Tsar Peter I von Bulgarien

- 969    Has 58 ancestors and more than 100 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Peter I von Bulgarien
  Prefix	Tsar
  Gender	Male
  Death	29 Jan 969
  Person ID	I78103	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	19 Mar 2010

  
  

  Father	Tsar Simeon von Bulgarien, 'the Great',   b. 866   d. 27 May 927 (Age 61 years)
  Mother	NN Sursuvul   d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F32278	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Maria Irena de Byzantie   d. Yes, date unknown
  Children	+ 1. Tsar Boris von Bulgarien, II,   b. 931   d. 986 (Age 55 years)   2. Czar Roman von Bulgarien   d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F32279	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	19 Mar 2010

  
  

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• Notes

  Peter had been born early in the 10th century , but it appears that his maternal uncle was very influential at the beginning of his reign. In 913 Peter may have visited the imperial palace at Constantinople together with his older brother Michael. For unspecified reasons, Simeon had forced Michael to become a monk and had named Peter as his successor. To prove himself a worthy successor to his father both at home and in the eyes of foreign governments, Peter began his reign with a military offensive into Byzantine Thrace in 927 . Nevertheless, he followed up his quick successes by secretly negotiating a peace treaty before the Byzantine government had a chance to retaliate. The Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lakapenos eagerly accepted the proposal for peace and arranged for a diplomatic marriage between his granddaughter Maria and the Bulgarian monarch. In October 927 Peter arrived near Constantinople to meet Romanos and signed the peace treaty, marrying Maria on November 8 . To signify the new era in Bulgaro-Byzantine relations, the princess was renamed Eirene ("peace"). The treaty of 927 actually represents the fruit of Simeon's military successes and diplomatic initiatives, ably continued by his son's government. It apparently confirmed the existing borders, Byzantine recognition of the Bulgarian monarch's status as emperor (basileus, tsar), of the Bulgarian patriarchate, and it renewed the payment of annual tribute to Bulgaria by the Byzantine Empire. The initial successes of Peter's reign were followed by several minor setbacks. Around 930 , Peter faced a revolt led by his younger brother Ivan, who was defeated and sent into exile in Byzantium. Soon afterwards Peter's older brother Michael escaped from his monastery and led a more formidable rebellion, which terminated with his early death. The youngest brother, Benjamin (also called Bojan), was accused of being a werewolf and a magician by the Italian Bishop Liutprand of Cremona , but apparently posed no threat to Peter's authority. Perhaps taking advantage of these challenges to Peter's rule, the Serbian prince Klonimirovi escaped the Bulgarian capital Preslav in 931 and, with tacit Byzantine support, managed to raise a Serbian revolt against Bulgarian rule. The revolt succeeded, and the western part of Serbia recovered its independence. Peter may have had to also face the incursions of the Magyars , who had been defeated and forced into Pannonia by his father in 896 . Perhaps after an initial defeat, Peter came to terms with the enemy, and now utilized Magyar groups as his allies against Serbia. Various Magyar clans and chieftains appear to have begun to settle in what was still Bulgarian territory north of the Danube , where they may have become Bulgarian federates, enjoying independence from the dynasty . This arrangement paved the way for the eventual loss of the region to the Magyars, although that happened over the half-century following Peter's death. Peter apparently allowed these groups to cross Bulgaria and raid Byzantine territories in Thrace and Macedonia , perhaps as an underhanded reaction against Byzantine support for the Serbian rebellion. Peter I presided over a long and relatively peaceful reign, albeit one poorly illuminated by foreign or native sources. In spite of the challenges he encountered soon after his accession and the critical situation at the very end of his life, Peter's Bulgaria appears to have been prosperous and increasingly well organized, with an administrative apparatus noted by foreign travelers and confirmed by the numerous finds of imperial seals. Peter was particularly generous towards the Church, which he endowed lavishly throughout his reign. The emperor's generosity reached such an extent that it was seen as a corrupting factor by even Orthodox clerics, like Cosmas Presbyter . Others chose a path away from the temptations of the secular world, most notably Saint Ivan of Rila, but their ascetic existence still drew the attention of the monarch. Luxury and social tensions may have contributed to the spread of the Bogomil heresy , which Peter duly undertook to combat, soliciting the advice of famous hermits and even his uncle-in-law, the Patriarch of Constantinople Theophylact. Relations with the Byzantine Empire worsened after the death of Peter's wife in the mid- 960s . Victorious over the Arabs, Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas refused to pay the annual tribute to Bulgaria in 966 , complaining of the Bulgarian alliance with the Magyars, and undertook a show of force at the Bulgarian border. Dissuaded from a direct attack against Bulgaria, Nikephoros II dispatched a messenger to the Kievan prince Sviatoslav Igorevich to arrange a Kievan attack against Bulgaria from the north. Sviatoslav readily launched a campaign with a vast force, and routed the Bulgarians on the Danube , seizing some 80 Bulgarian fortresses in 968 . Stunned by the success of his ally and suspicious of his actual intentions, Emperor Nikephoros II now hastened to make peace with Bulgaria and arranged the marriage of his wards, the underage emperors Basil II and Constantine VIII , to two Bulgarian princesses. Two of Peter's sons were sent to Constantinople as both negotiators and honorary hostages. In the meantime the Peter managed to secure the retreat of the Kievan forces by inciting Bulgaria's traditional allies, the Pechenegs , to attack Kiev itself. In spite of this temporary success and the reconciliation with Byzantium, Bulgaria faced a new invasion by Sviatoslav in 969 . The Bulgarians were defeated again, and Peter suffered a stroke, which led him to abdicate and become a monk. He died on January 30 , 970 . Compared to the military success of his father's reign, Peter has been traditionally considered a weak ruler, who lost lands and prestige, allowed his military forces to decline while his country was ravaged by foreign invaders, and turned Bulgaria into a Byzantine satellite governed by Byzantine agents in the persons of his empress and her retinue. This view has been questioned by more recent scholarship, which emphasizes the affluence and internal peace enjoyed by Bulgarian society during this long reign, re-evaluates the relationship between Bulgaria and its semi-nomadic neighbors (Magyars and Pechenegs), and questions the allegedly sinister role of Romanos' granddaughter and her retinue. While Peter's reign witnessed the spread of the Bogomil heresy, its origins were more demographic (perhaps inspired by Paulicians settled earlier by Byzantine emperors in Thrace) than social, and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church canonized the monarch as a saint. Peter was considered a good ruler in the Middle Ages, and when Bulgaria fell under Byzantine rule ( 1018 - 1185 ), leaders of attempts to restore Bulgarian independence adopted his name to emphasize legitimacy and continuity. AFTER THE REMARKABLE RULE of Simeon, Bulgaria fell into decay. Many historians tend to blame the successor of Simeon the Great, Tsar Peter I, for the decline of the country. They describe him as weak, sickly, meek and unstatesmanlike. Indeed, he did not have his father's dash, his abilities as a military commander, his diplomatic skill or his immense erudition. Yet that quiet and modest monarch remained on the throne longer than any other medieval Bulgarian ruler: from 927 to 970. The reason for Bulgaria's unhappy lot should not be reduced to the faults of Simeon's son. While many years of wars led to an unprecedented expansion of the state, the peasantry, which constituted the main source of soldiers for the army, was depleted. Human losses, suffering, taxes and the draining of the nation's vital resources was the price Bulgaria paid for the victories of Simeon the Great. Under Peter I the boyars and the higher clergy amassed wealth, while the general population grew poorer. Hermits who defied the church dwelled in the mountains. A priest of the name of Bogomil spread a teaching which was to accumulate the contempt for the tsar, the boyars and the clergy for centuries. Bogomilism repudiated the state and the church, believing them to be a creation of Evil, of Satan. The numerous followers of Bogomilism were disastrous for state order, while famine, droughts and boyars' unrest were undermining the power of the state. To the profound distress of the tsar, two plots against him were organized by his own brothers. He found no support in the boyars, either. Simeon's nobles accused him of reconciling with Byzantium's supremacy and of making no plans for expansion. Others, however, insisted that the state would thrive and prosper in peace with Byzantium. Bulgaria also faced a number of external enemies that Tsar Peter was unable to handle. At the very beginning of his reign he lost the Serb lands. As a result of fierce Hungarian onslaughts from the north, Bulgaria lost important territories beyond the Danube, including the rich Transylvania. The Danube became the northern border of the state, and the Pechenegs repeatedly raided and plundered Dobroudja. Relations with Byzantium at the time were basically peaceful, as immediately after ascending the throne in 927, Tsar Peter married the grand-daughter of Emperor Romanus Lecapenus. A thirty-year peace treaty was signed, acknowledging the title of Tsar for the Bulgarian ruler. However, this was far from the grandeur Simeon the Great had dreamed of. The treaty never kept Constantinople from thwarting the efforts of Bulgarian diplomacy and encouraging Bulgaria's enemies. By the end of Peter's rule, Bulgarian-Byzantine relations were on the verge of severing. The tsar's two sons, Boris and Roman, were taken hostages in Constantinople. The machinations of Emperor Nicephorus Phocas incited Prince Svyatoslav of Kiev to attack Bulgaria's northeastern border. Tsar Peter's army suffered a defeat in Dobroudja, which fell under Russian rule. The Russian army took some eighty fortresses and Prince Svyatoslav set up his headquarters in Preslavets. Upon hearing that the Russians were pillaging Bulgarian lands, the tsar suffered a stroke and took monastic vows. Soon afterwards he died and was canonized by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.