Initially, the newly liberated Bulgarian state had roughly the same frontiers as at the time of Asparouh. After Assen and Peter, who had fallen victims to dynastic schemes, the country was ruled by their younger brother Kaloyan (1197-1207), who was a remarkable military commander and diplomat. In 1201 he forced the Byzantine Emperor to sign a peace treaty which included within Bulgaria the Black Sea coast and most of Macedonia. In order to guarantee his independence from Byzantium and to win the benignancy of the knights of the Fourth Crusade in passing through the country Kaloyan signed in 1204 a Unia with the Pope. The Bulgarian ruler was thus granted the title of King and the Turnovo Archbishop, as head of the Bulgarian church, received the title of Primas.

The crusaders, however, left to others the glory of liberating the Holy Land and preferred to stay in Constan-tinople, famous for its wealth and glitter. They took it by storm in spite of the icons and church gonfalons hanged out on the fortress walls and founded on the Balkans their own state — the Latin Empire, with Constantinople as its capital. The Byzantine Empire continued to exist, but was divided into two parts — the Nicaean Empire in Asia Minor and the Epirus Despoty in present-day Greece.

Latin Emperor Baldwin prepared

Kaloyan tried to live in peace with his new neighbours, but in return he received arrogance and endless territorial claims. In the spring of 1205 the Latin Emperor Baldwin prepared a big campaign with the aim of crushing Bulgaria. Kaloyan, howevei, was well prepared and was the first to cross the Latin border. On April 14, 1205, the decisive battle between the two armies took place near Adrianople. Kaloyan was familiar with the advantages and drawbacks of the heavily armoured Latin army and began the battle with lightning attacks by the mercenary Rumanian cavalry.

The heavily armed knights rushed after the Rumanians but fell into the trap prepared by Kaloyan. The West-European knights, who until then had been considered invincible, suffered a disastrous defeat. The cream of Latin knighthood has perished,' exclaimed bitterly Robert de Clary, participant in the battle. Baldwin himself was taken prisoner and ended his days imprisoned in a tower in Turnovo. This was one of the greatest military victories of Bulgaria during the Middle Ages and it raised the prestige of the Bulgarian King to unprecedented heights. Thus, the Latin Empire was dealt a severe blow soon after its establishment and it never recovered from it. The designs of the arrogant Latins to es-tablish their supremacy in the Balkans had been cut at their roots.

 This free site is ad-supported. Learn more
​