This book provides an interpretive narrative of the wars fought by Bulgaria against the Byzantine Empire for dominant control of the Balkan Peninsula during the early medieval era. Over a span of two centuries, from the early ninth through the early eleventh, and under the leadership of the Bulgarian rulers Krum, Simeon I, and Samuil, those conflicts evolved from simple confrontations for territorial possession into a life-or-death struggle for imperial precedence within the Orthodox world then emerging in Eastern Europe—a struggle that the Bulgarians ultimately lost. The primary focus is on Bulgaria, rather than Byzantium, and an effort is made to provide a historically reliable chronology of the assorted campaigns. The various belligerents’ military organizations, defensive technologies, armaments, and tactics are surveyed in an introduction to the main narrative. A prelude chapter sets the stage for the hegemonic conflict, which was divided into three distinct phases by interludes of relative peace between the contending parties, during which Bulgaria’s domestic, foreign, and cultural developments shaped the nature and conduct of the fighting in each successive phase.

Since at least 1876, Britain’s policy toward Bulgaria had been derivative of her policy toward the Turkish Straits, and it continued to be so during the period from the conclusion of the Armistice of Salonika until the signature of the Treaty of Neuilly. British policy was the main factor in shaping the Treaty of Neuilly and therefore exercised an important influence on the simultaneously unfolding Bulgarian power struggle and on setting that country’s political agenda for years to come.

This book traces the establishment of a master narrative of the Middle Ages in Bulgaria and its evolution to the present day, including the attempt at a Marxist counter-narrative, thereby offering a critical analysis of Bulgarian historiographical views.

Religious figures of remembrance served to consolidate dynastic rule and later nation-state legitimacy and community. The study illuminates the interweaving of (Eastern) Roman, medieval Serbian and Bulgarian, as well as Ottoman and Western European national discourses culminating in the sacralization of the nation.