The reason of the complete overthrow of the Bulgarian
monarchy by the Greeks was of course that the nation
itself was totally lacking in cohesion and organization,
and could only achieve any lasting success when an
exceptionally gifted ruler managed to discount the
centrifugal tendencies of the feudal nobles, as Simeon
and Samuel had done. Other discouraging factors
wore the permeation of the Church and State by Byzantine
influence, the lack of a large standing army, the spread
of the anarchic Bogomil heresy, and the fact that
the bulk of the Slav population had no desire for
foreign adventure or national aggrandizement.
8
The Rise and Fall of the Second Bulgarian Empire,
1186-1258
From 1186 to 1258 Bulgaria experienced temporary resuscitation,
the brevity of which was more than compensated for
by the stirring nature of the events that crowded
it. The exactions and oppressions of the Greeks
culminated in a revolt on the part of the Bulgars,
which had its centre in Tirnovo on the river Yantra
in northern Bulgaria—a position of great
natural strength and strategic importance, commanding
the outlets of several of the most important passes
over the Balkan range. This revolt coincided
with the growing weakness of the eastern empire, which,
surrounded on all sides by aggressive enemies—Kumans,
Saracens, Turks, and Normans—was sickening
for one of the severe illnesses which preceded its
dissolution. The revolt was headed by two brothers
who were Vlakh or Rumanian shepherds, and was blessed
by the archbishop Basil, who crowned one of them,
called John Asen, as tsar in Tirnovo in 1186.
Their first efforts against the Greeks were not successful,
but securing the support of the Serbs under Stephen
Nemanja in 1188 and of the Crusaders in 1189 they
became more so; but there was life in the Greeks yet,
and victory alternated with defeat. John Asen
I was assassinated in 1196 and was succeeded after
many internal discords and murders by his relative
Kaloian or Pretty John. This cruel and unscrupulous
though determined ruler soon made an end of all his
enemies at home, and in eight years achieved such
success abroad that Bulgaria almost regained its former
proportions. Moreover, he re-established relations
with Rome, to the great discomfiture of the Greeks,
and after some negotiations Pope Innocent III recognized
Kaloian as tsar of the Bulgars and Vlakhs (roi
de Blaquie et de Bougrie, in the words of Villehardouin),
with Basil as primate, and they were both duly consecrated
and crowned by the papal legate at Tirnovo in 1204.
The French, who had just established themselves in
Constantinople during the fourth crusade, imprudently
made an enemy of Kaloian instead of a friend, and
with the aid of the Tartar Kumans he defeated them
several times, capturing and brutally murdering Baldwin
I. But in 1207 his career was cut short; he was murdered
while besieging Salonika by one of his generals who
was a friend of his wife. After eleven years of
