How did Bulgaria overtake the Eastern Roman Empire? - The Conquest of Simeon the Great

 

The reign of Charlemagne was without doubt one the most prosperous periods in Western Europe ever since the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

 The name Charles the Great is associated with war and constant military campaigns, as well as a time of great cultural and intellectual activity.

 But Frankia wasn't the only rising military power of its time.

 Just to the east lay Bulgaria, a kingdom founded upon a union of local Slavs and formerly nomadic Bulgars.

 Bulgaria had undergone a rapid expansion under Krum the Dreadful, who defeated the Byzantines on multiple occasions and subjugated parts of the declining Avar Khaganate.

 Half a century later, in 864, the current monarch of Bulgaria, Boris, made the crucial decision to finally Christianize his pagan subjects.

 This started a process of change in which this once pagan kingdom gradually evolved into a Christian empire.

 In less than a few decades this cultural and political transformation was largely completed by Boris’ son, Simeon.

 More widely known as Simeon the Great, Simeon was likely born in Pliska, the capital of Bulgaria, probably around 864 or 865.

 Not being the eldest son of Boris, he wasn't the first in the line of succession.

 Boris had instead intended for Simeon to become a high-ranking church official in the recently Christianized Bulgaria and so he sent him to study in Constantinople.

 There, according to Byzantine sources, the young man excelled in nearly all his studies.

 He was often described as being half-Roman because of his fluency in Greek and his passion for Greco-Roman culture.

 Meanwhile, in 889 Boris decided to retire and was succeeded by his eldest son Vladimir.

 The new ruler was not too fond of the newly adopted Christian religion and began undermining its institutions soon after ascending the throne.

 He attempted to revive Bulgarian paganism and make it the official religion once again.

 Boris, upon hearing of Vladimir's actions, came back from retirement, returned to the capital, and dethroned his firstborn son.

 As punishment, Vladimir was blinded and imprisoned, in accordance with old Bulgar tradition he was trying to revive.

 Simeon was then recalled from Constantinople and in 893 was crowned Knyaz, or prince of Bulgaria.

 His first order of business as a ruler was to relocate the capital of Bulgaria to Preslav from Pliska, as the former was associated with Bulgaria's pagan past.

 The coronation of Simeon was met with great enthusiasm in Constantinople.

 The current Roman emperor Leo VI assumed that Simeon, as a personal friend and an ardent lover of the Greco Roman civilization, would easily act in favor of Byzantine interests.

 Little did Leo know that Simeon was far more ambitious, aspiring to one day sit on the throne in Constantinople.

 The long-lasting peace between Bulgaria and Rome that Boris had established was about to end in 895, when Leo VI moved the marketplace for Bulgarian goods from Constantinople to Thessaloniki.

 There, the Bulgarian merchants were heavily taxed.

 Simeon complained to the Byzantine emperor, however his pleads were ignored.

 And so began what is regarded by many as the first trade war in Europe.

 To ensure a victory the Byzantines did what they do best and bribed the nomadic Magyars to raid Bulgaria.

 At first, the Magyar-Roman coalition was successful in scoring several minor victories in northern Bulgaria.

 The following year however Simeon decided to beat the Romans at their own game and hired another nomadic people, the Pechenegs, to attack the Magyars.

 In 896 a combined Bulgaro-Pecheneg force annihilated the Magyars at the battle of the Southern Buh River.

 This battle is one of the main reasons that forced the Hungarian tribes to migrate to their current homeland in Pannonia.

 After dealing with the threat to the north Simeon shifted his focus south, where he decisively defeated the Roman army at the battle of Bulgarophygon.

 The Bulgarian forces reached as far Constantinople and even besieged it.

 The war finally ended with a peace treaty under which Byzantium was obliged to pay an annual tribute and cede some lands along the Black Sea to Bulgaria.

 The period between the signing of this treaty and the year 912 was a relatively peaceful one although it is likely that Simeon did launch several plundering expeditions in Thrace and Southern Macedonia, which possibly resulted in further territorial gains for Bulgaria.

 But for the most part Simeon now focused on the internal affairs of his kingdom.

 He funded ambitious building projects and sponsored Bulgarian scholars and writers.

 This period saw mass production and translation of numerous secular and theological literary works and the development of a new alphabet.

 The energetic cultural and intellectual activity that occurred during Simeon's reign made Bulgaria one of the largest cultural centers in Europe.

 However, with each passing year, the peace between Bulgaria and Byzantium became less and less stable.

 Simeon’s dream to ascend on the throne in Constantinople was not going to be stopped by a peace treaty.

 A pretext for war would appear in 912.

 In Constantinople, the long reign of Leo VI had ended.

 The late emperor was succeeded by his underage son Constantine VII and his brother Alexander, who held most of the real political power.

 In the spring of 913, Simeon sent envoys to Constantinople to renew the peace of 896.

 But the Bulgarian diplomats were sent away by Alexander, who refused to pay the annual tribute.

 Simeon used this as an excuse to attack.

 The conditions became even more favorable for the Bulgarian monarch after the death of Emperor Alexander in June, which left an underage boy on the Byzantine throne and caused political turmoil in the Roman capital.

 Simeon reached Constantinople mostly unopposed.

 The Byzantines knew that they were in no position to fight and so had to compromise.

 Nicollas Mysticos, the patriarch of Constantinople and an influential figure in the Byzantine court, managed to successfully negotiate peace with Simeon.

 As part of the terms, the rank of Simeon’s title was to be elevated.

 From this day onward, until the Balkan campaign of emperor Basil II, Bulgaria was to be ruled by an Emperor.

 Mysticos also negotiated a diplomatic marriage between Simeon's daughter and Constantine VII, which was to occur when both came of age.

 However, shortly after Simeon departed the Roman capital, Constantine's previously exiled mother Zoe returned to the imperial court and, through a plot, she managed to assume power in February 914.

 She in effect removed patriarch Nicholas from the government, renounced his recognition of Simeon as Emperor and rejected the planned marriage of her son to Simeon's daughter.

 This prompted Simeon to renew his campaigns against Byzantium.

 In the following three years, Simeon would launch numerous plundering expeditions mostly in Byzantine controlled Thrace.

 In 917 the Byzantines hatched a large-scale campaign against Bulgaria.

 A 30 000 strong Byzantine army led by general Leo Phocas and a navy commanded by Romanus Lekapenos accompanied the land force.

 Once informed, Simeon rushed to intercept the Byzantine land army.

 The two forces clashed near the river of Achelous in one of the bloodiest battles of early medieval Europe.

 Nearly the entire Byzantine host was annihilated by the fast-charging Bulgarian cavalry.

 But before the battle of Achelous, the Byzantines secured an alliance with Serbia, which launched a surprise invasion in western Bulgaria.

 Simeon, however, reacted quickly, sending an army that invaded and pacified the Serbian principality.

 Between 920 and 922, the Bulgarian ruler increased pressure on Byzantium by campaigning in the south through Thessaly, going as far as the city of Corinth.

 Simeon's army reached Constantinople and laid the siege on the city in 921 and 922.

 Simeon tried negotiating an alliance with the Fatimids to launch a combined attack on the Roman capital.

 The Muslim fleet, combined with the formidable Bulgarian land force, would’ve been an existential threat to Byzantium.

 The Romans were quick to react by bribing the Fatimids to end their relations with Bulgaria.

 The lack of a navy did not stop Simeon from symbolically besieging Constantinople.

 Finally, during the summer of 924 Simeone opened peace negotiations with Romanus Lekapenos, who had by now risen to the rank of co-emperor.

 The two statesmen did not sign an official peace treaty, but Rome was once again obliged to cede territory and pay tribute to Bulgaria.

 By 924 Bulgaria was in control of most of the Balkan peninsula, having subjugated the Serbian principality after it attempted to renew its alliance with Byzantium.

 In 926 Simeon made attempts to further expand Bulgaria to the west by attacking Byzantine allied Croatia.

 The Bulgarian troops invaded Croatia, but were defeated by the army of the Croatian king Tomislav, at the battle of the Bosnian Highlands.

 The following year, 927, Simeon passed away.

 He was succeeded by his son Peter who finally signed an official peace treaty with Byzantium.

 The new Bulgarian emperor returned some of the lands his father had occupied, and in turn was promised a hefty annual tribute and an official recognition of his imperial title.

 Simeon remains one of the most highly valued historical figures in Bulgarian historiography.

 His reign is remembered as a golden age for Bulgaria and his name serves as a reminder of Bulgaria's former greatness.