The History of Bulgaria. The End of the Second Bulgarian Empire. Lesson Six.

The foreign policy situation could hardly be called calm either: Bulgaria was threatened by neighbours on all sides, and the country endured Tatar invasions. Tsars succeeded one another, often after bloody coups, and the country went through a severe crisis.

Because of the civil wars and the weakness of central power, noble feudal lords gradually seized power in the provinces and established their own order there.

The end of the Second Empire

From 1371 onwards, the armies of the Ottoman Empire attacked Bulgaria regularly. Weakened Bulgaria, mired in wars and internal strife, was unable to defend itself against these trained troops. The Ottomans conquered one city after another: the Tarnovo Tsardom ceased to exist, and Shumen, Svishtov, Ovech, the fortress of Kaliakra and the Principality of Dobrudzha surrendered to the Ottomans.

The last to fall was the Vidin Tsardom. Its ruler Ivan Sratsimir resisted to the very end. Trying to preserve his lands, Sratsimir acknowledged himself a Turkish vassal and declared his readiness to pay tribute and to assist the Ottoman troops. After the fall of the Tarnovo Tsardom and the Despotate of Dobrudzha, the tsar was forced to admit a Turkish garrison into his capital.

When in 1396 the crusaders of the Hungarian king Sigismund set out on a campaign against the Ottomans, Ivan Sratsimir gave the crusader host every assistance, hoping that the king of Hungary would help rid the Vidin Tsardom of Ottoman rule. However, the Turkish troops of Sultan Bayezid defeated the crusaders. Ivan Sratsimir tried once again to acknowledge himself a Turkish vassal, but he was put in chains and sent to Turkey. The further fate of the Vidin tsar is unknown, and Vidin itself passed entirely into Ottoman possession. Bulgaria ceased to exist as an independent state for a long time, and the few uprisings were brutally suppressed.

It is interesting that some sources give a different date for the final conquest of Bulgaria — 1422, the year of the death of Constantine II Asen, the last tsar of the Second Bulgarian Empire.

The fortress of Kaliakra

The “Virgin Fortress” in Vidin

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