| Banate of Bulgaria Bolgár bánság Banatus Bulgariae | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Banate of the Kingdom of Hungary | |||||||||
| 1365–1369 | |||||||||
| Capital | Bodony | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 1365 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1369 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Bulgaria | ||||||||
The Hungarian occupation of Vidin was a period in the history of the city and region of Vidin (Hungarian : Bodony), today in northwestern Bulgaria, when it was called Banate of Bulgaria under the rule of King Louis I of Hungary from 1365 to 1369. [1]
Before 1359–1360, the former heir to the Bulgarian crown Ivan Sratsimir had established himself as the ruler of the Vidin appanage of the Second Bulgarian Empire and had turned it into a largely independent entity. In early 1365 Louis I of Hungary, who like his predecessors styled himself "king of Bulgaria" (rex Bulgariae) among other titles, demanded that Ivan Sratsimir acknowledge his suzerainty and become his vassal. After Sratsimir's refusal, the Hungarian king undertook a campaign to conquer the Tsardom of Vidin. On 1 May 1365, he set off from Hungary; he reached Vidin on 30 May and captured the city on 2 June, after a brief siege. [2] Kommander of hungarian army palatine Nicholas Kont, the condottiere Ulrich I count of Zilli, Magister Stefan Sira, Magister Georgi Zekul and some other Hungarian knights distinguished themselves in the campaign for the capture of Tsardom of Vidin. The Hungarians took Ivan Sratsimir and his family captive and imprisoned them in the Humnik fortress in Bosiljevo, Croatia. Shortly afterwards, the Hungarians seized the entire land of the Tsardom of Vidin (known as Bodony in Hungarian [1] ) and turned it into a province of the Kingdom of Hungary governed by a ban. [1] Initially, the area was governed by Peter Himfi, the Count of Pozsony, and then by Denis Lackfi, styled "voivode of Transylvania, governor of Vidin and ruler of the counties of Temes and Szolnok". [2]
After establishing their administrative rule, the Hungarians proceeded to convert the local Bulgarian Orthodox population to Roman Catholicism with the assistance of Franciscan friars. Despite its short duration, this was one of the earliest Hungarian missionary dioceses. [3] According to Hungarian data, the Franciscans converted 200,000 people or a third of the region's population; although the figure is considered grossly overestimated and unrealistic, among the converted were certainly Ivan Sratsimir and his royal family. [2] That religious intolerance was reflected in the negative popular attitude towards the Hungarian overlordship, attested in a marginal note in an Orthodox religious book from the period: "This book was written by the sinful and unintelligent Dragan together with his brother Rayko in the days when the Hungarians ruled Vidin and it was great pain for the people at that time." [4]
Ivan Sratsimir's father, Tsar Ivan Alexander, ruler of Bulgaria at Tarnovo, could do nothing to stop the Hungarian invasion and his son's capture. Several years later, however, he took advantage of Byzantine Emperor John V Palaiologos' detention at Vidin and Count of Savoy Amadeus VI's campaign on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast to organize an Orthodox coalition and salvage Vidin. For joining the alliance, Ivan Alexander offered the Byzantine emperor the Black Sea ports south of Nesebar (Messembria); in return, however, John V had to pay 180,000 florins to Vladislav I Vlaicu, voivode of Wallachia. The Vlach voivode would, in return, seize Vidin and cede it to Ivan Alexander. [2]
In 1369, the Hungarian occupation of Vidin was brought to an end. Although the initial campaign was not entirely successful because the Hungarians seized the city back, the ensuing negotiations between the Kingdom of Hungary and Ivan Alexander's allies, Vladislav I Vlaicu and Dobrotitsa, the despot of the semi-independent Dobrujan Principality of Karvuna, led to the return of the city to Bulgarian possession. [2] It is thought that Ivan Sratsimir was reinstalled as the region's ruler in the autumn of 1369. [5]
| Term | Incumbent | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1365–1366 | Emeric Lackfi | captain of Vidin; also Master of the Horse (1359–1367), castellan of Miháld and Karánsebes castles (1365–1366) | [6] [7] |
| Denis Lackfi | captain of Vidin; also Voivode of Transylvania (1359–1367) and ispán of Temes County (1365–1367) | [6] [8] | |
| 1366–1369 | Benedict Himfi | together with Ladislaus Kórógyi (1366–1368); also ispán of Temes (1366–1369), Krassó and Keve Counties (1366–1367). His deputy was his younger brother, Peter Himfi | [6] [9] |
| 1366–1368 | Ladislaus Kórógyi | together with Benedict Himfi (1366–1369) | [9] |
Louis I, also Louis the Great or Louis the Hungarian, was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370. He was the first child of Charles I of Hungary and his wife, Elizabeth of Poland, to survive infancy. A 1338 treaty between his father and Casimir III of Poland, Louis's maternal uncle, confirmed Louis's right to inherit the Kingdom of Poland if his uncle died without a son. In exchange, Louis was obliged to assist his uncle to reoccupy the lands that Poland had lost in previous decades. He bore the title of Duke of Transylvania between 1339 and 1342 but did not administer the province.
Vidin is a port city on the southern bank of the Danube in north-western Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Romania and Serbia, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as of the Metropolitan of Vidin.
Nicholas Alexander, was a Voivode of Wallachia, after having been co-ruler to his father Basarab I.
Vladislav I or Vladimareïo/ Vila·Dumas of the Basarab dynasty, also known as Vlaicu or Vlaicu-Vodă, was the Voivode of Wallachia between 1364 and 1377. He was the son of Nicholas Alexander of Wallachia and Clara Dobokai.
Radu I was a Voivode of Wallachia. His year of birth is unattested in any primary source. He was the son of Nicolae Alexandru and half-brother and successor to Vladislav I. He is identified by many historians as the legendary Radu Negru, a mythical voievode of the early medieval state Wallachia, founder of the state's institutions and ruler.
Ivan Sratsimir, or Ivan Stratsimir, was emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria in Vidin from 1356 to 1396. He was born in 1324 or 1325, and he died in or after 1397. Despite being the eldest surviving son of Ivan Alexander, Ivan Sratsimir was disinherited in favour of his half-brother Ivan Shishman and proclaimed himself emperor in Vidin. When the Hungarians attacked and occupied his domains, he received assistance from his father and the invaders were driven away.
Ivan Shishman ruled as emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria in Tarnovo from 1371 to 3 June 1395. The authority of Ivan Shishman was limited to the central parts of the Bulgarian Empire.
Ivan Alexander, also sometimes Anglicized as John Alexander, ruled as Emperor (Tsar) of Bulgaria from 1331 to 1371, during the Second Bulgarian Empire. The date of his birth is unknown. He died on 17 February 1371. The long reign of Ivan Alexander is considered a transitional period in Bulgarian medieval history. Ivan Alexander began his rule by dealing with internal problems and external threats from Bulgaria's neighbours, the Byzantine Empire and Serbia, as well as leading his empire into a period of economic recovery and cultural and religious renaissance.
The Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state that existed between 1185 and 1396. A successor to the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Tsars Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th century.
Baba Vida is a medieval castle in Vidin in northwestern Bulgaria and the town's primary landmark. It consists of two concentric curtain walls and about nine towers of which three are preserved to their full medieval height, including the original battlements, and is the only entirely preserved medieval castle in the country. Baba Vida is 39 metres (128 ft) above sea level.
Constantine II ruled as emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria in Vidin from 1397 to 1422. He was born in the early 1370s, and died in exile at the Serbian court on 17 September 1422. Constantine II claimed the title Emperor of Bulgaria and was accepted as such by foreign governments, but he is often omitted from listings of rulers of Bulgaria.
Sarah, Theodora or Sarah-Theodora was an Empress of Bulgaria during the Second Bulgarian Empire and second wife of Tsar Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria.
The Tsardom of Vidin was a medieval Bulgarian state centred in the city of Vidin from 1356 to 1396.
Dorothea of Bulgaria, also called Doroslava, was the first Queen of Bosnia. Daughter of the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Sratsimir, Dorothea was held hostage by King Louis I of Hungary, who married her off to Ban Tvrtko I of Bosnia in 1374. She became queen in 1377 and may have been the mother of King Tvrtko II.
The Bulgarian–Ottoman wars were fought between the kingdoms remaining from the disintegrating Second Bulgarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire, in the second half of the 14th century. The wars resulted with the collapse and subordination of the Bulgarian Empire, and effectively came to an end with the Ottoman conquest of Tarnovo in July 1393, although other Bulgarian states held out slightly longer, such as the Tsardom of Vidin until 1396 and the Despotate of Dobruja until 1411. As a result of the wars the Ottoman Empire greatly expanded its territory on the Balkan peninsula, stretching from the Danube to the Aegean Sea.
Keratsa Petritsa was a Bulgarian noblewoman (bolyarka), sister of tsar Michael Shishman of Bulgaria. Her eldest son Ivan Alexander rose to the Bulgarian throne after vicissitudes of politics.
The House of Sratsimir or Sracimir, also referred to as the Sratsimirovtsi, was a medieval Bulgarian dynasty which became the last ruling house of the Second Bulgarian Empire (1331–1422). The Stratsimir dynasty was matrilineally descended from the previous Bulgarian royal houses of Asen and Shishman. After its deposition following the Ottoman conquest of Bulgaria, princes of the Sratsimir dynasty survived in exile in the neighbouring Kingdom of Hungary until at least the second half of the 16th century.
Alexander, subsequently Iskender, was the eldest son of Bulgarian tsar Ivan Shishman. Alexander was possibly made co-emperor by his father before the Ottoman conquest of the Tarnovo Tsardom in 1395. After the subjugation of Ivan Shishman's realm and his execution, Alexander converted to Islam to avoid his father's fate. He was made governor of Samsun, where he remained until 1402. From 1413 to 1418, when he was killed in a battle against a local rebel, Alexander was in charge of Smyrna (İzmir).
Anna of Wallachia or Anna Basarab was a Wallachian princess and Empress consort of Bulgaria in Vidin, second wife of Emperor Ivan Sratsimir.
Clara Dobokai was the second wife of Nicholas Alexander, Voivode of Wallachia.
The part which was closer to Hungary belonged to the Bulgarian tsar of Vidin (Bodony). Louis the Great occupied this state in 1365, and till 1369 it was directed by a Hungarian governor, under the title of the ban of Bulgaria.
The oldest Hungarian missionary bishopric was founded by Louis I in 1365 in Bodony (Vidin, Bulgaria), which had a very short life...
