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Birth:          ABT  910 
Death:          30 Jan  970 

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_II_of_Bulgaria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_I_of_Bulgaria
Peter I (Bulgarian: ????? I) (died 30 January 970) was emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria from 
27 May 927 to 969.
Early reign[edit]

Petar I was the son of Simeon I of Bulgaria by his second marriage to Maria Sursuvul, 
the sister of George Sursuvul. Petar had been born early in the 10th century, but it 
appears that his maternal uncle was very influential at the beginning of his reign. In 
913 Petar may have visited the imperial palace at Constantinople together with his 
older brother Michael. For unspecified reasons, Simeon had forced Michael to become 
a monk and had named Peter as his successor.

To prove himself a worthy successor to his father both at home and in the eyes of 
foreign governments, Petar began his reign with a military offensive into Byzantine 
Thrace in 927 which was the last campaign of the Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 913–
927. Nevertheless, he followed up his quick successes by secretly negotiating a 
peace treaty before the Byzantine government had a chance to retaliate. The 
Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lakapenos eagerly accepted the proposal for peace 
and arranged for a diplomatic marriage between his granddaughter Maria and the 
Bulgarian monarch. In October 927 Peter arrived near Constantinople to meet 
Romanos and signed the peace treaty, marrying Maria on 8 November in the church of 
the Zoödochos Pege. To signify the new era in Bulgaro-Byzantine relations, the 
princess was renamed Eirene ("peace"). The treaty of 927 actually represents the fruit 
of Simeon's military successes and diplomatic initiatives, ably continued by his son's 
government. Peace was obtained with the frontiers restored to those defined in 
treaties of 897 and 904. The Byzantines recognised the Bulgarian monarch's title of 
emperor (basileus, tsar) and the autocephalus status of the Bulgarian patriarchate, 
while the payment of an annual tribute to Bulgaria by the Byzantine Empire was 
renewed.[1]

Revolts and incursions[edit]

The initial successes of Petar's reign were followed by several minor setbacks. Around 
930, Petar faced a revolt led by his younger brother Ivan, who was defeated and sent 
into exile in Byzantium. Soon afterwards Peter's older brother Michael escaped from 
his monastery and led a more formidable rebellion, which terminated with his early 
death. The youngest brother, Benjamin (also called Bojan), was accused of being a 
werewolf and magician by the Italian Bishop Liutprand of Cremona, but he apparently 
posed no threat to Peter's authority.

Perhaps taking advantage of these challenges to Petar's rule, the Prince of Serbia 
Caslav Klonimirovic escaped the Bulgarian capital Preslav in 933 and, with tacit 
Byzantine support, managed to raise a Serbian revolt against Bulgarian rule.[2] The 
revolt succeeded and Serbia recovered its independence. Petar may have had to also 
face the incursions of the Magyars, who had been defeated and forced into Pannonia 
by his father in 896. Perhaps after an initial defeat, Petar came to terms with the 
enemy and now used Magyar groups as his allies against Serbia. Various Magyar clans 
and chieftains appear to have begun to settle in what was still Bulgarian territory north 
of the Danube, where they may have become Bulgarian federates, enjoying 
independence from the Árpád dynasty. This arrangement paved the way for the 
eventual loss of the region to the Magyars, although that happened over the half-
century following Petar's death. Petar apparently allowed these groups to cross 
Bulgaria and raid Byzantine territories in Thrace and Macedonia, perhaps as an 
underhanded reaction against Byzantine support for the Serbian rebellion.

Domestic rule[edit]

Petar I presided over a long and relatively peaceful reign, albeit one poorly illuminated 
by foreign or native sources. In spite of the challenges he encountered soon after his 
accession and the critical situation at the very end of his life, Petar's Bulgaria appears 
to have been prosperous and increasingly well organized, with an administrative 
apparatus noted by foreign travelers and confirmed by the numerous finds of imperial 
seals. Petar was particularly generous towards the Church, which he endowed lavishly 
throughout his reign. The emperor's generosity reached such an extent that it was 
seen as a corrupting factor by even Orthodox clerics, like Cosmas Presbyter. Others 
chose a path away from the temptations of the secular world, most notably Saint Ivan 
of Rila, but their ascetic existence still drew the attention of the monarch. Luxury and 
social tensions may have contributed to the spread of the Bogomil heresy, which Petar 
duly undertook to combat, soliciting the advice of famous hermits and even his uncle-
in-law, Patriarch Theophylact of Constantinople.

Conflict with Byzantium and Rus[edit]

Main article: Sviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria

Relations with the Byzantine Empire worsened after the death of Petar's wife in the 
mid-960s. Victorious over the Arabs, Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas refused to pay the 
annual tribute to Bulgaria in 966, complaining of the Bulgarian alliance with the 
Magyars, and he undertook a show of force at the Bulgarian border. Dissuaded from a 
direct attack against Bulgaria, Nikephoros II dispatched a messenger to the Russian 
prince Sviatoslav Igorevich to arrange a Russian attack against Bulgaria from the 
north.

Sviatoslav readily launched a campaign with a vast force of 60,000 troops and routed 
the Bulgarians on the Danube and defeated them in a battle near Silistra, seizing some 
80 Bulgarian fortresses in 968. Stunned by the success of his ally and suspicious of 
his actual intentions, Emperor Nikephoros II hastened to make peace with Bulgaria 
and arranged the marriage of his wards, the underage emperors Basil II and 
Constantine VIII, to two Bulgarian princesses. Two of Petar's sons were sent to 
Constantinople as both negotiators and honorary hostages. In the meantime Petar 
managed to secure the retreat of the Russian forces by inciting Bulgaria's traditional 
allies, the Pechenegs, to attack Kiev itself.

In spite of this temporary success and the reconciliation with Byzantium, Bulgaria 
faced a new invasion by Sviatoslav in 969. The Bulgarians were defeated again, and 
Petar suffered a stroke, which led him to abdicate and become a monk. He died on 30 
January 970.

Reputation[edit]

Compared with the military success of his father's reign, Petar has been traditionally 
considered a weak ruler, who lost lands and prestige, allowed his military forces to 
decline while his country was ravaged by foreign invaders, and turned Bulgaria into a 
Byzantine satellite governed by Byzantine agents in the persons of his empress and 
her retinue. This view has been questioned by more recent scholarship, which 
emphasizes the affluence and internal peace enjoyed by Bulgarian society during his 
long reign, re-evaluates the relationship between Bulgaria and its semi-nomadic 
neighbors (Magyars and Pechenegs), and questions the allegedly sinister role of 
Romanos' granddaughter and her retinue. While Petar's reign witnessed the spread of 
the Bogomil heresy, its origins were more demographic (perhaps inspired by Paulicians 
settled earlier by Byzantine emperors in Thrace) than social, and the Bulgarian 
Orthodox Church canonized him as a saint. Petar was considered a good ruler in the 
Middle Ages, and when Bulgaria fell under Byzantine rule (1018–1185), leaders of 
attempts to restore Bulgarian independence adopted his name to emphasize legitimacy 
and continuity (both Peter Delyan and Constantine Bodin adopted the royal name of 
Peter in their attempts to regain the throne from the Byzantines).

Family[edit]

By his marriage to Maria Lakapena (renamed Eirene), Petar I had several children, 
including:
Plenimir
Boris II, who succeeded as emperor of Bulgaria in 969
Roman, who succeeded as emperor of Bulgaria in 977

Honour[edit]

Peter Peak on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named 
after Peter I of Bulgaria.

Parents
____ Simeon I (ABT  865 -  927)
SURSUVUL Maria ()

Siblings
____ Peter I (ABT  910 - 30 Jan  970)

Marriage To LEKAPENE Irene (ABT  910 - ABT  966)
    m.  

Notes

Parents
LEKAPENOS Christopher (ABT  890 -  931)
____ Augusta Sophia ()

Children by LEKAPENE Irene ABT  910 - ABT  966
____ Boris (BEF  931 -  977)

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