Some point to the beginning of the end of the Second Bulgarian Empire
as being the reign of the child-king Kaliman I.
Being only a child himself, his regent or regents were tasked with running the empire for him until
he could come of age. The regency was arguably weak, choosing to pay tribute to the belligerent
Mongols as opposed to fighting them off and risking an ongoing war. This, coupled with
building internal strife as Bulgarian nobility saw growing cracks and schisms caused the foundation
of the empire to begin to crumble. The boy king died before his 13th birthday, shifting power to
the hands of Michael Asen - although technically he, too, was managed by a regent as he was also a
child. A short decade later, Kaliman Asen II would usurp the throne which he would ultimately lose
almost immediately to Mitso Asen after Kaliman was murdered, and this instability on the throne would
become a regular occurrence. Bulgaria was weak and it was no secret to those watching from at home or
abroad. Their enemies in the Nicaean Empire and Hungary began chiseling away at Bulgaria’s lands,
mostly unopposed. This marked the peak of a landslide into power struggles and domestic
conflict ultimately leading to the reign of Constantine Tikh as Emperor of Bulgaria.
Constantine would have to face threats from the Byzantines, Hungarians, unsatisfied nobility,
and pretenders to his throne. Crippled by an accident and growing weary from constant troubles,
the emperor now had to deal with an outright rebellion when 1277 brought about a large-scale
peasant revolt following the lead of a man by the name of Ivaylo - a man who,
in the subsequent violence, murdered Emperor Constantine.
This left the Bulgarian Empire at the center of a vicious tug-of-war between
Ivaylo and the Byzantines. When Ivaylo reached the capital of Tarnovo and was declared emperor,
the Byzantines looked for Mongol aid in bringing about his demise,
which would only come to fruition after a fatiguing back and forth. Ivaylo was
assassinated by the Mongols and the Bulgarian nobility elected his successor, George I Terter.
This would fail to stabilize the stalling empire. Theodore Svetoslav
at the start of the 14th century would give stability his best shot,
finally putting an end to the Mongol raids and strengthening Bulgaria’s borders,
even managing to push back against Byzantine ploys to oust him and worsen the pre-existing
instability. Peace was made between Bulgaria and the surrounding nations and it seemed that
maybe the foundations had been restored…though this sigh of relief would be only temporary.
Theodore’s successors would return Bulgaria to its state of off-and-on warfare with the
surrounding nations, particularly the Byzantines and Serbians. These, however,
nor Hungary, would be the final foe to take down the Second Bulgarian Empire.
It would be the Ottomans who planted the kiss of death…
The mid-14th century saw the reigning Bulgarian Emperor attempt to halt an Ottoman invasion to
no avail. He, Ivan Alexander, would struggle to regain lands from the Byzantines at the same time,
but it was too late to save his empire. His 1371 death left Bulgaria a shattered ruin,
best described in the words of Johann Schiltberger:
I 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.
Vidin was in the hands of Ivan Sratsimir, Ivan Shishman oversaw Tarnovo, and the rest
fell to Dobrotitsa. With Bulgaria divided and weak, the Ottomans ramped up their efforts of
expansion and eyed the whole of Bulgaria with an unstoppable greed. Ivan Shishman hoped to
put a final stop to the Ottoman incursions and in 1371 agreed to become a vassal. A tense peace was
thus made but a decade later the Ottoman thirst for expansion was still aching to be quenched.
The 1380s thus saw the reignition of Ottoman attacks on Bulgarian
soil all the while Ivan Shishman and his army were preoccupied,
locked in a war against the nearby Wallachians and an uneasy rivalry with Ivan Sratsimir in Vidin.
Ottoman attacks were growing harsher as it seemed the world was folding
in on what little remained of the Second Bulgarian Empire. Tarnovo would fall to
the invaders in 1393. Shishman would die in 1395. Vidin would follow suit in 1396. This
is generally viewed as the official end of the Second Bulgarian Empire…
The following century would see waning resistance attempts by the likes of Fruzhin and Konstantin,
but it was now too late. Bulgaria would not regain independence until the 20th century…
…
So how exactly did the Second Bulgarian Empire
collapse? What made it such an easy target for Ottoman conquest? Why was it so weak?...
From the very start, the Bulgarian Empire was not destined for any anticipated greatness.
It was already the second attempt at creating and maintaining such a state and the Byzantine
Empire had been meddling in Bulgarian affairs for some time. The First Bulgarian Empire had been on
a decline due to exterior threats-turned-attacks and overzealous expansionist dreams of the Emperor
Simeon. The imperial state was stretched thin and facing beatings from Magyars, the Byzantines,
and the Rus, including, as to be expected in a failing empire, internal discord. Its ultimate
demise came at the hands of what would be one of the Second Bulgarian Empire’s Achilles heels
as well - the Byzantine Empire. The remaining territory of the First Bulgarian Empire would
be annexed by the Byzantines in the early 11th century and would remain in Constantinople’s
tight grip until the late 12th century. A revolution by two brothers, Ivan and Peter Asen,
would expel their Byzantine puppet masters and strongarm the emperor into recognizing
Bulgarian independence and the formation of their own empire. This is what brought about round two,
before the Bulgarians would eventually once again fall to a more powerful neighbor.
Despite at one point being a Balkan power figure during the 13th century, the Second Bulgarian
Empire was in a race downhill from day one. For some time it seemed that the new Bulgarian state
couldn’t even settle on its own religion, with the empire shifting between the Latin
and Eastern churches for who would hold supremacy over Bulgarian ecclesiastical affairs - Rome or
Constantinople. Although it is generally believed that, in spite of political motives and decisions,
the Bulgarians either way remained predominantly Orthodox Christians. It wasn’t until the rule of
Ivan Asen II during the early to mid-13th century that the Second Bulgarian Empire,
based in Turnovo, became a Balkan superpower. This, however, was short-lived. Weak monarchs
led to feuding nobility which opened the door for foreign assaults.
The latter came predominantly at the hands of the Mongols, the Byzantines,
and at the bitter end, the Ottomans. The Hungarians and Serbs would additionally
beat down the Bulgarian door as the empire was more or less surrounded by
hostile players. Such was the way of the times throughout Europe, but the Bulgarian Empire was
particularly susceptible to the constant threats because of the insecurity within.
The Bulgarian nobility was filled with rifts and contention and it was a normal occurrence
for one or more of the nobles to from time to time lay claim to the empire’s throne,
sometimes even with the support of outside menaces such as the
Byzantines. Such a ploy wasn’t hard to attempt, and it wasn’t even hard
to understand at times considering the fact that the emperors were often weak, children,
or otherwise failed to show the undeniable strength necessary to ward off such conspiracies.
The ultimate downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire was its inability
to create a foundation strong enough to stand on. It was born in a wolf’s den
and hoped to survive without the proper provisions. Instead, with every step,
more of the floor crumbled and the hungry wolves closed in around the withering state. Eventually,
it all came crashing down before it was swallowed up in its entirety…