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184-434: [REDACTED] Bulgarian Empire Allies: [REDACTED] Empire of Nicaea The Bulgarian–Latin wars were a series of conflicts between the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) and the Latin Empire (1204–61). The wars affected the northern border of the Latin Empire throughout its existence. The initial expansionist ambitions of the Latin Empire were crushed only one year after its foundation after

368-685: A Turkic "Qun" people came from the northern Chinese borders—"the land of Qitay" (possibly during a part of a migration from further east). After leaving the lands of the Khitans (possibly due to the Khitans' expansion ), the Qun entered the territory of the Śari people, whom the Quns expelled. Marwazi wrote that the Qun were Nestorian Christians . Golden surmised that these Quns might have sprung "from that same conglomeration of Mongolic peoples from which

552-662: A Cuman army under Togortok/Tugorkan and Boniak. Attacked again in 1094 by the Cumans, many Pechenegs were again slain. Some of the Pechenegs fled to Hungary, as the Cumans themselves would do a few decades later. In 1091/1092 the Cumans, under Kopulch, raided Transylvania and Hungary, moving to Bihor and getting as far as the Tisza and Timiș rivers. Loaded with goods and prisoners they then split into three groups, after which they were attacked and defeated by King Ladislaus I. In 1092,

736-531: A catastrophic defeat at the Tryavna Pass . The emperor barely escaped with his life; the Imperial treasury, including the crown and the cross, were captured by the victorious Bulgarians. After their success, Asen was crowned emperor and became known as Ivan Asen I. Peter IV voluntarily stepped down to make way for his more energetic brother; Peter IV retained his title but Ivan Asen assumed authority. In

920-475: A deterioration of relations with Serbia. This change of political course is explained by the rapid growth of Serbian power and its penetration into Macedonia. The Bulgarians and the Byzantines agreed to a joint campaign against Serbia, but it took five years until the differences and tensions between Bulgaria and Byzantium were overcome. Michael Shishman gathered 15,000 troops and invaded Serbia. He engaged

1104-582: A disastrous defeat in 1180; Elrut, Konchek's brother died in battle. In 1177, a Cuman army that was allied with Ryazan sacked six cities that belonged to the Berendei and Torkil . In 1183, the Rus' defeated a large Cuman army and captured Khan Kobiak (Kobek) as well as his sons and other notables. Subsequently, Khan Konchek concluded negotiations. Like his son Khan Köten , preceding the Mongol invasion, Khan Konchek

1288-633: A few months the Mongol Chaka ruled in Tarnovo. In 1300, Theodore Svetoslav , George I's eldest son, took advantage of a civil war in the Golden Horde, overthrew Chaka, and presented his head to the Mongol khan Toqta . This brought an end to Mongol interference in Bulgarian domestic affairs and secured Southern Bessarabia as far as Bolgrad to Bulgaria. The new emperor began to rebuild

1472-709: A half part of the whole Roman Empire". The Crusaders received the other lands of the former Byzantine Empire and created the Kingdom of Thessalonica with Boniface of Montferrat selected for King. In 1204, the Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople , capital of the Byzantine Empire , and created the Latin Empire, electing as emperor Baldwin I of Flanders. Although the Bulgarians had offered

1656-518: A joint expedition with the Pechenegs against Adrianople in 1078. During that same year the Cumans were also fighting the Rus' . The Russian Primary Chronicle mentions Yemek Cumans who were active in the region of Volga Bulgaria . The vast territory of the Cuman–Kipchak realm consisted of loosely connected tribal units that represented a dominant military force but were never politically united by

1840-734: A large Christian army led by the Serbian brothers Vukašin Mrnjavčević and Jovan Uglješa in the Battle of Chernomen . They immediately turned on Bulgaria and conquered northern Thrace, the Rhodopes, Kostenets , Ihtiman , and Samokov , effectively limiting the authority of Ivan Shishman in the lands to the north of the Balkan mountains and the Valley of Sofia . Unable to resist, the Bulgarian monarch

2024-519: A linguistic manual written to help Catholic missionaries communicate with the Cuman people. Cuman appears in ancient Roman texts as the name of a fortress or gate. The Roman natural philosopher Pliny the Elder (who lived in the 1st century AD), mentions "a fortress, the name of which is Cumania, erected for the purpose of preventing the passage of the innumerable tribes that lay beyond" while describing

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2208-593: A major rebellion in 1211, Boril was forced to cede Belgrade and Braničevo to Hungary. A campaign against Serbia in 1214 also ended in defeat. I waged war in Romania , defeated the Greek army, and captured the Lord Emperor Theodore Comnenus himself and all his boyars . And I conquered all the land from Adrianople to Durazzo, Greek, Serbia and Albanian alike. The Franks hold only the cities in

2392-520: A major victory in the Battle of Klokotnitsa . Theodore Komnenos was captured along with his whole court and most of the surviving troops. Ivan Asen II released all ordinary soldiers and marched on the Epirote–controlled territories, where all cities and towns from Adrianople to Durazzo on the Adriatic Sea surrendered and recognized his rule. Theodore's brother Michael II Komnenos Doukas

2576-521: A plot inspired by Constantinople. Peter IV besieged Tarnovo and Ivanko fled to the Byzantine Empire, where he was made governor of Philippopolis . Peter IV was murdered less than a year after his brother's death. The throne was succeeded by Kaloyan , Asen's and Peter IV's youngest brother. An ambitious and ruthless ruler, he wanted to gain international recognition and to complete the liberation of Bulgaria. Kaloyan also wanted revenge against

2760-585: A resistance against the relentlessly advancing Mongols led by Jebe and Subutai . The Mongols crossed the Caucasus mountains in pursuit of Muhammad II , the shah of the Khwarezmid Empire , and met and defeated the Cumans in Subcaucasia in 1220. The Cuman khans Danylo Kobiakovych and Yurii Konchakovych died in battle, while the other Cumans, commanded by Khan Köten , managed to get aid from

2944-595: A strictly political agenda in his negotiations with the Papacy, without sincere intentions to convert to Roman Catholicism . The union with Rome lasted until 1235 and did not affect the Bulgarian church, which continued its practices of Eastern Orthodox canons and rites. The ambition of Bulgaria to become the religious centre of the Orthodox world had a prominent place in the Second Empire's state doctrine. After

3128-460: A strong central power; the khans acted on their own initiative. The Cuman–Kipchaks never established a state, instead forming a Cuman–Kipchak confederation ( Cumania /Desht-i Qipchaq/Zemlja Poloveckaja (Polovcian Land)/Pole Poloveckoe (Polovcian Plain)), which stretched from the Danube in the west to Taraz , Kazakhstan in the east. This was possibly due to their facing no prolonged threat before

3312-550: A successor, the Byzantines recaptured the city and other Bulgarian-seized towns in northern Thrace. The energetic despot of Vidin, Michael Shishman , was elected emperor the next year; he immediately turned on the Byzantine emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos , regaining the lost lands. In late 1324, the two monarchs signed a peace treaty, strengthened by a marriage between the Bulgarian ruler and Theodora Palaiologina . Michael Shishman divorced his Serbian wife Anna Neda , causing

3496-495: A temporary recovery and stability, but also the peak of Balkan feudalism as central authorities gradually lost power in many regions. Bulgaria was divided into three parts on the eve of the Ottoman invasion. Despite strong Byzantine influence, Bulgarian artists and architects created their own distinctive style. In the 14th century Bulgarian culture, literature, art, and architecture flourished. The capital city Tarnovo , which

3680-573: A thin strip along the Black Sea coast and a few other towns in the Balkans . The Venetians took the most fertile part of Byzantine Thrace including Adrianople (Odrin), Rodosto , Arkadiopolis , most of the Peloponnese , parts of Epirus and Thessaly as well as many islands. Their Doge took the title quartae partis et dimidiae totius imperii Romaniae dominator or "Lord of a quarter and

3864-428: A visit to Tarnovo. The years of peace brought economic prosperity and boosted commerce; Bulgaria became a major exporter of agricultural commodities, especially wheat. During the early 1320s, tensions between Bulgaria and the Byzantines rose as the latter descended into a civil war and the new emperor George II Terter seized Philippopolis. In the confusion following George II's unexpected death in 1322 without leaving

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4048-536: A war that would go on for 175 years. In 1068 at the Battle of the Alta River , the Cumans defeated the armies of the three sons of Yaroslav the Wise , Grand Prince Iziaslav I of Kiev , Prince Sviatoslav of Chernigov , and Prince Vsevolod of Pereyaslavl . After the Cuman victory, they repeatedly invaded Kievan Rus', devastating the land and taking captives, who became either their slaves or were sold at markets in

4232-410: A week; in 1332, it travelled 230 km (140 miles) in five days. Inside the fortress [Sofia] there is a large and elite army, its soldiers are heavily built, moustached and look war-hardened, but are used to consume wine and rakia —in a word, jolly fellows. Ottoman commander Lala Shahin on the garrison of Sofia . Bulgaria maintained extensive lines of fortresses to protect the country, with

4416-608: A year, however, as the Rus' had suffered from their raids for decades. But when news reached Kiev that the Mongols were marching along the Dniester River, the Rus' responded. Mstislav of Galich then arranged a council of war in Kiev, which was attended by Mstislav Romanovich , Prince Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal and Mstislav Svyatoslavich of Chernigov . The princes promised support to Khan Koten's Cumans and an alliance between

4600-531: Is a description of the land of Inner Cumania and parts of the land of Bulgaria." According to the 12th-century Jewish traveler Petachiah of Regensburg "they have no king, only princes and royal families". Cumans interacted with the Rus' principalities, Bulgaria , the Byzantine Empire , and the Wallachian states in the Balkans ; with Armenia and the Kingdom of Georgia (see Kipchaks in Georgia ) in

4784-587: Is normally assumed that the name referred to the Cumans' hair, Imre Baski—a prominent Turkologist —has suggested that it may have other origins, including: Observing that the Hungarian exonym for Cumans—i.e. Kun , Kunok —appeared as Cunus , Cuni in the chronicles and was applied to earlier nomads such as Pechenegs or Oghuzes , György Györffy derived Kun from Huns , instead of Qun , which he kept separate from Kun . However, István Vásáry rejected Györffy's hypothesis and contended that "the Hungarian name of

4968-458: Is one of the great kingdoms in the world, but it is not all inhabited. For at one of the parts there is so great cold that no man may dwell there; and in another part there is so great heat that no man may endure it ... And the principal city of Comania is clept [called] Sarak [Serai], that is one of the three ways for to go into India. But by that way, he may not pass no great multitude of people, but if it be in winter. And that passage men clepe

5152-637: The Polovtsy , derived from the Slavic root *polvъ "pale; light yellow; blonde". Polovtsy or Polovec is often said to be derived from the Old East Slavic polovŭ (половъ) "yellow; pale" by the Russians—all meaning "blond". The old Ukrainian word polovtsy (Пóловці), derived from polovo "straw"—means "blond, pale yellow". The western Cumans, or Polovtsy, were also called Sorochinetses by

5336-526: The Asen dynasty of the Second Bulgarian Empire, or who were in Byzantine service. Cumans at that time also resettled in the Kingdom of Georgia and were Christianized. There they achieved prominent positions , helped Georgians to stop the advance of Seljuk Turks , and helped make Georgia the most powerful kingdom of the region (they were referred to as naqivchaqari). After the death of

5520-631: The Balkan Peninsula while the influence of the Latin Empire was reduced to Constantinople and a few towns and islands. With the elimination of the Patriarchate of Constantinople by the Roman Catholic Crusaders, Bulgaria became the centre of Orthodox Christianity . On 13 April 1204 the knights of the Fourth Crusade seized the capital of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) , Constantinople , and replaced

5704-752: The Balkans , the Cumans were in contact with all the statal entities. They fought with the Kingdom of Hungary, allied with the Bulgarians of the Second Bulgarian Empire (they were the empire's most effective military component) and with the Vlachs against the Byzantine Empire . A variant of the oldest Turkic chronicle, Oghuzname (The Oghuz Khan's Tale), mentions the Cumans fighting the Magyars, Rus', Romanians (Ulak), and Bashkirs , who had refused to submit to their authority. In alliance with

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5888-723: The Battle of Adrianople in 1205, where its Emperor Baldwin I was captured and most of his knights perished. After that crucial defeat the Latin Empire had to defend itself against Bulgaria and the successor states of the Byzantine Empire, the Nicaean Empire in Asia Minor and the Despotate of Epirus in the Balkans. As a result of the conflicts the Bulgarian Empire expanded its territory taking control of most of

6072-547: The Black Sea and Constantinople , in turn leading Rus' to again attempt action. Offenses were halted during 1166–1169, when Grand prince Andrey Bogolyubsky , son of Khan Ayepa's daughter, took control of Kiev in 1169 and installed Gleb as his puppet. Gleb brought in "wild" Cumans as well as Oghuz and Berendei units. Later, the princes of the Principality of Chernigov attempted to use Khan Konchek's army against Kievan Rus' and Suzdal . This Chernigov-Cuman alliance suffered

6256-535: The Bulgarian coinage , coins from the Byzantine Empire, Latin Empire, Venice, Serbia, the Golden Horde, and the small Balkan principalities were widely used. Due to the increase of production, there was a tendency to limit the circulation of foreign coins by the second half of the 14th century. Coins were minted by some independent or semi-independent Bulgarian lords, such as Jacob Svetoslav and Dobrotitsa. Following

6440-497: The Bulgarians and Vlachs , the Cumans are believed to have played a significant role in the uprising led by brothers Asen and Peter of Tarnovo , resulting in victory over Byzantium and the restoration of Bulgaria's independence in 1185. István Vásáry states that without the active participation of the Cumans, the Vlakho-Bulgarian rebels could never have gained the upper hand over the Byzantines, and ultimately without

6624-631: The Carpathian Mountains and laid siege on Przemyśl, which prompted David Igorevich, an ally of Volodar Rostislavich, to persuade the Cumans, under Khan Boniak and Altunopa, to attack the Hungarians. The Hungarian army was soundly crushed by the Cumans; the Illuminated Chronicle mentions that "rarely did Hungarians suffer such slaughter as in this battle." In 1104 the Cumans were allied with Prince Volodar. In 1106,

6808-708: The Caucasus ; and with the Khwarezm Empire in Central Asia. The Cumans– Kipchaks constituted an important element and were closely associated with the Khwarazmian royal house via marital alliances. The Cumans were also active in commerce with traders from Central Asia to Venice . The Cumans had a commercial interest in Crimea , where they also took tribute from Crimean cities. A major area of commerce

6992-817: The Cuman language . They are referred to as Polovtsy in Rus', Cumans in Western and Kipchaks in Eastern sources. Related to the Pecheneg , they inhabited a shifting area north of the Black Sea and along the Volga River known as Cumania , from which the Cuman–Kipchaks meddled in the politics of the Caucasus and the Khwarazmian Empire . The Cumans were fierce and formidable nomadic warriors of

7176-574: The Cumans (allied to Kaloyan) managed to draw the pursuing heavy cavalry of the Latin Empire into an ambush in the marshes north of Adrianople, and the Cumans and Bulgarians inflicted a crushing defeat on the crusader army. Emperor Baldwin I was captured, Count Louis I of Blois was killed, and the Venetian Doge Enrico Dandolo led the surviving portions of the crusader army into a hasty retreat back to Constantinople, during

7360-672: The Eurasian Steppe who exerted an enduring influence on the medieval Balkans . They were numerous, culturally sophisticated, and militarily powerful. Many eventually settled west of the Black Sea, influencing the politics of Kievan Rus' , the Galicia–Volhynia Principality , the Golden Horde Khanate, the Second Bulgarian Empire , the Kingdom of Serbia , the Kingdom of Hungary , Moldavia ,

7544-474: The Kingdom of Georgia , the Byzantine Empire , the Empire of Nicaea , the Latin Empire , and Wallachia , with Cuman immigrants becoming integrated into each country's elite. The Cumans played a role in the creation of the Second Bulgarian Empire. Cuman and Kipchak tribes joined politically to create the Cuman–Kipchak confederation. ( Tokhara Yabghus , Turk Shahis ) After the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' in 1237, many Cumans sought asylum in

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7728-402: The Kingdom of Hungary , as many of them had already settled there in the previous decades. The Cumans also played an important role in the Second Bulgarian Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Nicaea Empire 's Anatolia . The Cuman language is attested in some medieval documents and is the best-known of the early Turkic languages . The Codex Cumanicus was

7912-497: The Kipchaks , as the two tribes often lived side by side. Most other Turkic-speaking people (as well as most Muslim sources) called the Cumans some variant of "Qipchaqs", while Armenians called them "Xartesk'ns". Qumans were primarily used by Byzantine authors (and a few Arab sources), while the name used in Rus' tended to be "Polovtsian". In Turkic languages qu , qun , qūn , quman or qoman means "pale, sallow, cream coloured", "pale yellow", or "yellowish grey". While it

8096-410: The Latin Crusaders . Cuman troops continued to be hired throughout the 13th and 14th century by both the Bulgarians and Byzantines. The Cumans who remained east and south of the Carpathian Mountains established a county named Cumania, which was a strong military base in an area consisting of parts of Moldavia and Wallachia . Like most other peoples of medieval Eastern Europe, the Cumans put up

8280-446: The Latin Empire . The Bulgarians tried to establish friendly relations with the Latins but were rebuffed and the Latins claimed their lands despite Papal recognition. Facing a common enemy, Kaloyan and the Byzantine aristocracy in Thrace made an alliance and the latter promised they would accept Kaloyan as their emperor. The decisive battle between the Bulgarian army and the Crusaders took place on 14 April 1205, at Adrianople , at which

8464-415: The Patriarch of Jerusalem to negotiate an anti-Byzantine alliance, which included the other two Eastern Patriarchs, but the mission achieved nothing. Disputes with the Patriarchate of Constantinople over the legitimacy of the Bulgarian Patriarchate intensified in the 14th century. In 1355, the Ecumenical patriarch Callistus I tried to assert his supremacy over the Bulgarian church and claimed that under

8648-410: The Rus' —apparently derived from the Turkic sary chechle "yellow-haired". A similar etymology may have been at work in the name of the Śārī , who also migrated westward ahead of the Qun. However, according to O. Suleymenov polovtsy may come from a Slavic word for "blue-eyed", i.e. the Serbo-Croatian plȃv (пла̑в) means "blue", but this word also means "fair, blonde" and is a cognate of

8832-427: The Second Bulgarian Kingdom to distinguish it from the First Bulgarian Empire . An alternative name used in connection with the pre-mid 13th century period is the Empire of Vlachs and Bulgarians ; variant names include the Vlach–Bulgarian Empire , the Bulgarian–Wallachian Empire , or the Romanian–Bulgarian Empire ; the latter name was used exclusively in Romanian historiography. However, Arabic chronicles from

9016-517: The Siberian Sağay dialect . Klyashtorny links Kipchak to qovï , qovuq "unfortunate, unlucky"; yet Golden sees a better match in qïv "good fortune" and adjectival suffix -čāq . Regardless, Golden notes that the ethnonym's original form and etymology "remain a matter of contention and speculation". Kievan Rus' , Mamluk , Hungarian , and Chinese sources preserved the names of many Cuman-Kupchak tribal groupings: Seven Cuman tribes eventually settled in Hungary, namely: Baskakov thought that

9200-426: The Temes river. King Ladislaus offered the Christianity for the Cuman survivors, the majority of them accepted, thus the king settled them in Jászság . The rumor of the losing battle reached the Cuman camp, the Cumans threatened King Ladislaus with revenge and demanded to free the Cuman prisoners. King Ladislaus marched to the Hungarian border to prevent the next invasion. The two armies clashed near Severin ,

9384-399: The "Gates of Caucasus" ( Derbent , or Darial Gorge ),. The Greek philosopher Strabo (died c. 24 AD) refers to the Darial Gorge (also known as the Iberian Gates or the Caucasian Gates) as Porta Caucasica and Porta Cumana . The original meaning of the endonym Cuman is unknown. It is also often unclear whether a particular name refers to the Cumans alone, or to both the Cumans and

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9568-427: The 1070s, and the 1080s. The initial centre of the resistance was the theme of Bulgaria, in what is now Macedonia , where the massive Uprising of Peter Delyan (1040–41) and the Uprising of Georgi Voiteh (1072) took place. Both were quelled with great difficulty by Byzantine authorities. These were followed by rebellions in Paristrion and Thrace . During the Komnenian Restoration and the temporary stabilisation of

9752-503: The 13th century had used only the name of Wallachia instead of Bulgaria and gave the Arabic coordinates of Wallachia and specified that Walachia was named "al-Awalak" and the dwellers "ulaqut" or "ulagh". In 1018, when the Byzantine emperor Basil II ( r.   976–1025) conquered the First Bulgarian Empire, he ruled it cautiously. The existing tax system, laws, and the power of low-ranking nobility remained unchanged until his death in 1025. The autocephalous Bulgarian Patriarchate

9936-417: The Armenian alphabet ), where it was preserved for centuries up to the modern day. The Cumans first encountered the Rus' in 1055, when they advanced towards the Rus' Pereyaslavl principality , but Prince Vsevolod reached an agreement with them thus avoiding a military confrontation. In 1061, however, the Cumans, under the chieftain Sokal, invaded and devastated the Pereyaslavl principality; this began

10120-454: The Black Sea coast, and the valleys of the Struma and Vardar rivers in Macedonia. Production of vegetables, orchards, and grapes became increasingly important since the beginning of the 13th century. The existence of large forests and pastures was favorable for livestock breeding, mainly in the mountainous and semi-mountainous regions of the country. Sericulture and especially apiculture were well developed. Honey and wax from Zagore were

10304-412: The Bulgarian army and its tactics. Since the beginning of the rebellion of Asen and Peter, the light, mobile Cuman cavalry was used effectively against the Byzantines and later the Crusaders. Kaloyan used 14,000 cavalrymen in the Battle of Adrianople. The Cuman leaders entered the ranks of the Bulgarian nobility; some of them received high military or administrative posts in the state. In the 14th century,

10488-415: The Bulgarian army increasingly relied on foreign mercenaries, which included Western knights, Mongols, Ossetians , or Wallachians. Both Michael III Shishman and Ivan Alexander had a 3,000-strong Mongol cavalry detachment in their armies. In the 1350s, emperor Ivan Alexander hired Ottoman bands, as did the Byzantine Emperor. Russians were also hired as mercenaries. The economy of the Second Bulgarian Empire

10672-415: The Bulgarian cause and called for a rebellion. That act had the desired effect on the religious population, who enthusiastically engaged in a rebellion against the Byzantines. Theodore, the elder brother, was crowned Emperor of Bulgaria under the name Peter IV, after the sainted Peter I (r.927–969). Almost all of Bulgaria to the north of the Balkan Mountains —the region known as Moesia —immediately joined

10856-429: The Bulgarian language, literature, and culture survived; surviving period texts refer to and idealize the Bulgarian Empire. Most of the newly conquered territories were included in the themes Bulgaria , Sirmium , and Paristrion . As the Byzantine Empire declined under Basil's successors, invasions of Pechenegs and rising taxes contributed to increasing discontent, which resulted in several major uprisings in 1040–41,

11040-440: The Bulgarians defeated the Latins again in Thrace, and later proceeded to capture Didymoteikhon . They repeatedly ravaged Thrace, including the important cities of Herakleia and Tzouroulos , and prompting the evacuation of other cities, such as Rodosto ( Tekirdağ ). Whereas in the past the Bulgarian emperor, Kaloyan , had limited his oppression to the aristocracy, his later campaigns included wholesale transfer of populations from

11224-420: The Bulgarians its submission. As the Latin Emperor Baldwin I began to subdue rebel cities and besieged Adrianople, in the words of the Crusader chronicler Villehardouin , "Johannizza, King of Wallachia , was coming to succour Adrianople with a very great host; for he brought with him Wallachians and Bulgarians, and full fourteen thousand Comans who had never been baptised" (Villehardouin, 92). On April 14, 1205,

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11408-433: The Bulgarians launched attacks in northern Thrace while the Byzantine army was fighting with the Normans , who had attacked Byzantine possessions in the Western Balkans and sacked Thessalonica , the Empire's second largest city. The Byzantines reacted in mid-1186, when Isaac II organized a campaign to crush the rebellion before it spread further. The Bulgarians had secured the passes but the Byzantine army found its way across

11592-484: The Bulgarians launched several campaigns and retook many towns in north-eastern Thrace. The Byzantines tried to counter the Bulgarian advance but suffered a major defeat in the battle of Skafida . Unable to change the status quo, they were forced to make peace with Bulgaria in 1307, acknowledging Bulgarian gains. Theodore Svetoslav spent the rest of his reign in peace with his neighbors. He maintained cordial relations with Serbia and in 1318, its king Stephen Milutin , paid

11776-409: The Byzantine katepanikion ), which were ruled by katepans who were subordinated to the dukes. During the reign of Ivan Asen II (1218–41), the provinces included Belgrade, Braničevo, Boruy , Adrianople, Dimotika , Skopje, Prilep , Devol , and Albania . During the Second Empire, Bulgarian society was divided into three social classes : clergy, nobility, and peasantry. The nobility included

11960-475: The Byzantine Empire in the first half of the 12th century, the Bulgarians were pacified and no major rebellions took place until later in the century. The disastrous rule of the last Komnenian emperor Andronikos I (r. 1183–85) worsened the situation of the Bulgarian peasantry and nobility. The first act of his successor Isaac II Angelos was to impose an extra tax to finance his wedding. In 1185, two aristocrat brothers from Tarnovo , Theodore and Asen , asked

12144-409: The Byzantine Empire under the ambitious Michael VIII Palaiologos further worsened Bulgaria's situation. A major Byzantine invasion in 1263 led to the loss of the coastal towns Messembria and Anchialus , and several cities in Thrace—including Philippopolis. Unable to effectively resist, Constantine Tikh organized a joint Bulgarian–Mongol campaign, but after ravaging Thrace the Mongols returned north of

12328-583: The Byzantine Empire, bringing an end to the Latin Empire. De facto independent Bulgarian states from the Second Empire First Bulgarian Empire Second Bulgarian Empire [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] First Bulgarian Empire Second Bulgarian Empire Prominent writers and scholars: Famous examples: Second Bulgarian Empire The Second Bulgarian Empire ( Middle Bulgarian : Ц(а)рьство бл(ъ)гарское ; Modern Bulgarian : Второ българско царство , romanized :  Vtorо Balgarskо Tsarstvo )

12512-492: The Byzantines besieged Lovech but could not seize it; they signed an armistice that de facto recognized Bulgarian independence. In 1189, when the leader of the Third Crusade , emperor Frederick I Barbarossa was at the brink of war with the Byzantines, Asen and Peter IV offered him an army of 40,000 in return for official recognition, but relations between the Crusaders and the Byzantines eventually improved. In 1190, Isaac II led another anti-Bulgarian campaign that ended in

12696-411: The Byzantines for blinding 14,000 of emperor Samuel 's soldiers. Kaloyan called himself Romanoktonos (Roman-slayer) after Basil II , who was called Bulgaroktonos (Bulgar-slayer). He quickly allied himself with his brother's murderer, Ivanko. The Byzantines killed Ivanko, but the Bulgarians took the city of Constantia . In 1201, Kaloyan captured Varna , the last Byzantine stronghold in Moesia, which

12880-430: The Cumans advanced into the Principality of Volhynia , but were repelled by Sviatopolk II . In 1114, the Cumans launched an invasion, from the western Romanian Plain, into the Byzantine Balkans once more. This was followed up by another incursion in 1123/1124. In 1135, the Cumans again invaded the Kingdom of Poland. During the second and third crusades, in 1147 and 1189, crusaders were attacked by Cumans, who were allied to

13064-433: The Cumans and incorporated into the Rus' border-guard system. Khan Boniak launched invasions on Kiev in 1096, 1097, 1105, and 1107. In 1096, Boniak attacked Kiev and burned down the princely palace in Berestove; he also plundered the Kievan Cave Monastery. Boniak was defeated near Lubny in 1107 by the forces of the Kievan Rus' princes. The Cumans led by Boniak crushed the Hungarian army led by Coloman in 1099 and seized

13248-549: The Cumans must go back to one of their self-appellations, i.e. to Qun ." In the Hypatian Codex , a certain individual is called Kuman , while in the parallel account of the Laurentian Codex he is called Kun (" Polovčinu menem Kunui" , Vásáry considers this a corruption of Kunu , Russian dative of Kun ). Even after the Cumans were no longer the dominant power in their territory, people still referred to

13432-525: The Cumans resumed their raids against the Rus' and also attacked the Kingdom of Poland : and reportedly reached northern cities located in Lithuania . In 1094-1095 the Cumans, led by Tugorkan, in support of the exiled Byzantine pretender Constantine Diogenes (as a pretext to plundering), invaded the Balkans and conquered the Byzantine province of Paristrion . The Cumans then advanced all the way to Adrianople and Anchialos but could not conquer them. In

13616-608: The Cumans were referred to as the "Blond Ones". As stated above, it is unknown whether the name Kipchak referred only to the Kipchaks proper, or to the Cumans as well. The two tribes eventually fused, lived together and probably exchanged weaponry, culture and languages; the Cumans encompassed the western half of the confederation, while the Kipchaks and (presumably) the Kangli/ Kankalis (possibly connected to three Pecheneg tribes known collectively as Kangars) encompassed

13800-406: The Cumans, it is 25 miles; this city is called Black Cumania. From the city of Black Cumania to the city of Tmutorakan (MaTlUqa), which is called White Cumania, it is 50 miles. White Cumania is a large inhabited city ... Indeed, in this fifth part of the seventh section there is the northern part of the land of Russia and the northern part of the land of Cumania ... In this sixth part there

13984-480: The Cumans, using the name χarteš , meaning "blond", "pale", "fair". It cannot be established whether the Cumans conquered the Kipchaks , if the Śari whom the Quns had defeated were to be identified as Kipchaks, or whether they simply represent the western mass of largely Kipchak-Turkic speaking tribes. The Quns and Śari (whom Czeglédy (1949:47-48,50) identifies with Yellow Uyghurs ) were possibly induced into

14168-524: The Cuman– Kipchaks as Yimek ~ Yemek. Potapov writes that: ... during the period from the end of the 800s to 1230 AD [the Cumans] spread their political influence in the broad steppes from Altai to Crimea and Danube . Irtysh with its adjoining steppes (at least below the lake Zaisan ) was in the sphere of that confederation. Members of the confederation undoubtedly also were the ancestors of

14352-455: The Danube with Cuman reinforcements, declaring he would continue the struggle until all Bulgarian lands were liberated. A new Byzantine army was assembled under the command of the emperor's uncle John Doukas Angelos , but as Isaac II feared he would be overthrown, Doukas was replaced by John Kantakouzenos , a blind man ineligible for the throne. The Bulgarians attacked Kantakouzenos' camp during

14536-404: The Danube. The emperor became crippled after a hunting accident in the early 1260s, and fell under the influence of his wife Maria Palaiologina , whose constant intrigues fueled divisions among the nobility. Constant Mongol raids, economic difficulties, and the emperor's illness led to a massive popular uprising in the north-east in 1277. The rebel army, led by the swineherd Ivaylo , defeated

14720-683: The Derbend. The other way is for to go from the city of Turkestan by Persia, and by that way be many journeys by desert. And the third way is that cometh from Comania and then to go by the Great Sea and by the kingdom of Abchaz ... After that, the Comanians that were in servage in Egypt, felt themselves that they were of great power, they chose them a soldan [sultan] amongst them, the which made him to be clept Melechsalan. And in his time entered into

14904-596: The Hungarian army was victorious, King Ladislaus killed Ákos, the Cuman chieftain. The Cumans initially managed to defeat the Grand Prince Vladimir II Monomakh of Kievan Rus' in 1093 at the Battle of the Stugna River , but they were defeated later by the combined forces of Rus principalities led by Monomakh and were forced out of the Rus' borders to the Caucasus. In these battles some Pecheneg and Oghuz groups were liberated from

15088-475: The Hungarian king Béla III and make a joint attack against Bulgaria, but was deposed and blinded by his brother Alexios III Angelos . The Byzantines tried to negotiate peace but Ivan Asen demanded the return of all Bulgarian lands and the war continued. In 1196, the Byzantine army was again defeated at Serres , far to the south. Upon his return to Tarnovo, Ivan Asen was murdered by his cousin Ivanko allegedly in

15272-537: The Hungarian king Sigismund , but after the Christian army was defeated in the Battle of Nicopolis the Ottomans immediately marched on Vidin and seized it, bringing an end to the medieval Bulgarian state. Resistance continued under Constantine and Fruzhin until 1422. The former was referred to by king Sigismund as the " distinguished Constantine, glorious Emperor of Bulgaria ". The Second Bulgarian Empire

15456-502: The Kayala river in 1185 but was defeated; this battle was immortalized in the Rus' epic poem The Tale of Igor's Campaign , and Alexander Borodin 's opera, Prince Igor . The dynamic pattern of attacks and counterattacks between the Rus' and the Cumans indicates that both rarely, if ever, were able to attain the unity needed to deal a fatal blow. The Cuman attacks on the Rus' often had Caucasian and Danubian European implications. In

15640-574: The Kimek union or took over said union and absorbed the Kimek. As a result, the Kipchaks presumably replaced the Kimeks as the union's dominant group, while the Quns gained ascendancy over the westernmost tribes and became Quman (though difficulties remain with the Qun-Cuman link and how Qun became Cuman, e.g. qun + man "the real Quns"? > * qumman > quman ?). Kimeks were still represented amongst

15824-528: The Latin ruler of the Kingdom of Thessalonica . Seeking to take advantage of that situation, Kaloyan advanced on the city and besieged it with a large force, but was murdered by his own Cuman commander Manastăr at the beginning of October 1207. In keeping with tradition, the Greek citizens of Thessalonica attributed the slaying of Kaloyan to their patron, Saint Demetrios . Kaloyan's successor Boril , his nephew,

16008-520: The Latins were defeated and their emperor Baldwin I was captured. The battle was a blow to the newly founded Latin Empire, which descended into chaos. After their victory, the Bulgarians retook most of Thrace, including the important city of Philippopolis. The unexpected Bulgarian successes caused the Byzantine nobility to plot against Kaloyan and ally themselves with the Latins. The plot in Tarnovo

16192-658: The Moguty, Tatrany, Revugy, Shelьbiry, and Topchaki belonged to the Chorni Klobuky . The original homeland of the Cumans is unknown before their eventual settlement in the Eurasian steppe's western part. Chinese authors mentioned a Tiele tribe named 渾 ( Mand. Hún (< MC * ɦuon ), possibly a transcription of underlying * Qun ) located north of the Tuul River . The writings of al-Marwazi (c. 1120) state that

16376-422: The Mongol invasion, and it may have either prolonged their existence or quickened their destruction. Robert Wolff states that it was discipline and cohesion that permitted the Cuman–Kipchaks to conquer such a vast territory. Al-Idrīsī states that Cumania got its name from the city of Cumania; he wrote, "From the city of Khazaria to the city of Kirait is 25 miles. From there to Cumanie, which has given its name to

16560-466: The Mongols twice, greatly boosting Ivaylo's popularity. Ivaylo then turned on and defeated the regular army under the command of Constantine Tikh. He personally killed the emperor, claiming the latter did nothing to defend his honour. Fearing a revolt in Byzantium, and willing to exploit the situation, the emperor Michael VIII sent an army led by Ivan Asen III , a Bulgarian pretender to the throne, but

16744-454: The Nicaean dynasty as a ruling house. The Bulgarian–Latin cooperation was short-lived; Ivan Asen II remained at peace with his southern neighbours until the end of his reign. Shortly before his death in 1241, Ivan Asen II defeated part of the Mongol army returning to the east after a devastating attack on Poland and Hungary . Ivan Asen II was succeeded by his infant son Kaliman I . Despite

16928-484: The Papacy. The joint campaign against the Latins was successful, but they failed to capture Constantinople . With John of Brienne's death two years later, Ivan Asen II—who could have again become a regent of Baldwin II—decided to end his cooperation with Nicaea. His decision was further based on the assumption that after an allied success, Constantinople would again have become the centre of a restored Byzantine Empire, with

17112-537: The Pope, emperor Kaloyan (r. 1197–1207) acquired the right to mint coins. Well-organized mints and engraving workshops were set up in the mid-13th century, producing copper, billon, and silver coinage. The reform was initiated by Constantine Tikh Asen (r. 1257–1277) and led to a stabilization of the monetary market in Bulgaria. The Uprising of Ivaylo and the pillage raids of the Mongols in the late 13th century destabilized

17296-485: The Qitañ sprang"; however, Golden later suggested that the Quns were Turkic . Despite this, it is possible that certain tribes forming a part of the Cuman–Kipchak conglomerate were of Mongolic origin. Golden considers the Ölberli to have originally been Mongolic-speaking and argues that they were pushed westwards as a result of socio-political changes among the Khitans. The Syrian historian Yaqut (1179–1229) also mentions

17480-691: The Qun in The Dictionary of Countries , where he notes that "(the sixth iqlim) begins where the meridian shadow of the equinox is seven, six-tenths, and one-sixth of one-tenth of a foot. Its end exceeds its beginning by only one foot. It begins in the homeland of the Qayi , Qun , Khirkhiz , Kimak , at- Tagazgaz , the lands of the Turkomans , Fārāb, and the country of the Khazars ." The Armenian historian, Matthew of Edessa (died 1144), also mentioned

17664-423: The Rus' and Cumans was formed. It was decided that the Rus' and Cumans would move east to seek and destroy any Mongols they found. The Rus' princes then began mustering their armies and moved towards the rendezvous point. The army of the alliance of the Rus' and Cumans numbered around 80,000. When the alliance reached Pereyaslavl, they were met by a Mongol envoy that tried to persuade them not to fight. This as well as

17848-512: The Rus' princes. As the Mongols were approaching Russia , Khan Köten fled to the court of his son-in-law, Prince Mstislav the Bold of Galich , where he gave "numerous presents: horses, camels, buffaloes and girls. And he presented these gifts to them, and said the following, 'Today the Mongols took away our land and tomorrow they will come and take away yours'." The Cumans were ignored for almost

18032-462: The Serbian king Stephen Dečanski , who commanded an approximately equal force, near the border town of Velbazhd. The two rulers, both expecting reinforcements, agreed to a one-day truce but when a Catalan detachment under the king's son Stephen Dušan arrived, the Serbs broke their word. The Bulgarians were defeated in the ensuing Battle of Velbazhd and their emperor perished. Despite their victory,

18216-460: The Serbs and the Hungarians, provoking massive Ottoman invasions in 1388 and 1393. Despite strong resistance, the Ottomans seized a number of important towns and fortresses in 1388, and five years later they captured Tarnovo after a three-month siege. Ivan Shishman died in 1395 when the Ottomans, led by Bayezid I , took his last fortress Nikopol . In 1396, Ivan Sratsimir joined the Crusade of

18400-536: The Serbs did not risk an invasion of Bulgaria and the two sides agreed to peace. As a result, Ivan Stephen , the eldest son of the dead emperor by his Serbian wife, succeeded him in Tarnovo and was deposed after a brief rule. Bulgaria did not lose territory but could not stop the Serbian expansion in Macedonia. After the disaster at Velbazhd, the Byzantines attacked Bulgaria and seized a number of towns and castles in northern Thrace. Their success ended in 1332, when

18584-599: The Slavic root *pȍlje "field" (cf. Polish, Russian pole ), which would therefore imply that Polovtsy were "men of the field" or "men of the steppe" in contrast to the Lipovtsi . In Germanic languages , the Cumans were called Folban , Vallani or Valwe —all derivatives of Proto-Germanic root * falwa- meaning "pale" (> English "fallow"). In the German account by Adam of Bremen , and in Matthaios of Edessa ,

18768-401: The above; cf. West Slavic Polish płowy , Eastern Slavic polovŭ , Russian polóvyj (поло́вый), Ukrainian polovýj (полови́й). Blonde individuals likely existed among the Kipchaks, yet anthropologically speaking the majority of Turkic peoples had East Asian admixture and generally Kimeks –Kipchaks were dark-haired and brown-eyed. An alternative etymology of Polovtsy is also possible:

18952-756: The ancient Byzantine Empire with a new Crusader state , the Latin Empire . Their leader Count Baldwin of Flanders was crowned Emperor in the Hagia Sophia as Baldwin I. According to the Partitio Romaniae he received a quarter of the Empire and the rest was divided between the Venetians and the Crusaders . The Emperor received the lands in Asia Minor as well as Constantinople and

19136-482: The area as Cumania. The Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta (1304 – c. 1369), said of Cumania: "This wilderness is green and grassy with no trees, nor hills, high or low ... there is no means of travelling in this desert except in wagons." The Persian historian Hamdallah Mustawfi (1281–1349) wrote that Cumania has a cold climate and that it has excellent pasturage and numerous cattle and horses. The 14th-century Travels of Sir John Mandeville , note that Cumania

19320-672: The area pressed the Oghuz Turks to shift west, which in turn caused the Pechenegs to move to the west of the Dnieper River . Cuman and Rus' attacks contributed to the departure of the Oghuz from the steppes north of the Black Sea . Mahmud al-Kashgari , writing in 1076, says that in the east Cuman territory bordered a town near Talas . The Cumans first entered the Bugeac ( Bessarabia ) at some point around 1068–1078. They launched

19504-486: The aristocracy: the bolyars , whose origin was the older Bulgarian boilas from the First Empire, the judges, and the "whole army". The bolyars were subdivided into greater and lesser bolyars. The former possessed large estates, which at times included tens and even hundreds of villages, and held high administrative and military posts. The peasants formed the bulk of the third class and were subordinated either under

19688-400: The best-quality bee products in the Byzantine markets and were highly praised. The forests produced wood for cutting ( бранища ); there were also fenced forests ( забели ), in which wood-cutting was banned. The increase in the number of towns gave strong impetus to handicrafts, metallurgy, and mining. Processing of crops was traditional; products included bread, cheese, butter, and wine. Salt

19872-536: The breach of the alliance between Bulgaria and the Latin Empire, and the creation of an alternate alliance between Bulgaria and Empire of Nicaea . However, the Bulgarian emperor Ivan Asen II could not decide whether to support the Niceaen Greeks or the Latins, and no decisive action was taken. Eventually Michael VIII Palaiologos , the ruler of the Niceaen Empire captured Constantinople and restored

20056-503: The capital Tarnovo in the centre. To the north were lines along both banks of the Danube river . To the south were three lines; the first along the Balkan mountains, the second along Vitosha , northern Rhodope mountains and Sakar mountain , the third along the valley of the river Arda . To the west, a line ran along the valley of the river South Morava . During the Second Empire, foreign and mercenary soldiers became an important part of

20240-515: The captured cities to distant regions in Bulgaria. The Bulgarians besieged Adrianople twice, but failed to take the city because of the withdrawal of their Cuman cavalry, and the determined advance of the new Latin emperor, Baldwin I's brother Henry of Flanders . In 1207 the Bulgarians concluded an anti-Latin alliance with Theodore I Laskaris of the Empire of Nicaea . In the same year, the Bulgarians killed Boniface of Montferrat (September 4, 1207),

20424-428: The central authorities or under local feudal lords. With time, the number of the latter increased as a result of the process of feudalization of Bulgaria. The main groups of peasants were paritsi and otrotsi . Both could own land but only the paritsi could inherit property; the latter could not, since it was provided by the feudal lords. The emperor of the Second Bulgarian Empire was commander-in-chief of its army;

20608-428: The coinage, resulting in a tenfold decrease of minting activities. With the stabilization of the empire since 1300, Bulgarian monarchs issued an increased number of coins, including silver ones, but were able to secure the market with domestic coins after the 1330s. The erosion of the central authorities on the eve of the Ottoman invasion gave rise to primitive, anonymous, and crudely-forged counterfeit coins. Along with

20792-530: The concept of Tarnovo as a " Second Constantinople ". The Patriarchate vigorously opposed the papal initiative to reunite the Orthodox Church with Rome; he criticized the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Byzantine emperor for their apparent willingness to make concessions at the Second Council of Lyon in 1272–74. Patriarch Ignatius was called "pillar of Orthodoxy". Envoys were sent to

20976-506: The country of the kings of France Saint Louis, and fought with him; and [the soldan] took him and imprisoned him; and this [soldan] was slain by his own servants. And after, they chose another to be soldan, that they clept Tympieman; and he let deliver Saint Louis out of prison for a certain ransom. And after, one of these Comanians reigned, that hight [was called] Cachas, and slew Tympieman, for to be soldan; and made him be clept Melechmenes. In East Slavic languages and Polish, they are known as

21160-523: The country's defence against the strong Byzantine army. During wartime, the Bulgarians would send light cavalry to devastate the enemy lands on a broad front, pillaging villages and small towns, burning the crops, and taking people and cattle. The Bulgarian army was very mobile—for instance for four days before the Battle of Klokotnitsa, it covered a distance three times longer than the Epirote army covered in

21344-413: The country's economy, subdued many of the semi-independent nobles, and executed as traitors those he held responsible for assisting the Mongols, including Patriarch Joachim III . The Byzantines, interested in Bulgaria's continuous instability, supported pretenders Michael and Radoslav with their armies, but were defeated by Theodore Svetoslav's uncle Aldimir , the despot of Kran . Between 1303 and 1304,

21528-502: The course of which he died of exhaustion. (Baldwin was imprisoned in the Bulgarian capital Tărnovo until he died or was executed later in 1205.) During the course of 1205, Kaloyan captured Serres and Philippopolis ( Plovdiv ), overrunning much of the territory of the Latin Empire in Thrace and Macedonia . However, the progress of the Bulgarians eventually was interrupted by the assassination of their emperor Kaloyan. On January 31, 1206

21712-481: The crusaders an alliance against the Byzantine Empire, their offer had been spurned, and the Latin Empire expressed the intention of conquering all the lands of the former Byzantine Empire, including the territories ruled by Kaloyan , the Bulgarian emperor . The impending conflict was precipitated by the Byzantine aristocracy in Thrace , which rebelled against Latin rule in 1205 and called on Bulgarians for help, offering

21896-532: The dioceses of Vidin from the Tarnovo Patriarchate. The two brothers did not cooperate to repel the Ottoman invasion. According to historian Konstantin Jireček , the brothers were engaged in a bitter conflict over Sofia. Ivan Shishman reneged on his vassal obligation to support the Ottomans with troops during their campaigns. Instead, he used every opportunity to participate in Christian coalitions with

22080-408: The disputed areas. This major setback cost the emperor's life and led to a period of instability and civil war between several claimants to the throne until 1257, when the boyar of Skopje Constantine Tikh emerged as a victor. The new emperor had to deal with multiple foreign threats. In 1257, the Latins attacked and seized Messembria but could not hold the town. More serious was the situation to

22264-459: The eastern half. This confederation and their living together may have made it difficult for historians to write exclusively about either nation. The Kipchaks' folk-etymology posited that their name meant 'hollow tree'; according to them, inside a hollow tree, their original human ancestress gave birth to her son. Németh points to the Siberian qıpčaq "angry, quick-tempered" attested only in

22448-503: The elevation of the Bulgarian Church to a Patriarchate. Eventually the Papacy tacitly accepted the Bulgarian position regarding the Imperial title. The union between Bulgaria and Rome remained strictly official; the Bulgarians did not change their Orthodox rites and traditions. Several months before Kaloyan's coronation, the leaders of the Fourth Crusade turned on the Byzantine Empire and captured Constantinople , creating

22632-512: The emperor to provide them a relatively poor pronoia in the Balkan Mountains, in exchange for military service. The emperor refused, resulting in a heated argument which saw Asen struck across the face. Upon their return to Tarnovo, the brothers commissioned the construction of a church dedicated to Saint Demetrius of Salonica . They showed the populace a celebrated icon of the saint, who they claimed had left Thessalonica to support

22816-577: The empire by contemporaries was Bulgaria , as the state called itself. During Kaloyan 's reign, the state was sometimes known as being of both Bulgarians and Vlachs . Pope Innocent III and other foreigners such as the Latin Emperor Henry mentioned the state as Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Empire in official letters. In modern historiography, the state is called the Second Bulgarian Empire , Second Bulgarian Tsardom , or

23000-426: The end of 1280, Ivaylo sought refuge with his former enemies the Mongols, who under Byzantine influence killed him. The nobility chose the powerful noble and ruler of Cherven , George I Terter , as emperor. He reigned for twelve years, bringing even stronger Mongol influence and the loss of most of the remaining lands in Thrace to the Byzantines. This period of instability and uncertainty continued until 1300, when for

23184-519: The fall of Constantinople to the knights of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, Tarnovo became for a time the main centre of Orthodoxy. The Bulgarian emperors were zealously collecting relics of Christian saints to boost the prestige of their capital. The official recognition of the restored Bulgarian Patriarchate at the Council of Lampsacus in 1235 was a major step in that direction and gave rise to

23368-476: The first attacks on Bulgarian soil by the Ottoman Turks , who were allied with Kantakouzenos. The attempts of Ivan Alexander to fight off the Ottomans in the late 1340s and early 1350s failed after two defeats in which his eldest son and successor Michael Asen IV and his second son Ivan Asen IV may have been killed. The emperor's relations with his other son Ivan Sratsimir , who had been installed as

23552-426: The first half of the 14th century; the army numbered 11,000–15,000 troops in the 1330s. The military was well supplied with siege equipment , including battering rams , siege towers , and catapults. The Bulgarian army used various military tactics , relying on the experience of the soldiers and the peculiarities of the terrain. The Balkan mountains played a significant role in the military strategy and facilitated

23736-489: The following year. However, Michael II Asen 's indecisiveness allowed the Nicaeans to regain all of their lost territory, with the exception of Tsepina. In 1255, the Bulgarians quickly regained Macedonia, whose Bulgarian population preferred the rule of Tarnovo to that of the Nicaeans. All gains were lost in 1256, after the Bulgarian representative Rostislav Mikhailovich betrayed his cause and reaffirmed Nicaean control over

23920-492: The following years, when knights of the First Crusade were passing through the empire, Byzantium offered the Cumans prestige titles and gifts in order to appease them; subsequently good relations ensued. From 1097 to 1099, Sviatopolk II of Kiev requested help from the Cumans against Coloman, King of Hungary , who was involved in a feud with Volodar of Peremyshl , Prince of Przemyśl . King Coloman and his army crossed

24104-624: The heritage of the First Bulgarian Empire. In return, Kaloyan promised to accept Papal suzerainty over the Bulgarian Church. The union between Bulgaria and Rome was formalized on 7 October 1205, when Kaloyan was crowned King by a papal legate and the Archbishop Basil of Tarnovo was proclaimed Primate. In a letter to the Pope, Basil styled himself Patriarch , against which Innocent III did not argue. Just like Boris I (r. 852–889) three centuries earlier, Kaloyan pursued

24288-456: The initial success against the Mongols, the regency of the new emperor decided to avoid further raids and chose to pay them tribute instead. The lack of a strong monarch and increasing rivalries among the nobility caused Bulgaria to rapidly decline. Its main rival Nicaea avoided Mongol raids and gained power in the Balkans. After the death of 12-year-old Kaliman I in 1246, the throne was succeeded by several short-reigned rulers. The weakness of

24472-400: The leader of the Fourth Crusade, 100,000 soldiers to help him take Constantinople. By the end of the 13th century, the military declined and the army was reduced to fewer than 10,000 men—it was recorded that Ivaylo defeated two Byzantine armies of 5,000 and 10,000 men, and that his troops were outnumbered in both cases. Military strength increased with the political stabilization of Bulgaria in

24656-405: The loss of many Bulgarian-populated territories and signified that the monarch in Tarnovo was the emperor of all Bulgarian people, even those who lived beyond the country's political borders. The Emperor held supreme power over secular and religious affairs in an autocracy ; his personal abilities played an important role in the country's well-being. When the monarch was an infant, the government

24840-622: The lost towns were handed over to the Byzantines. To the north-west, the Hungarians attacked and occupied Vidin in 1365. Ivan Alexander reconquered his province four years later, allied with his de jure vassals Vladislav I of Wallachia and Dobrotitsa . The death of Ivan Alexander in 1371 left the country irrevocably divided between Ivan Shishman in Tarnovo, Ivan Sratsimir in Vidin, and Dobrotitsa in Karvuna. The 14th century German traveler Johann Schiltberger described these lands as follows: I

25024-469: The meantime the Latins offered the regency to the French nobleman John of Brienne . Concerned with the actions of the Bulgarians, while marching on Constantinople in 1230, Theodore Komnenos invaded Bulgaria with a huge army. Surprised, Ivan Asen II gathered a small force and moved to the south to engage them. Instead of a banner, he used the peace treaty with Theodore's oath and seal stuck on his spear and won

25208-463: The medieval Bulgarian administration. The Bolyar Council included the greater bolyars and the Patriarch; it discussed issues about external and internal policies, such as declarations of war, formations of alliances, or the signing of peace treaties. The highest-ranking administrative officials were the great logothete , who had the functions of a first minister, and the protovestiarios , who

25392-569: The military support of the Cumans, the process of Bulgarian restoration could never have been realized. The Cuman participation in the creation of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1185 and thereafter brought about basic changes in the political and ethnic sphere of Bulgaria and the Balkans. The Cumans were allies in the Bulgarian–Latin Wars with emperor Kaloyan of Bulgaria . In 1205, at the Battle of Adrianople (1205) , 14,000 Cuman light cavalry contributed to Kaloyan's crushing victory over

25576-402: The mountains due to a solar eclipse . Once the Byzantines reached the plains, the rebels did not risk a confrontation with the larger, better-organized force. Peter IV pretended he was willing to submit, while Asen travelled to the north of the Danube to raise an army. Contented, the Byzantine emperor burned the Bulgarians' crops and returned to Constantinople. Soon after, Asen crossed back over

25760-649: The new Bulgarian emperor Ivan Alexander defeated them in the battle of Rusokastro , recovering the captured territories. In 1344, the Bulgarians entered the Byzantine civil war of 1341–47 on the side of John V Palaiologos against John VI Kantakouzenos , capturing nine towns along the Maritsa river and in the Rhodope Mountains, including Philippopolis. That acquisition marked the last significant territorial expansion of medieval Bulgaria, but also led to

25944-408: The new government was exposed when the Nicaean army conquered large areas in southern Thrace, the Rhodopes, and Macedonia—including Adrianople , Tsepina , Stanimaka , Melnik , Serres , Skopje , and Ohrid —meeting little resistance. The Hungarians also exploited Bulgarian weakness, occupying Belgrade and Braničevo. The Bulgarians reacted as late as 1253, invading Serbia and regaining the Rhodopes

26128-522: The newly established Latin Empire in the Battle of Adrianople . His nephew Ivan Asen II defeated the Despotate of Epiros and made Bulgaria a regional power again. During his reign, Bulgaria spread from the Adriatic to the Black Sea and the economy flourished. In the late 13th century, however, the Empire declined under constant invasions by Mongols , Byzantines , Hungarians , and Serbs , as well as internal unrest and revolts. The 14th century saw

26312-464: The next four years, the focus of the war shifted to the south of the Balkan mountains. Ivan Asen's strategy of swiftly striking in different locations paid off, and he soon took control of the important cities Sofia and Niš to the south-west, clearing the way to Macedonia. In 1194, the Byzantines gathered a huge force composed of the eastern and western armies, but were defeated at the Battle of Arcadiopolis . Unable to resist, Isaac II tried to ally with

26496-421: The night, killing a large number of soldiers. In mid-1186, another army under the general Alexios Branas was sent in. However, instead of fighting the rebels, Branas turned to Constantinople to claim the throne for himself; he was murdered shortly afterwards. Taking advantage of the chaos, the Bulgarians raided northern Thrace, looting the countryside before Byzantine forces could counterattack. On one occasion,

26680-552: The north-west, where the Hungarians supported Rostislav, the self-proclaimed Emperor of Bulgaria in Vidin . In 1260, Constantine Tikh recovered Vidin and occupied the Severin Banat, but the next year a Hungarian counterattack forced the Bulgarians to retreat to Tarnovo, restoring Vidin to Rostislav. The city was soon controlled by the Bulgarian noble Jacob Svetoslav , but by 1266 he also styled himself emperor. The restoration of

26864-479: The north-west. In 1203, the Bulgarians pushed the Serbs out of Niš, defeated the Hungarian army in several battles along the valley of the Morava river , and recaptured their former territory. Kaloyan knew the Byzantines would never recognize his imperial title; he began negotiations with Pope Innocent III. He based the claims on his predecessors in the First Bulgarian Empire; Simeon I , Peter I, and Samuel. The Pope

27048-457: The other princes; all of them died." In 1089, Ladislaus I of Hungary defeated the Cumans after they attacked the Kingdom of Hungary . In 1091, the Pechenegs , a semi-nomadic Turkic people of the prairies of southwestern Eurasia , were decisively defeated as an independent force at the Battle of Levounion by the combined forces of a Byzantine army under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and

27232-657: The present Kumandy [in Altai] and Teleuts, which is evidenced by their language that like the language of the Tobol-Irtysh and Baraba Tatars belongs to the Kypchak group . The Cumans entered the grasslands of the present-day southern Russian steppe in the 11th century AD and went on to assault the Byzantine Empire , the Kingdom of Hungary , the Principality of Pereyaslavl and Kievan Rus' . The Cumans' entry into

27416-403: The provisions of the Council of Lampsacus it remained subordinated and had to pay annual tribute to Constantinople. These claims were not supported by authentic documents and the Bulgarian religious authorities ignored them. Cumans The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke

27600-454: The rebels reached Tarnovo first. Constantine Tikh's widow Maria married Ivaylo and he was proclaimed emperor. After the Byzantines failed, Michael VIII turned to the Mongols, who invaded Dobrudzha and defeated Ivaylo's army, forcing him to retreat to Drastar , where he withstood a three-month siege. After his defeat, Ivaylo was betrayed by the Bulgarian nobility, who opened the gates of Tarnovo to Ivan Asen III. In early 1279, Ivaylo broke off

27784-406: The rebels, who also secured the assistance of the Cumans , a Turkic tribe inhabiting lands north of the Danube river. The Cumans soon became an important part of the Bulgarian army, playing a major role in the successes that followed. As soon as the rebellion broke out, Peter IV attempted to seize the old capital of Preslav but failed; he declared Tarnovo the capital of Bulgaria. From Moesia,

27968-422: The refoundation of Bulgaria, the recognition of the imperial title of the monarch and the restoration of the Bulgarian Patriarchate became the priority of the Bulgarian foreign policy. The continuous state of war against the Byzantine empire urged Bulgarian rulers to turn to the Papacy. In his correspondence with Pope Innocent III, Kaloyan (r. 1197–1207) demanded imperial title and a Patriarchate, basing his claims on

28152-544: The royal treasury. In 1109, Monomakh launched another raid against the Cumans and captured "1000 tents". In 1111, 1113, and 1116, further raids were launched against the Cumans and resulted in the liberation and incorporation of more Pecheneg and Oghuz tribes. During this time, the Cumans raided the Byzantine Empire and Volga Bulgaria . Volga Bulgaria was attacked again at a later stage, by Khan Ayepa, father-in-law of Grand Prince of Kiev Yuri Dolgorukiy , perhaps at his instigation. The Volga Bulgars in turn poisoned Ayepa "and

28336-602: The ruler of Vidin, deteriorated after 1349, when Ivan Alexander divorced his wife to marry Sarah-Theodora , a converted Jew. When their child Ivan Shishman was designated an heir to the throne, Ivan Sratsimir proclaimed independence. In 1366, Ivan Alexander refused to grant passage to the Byzantine emperor John V Palaiologos, and the troops of the Savoyard crusade attacked the Bulgarian Black Sea coast . They seized Sozopolis , Messembria, Anchialus, and Emona , causing heavy casualties and unsuccessfully laying siege to Varna. The Bulgarians eventually granted passage to John V, but

28520-405: The second-in-command was the velik (great) voivoda . The detachments of the army were led by a voivoda . The protostrator was responsible for the defence of certain regions and the recruitment of soldiers. In the late 12th century, the army numbered 40,000 men-at-arms. The country could mobilize around 100,000 men in the first decade of the 13th century; Kaloyan reportedly offered Baldwin I,

28704-432: The siege at Drastar and besieged the capital. The Byzantines sent a 10,000-strong army to relieve Ivan Asen III, but suffered defeat by Ivaylo at the battle of Devina . Another army of 5,000 had a similar fate, forcing Ivan Asen III to flee. Ivaylo's situation did not improve, however—after two years of constant warfare his support was diminished, the Mongols were not decisively defeated, and the nobility remained hostile. By

28888-530: The south. The most vulnerable regions were the Principality of Pereyaslavl, the Principality of Novgorod-Seversk and the Principality of Chernigov . The Cumans invaded and plundered the eastern part of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1091. The invading Cumans were leading by chieftain Kapolcs, they broke first in Transylvania , then the territory between the Danube and Tisza rivers. The Cumans tried to leave Hungary with their huge booty and prisoners, but King Ladislaus I of Hungary reached and defeated them near

29072-474: The territorial evolution of the country. In surviving primary sources, the provinces were named with the Byzantine term hora or the Bulgarian terms zemya ( земя ), strana ( страна ), and oblast ( област ), usually named after its main city. The provincial governors were titled "duke" or kefalia — both from Byzantine dux and kephale —and were directly appointed by the emperor. The provinces were subdivided into katepanika (sing. katepanikon , from

29256-432: The treaty, Theodore Komnenos conquered Salonica, greatly reducing the size of the Latin Empire. In 1225, Theodore proclaimed himself emperor. By 1228, the situation for the Latins became desperate; they entered into negotiations with Bulgaria, promising a marriage between the under-age emperor Baldwin II and Ivan Asen II's daughter Helena. This marriage would have made the Bulgarian emperor a regent in Constantinople, but in

29440-399: The two armies confronted each other near the fortress of Lardea in an indecisive battle; the Bulgarians kept their plunder and retreated untroubled to the north of the Balkan mountains. In the late 1186, Isaac II launched his second campaign against Bulgaria. His army was forced to spend the winter in Sofia , giving the Bulgarians time to prepare for the invasion. Early the following year,

29624-404: The vicinity of Constantinople itself. But even they [these cities] are under the authority of my empire since they have no other emperor but me, and only thanks to me do they survive, for thus God has decreed. — Tarnovo inscription of Ivan Asen II in the Church of the Holy Forty Martyrs on the aftermath of the battle of Klokotnitsa. As a result of the growing discontent with his policy, Boril

29808-513: The warlike Monomakh in 1125, Cumans returned to the steppe along the Rus' borders. Fighting resumed in 1128; Rus' sources mention that Sevinch, son of Khan Boniak , expressed the desire to plant his sword "in the Golden gate of Kiev", as his father had done before him. On 20 March 1155, Prince Gleb Yuryevich took Kiev with the help of a Cuman army under the Cuman prince Chemgura. By 1160 Cuman raids into Rus' had become an annual event. These attacks put pressure on Rus' and affected trade routes to

29992-399: Was a hereditary monarchy ruled by a Tsar —the Bulgarian word for Emperor that originated in the 10th century during the First Bulgarian Empire. The monarchs of Bulgaria styled themselves, "In Christ the Lord Faithful Emperor and Autocrat of all Bulgarians" or variations, sometimes including "...and Romans, Greeks, or Vlachs". The term all Bulgarians was added in the 14th century following

30176-453: Was a medieval Bulgarian state that existed between 1185 and 1396. A successor to the First Bulgarian Empire , it reached the peak of its power under Tsars Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the early 15th century. Until 1256, the Second Bulgarian Empire was the dominant power in the Balkans , defeating the Byzantine Empire in several major battles. In 1205, Emperor Kaloyan defeated

30360-435: Was allowed to rule in Salonica over the southern areas of the despotate as a Bulgarian vassal. It is possible Serbia accepted Bulgarian suzerainty at that time to counter the threat from Catholic Hungary. In 1231, when John of Brienne arrived in Constantinople, Ivan Asen II allied with the Nicaean Empire against the Latins. After the Nicaeans recognized the Bulgarian Patriarchate in 1235, Ivan Asen II broke his union with

30544-416: Was based on agriculture, mining, traditional crafts, and trade. Agriculture and livestock breeding remained the mainstays of the Bulgarian economy between the 12th and 14th centuries. Moesia, Zagore , and Dobrudzha were known for rich harvests of grain, including high quality wheat. Production of wheat, barley, and millet was also developed in most regions of Thrace. The main wine-producing areas were Thrace,

30728-408: Was considered a " New Constantinople ", became the country's main cultural hub and the centre of the Eastern Orthodox world for contemporary Bulgarians . After the Ottoman conquest, many Bulgarian clerics and scholars emigrated to Serbia , Wallachia , Moldavia , and Russian principalities , where they introduced Bulgarian culture, books, and hesychastic ideas. The name most frequently used for

30912-433: Was defended by a large garrison. Despite capturing the city at Easter , Kaloyan ordered every Byzantine to be thrown in the moat. He then negotiated peace with Byzantines, securing Bulgarian gains in early 1202. While the Bulgarians were occupied in the south, the Hungarian king Andrew II and his Serbian vassal Vukan had annexed Belgrade , Braničevo , and Niš, but after negotiating peace, Kaloyan turned his attention to

31096-421: Was extensively used in the beginning of the 13th century. Metalworking was developed in western Bulgaria— Chiprovtsi , Velbazhd , and Sofia, as well in Tarnovo and Messembria to the east. Monetary circulation and minting steadily increased throughout the period of the Second Bulgarian Empire, reaching their climax during the reign of Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria (reigned 1331–1371). Along with his recognition by

31280-428: Was extracted from the lagoon near Anchialus . Leathermaking, shoemaking, carpentry, and weaving were prominent crafts. Varna was renowned for the processing of fox fur, which was used for production of luxurious clothes. According to Western European sources, there was an abundance of silk in Bulgaria. The Picardian knight Robert de Clari said that in the dowry of the Bulgarian princess Maria , " ... there

31464-552: Was forced to become an Ottoman vassal, and in return he recovered some of the lost towns and secured ten years of uneasy peace. The Ottoman raids renewed in the early 1380s, culminating in the fall of Sofia . Simultaneously, Ivan Shishman had been engaged in war against Wallachia since 1384. According to the Anonymous Bulgarian Chronicle , he killed the Wallachian voivode Dan I of Wallachia in September 1386. He also maintained uneasy relations with Ivan Sratsimir, who had broken his last ties with Tarnovo in 1371 and had separated

31648-422: Was headed by a regency that included the mother-empress, the Patriarch, and senior members of the ruling dynasty. As the processes of feudal fragmentation accelerated in the 14th century, it became customary for the monarch's sons to receive imperial titles during their father's lifetime; sons were styled co-rulers or junior emperors. Unlike the First Empire, the administration during the Second Bulgarian Empire

31832-423: Was heavily influenced by the Byzantine system of administration . Most of the titles of the nobility, the court, and the administration were directly adopted from their Byzantine counterparts in Byzantine Greek, or were translated into Bulgarian. There were some differences in the ranking systems between the two countries—there are few surviving sources about the precise obligations, insignia, or ceremonial affairs of

32016-400: Was in three regions, and all three were called Bulgaria. The first Bulgaria extends there, where you pass from Hungary through the Iron Gate . Its capital is called Vidin. The other Bulgaria lies opposite Wallachia , and its capital is called Tarnovo. The third Bulgaria is there, where the Danube flows into the sea . Its capital is called Kaliakra. On 26 September 1371, the Ottomans defeated

32200-400: Was not a single horse that was not covered in red silk fabric, which was so long that dragged for seven or eight steps after each horse. And despite they travelled through mud and bad roads, none of the silk fabrics was torn—everything was preserved in grace and nobility." There were blacksmiths, ironmongers, and engineers who developed catapults, battering rams, and other siege equipment, which

32384-449: Was not nearly as successful against the Latins. Boril was defeated by Henry of Flanders in 1208 near Plovdiv but continued to campaign against the Latin Empire until 1210, when the Hungarians and Latin empire made an alliance. By 1231 the Latin regency had finalized negotiations with John of Brienne , the former king of Jerusalem, who was invited to step in as the guardian and co-emperor of Baldwin II at Constantinople. This action led to

32568-461: Was overthrown in 1218 by Ivan Asen II , son of Ivan Asen I, who had lived in exile after Kaloyan's death. After his coronation, Ivan Asen II arranged a wedding with Anna Maria , daughter of the Hungarian king Andrew II, and received the captured cities Belgrade and Braničevo as a dowry. He then signed an alliance with Theodore Komnenos , ruler of the most powerful Byzantine successor state, the Despotate of Epirus . With his northern border secured by

32752-418: Was quickly discovered; Kaloyan made brutal reprisals against the Byzantines in Thrace. The campaign against the Latins also continued; in 1206, the Bulgarians were victorious at the battle of Rusion and conquered a number of towns in Eastern Thrace . The following year, Boniface I , the King of Salonica, was killed in battle, but Kaloyan was murdered before he could begin the assault on the capital. Kaloyan

32936-431: Was responsible for the treasury and finance. High court titles such as despot and sebastokrator were awarded to the Emperor's relatives but were not strictly concerned with administrative functions. The capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire was Tarnovo, which was also the centre of its own administrative unit under the direct authority of the emperor. Bulgaria was divided into provinces, whose numbers varied with

33120-427: Was subordinated to the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople and downgraded to an archbishopric centred in Ohrid , while retaining its autonomy and dioceses. Basil appointed the Bulgarian John I Debranin as its first archbishop, but his successors were Byzantines. The Bulgarian aristocracy and tsar's relatives were given various Byzantine titles and transferred to the Asian parts of the Empire. Despite hardships,

33304-404: Was succeeded by his cousin Boril , who tried to pursue his predecessor's policies but did not have his capability. His army was defeated by the Latins at Philippopolis , reversing most of Kaloyan's gains. Boril failed to maintain the integrity of the empire; his brother Strez took most of Macedonia for himself, Alexius Slav seceded his territory in the Rhodopes ; in return for help suppressing

33488-404: Was successful in creating a more cohesive force out of the many Cuman groups—he united the western and eastern Cuman–Kipchak tribes. Khan Konchek also changed the old Cuman system of government whereby rulership went to the most senior tribal leader; he instead passed it on to his son Koten. Igor Svyatoslavich , prince of the Principality of Novgorod-Seversk, attacked the Cumans in the vicinity of

33672-499: Was the ancient city of Sudak , which Ibn al-Air viewed as the "city of the Qifjaq from which (flow) their material possessions. It is on the Khazar Sea. Ships come to it bearing clothes. The Qifjiqs buy from them and sell them slaves. Burtas furs, beaver, squirrels..." Due to their political dominance, the Cuman language became Crimea's lingua franca . Thus the language was adopted by the Karaite Jewish and Crimean Armenian communities (who produced many documents written in Kipchak with

33856-433: Was willing to recognize Kaloyan as king on the condition the Bulgarian Church would submit to Rome. After lengthy negotiations in which both acted diplomatically but without changing their positions, Kaloyan was crowned king in late 1204. Archbishop Basil was proclaimed Primate . Kaloyan had no intention of submitting to that decision; he sent the Pope a letter expressing his gratitude for the Imperial title he had received and

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