Today undoubtedly marks one of the most significant events in the millennial Bulgarian history - the beginning of the uprising of the brothers Asen (1190-1196) and Peter (1185-1197) {2} marks the beginning of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom.
838 years since the beginning of the uprising of Assen and Peter, October 26, 1185 {1}
Today undoubtedly marks one of the most significant events in the millennial Bulgarian history - the beginning of the uprising of the brothers Asen (1190-1196) and Peter (1185-1197) {2} marks the beginning of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom.
A lot has been written about the origin of the Asenevtsi family {3}. In Bulgarian historiography, an opinion has been expressed about their Cuman origin. Asen was called Belgun (perhaps from Turk. wise), a nickname or name of possible Cuman or Proto-Bulgarian origin. But all subsequent events, the emphasis by their successors on a connection with the First Bulgarian Kingdom, speaks of the Bulgarian roots of this family. Or at least for their too early self-determination as Bulgarians...
The Church of St. Dimitar in Veliko Tarnovo, modern condition
In Romanian historiography, they most often adhere to the untenable opinion that the two brothers were Vlachs, since in some Byzantine and Western sources the ethnonym Vlasi{4} is found in connection with the events of 1185-1186, although from what was written by the Western chroniclers so that there is no doubt that they are actually Bulgarians. The confusion comes from the fact that the Byzantine and Western chroniclers of the late 5th - early 9th centuries used the ethnonym Vlachs to denote the Bulgarians from North-Eastern and Central Bulgaria (the Byzantine theme {XNUMX} Paristrion), since the theme Bulgaria is the western Bulgarian land, the lands under the authority of the Ohrid Archdiocese. Of course, there is no doubt that the restored Bulgarian kingdom also included Vlachs to some extent (see note XNUMX here).
Immediately before the outbreak of the uprising, the situation in Byzantium was tense. The Bulgarian population suffers from the arbitrariness of the tax officials, Bogomilism is also on the rise. The Hungarians entered the empire, reaching Sredets. The Normans invaded from Italy and, after capturing Drach, besieged Thessaloniki, which fell on August 24, 1185.
This is how the Byzantine chronicler Nikita of Hone {6} (1155-1217) describes these events in his "History", which examines in detail what happened in Byzantium from 1118 to 1206 and is also the main source for Bulgarian history at that time, despite some inaccuracies, the clearly expressed arrogance and barely disguised hatred regarding the liberation struggle of the Bulgarians and their leaders:
"Then [in the last four months of 1185] the emperor [Isaac II Angel (1185-1195)] wished to be related by marriage to a foreign tribal people, because the one to whom he had previously been married {7} had died. Entering into negotiations through envoys with Béla [III (1173-1196)], king of Hungary, he took his daughter [Margarita, who as a Byzantine empress took the name Maria], who was not quite 10 years of age, to wife. But because he was afraid to perform the marriage celebrations at state expense, he collected the necessary money free of charge from his lands. Because of avarice, he plundered in a disguised way also other cities that were located near Anchialo, and provoked enmity especially against himself and against the Romans from the barbarians at Mount Hemus [a contemptuous name for the Bulgarians on both sides of Stara planina], who earlier they were called Mizis {8}, and now they are called Vlachs {9}. Because they relied on the impassable places and dared the fortresses, which were too numerous and jutted over sheer cliffs. They ... behaved haughtily towards the Romans ... and openly revolted." {10}
While the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angel (1185-1195) was in Kypsela, the brothers Ivan Asen and Theodore appeared with him. They want to be accepted by the emperor to request that their land holdings enter the pronia list {11}. Isaac II Angel treats them roughly and sends them away. The Byzantine chronicler Nikita of Hone cites this incident as the reason for the rebellion that the two brothers later raised. In fact, the case of Kypsela should be seen rather as an occasion for the subsequent rebellion. The mutinous actions must have been premeditated, judging by the events that followed.
The brothers Ivan Asen and Peter built a temple of "St. Dimitar", spreading the legend of an icon of St. Dimitar, which allegedly miraculously appeared in Tarnovgrad after the capture of Thessaloniki by the Normans. Nikita of Hone mentions, albeit with irony, that the elder brother Theodore took the name Peter and was crowned king in the church of St. Dimitar" in Tarnovo. Later, the insurgents tried to capture the old Bulgarian capital, Veliki Preslav, but the city resisted their efforts.
Thus began the period of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom and the rise of the Asenevtsi dynasty gave rise to many prominent people both in Bulgaria and in Byzantium.
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{1} Today, this date is perceived more under the pressure of our modern folk history and the representatives of the various historical forums on the Web. In fact, the uprising, as well as the related events - the consecration of the church "St. Dimitar" in Tarnovgrad, for example - must have erupted in the early spring of the following year 1186 (see Ivan Bozhilov "The Family of Asenevtsi" (1186-1460). Genealogy and prosopography". Second phototype edition. Publishing House of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences "Marin Drinov", Sofia: 1994 // pp. 27-28; p. 37, note 23 and pos. there lit.).
The modern pressure to start the uprising in the autumn of 1185 is based on the church holiday Dimitrovden. In fact, in the Middle Ages, as in most cases today, church buildings were named according to the day on which the foundations of the building were laid, and their consecration was not necessarily on a church holiday.
Moreover, a brief overview of the events will convince us that referring the uprising to October 26, 1185, among other things, is also impossible - on September 12, 1185, Isaac II Angel became emperor, several months at least are needed to may he arrange a marriage with the daughter of the Hungarian king Béla III - beginning of negotiations before his coronation as emperor is out of the question. More time is needed to make the population aware of the collection of money for the wedding celebrations and to start collecting this money. Not a little time is also needed for the brothers Asen and Peter to go in the late autumn of 1185 to Kypsela (now Ipsala on the river Maritsa in White Sea Thrace), where they asked to be given a village, and to return from there back to Tarnovgrad. It is not possible that all these events could have had time to happen in a month and a half, until October 26th - it would be impossible even today. That is why today's celebration of the beginning of the uprising of the brothers Assen and Peter in the fall of 1185 must be taken as tentative.
{2} Peter's baptismal name was Theodore. In some sources, he is also called Kalopetar - "the good Peter".
{3} Cf. in detail Genoveva Tsankova-Petkova "Bulgaria under the Asenevtsi". Narodna prosveta, Sofia: 1978 // 191 p.; Ivan Bozhilov "The Family of Asenevtsi"...; and the copious literature that is listed there.
{4} This ethnonym is used within only twenty years and does not correspond to any other period.
{5} Tema is a Byzantine military-administrative unit.
{6} In the town of Χώναι, the diphthong -αι in Middle Byzantine times was read as -e. City in Phrygia, Central Asia Minor. The common name of the chronicler is Acominatus, but today he is known precisely by the place of his birth.
{7} The name of the emperor's first wife was recently discovered - her name was Irina, but there is no other information about her. It has been suggested that she was of the Comnenian family or, perhaps, that she was a foreigner.
{8} An archaism, often used by Byzantine chroniclers to denote the Bulgarians.
{9} It is clear from a number of historical sources that in the second half of the 1185th century, a significant number of herdsmen seem to have lived in the high parts of Stara Planina, who in winter went down to the foothills to the north and south. It is possible that during the uprising of the brothers Asen and Peter, this population, especially immediately after the outbreak of the uprising, was charged with the task of defending the old mountain passes at least until the first snow fell at the end of XNUMX, which anyway made the passes impassable. These pastoralists in the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula were known until the middle of the last century as Vlachs or Aromanians, and their number in the Bulgarian lands and in southern Albania was considerable. In the second half of the XNUMXth century, the vast majority of this population moved to Romania.
On the other hand, Nikitas of Hone may have been influenced by the Slavs in Western Asia Minor, close to his birthplace, or later as an imperial secretary, by the early Slavic concept of Vlachs - so the representatives of all the Romance peoples were called.
In any case, the old - mainly in Romania - idea of the state, restored by the Asenevtsi brothers as a kind of "Vlach-Bulgarian Empire" today is not supported by any serious European scientist and must be recognized as having finally outlived its time.
{10} Nikita Choniat "History" - In: GIBI, T. XI. BAS Publishing House, Sofia: 1983 // pp. 25-. Translation by Vasilka Tapkova.
{11} A pronia was a land tenure in Byzantium, given for life use. From the second half of the XNUMXth century, pronies began to be handed down by inheritance.
Text: Ivan Petrinsky, Iliya Stoimenov
