Bulgars

Examples of Bulgars in the following topics:

• The Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars

  • The Byzantine Empire had a long and tumultuous relationship with the Bulgar Empire to its north.
  • It was founded circa 681 when Bulgar tribes led by Asparukh moved to the northeastern Balkans.
  • The Byzantine–Bulgarian wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Byzantines and Bulgarians which began when the Bulgars first settled in the Balkan peninsula in the 5th century, and intensified with the expansion of the Bulgarian Empire to the southwest after 680 AD.

• The Isaurian Dynasty

  • The Isaurian emperors were successful in defending and consolidating the Empire against the Caliphate after the onslaught of the early Muslim conquests, but were less successful in Europe, where they suffered setbacks against the Bulgars, had to give up the Exarchate of Ravenna, and lost influence over Italy and the Papacy to the growing power of the Franks.
  • By the end of the Isaurian dynasty in 802, the Byzantines were continuing to fight the Arabs and the Bulgars for their very existence, with matters made more complicated when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Imperator Romanorum ("Emperor of the Romans") which was seen as making the Carolingian Empire the successor to the Roman Empire or at least the western half.
  • Coupled with attacks by the Bulgars on their rear, the Arabs were forced to lift the siege on 15 August 718.

• The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

  • The first migrations of peoples were made by Germanic tribes such as the Goths, Vandals, Angles, Saxons, Lombards, Suebi, Frisii, Jutes and Franks; they were later pushed westwards by the Huns, Avars, Slavs, and Bulgars.

• The Fourth Crusade

  • The Fourth Crusade never came to within 1,000 miles of its objective of Jerusalem, instead conquering Byzantium twice before being routed by the Bulgars at Adrianople.