Samuel was the Tsar (Emperor) of the First Bulgarian Empire from 997 to 6 October 1014. From 977 to 997, he was a general under Roman I of Bulgaria, the second surviving son of Emperor Peter I of Bulgaria, and co-ruled with him, as Roman bestowed upon him the command of the army and the effective royal authority. As Samuel struggled to preserve his country's independence from the Byzantine Empire, his rule was characterized by constant warfare against the Byzantines and their equally ambitious ruler Basil II.
The Battle of Kleidion took place on July 29, 1014, between the Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarian Empire. It was the culmination of the nearly half-century struggle between the Byzantine Emperor Basil II and the Bulgarian Emperor Samuel in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. The result was a decisive Byzantine victory.
The Vardar Banovina, or Vardar Banate, was a province (banate) of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1941.
The Archbishopric of Ohrid, also known as the Bulgarian Archbishopric of Ohrid, originally called Archbishopric of Justiniana Prima and all Bulgaria, was an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church established following the Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria in 1018 by lowering the rank of the autocephalous Bulgarian Patriarchate due to its subjugation to the Byzantines. In 1767, the Archbishopric's autocephaly was abolished, and the Archbishopric was placed under the tutelage of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The Kometopuli dynasty was the last royal dynasty in the First Bulgarian Empire, ruling from ca. 976 until the fall of Bulgaria under Byzantine rule in 1018. The most notable member of the dynasty, Tsar Samuel, is famous for successfully resisting Byzantine conquest for more than 40 years. Sometimes the realm of the Cometopuli is called Western Bulgarian Kingdom or Western Bulgarian Empire.
The Battle of Velbazhd took place between Bulgarian and Serbian armies on 28 July 1330, near the town of Velbazhd.
The Battle of the Gates of Trajan was a battle between Byzantine and Bulgarian forces in the year 986.
Krakra of Pernik, also known as Krakra Voevoda or simply Krakra, was an 11th-century Bulgarian feudal lord in the First Bulgarian Empire whose domain encompassed 36 fortresses in what is today southwestern Bulgaria, with his capital at Pernik. He is known for heroically resisting Byzantine sieges on multiple occasions as the Byzantines overran the Bulgarian Empire.
The Battle of Spercheios took place in 997 AD, on the shores of the Spercheios river near the city of Lamia in central Greece. It was fought between a Bulgarian army led by Tsar Samuil, which in the previous year had penetrated south into Greece, and a Byzantine army under the command of general Nikephoros Ouranos. The Byzantine victory virtually destroyed the Bulgarian army, and ended its raids in the southern Balkans and Greece. The major historical source on the battle comes from Greek historian John Skylitzes whose Synopsis of Histories contains a biography of the then-reigning Byzantine Emperor, Basil II.
The Battle of Thessalonica occurred in 995 or earlier, near the city of Thessalonica, Greece. The battle was part of the long Bulgarian–Byzantine war of the late 10th and early 11th centuries. The Bulgarians under their ruler, Tsar Samuil, succeeded in ambushing and destroying the Byzantine garrison of Thessalonica, killing its commander, Gregory Taronites, and capturing his son Ashot.
The Uprising of Petar Delyan, which took place in 1040–1041, was a major Bulgarian rebellion against the Byzantine Empire in the Theme of Bulgaria. It was the largest and best-organised attempt to restore the former Bulgarian Empire until the rebellion of Ivan Asen I and Petar IV in 1185.
Nikulitsa was a noble from Larissa and governor of Servia during the reign of Samuil. Nikulitzas belonged to a prominent family in the city. In 980, Emperor Basil II had appointed his grandfather as leader (archon) of the Vlachs; a local ethnic group that was also at the center of the rebellion of 1066–1067. The leaders of that rebellion were all prominent men of Larissa, two of whom are specifically mentioned by Kekaumenos as being Vlachs; Slavota Karmalakis and a certain Beriboes (Berivoi).
Nestoritsa was a Bulgarian noble and general during the reign of Emperors Samuil (997-1014); Gavril Radomir (1014–1015) and Ivan Vladislav (1015–1018). He was one of Bulgaria's most skillful military commanders.
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 Bulgarian-Serbian wars were a series of conflicts between the Bulgarian Empire and medieval Serbian states between the 9th and 14th centuries in the central Balkans.
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.
The Belashtitsa Monastery is a convent in the western Rhodope Mountains near the village of Belashtitsa at 12 km to the south of Plovdiv. It is dedicated to St George the Victorious.
This is a list of people, places, and events related to the medieval Bulgarian Empires — the First Bulgarian Empire (681–1018), and the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396).
