Uprising of Asen and Peter: the Second Bulgarian Empire
On the feast of St Demetrius — traditionally dated 26 October 1185 — the brothers Theodor (Peter) and Asen raised the Bulgarians and Vlachs of the Balkan Mountains against Byzantium, angered by a new tax that Isaac II Angelos levied for his wedding. With Cuman help they withstood the emperor's campaigns, and after his failed siege of Lovech in 1187 or 1188 Isaac had to accept a truce: the Second Bulgarian Empire, centred on Tarnovo, was born.
- Date
- 26 October 1185 – between 1187 and 1188start: exact date; end: exact date unknown: an interval is given · duration: ≈ 2 yearsDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Tarnovotoday: Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria · Balkans and Anatolia
- Participants
- Peter II of Bulgaria (Theodor-Peter), Ivan Asen I, Second Bulgarian Empire, Byzantine Empire, Cumans
- Threads
- Balkans and Anatolia (11th–12th c.)
- Also known as
- Uprising of Asen and Peter; Восстание Асеня и Петра; Asen dynasty; Асени; Siege of Lovech; Осада Ловеча; Battle of Tryavna; Битва при Трявне
Bulgaria had been part of the Byzantine Empire since Basil II's conquest in 1018. In 1185, to pay for his wedding to the daughter of King Béla III of Hungary, Isaac II Angelos levied a new tax that fell heavily on the people of the Haemus (Balkan) Mountains. The brothers Theodor and Asen came to the emperor's camp to ask to be enrolled in the army and granted land near the Haemus; they were refused and roughly treated. Back home they built a church of St Demetrius of Thessaloniki, probably in Tarnovo, and their followers were told, according to Niketas Choniates, that God had granted freedom to the Bulgarians and Vlachs. The rising is traditionally dated to the saint's feast, 26 October 1185; Theodor took the name Peter and the insignia of a tsar, most probably before the end of the year.
In the spring of 1186 Isaac counter-attacked, and many rebels fled north of the Danube, where they made contact with the Vlachs there and with the Cumans of the steppe, who became their allies. In the spring of 1187 (by other datings, 1188) Isaac besieged the fortress of Lovech for three months without success and agreed to a truce that in effect recognized the brothers' rule; Asen became Peter's co-ruler in 1187 or 1188. In 1189 Peter's envoys met Frederick Barbarossa, then marching through the Balkans on crusade, at Niš and again at Adrianople, offering help against the Byzantines. In 1190 a Byzantine army was ambushed and routed in a pass of the Balkan Mountains.
The lands between the Balkan Mountains and the Danube were lost to Byzantium, and the Second Bulgarian Empire of the Asen dynasty took shape. Asen was stabbed by the boyar Ivanko in 1196 and Peter was killed in 1197; their younger brother Kaloyan, who had been a hostage in Constantinople in the late 1180s, became tsar and in 1205 routed the Latin emperor at Adrianople. The brothers' origins are debated: writers of the time call them Vlachs, while modern scholars think they were most likely of mixed Bulgarian, Cuman and Vlach descent.
Connections
Related events
- Battle of Kleidion and the conquest of Bulgaria29 July 1014 · Balkans and Anatoliathe Bulgarian state destroyed by Basil II in 1014–1018 was restored
- Stefan Nemanja unites Serbiabetween 1166 and 1168 – 1196 · Balkans and AnatoliaNemanja coordinated his actions against Byzantium with the Asen brothers and concluded an agreement against the Byzantines with Theodor-Peter
- Frederick Barbarossa's crusade: from Regensburg to the Saleph11 May 1189 – 10 June 1190 · Balkans and Anatoliain 1189 Peter's envoys met Frederick Barbarossa at Niš and Adrianople and offered help against the Byzantines
- Battle of Adrianople14 April 1205 · Balkans and AnatoliaKaloyan, the youngest brother of Peter and Asen, routed the Latin emperor Baldwin I at Adrianople
Same participants
- Massacre of the Latinsbetween April and May 1182 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Byzantine Empire
- Igor Sviatoslavich’s campaign against the Cumans23 April – 12 May 1185 · Eastern Europevia Cumans
Same place
- Wulfila’s Gothic Biblebetween 348 and 383 · Balkans and Anatolia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Third Crusade11 May 1189 – between 1 September and 2 September 1192
- Toledo School of Translators: Arabic learning in Latin1130s – 1187
Eastern Europe
- Igor Sviatoslavich’s campaign against the Cumans23 April – 12 May 1185
Middle East and Egypt
- Battle of Hattin3–4 July 1187
- Saladin takes Jerusalem20 September – 2 October 1187
- Maimonides' ‘Guide for the Perplexed’between 1185 and 1191
- Siege of Acre (1189–1191)28 August 1189 – 12 July 1191
Africa
- Rock-hewn churches of Lalibelac. 1181 – c. 1221
- K2 (Bambandyanalo) and the rise of Mapungubwec. 1000 – c. 1220
- Igbo-Ukwu: bronze casting in the West African forest800–899 – 1100–1199
Central and Northern Asia
- The minaret of Jam is raised in Ghorbetween 1174 and 1194
South Asia
East Asia
- Genpei War and the rise of the Kamakura shogunate5 May 1180 – 21 August 1192
- Zhu Xi and the Neo-Confucian synthesis1175 – 23 April 1200
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Construction of Angkor Thom and the Bayon1181 – c. 1218
Latin America
- Chimor: the Chimú kingdom and its capital Chan Chanc. 900 – c. 1470
- Fall of Tulabetween 1140 and 1200
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Uprising of Asen and Peter
- Wikipedia (English): Peter II of Bulgaria
- Wikipedia (English): Ivan Asen I
- Wikipedia (Russian): Восстание Асеня и Петра
- Wikipedia (Russian): Иван Асень I
- Fine J. V. A. The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. — Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1987.
- Wolff R. L. The «Second Bulgarian Empire»: Its Origin and History to 1204 // Speculum. — 1949. — Vol. 24, no. 2.
- Wikidata: Q196176