Asparuh was а ruler of Bulgars in the second half of the 7th century and is credited with the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire in 681.
Gavril Radomir was the emperor (tsar) of the First Bulgarian Empire from October 1014 to August or September 1015. He was the son of tsar Samuel.
Ivan Asen III, ruled as tsar of Bulgaria 1279–1280. Ivan Asen III was the son of Mitso Asen of Bulgaria and Maria of Bulgaria, a daughter of Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria and Irene of Thessalonica. He was probably born in about 1259/60, and died in exile in 1303.
The siege of Adrianople in 813 was a part of the wars of the Byzantine Empire with the Bulgarian khan Krum.
The Battle of Klokotnitsa occurred on 9 March 1230 near the village of Klokotnitsa between the Second Bulgarian Empire and the Empire of Thessalonica. As a result, Bulgaria emerged once again as the most powerful state in South-Eastern Europe.
The Battle of Boulgarophygon was fought in the summer of 896 near the town of Boulgarophygon between the Byzantine Empire and the First Bulgarian Empire. The result was an annihilation of the Byzantine army which determined the Bulgarian victory in the trade war of 894–896.
Theophylact Botaneiates was an 11th-century Byzantine general and governor of Thessalonica of the Botaneiates family.
The battle of Thessalonica was fought between the Bulgarian and the Byzantine Empires in the summer of 1014 near the city of Thessalonica in contemporary northern Greece. The Bulgarian army under the command of Nestoritsa was defeated by the Byzantines led by the governor of Thessalonica Theophylactus Botaniates and it was unable to divert the main Byzantine forces who were attacking the Bulgarian ramparts between the Belasitsa and Ograzhden mountains.
The Battle of Strumica took place in August 1014, near Strumica, present-day North Macedonia, between Bulgarian and Byzantine forces. Bulgarian troops under Emperor Samuil's son Gavril Radomir defeated the army of the governor of Thessaloniki, Theophylactus Botaniates, who perished in the battle. After his death the Byzantine Emperor Basil II was forced to pull back from Bulgaria and was unable to take advantage of his success in the recent Battle of Kleidion.
The battle of Bitola took place near the town of Bitola, in Bulgarian territory, between a Bulgarian army under the command of the voivode Ivats and a Byzantine army led by the strategos George Gonitsiates. It was one of the last open battles between the First Bulgarian Empire and the Byzantine Empire. The Bulgarians were victorious and the Byzantine Emperor Basil II had to retreat from the Bulgarian capital Ohrid, whose outer walls were by that time already breached by the Bulgarians. However, the Bulgarian victory only postponed the fall of Bulgaria to Byzantine rule in 1018.
The battle of Setina took place in the autumn of 1017 near the village of Setina in modern northern Greece between the armies of Bulgaria and Byzantium. The result was a Byzantine victory.
Maria Palaiologina Kantakouzene was an Empress consort of Bulgaria by marriage to two Bulgarian emperors, Constantine Tikh and Ivaylo. She was a niece of Michael VIII Palaiologos.
The Uprising of Ivaylo was a rebellion of the Bulgarian peasantry against the incompetent rule of Emperor Constantine Tikh and the Bulgarian nobility. The revolt was fuelled mainly by the failure of the central authorities to confront the Mongol menace in north-eastern Bulgaria. The Mongols had looted and ravaged the Bulgarian population for decades, especially in the region of Dobrudzha. The weakness of the state institutions was due to the accelerating feudalisation of the Second Bulgarian Empire.
Irene of Larissa was the second wife and empress-consort (tsaritsa) of tsar Gavril Radomir of Bulgaria.
Maria was the last empress consort (tsaritsa) of the First Bulgarian Empire. She was the wife of Tsar Ivan Vladislav of Bulgaria and was involved in political manoeuvring.
Leontius was the first Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Very little is known of his life and tenure. He was mentioned as the first Patriarch of Bulgaria in the Book of Boril, written in 1211.
Demetrius was the second Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the first one to have been recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as a result of the Byzantine–Bulgarian Treaty of 927, which affirmed the Bulgarian victory in the War of 913–927 against the Byzantine Empire. Demetrius headed the Bulgarian Patriarchate in the first years of the reign of emperor Peter I.
Joachim III was the Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church between c. 1282 and 1300, when the Second Bulgarian Empire reached its lowest point of decline during the reign of the emperors George Terter I, Smilets and Chaka. He was executed for treason by emperor Theodore Svetoslav in 1300. The Church did not recognize his guilt and his name was included in the list of Bulgarian Patriarchs in the Book of Boril. His seat was Tarnovo, the capital of Bulgaria.
Ignatius was a Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the 13th century during the rule of Emperor Konstantin Tih. He is listed as the fourth Patriarch presiding over the Bulgarian Church from Tarnovo in the medieval Book of Boril.
