604: The Byzantine and Frankish Empires . Between 804 and 806 the Bulgarian armies thoroughly eliminated the Avar Khaganate, which had suffered a crippling blow by the Franks in 796, and a border with the Frankish Empire was established along the middle Danube or Tisza. Prompted by the Byzantine moves to consolidate their hold on the Slavs in Macedonia and northern Greece and in response to a Byzantine raid against
15089-488: The Byzantine point of view of the ensuing political turmoil in Bulgaria. They describe two factions struggling for power – one that sought peaceful relations with the Empire, which was dominant until 755, and one that favoured war. These sources present the relations with the Byzantine Empire as the main issue in this internal struggle and do not mention the other reasons, which could have been more important for
15280-470: The Byzantines eventually recovered, and in 1014, under Basil II "the Bulgar Slayer", a crushing defeat was inflicted on the Bulgarians at the Battle of Kleidion . Basil famously ordered that every 100 of the captured 15,000 Bulgarian prisoners be blinded, with the 100th soldier spared one eye to guide the rest back home, forcing their communities to care for them for the rest of their lives. By 1018,
15471-618: The Byzantines near the Calabrian coast. The Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos managed to avert a Bulgarian–Arab alliance by showering the Arabs with generous gifts. The war dragged on until Simeon I's death in May 927. By then Bulgaria controlled almost all Byzantine possessions in the Balkans, but without a fleet it did not attempt to storm Constantinople. Both countries were exhausted by
15662-599: The Byzantine–Bulgarian victory with stopping the Arab offensives against Europe . With the demise of Khan Sevar (r. 738–753) the ruling Dulo clan died out and the Khanate fell into a long political crisis during which the young country was on the verge of destruction. In just fifteen years seven Khans reigned, and all of them were murdered. The only surviving sources of this period are Byzantine and present only
15853-633: The Carpathian Basin. In 862, Archbishop Hincmar of Reims records the campaign of unknown enemies called "Ungri", giving the first mention of the Hungarians in Western Europe . In 881, the Hungarian forces fought together with the Kabars in the Vienna Basin . According to historian György Szabados and archeologist Miklós Béla Szőke, a group of Hungarians were already living in the Carpathian Basin at that time, so they could quickly intervene in
16044-478: The Carpathian Basin. During the 9th century BC, smaller groups of pre-Scythians ( Cimmerians ) of the Mezőcsát culture appeared. The classic Scythian culture spread across the Great Hungarian Plain between the 7th–6th century BC, their genetic data represent the genetic profile of the local European population. The Sarmatians arrived in multiple waves from 50 BC, leaving a significant archaeological heritage behind,
16235-667: The Confessor wrote of the treaty: ... the Emperor [Constantine IV] signed peace with them [the Bulgars], and agreed to pay them tribute for shame of the Romans and for our many sins. For it was wondrous for faraway and close peoples to hear that he, who made everyone pay him tribute – to the east and to the west, to the north and to the south, had been defeated by these unclean and newly emerged people. The relations between
16426-585: The Council of Preslav brought an end to the Byzantine hopes to exert influence over the newly Christianized country. In 894 the Byzantines moved the Bulgarian market from Constantinople to Thessaloniki , affecting the commercial interests of Bulgaria and the principle of Byzantine–Bulgarian trade, regulated under the Treaty of 716 and later agreements on the most favoured nation basis. The new Prince, Simeon I (r. 893–927), who came to be known as Simeon
16617-598: The Early Middle Ages is uncertain. The exonym "Hungarian" is thought to be derived from Oghur-Turkic On-Ogur (literally "Ten Arrows" or "Ten Tribes"). Another possible explanation comes from the Russian word " Yugra " (Югра). It may refer to the Hungarians during a time when they dwelt east of the southern Ural Mountains in Western Siberia before their conquest of the Carpathian Basin. Prior to
16808-594: The Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious . Due to the sudden death of Krum on 14 April 814, however, the campaign was never launched. Khan Krum implemented legal reforms and issued the first known written law code of Bulgaria that established equal rules for all peoples living within the country's boundaries, intending to reduce poverty and to strengthen the social ties in his vastly enlarged state. Krum's successor Khan Omurtag (r. 814–831) concluded
16999-623: The Great, declared war and defeated the Byzantine army in Thrace. The Byzantines turned for aid to the Magyars , who at the time inhabited the steppes to the north-east of Bulgaria. The Magyars scored two victories over the Bulgarians and pillaged Dobrudzha , but Simeon I allied with the Pechenegs further east, and in 895 the Bulgarian army inflicted a crushing defeat on the Magyars in
17190-408: The Hungarian conquerors. The Hungarians arrived in the frame of a strong centralized steppe-empire under the leadership of Grand Prince Álmos and his son Árpád , they became founders of the Árpád dynasty , the Hungarian ruling dynasty and the Hungarian state. The Árpád dynasty claimed to be a direct descendant of the great Hun leader Attila . The elite of the conquering Hungarians established
17381-501: The Hungarian people as a whole. The Greek cognate of " Tourkia " ( Greek : Τουρκία ) was used by the scholar and Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in his De Administrando Imperio of c. AD 950, though in his use, "Turks" always referred to Magyars . This was a misnomer, as while the Magyars do have some Turkic genetic and cultural influence, including their historical social structure being of Turkic origin, they still are not widely considered as part of
17572-560: The Hungarian population of the Carpathian Basin only of people of Árpád. Following the devastations caused by the Mongol and Turkish invasions, settlers from other parts of Europe played a significant role in establishing the modern genetic makeup of the Carpathian Basin. The Hungarian language belongs to the Uralic language family . While early Ugric-speakers can be associated with an ancestry component maximized in modern-day Khanty / Mansi and historical Southern Siberian groups such as
17763-439: The Hungarian state, genetic studies revealed, the conqueror elite in both sexes has approximately 30% Eastern Eurasian components, while the commoner population appears to have carried the overlaid local European gene pool from previous eastern immigrations. In medieval Hungary , a legend developed based on foreign and Hungarian medieval chronicles that the Hungarians, and the Székely ethnic group in particular, are descended from
17954-523: The Hungarian state. The Árpád dynasty claimed to be a direct descendant of the great Hun leader Attila . Medieval Hungarian chronicles from the Hungarian royal court like the Gesta Hungarorum , Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum , Chronicon Pictum , Buda Chronicle , Chronica Hungarorum claimed that the Árpád dynasty and the Aba clan are the descendants of Attila. Árpád, Grand Prince of
18145-714: The Hungarians were organized in a confederacy of seven tribes : Jenő , Kér , Keszi , Kürt-Gyarmat , Megyer , Nyék , and Tarján . Around 830, a rebellion broke out in the Khazar khaganate. As a result, three Kabar tribes of the Khazars joined the Hungarians and moved to what the Hungarians call the Etelköz , the territory between the Carpathians and the Dnieper River . The Hungarians faced their first attack by
18336-529: The Hungarians' history. By the Treaty of Trianon , the Kingdom had been cut into several parts, leaving only a quarter of its original size. One-third of the Hungarians became minorities in the neighbouring countries. During the remainder of the 20th century, the Hungarians population of Hungary grew from 7.1 million (1920) to around 10.4 million (1980), despite losses during the Second World War and
18527-503: The Hungarians, says in the Gesta Hungarorum : The land stretching between the Danube and the Tisza used to belong to my forefather, the mighty Attila. The Hungarians took possession of the Carpathian Basin in a pre-planned manner, with a long move-in between 862 and 895. This is confirmed by the archaeological findings, in the 10th-century Hungarian cemeteries, the graves of women, children and elderly people are located next to
18718-516: The Huns. The basic premise of the Hungarian medieval chronicle tradition was that the Huns, i.e. the Hungarians coming out twice from Scythia , the guiding principle was the Hun-Hungarian continuity. The 20th century mainstream scholarship dismisses a close connection between the Hungarians and Huns. However, the archaeogenetics studies revealed the Hun heritage of the Hungarian conquerors , it
18909-601: The Kingdom of Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon in 1920 and are now parts of Hungary's seven neighbouring countries, Slovakia , Ukraine , Romania , Serbia , Croatia , Slovenia , and Austria . In addition, significant groups of people with Hungarian ancestry live in various other parts of the world, most of them in the United States , Canada , Germany , France , the United Kingdom , Chile , Brazil , Australia , and Argentina , and therefore constitute
19100-491: The Pechenegs. The Bulgarians won the decisive battle of Southern Buh . It is uncertain whether or not those conflicts contributed to the Hungarian departure from Etelköz. From the upper Tisza region of the Carpathian Basin, the Hungarians intensified their campaigns across continental Europe. In 900, they moved from the upper Tisza river to Transdanubia , which later became the core of the arising Hungarian state. By 902,
19291-565: The Rishki Pass in 759 in addition to hundreds of ships lost to storms in the Black Sea. The Byzantine military successes further exacerbated the crisis in Bulgaria, but also rallied together many different factions to resist the Byzantines, as shown at the council of 766 when the nobility and the "armed people" denounced Khan Sabin with the words "Thanks to you, the Romans will enslave Bulgaria!". In 774 Khan Telerig (r. 768–777) tricked Constantine V into revealing his spies at
19482-567: The Slavic Knyaz (Prince), and since 913 the Bulgarian monarchs were recognised as Tsars (Emperors). The authority of the Khan was limited by the leading noble families and the People's Council. The People's Council, which included the nobility and the "armed people", was gathered to discuss issues of crucial importance for the state. A People's Council in 766 dethroned Khan Sabin because he
19673-534: The South Slavs was divided into Antes and Sclaveni who spoke the same language. The Slavic incursions in the Balkans increased during the second half of Justinian I's reign and while these were initially pillaging raids, large-scale settlement began in the 570s and 580s. This migration is associated with the arrival of the Avars who settled in the plains of Pannonia between the rivers Danube and Tisza in
19864-808: The Volga, Don and the Seversky Donets rivers. Meanwhile, the descendants of those Hungarians who stayed in Bashkiria remained there as late as 1241. The Hungarians around the Don River were subordinates of the Khazar Khaganate . Their neighbours were the archaeological Saltov culture , i.e. Bulgars (Proto-Bulgarians, Onogurs ) and the Alans , from whom they learned gardening, elements of cattle breeding and of agriculture. Tradition holds that
20055-470: The adoption of Christianity regulated their relations. The number of personally dependent peasants bound to nobility or ecclesiastical estates increased since the 10th century. Due to the limited remaining sources it is very difficult to reconstruct the administrative evolution and division of the country. Initially the Slavic tribes retained their autonomy but since the beginning of the 9th century commenced
20246-651: The allies of the Byzantine Emperor Zeno (r. 474–491) against the Ostrogoths , although an obscure reference to Ziezi ex quo Vulgares , with Ziezi being an offspring of Biblical Shem , son of Noah , is in the Chronography of 354 . In the 490s the Kutrigurs had moved west of the Black Sea while the Utigurs inhabited the steppes to the east of them. In the first half of the 6th century,
20437-667: The assumption of the imperial title by its rulers in 913, the country is also referred to as the Principality of Bulgaria . In English-language sources, the country is often known as the Bulgarian Empire . Parts of the eastern Balkan Peninsula were in antiquity inhabited by the Thracians who were a group of Indo-European tribes. The whole region as far north as the Danube River was gradually incorporated into
20628-438: The battle formation to avoid surprise attacks from the rear. The Bulgarian army used ambushes and feigned retreats, during which the cavalrymen rode with their backs to the horse, firing clouds of arrows on the enemy. If the enemy pursued disorganized, they would turn back and fiercely attack them. In 918 the Bulgarians took the capital of the Byzantine theme Hellas Thebes without bloodshed after sending five men with axes into
20819-486: The borders and the Byzantine tribute, regulated trade relations and provided for the exchange of prisoners and fugitives. When the Arabs laid siege to Constantinople in 717–718 Tervel dispatched his army to help the besieged city. In the decisive battle before the Walls of Constantinople the Bulgarians slaughtered between 22,000 and 30,000 Arabs forcing them to abandon the undertaking. Most historians primarily attribute
21010-532: The borders were pushed to the South-Moravian Carpathians and the Principality of Moravia collapsed. At the time of the Hungarian migration, the land was inhabited only by a sparse population of Slavs, numbering about 200,000, who were either assimilated or enslaved by the Hungarians. Archaeological findings (e.g. in the Polish city of Przemyśl ) suggest that many Hungarians remained to
21201-640: The central and southern regions of the Urals split up. Some dispersed towards the west and northwest and came into contact with Turkic and Iranian speakers who were spreading northwards. From at least 2000 BC onwards, the Ugric -speakers became distinguished from the rest of the Uralic community, of which the ancestors of the Magyars, being located farther south, were the most numerous. Judging by evidence from burial mounds and settlement sites, they interacted with
21392-419: The centre of the country. In the 19th century, the proportion of Hungarians in the Kingdom of Hungary rose gradually, reaching over 50% by 1900 due to higher natural growth and Magyarization . Between 1787 and 1910 the number of ethnic Hungarians rose from 2.3 million to 10.2 million, accompanied by the resettlement of the Great Hungarian Plain and Délvidék by mainly Roman Catholic Hungarian settlers from
21583-423: The city, who eliminated the guards, broke the hinges of the gates, and opened them to the main forces. The Bulgarians were also able to fight at night – e.g., their victory over the Byzantines in the battle of Katasyrtai . The Bulgarian army was well equipped with siege engines . The Bulgarians employed the services of Byzantine and Arab captives and fugitives to produce siege equipment, such as
21774-420: The coastal areas and certain cities in the interior. Nonetheless, it never relinquished the claim to the whole region up to the Danube. A series of administrative, legislative, military and economic reforms somewhat improved the situation but despite these reforms disorder continued in much of the Balkans. The reign of Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) saw temporary recovery of control and reconstruction of
21965-519: The common people. The nobility were initially known as the boila but after the 10th century the word was transformed to bolyar , which was eventually adopted in many countries in Eastern Europe . Each boila clan had its own totem and was believed to have been divinely established, hence their staunch opposition to Christianity, which was seen as a threat to their privileges. Many of the clans had ancient origin that could be traced back to
22156-653: The consolidation of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1001 was dominated by pillaging campaigns across Europe, from Dania ( Denmark ) to the Iberian Peninsula (contemporary Spain and Portugal ). After the acceptance of the nation into Christian Europe under Stephen I, Hungary served as a bulwark against further invasions from the east and south, especially by the Turks. At this time, the Hungarian nation numbered around 400,000 people. The first accurate measurements of
22347-452: The country by the nine campaigns of Constantine V firmly rallied the Slavs behind the Bulgars and greatly increased the dislike of the Byzantines, turning Bulgaria into a hostile neighbour. The hostilities continued until 792 when Khan Kardam (r. 777–803) achieved an important victory in the battle of Marcellae , forcing the Byzantines once again to pay tribute to the Khans. As
22538-406: The country is also called by modern historians as the Bulgarian Khanate , or the Bulgar Khaganate , from the Turkic title of khan / khagan borne by its rulers. It is often further specified as the Danube Bulgarian Khanate , or Danube Bulgar Khanate in order to differentiate it from Volga Bulgaria , which emerged from another Bulgar group. From the country's Christianization in 864 and
22729-405: The country, the Bulgarians confronted the Byzantine Empire. In 808 they raided the valley of the Struma River, defeating a Byzantine army, and in 809 captured the important city of Serdica (modern Sofia ). In 811 the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus I launched a massive offensive against Bulgaria and seized, plundered and burned down the capital Pliska, but on the way back the Byzantine army
22920-424: The country. The Slavs were allowed to retain their chiefs, to abide to their customs and in return they were to pay tribute in kind and to provide foot soldiers for the army. The Seven Slavic tribes were relocated to the west to protect the frontier with the Avar Khaganate , while the Severi were resettled in the eastern Balkan Mountains to guard the passes to the Byzantine Empire. The number of Asparuh's Bulgars
23111-470: The country. To cap it all, there was an incursion of locusts. Yet, despite all the military setbacks and natural disasters, the skilful diplomacy of Boris I prevented any territorial losses and kept the realm intact. In this complex international situation Christianity had become attractive as a religion by the mid 9th-century because it provided better opportunities for forging reliable alliances and diplomatic ties. Taking this into account, as well as
23302-482: The crown to his son Boris II (r. 969–971), who had little choice but to cooperate with Svyatoslav. The unexpected success of the Rus' campaigns led to a confrontation with the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimiskes eventually defeated Svyatoslav's forces and compelled him to leave the Balkans in 971. In the course of their campaign the Byzantines seized Preslav and detained Boris II. Initially John I Tzimiskes presented himself as
23493-442: The death of his elder siblings. When in 976 the rightful heir to the throne, Boris II's brother Roman (r. 971–997), escaped from captivity in Constantinople, he was recognized as Emperor by Samuel, who remained the chief commander of the Bulgarian army. Peace was impossible; as a result of the symbolic ending of the Bulgarian Empire following Boris II's abdication, Roman, and later Samuel, were seen as rebels and
23684-402: The defeat: Even if the sun would have come down, I would have never thought that the Moesian [Bulgarian] arrows were stronger than the Ausonian [Roman, Byzantine] spears. ... And when you, Phaethon [Sun], descend to the earth with your gold-shining chariot, tell the great soul of the Caesar: The Istros [Bulgaria] took the crown of Rome. Take up arms, the arrows of the Moesians broke
23875-402: The development of a new Slavic state under Byzantine patronage, the Principality of Serbia . Between 839 and 842 the Bulgarians waged war on the Serbs but did not make any progress. Historian Mark Whittow asserts that the claim for a Serb victory in that war in De Administrando Imperio was wishful Byzantine thinking, but notes that any Serb submission to the Bulgarians went no further than
24066-481: The different elements under a single code of laws. However, since the text is not preserved its precise aims remain unknown. After the conversion to Christianity Boris I was concerned with the legal matters and asked Pope Nicholas I to provide legal texts. Eventually, the Законъ соудный людьмъ ( Zakon sudnyi ljud'm , Court Law for the People), was compiled, based heavily on the Byzantine Ecloga and Nomocanon, but adapted to Bulgarian conditions and valid for
24257-413: The dispersal and expansion of proto-Uralic languages along the Seima-Turbino cultural area . Neparáczki et al. argues, based on archeogenetic results, that the historical Hungarian Conquerors were mostly a mixture of Central Asian Steppe groups, Slavic, and Germanic tribes, and this composite people evolved between 400 and 1000 AD. According to Neparáczki: "From all recent and archaic populations tested
24448-418: The early Bulgarians and were often decorated with golden, silver, bronze or copper buckles that reflected the illustrious origin of the holder. The most important part of the army was the heavy cavalry . In the early 9th century the Bulgarian Khan could muster 30,000 riders "all covered in iron" who were armoured with iron helms and chainmail. The horses too were covered with armour. As the capital, Pliska,
24639-518: The end of that year. Further expansion in the Western Balkans was checked by King Tomislav of Croatia , who was a Byzantine ally and defeated a Bulgarian invasion in 926. Simeon I was aware that he needed naval support to conquer Constantinople and in 922 sent envoys to the Fatimid caliph Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi Billah in Mahdia to negotiate the assistance of the powerful Arab navy. The caliph sent representatives to Bulgaria to arrange an alliance, but his emissaries were captured en route by
24830-419: The engineer Eumathius, who sought refuge with Khan Krum after the capture of Serdica in 809. The 9th century anonymous Byzantine chronicler known as Scrptor incertus lists the contemporary machinery produced and used by the Bulgarians. These included catapults ; scorpions ; multi-storey siege towers with a battering ram on the bottom floor; testudos – battering rams with metal plating on
25021-457: The ethnogenesis of Turkic and Mongolic peoples ) and Western Steppe Herders (Indo-European). Modern Hungarians are however genetically rather distant from their closest linguistic relatives ( Mansi and Khanty ), and more similar to the neighbouring non-Uralic neighbors. Modern Hungarians share a small but significant "Inner Asian/Siberian" component with other Uralic-speaking populations. The historical Hungarian conqueror YDNA variation had
25212-413: The events of the Carolingian Empire . The number of recorded battles increased from the end of the 9th century. In the late Avar period, a part of Hungarians was already present in the Carpathian Basin in the 9th century, this has been supported by genetic and archaeological research, because there are graves in which Avar descendants are buried in Hungarian clothes. The contemporary local population
25403-509: The examined Sarmatian individuals genetically also belong to the genetic legacy of the local European population. Various groups of Asian origin settled in the Carpathian Basin, such as Huns , Avars , Hungarian conquerors , Pechenegs , Jazyg people, and Cumans . The military leadership of the European Huns descended from the Asian Huns ( Xiongnus ), while the majority of them consisted of subjugated Germanic and Sarmatian populations. The most significant influx of genes from Asia occurred during
25594-417: The existence of a chancellery to the Khan that was probably organised in the Byzantine manner. Part of the chancellery's staff might have been Greeks and even monks, despite the fact that the country was still pagan. According to an inscription dated from the reign of Khan Malamir (r. 831–836) there were three classes in pagan Bulgaria – boilas , bagains and Bulgarians , i.e.
25785-415: The foremost cultural and spiritual centre of Slavic Europe . Its leading cultural position was further consolidated with the adoption of the Glagolitic alphabet , the invention of the Early Cyrillic alphabet shortly after in the capital Preslav , and the literature produced in Old Church Slavonic soon began spreading north. Old Church Slavonic became the lingua franca of much of Eastern Europe. In 927,
25976-490: The fully independent Bulgarian Patriarchate was officially recognized. During the late 9th and early 10th centuries, Simeon I achieved a string of victories over the Byzantines. Thereafter, he was recognized with the title of Tsar (Slavic for Caeser), and proceeded to expand the state to its greatest extent. After the annihilation of the Byzantine army in the Battle of Anchialus in 917, the Bulgarians laid siege to Constantinople in 923 and 924. The siege failed however, and
26167-665: The graves of the Hungarian conqueror elite of the 9th century. Based on the DNA in the Hungarian conqueror graves, the conquerors had eastern origin, but the vast majority of the Hungarian conquerors had European genome. The remains in cemeteries of the Hungarian commoners had fewer Eastern Asian ancestry than the remains in cemeteries of the Hungarian elite, which display around 1/3 Eastern ancestry. Commoners clustered with surrounding non-Hungarian groups, while elite remains clustered with modern day Volga Tatars and Bashkirs , who are regarded as turkified formerly Uralic/Ugric-speaking ethnicities. According to some genetic studies, there
26358-446: The head of a huge army and fleet to drive off the Bulgars but suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of Asparuh at Onglos , a swampy region in or around the Danube Delta where the Bulgars had set a fortified camp. The Bulgars advanced south, crossed the Balkan Mountains and invaded Thrace . In 681, the Byzantines were compelled to sign a humiliating peace treaty, forcing them to acknowledge Bulgaria as an independent state, to cede
26549-472: The huge military efforts that had taken a heavy toll on the population and economy. Simeon's successor Peter I (r. 927–969) negotiated a favourable peace treaty . The Byzantines agreed to recognize him as Emperor of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as an independent Patriarchate, as well as to pay an annual tribute. The peace was reinforced with a marriage between Peter and Romanos's granddaughter Irene Lekapene . This agreement ushered in
26740-453: The important city of Adrianople in Thrace and seized the capital of the Theme of Hellas , Thebes , deep in southern Greece. Following the disaster at Achelous, Byzantine diplomacy incited the Principality of Serbia to attack Bulgaria from the west, but this assault was easily contained. In 924, the Serbs ambushed and defeated a small Bulgarian army, provoking a major retaliatory campaign that ended with Bulgaria's annexation of Serbia at
26931-507: The influx of new settlers from Europe, especially Slovaks, Serbs and Germans . In 1715 (after the Ottoman occupation), the Southern Great Plain was nearly uninhabited but now has 1.3 million inhabitants, nearly all of them Hungarians. As a consequence, having also the Habsburg colonization policies, the country underwent a great change in ethnic composition as its population more than tripled to 8 million between 1720 and 1787, while only 39% of its people were Hungarians, who lived primarily in
27122-418: The internal matters of Bulgaria, he sponsored the disciples of the brothers Cyril and Methodius to create literature in Old Bulgarian language . Boris I dealt ruthlessly with the opposition to the Christianisation of Bulgaria , crushing a revolt of the nobility in 866 and overthrowing his own son Vladimir (r. 889–893) after he attempted to restore the traditional religion. In 893 he convened
27313-427: The joint attacks of Pechenegs and Bulgarians . According to eleventh-century tradition, the road taken by the Hungarians under Prince Álmos took them first to Transylvania in 895. This is supported by an eleventh-century Russian tradition that the Hungarians moved to the Carpathian Basin by way of Kiev . Prince Álmos , the sacred leader of the Hungarian Great Principality died before he could reach Pannonia , he
27504-436: The landed nobility and the higher clergy at the expense of the personal privileges of the peasantry, led to the emergence of Bogomilism , a dualistic heretic sect that in the subsequent centuries spread to the Byzantine Empire, northern Italy and southern France (cf. Cathars ). To the south, the Byzantine Empire reversed the course of the Byzantine–Arab wars against the declining Abbasid Caliphate and in 965 discontinued
27695-440: The last Bulgarian strongholds had surrendered to the Byzantine Empire, and the First Bulgarian Empire had ceased to exist. It was succeeded by the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1185. The First Bulgarian Empire became known simply as Bulgaria since its recognition by the Byzantine Empire in 681. Some historians use the terms Danube Bulgaria , First Bulgarian State , or First Bulgarian Tsardom (Empire) . Between 681 and 864
27886-429: The leading Bulgar aristocratic families. Since that time certain Slavic titles became more prominent, such as župan , and some of them mingled forming titles like župan tarkhan . The peasants lived in rural communities known as zadruga and had collective responsibility. The majority of the peasantry were personally free under the direct rule of the central administration and the legislation introduced following
28077-401: The left wing of the army, and at times the whole army. He could be a co-ruler or a regent during the minority of the monarch; the sources mention that Khan Malamir "ruled together with kavhan Isbul " (fl. 820s–830s) and kavhan Dometian is noted as an associate [in the government] of Gavril Radomir (r. 1014–1015). The third highest-ranking official was the ichirgu-boila , who commanded
28268-425: The local population of the Carpathian Basin". The foundation of the Hungarian state is connected to the Hungarian conquerors , who arrived from the Pontic steppes as a confederation of seven tribes. The Hungarians arrived in the frame of a strong centralized steppe-empire under the leadership of Grand Prince Álmos and his son Árpád , they became founders of the Árpád dynasty , the Hungarian ruling dynasty and
28459-408: The lower Danube. The fourth one, Kuber , initially settled in Pannonia under Avar suzerainty but revolted and moved to the region of Macedonia , while the fifth brother Alcek settled in central Italy . The Bulgars of Asparuh moved westwards to what is now Bessarabia , subdued the territories to the north of the Danube in modern Romania , and established themselves in the Danube Delta . In
28650-463: The main Bulgar tribes and to declare independence from the Avars, creating a powerful confederation called Old Great Bulgaria , also known as Patria Onoguria , between the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Caucasus . Kubrat, who was baptised in Constantinople in 619, concluded an alliance with the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) and the two countries remained in good relations until Kubrat's death between 650 and 665. Kubrat fought with
28841-549: The most widely used being sabres , swords , battle axes , spears , pikes , daggers , arkans , and bows and arrows . The soldiers were often trained to use both spears and bows. The Bulgarians wore helms, mail armor and shields for defence. The helms were usually cone-shaped, while the shields were round and light. The armor was of two types – wedge riveted mail consisting of small metal rings linked together, and scale armour consisting of small armour plates attached to each other. Belts were very important for
29032-400: The negotiations the Byzantines attempted to assassinate Krum. In response, the Bulgarians pillaged Eastern Thrace and seized the important city of Adrianople , resettling its 10,000 inhabitants in " Bulgaria across the Danube ". Krum made extensive preparations to capture Constantinople: 5,000 iron-plated wagons were built to carry the siege equipment; the Byzantines even pleaded for help from
29223-399: The north of the Carpathians after 895/896. There is also a consistent Hungarian population in Transylvania, the Székelys , who comprise 40% of the Hungarians in Romania . The Székely people's origin, and in particular the time of their settlement in Transylvania, is a matter of historical controversy. In 907, the Hungarians destroyed a Bavarian army in the Battle of Pressburg and laid
29414-412: The north-east the war with the Khazars persisted and in 700 Khan Asparuh perished in battle with them. Despite this setback the consolidation of the country continued under Asparuh's successor, Khan Tervel (r. 700–721). In 705 he assisted the deposed Byzantine Emperor Justinian II in regaining his throne in return for the Zagore region of Northern Thrace , the first expansion of Bulgaria to
29605-399: The northern and western counties of the Kingdom of Hungary. Spontaneous assimilation was an important factor, especially among the German and Jewish minorities and the citizens of the bigger towns. On the other hand, about 1.5 million people (about two-thirds non-Hungarian) left the Kingdom of Hungary between 1890–1910 to escape from poverty . The years 1918 to 1920 were a turning point in
29796-414: The payment of the tribute, leading to sharp deterioration in their relations. In 968 the Byzantines incited Kievan Rus' to invade Bulgaria . In two years the Kievan Prince Svyatoslav I defeated the Bulgarian army, captured Preslav and established his capital at the important Bulgarian city of Preslavets (meaning "Little Preslav"). In this desperate situation the aging Peter I abdicated, leaving
29987-409: The payment of tribute. The reign of Boris I (r. 852–889) began with numerous setbacks. For ten years the country fought against the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Francia , Great Moravia , the Croats and the Serbs, forming several unsuccessful alliances and changing sides. Around August 863 there was a period of 40 days of earthquakes and there was a lean harvest, which caused famine throughout
30178-407: The period of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin . The Carpathian Basin was demonstrably not empty when the Hungarian conquerors led by Árpád arrived. The conquering Hungarians mixed to varying degrees on individual level with the Avar population living in the Carpathian Basin, but they had Avar genetic heritage as well. According to Endre Neparáczki, it is no longer possible to narrow down
30369-451: The persecution of Christians, in particular against the Byzantine prisoners of war settled north of the Danube. The expansion to the south and south-west continued with Omurtag's successors under the guidance of the capable kavhan (First Minister) Isbul . During the short reign of Khan Malamir (r. 831–836), the important city of Philippopolis ( Plovdiv ) was incorporated into the country. Under Khan Presian (r. 836–852),
30560-496: The place and time of their ethnogenesis , has been a matter of debate. The Hungarian language is classified in the Ugric family , the range of the original Ugric people is predicted to have been east of the Ural Mountains , south of the forest zone and not far from the steppe. The relatedness of Hungarians with other Ugric peoples is confirmed by linguistic and genetic data, but modern Hungarians have also substantial admixture from local European populations. The Ugric languages are
30751-444: The population of the Kingdom of Hungary including ethnic composition were carried out in 1850–51. There is a debate among Hungarian and non-Hungarian (especially Slovak and Romanian ) historians about the possible changes in the ethnic structure of the region throughout history. The proportion of Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin was at an almost constant 80% during the Middle Ages . The Hungarian population began to decrease only at
30942-455: The right wing of the army at war and might have had the role of a foreign minister. Under his direct command were 1,300 soldiers. Historian Veselin Beshevliev assumes that the post might have been created under the reign of Khan Krum (r. 803–814), or earlier, in order to limit the power of the kavhan . Although initially the Bulgarians did not have their own writing system, the presence of numerous stone inscriptions, mainly in Greek, indicate
31133-450: The south of the Balkan mountains. In addition Tervel obtained the title Caesar and, having been enthroned alongside the Emperor, received the obeisance of the citizenry of Constantinople and numerous gifts. However, three years later, Justinian tried to regain the ceded territory by force, but his army was defeated at Anchialus . Skirmishes continued until 716 when Khan Tervel signed an important agreement with Byzantium that defined
31324-407: The south of the Danube and made several attempts to enforce that claim. Throughout the existence of the First Empire Bulgaria could expect Byzantine onslaughts aimed at its destruction. The steppes to the north-east were home to numerous peoples whose unpredictable pillaging raids were also of concern. Therefore, military preparedness was a top priority. Guards always stood on the alert and if anyone
31515-427: The spears of the Ausonians. Immediately after the victory Samuel pushed east and recovered north-eastern Bulgaria, along with the old capitals, Pliska and Preslav. In the next ten years the Bulgarian armies expanded the country south annexing the whole of Thessaly and Epirus and plundering the Peloponnese Peninsula. With the major Bulgarian military successes and the defection of a number of Byzantine officials to
31706-445: The steppes along the Southern Bug River. At the same time, the Pechenegs advanced westwards and prevented the Magyars from returning to their homeland. The blow was so heavy that the Magyars were forced to migrate west, eventually settling in the Pannonian Basin , where they eventually established the Kingdom of Hungary . In 896 the Byzantines were routed in the decisive battle of Boulgarophygon and pleaded for peace that confirmed
31897-436: The territories of present-day Germany, France, and Italy open to Hungarian raids, which were fast and devastating. The Hungarians defeated the Imperial Army of Louis the Child , son of Arnulf of Carinthia and last legitimate descendant of the German branch of the house of Charlemagne , near Augsburg in 910. From 917 to 925, Hungarians raided through Basel , Alsace , Burgundy , Saxony , and Provence . Hungarian expansion
32088-410: The territories to the north of the Balkan Mountains and to pay an annual tribute. In his universal chronicle the Western European author Sigebert of Gembloux remarked that the Bulgarian state was established in 680. This was the first state that the empire recognised in the Balkans and the first time it legally surrendered claims to part of its Balkan dominions. The Byzantine chronicler Theophanes
32279-461: The time of the Ottoman conquest, reaching as low as around 39% by the end of the 18th century. The decline of the Hungarians was due to the constant wars, Ottoman raids, famines, and plagues during the 150 years of Ottoman rule. The main zones of war were the territories inhabited by the Hungarians, so the death toll depleted them at a much higher rate than among other nationalities. In the 18th century, their proportion declined further because of
32470-493: The time when the Bulgars inhabited the steppes to the north and east of the Black Sea. The Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans mentions monarchs of three clans that ruled Bulgaria until 766 – Dulo, Vokil and Ugain. The power of the principal noble families was greatly crippled in the aftermath of the anti-Christian rebellion of 866, when Boris I executed 52 leading boilas along with their families. The boila were divided into inner and outer boilas and it
32661-640: The title Bulgarian Tsardom . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bulgarian_Tsardom&oldid=1018360160 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire ( Church Slavonic : блъгарьско цѣсарьствиѥ , romanized: blŭgarĭsko tsěsarǐstvije ; Bulgarian : Първо българско царство)
32852-520: The top; τρίβόλοι – iron tridents placed hidden amidst the battlefield to hinder the enemy cavalry; ladders, etc. Iron-plated wagons were used for transportation. It is known that Khan Krum prepared 5,000 such wagons for his intended siege of Constantinople in 814. Wooden pontoon bridges were also constructed for crossing rivers. Magyars Hungarians , also known as Magyars ( / ˈ m æ ɡ j ɑː r z / MAG -yarz ; Hungarian : magyarok [ˈmɒɟɒrok] ), are
33043-464: The treaty and the largely peaceful era that followed, the strategic position of the Bulgarian Empire remained difficult. The country was surrounded by aggressive neighbours – the Magyars to the north-west, the Pechenegs and the growing power of Kievan Rus' to the north-east, and the Byzantine Empire to the south. Bulgaria suffered several devastating Magyar raids between 934 and 965. The growing insecurity, as well as expanding influence of
33234-444: The uprooting of all vineyards as a measure against drunkenness but this claim is refuted in the contemporary sources, which indicate that, after capturing Pliska in 811, the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus I found large quantities of wine, and after the final Bulgarian victory Krum drank wine in the Emperor's skull. Krum's legal code is seen by many historians as an attempt to centralise the state and to homogenize society by putting
33425-432: The warriors, they were buried according to the same traditions, wore the same style of ornaments, and belonged to the same anthropological group. The Hungarian military events of the following years prove that the Hungarian population that settled in the Carpathian Basin was not a weakened population without a significant military power. Other theories assert that the move of the Hungarians was forced or at least hastened by
33616-463: The wars with Persia persisted, the 610s and 620s saw a new and even larger migration wave with the Slavs penetrating further south into the Balkans, reaching Thessaly , Thrace and Peloponnese and raiding some islands in the Aegean Sea . The Byzantines held out in Salonica and a number of coastal towns, but beyond these areas the imperial authority in the Balkans disappeared. The Bulgars were Turkic semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in
33807-407: The wave of emigration after the attempted revolution in 1956 . The number of Hungarians in the neighbouring countries tended to remain the same or slightly decreased, mostly due to assimilation (sometimes forced; see Slovakization and Romanianization ) and to emigration to Hungary (in the 1990s, especially from Transylvania and Vojvodina ). After the "baby boom" of the 1950s ( Ratkó era ),
33998-406: The whole population of the country. It combined elements of civil, criminal, canon and military law, as well as public and private law, and included substantive norms and procedural guidelines. The Court Law for the People dealt with combating paganism, testimony of witnesses, sexual morality, marital relations, distribution of war booty, etc. To eradicate the residual paganism the law provided that
34189-424: The year, instead of the usual short campaigning of the epoch with the troops returning home to winter. In 1001 they seized Pliska and Preslav in the east; in 1003 a major offensive along the Danube resulted in the fall of Vidin after an eight-month siege; and in 1004 Basil II defeated Samuel in the battle of Skopje and took possession of the city. This war of attrition dragged on for a decade until 1014, when
34380-459: Was a medieval state that existed in Southeastern Europe between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. It was founded in 680–681 after part of the Bulgars , led by Asparuh , moved south to the northeastern Balkans . There they secured Byzantine recognition of their right to settle south of the Danube by defeating – possibly with the help of local South Slavic tribes – the Byzantine army led by Constantine IV . During
34571-425: Was a significant Hun-Hungarian mixing around 300 AD, and the remaining Huns were integrated into the conquering Hungarians. The genomic analyses of the Hungarian royal Árpád family members are in line with the reported conquering Hungarian-Hun origin of the dynasty in harmony with their Y-chromosomal phylogenetic connections. According to the growing archaeological evidence that the Avar population lived through
34762-408: Was among their ranks that the holders of the highest military and administrative posts were selected. Most likely the outer boilas resided outside the capital, while the inner ones were member of the court under the direct influence of the monarch. The bagains were the second-ranking aristocratic class and were divided into numerous sub-ranks. The presence of two separate classes of nobility
34953-428: Was checked at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955, ending their raids against Western Europe , but raids on the Balkan Peninsula continued until 970. The Pope approved Hungarian settlement in the area when their leaders converted to Christianity , and Stephen I ( Szent István , or Saint Stephen) was crowned King of Hungary in 1001. The century between the arrival of the Hungarians from the eastern European plains and
35144-439: Was decisively defeated in the battle of the Varbitsa Pass . Nicephorus I himself was slain along with most of his troops, and his skull was lined with silver and used as a drinking cup. Krum took the initiative and in 812 moved the war towards Thrace , capturing the key Black Sea port of Messembria and defeating the Byzantines once more at Versinikia in 813 before proposing a generous peace settlement. However, during
35335-405: Was divided into comitati , governed by a comita , although this term was used by Western European chroniclers, who wrote in Latin. It is likely that the Bulgarians used the term земя ( zemya , meaning "land"), as mentioned in the Court Law for the People. Their number is unknown, but the Archbishop of Reims Hincmar mentioned that the 866 rebellion against Boris I was headed by the nobility of
35526-410: Was issued by Khan Krum at a People's Council in the very beginning of the 9th century but the text has not survived in its entirety and only certain items have been preserved in the 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia Suda . It prescribed the death penalty for false oaths and accusations and severe penalties for thieves and those who gave them shelter. The Suda also mentioned that the laws foresaw
35717-442: Was sacrificed in Transylvania. In 895/896, under the leadership of Árpád , some Hungarians crossed the Carpathians and entered the Carpathian Basin . The tribe called Megyer was the leading tribe of the Hungarian alliance that conquered the centre of the basin. At the same time (c. 895), due to their involvement in the 894–896 Bulgaro-Byzantine war , Hungarians in Etelköz were attacked by Bulgaria and then by their old enemies
35908-413: Was seeking peace with the Byzantines. According to the old Bulgarian tradition the Khan was first among equals, which was among the reasons why Boris I decided to convert to Christianity, as Christian monarchs ruled by the grace of God. However, the divinity of the Bulgarian ruler, as well as his superiority over the Byzantine Emperor, were already asserted by Khan Omurtag (r. 814–831), as stated in
36099-463: Was situated in an open plain, the cavalry was essential for its protection. The fortification system of the inner regions of the country was reinforced with several fortified trenches covering huge spaces and supporting the manoeuvrability of the cavalry. The army was well versed in the use of stratagems . A strong cavalry unit was often held in reserve and would attack the enemy at an opportune moment. Free horses would be sometimes concentrated behind
36290-415: Was to flee during a watch, the responsible guards were to be killed without hesitation. Before battle, a "most faithful and prudent man" was sent to inspect all the arms, horses, and materiel, and being ill-prepared or readied in a useless fashion was punishable by death. Capital punishment was also prescribed for riding war horses in peacetime. The Bulgarian army was armed with various types of weapons,
36481-400: Was used by the "soldier Emperor" Constantine V (r. 741–775), who launched nine major campaigns aiming to eliminate Bulgaria. Having contained the Arab threat during the first part of his reign, Constantine V was able to concentrate his forces on Bulgaria after 755. He defeated the Bulgarians at Marcellae in 756, Anchialus in 763 and Berzitia in 774, but lost the Battle of
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