Uprising of Petar Delyan

The Uprising of Petar Delyan (Bulgarian: Въстанието на Петър Делян) (1040-1041) was a major Bulgarian rebellion against the Byzantine Empire. It was the largest and best organised attempt to be restored the Bulgarian Empire till the rebellion of Ivan Asen I and Petar IV in 1185.

Prerequisites for the uprising

After the Byzantine troops conquerred Bulgaria in 1018, Basil II wisely decided not to change the Bulgarian taxation system in order to calm down the people. Although the Bulgarian Patriarchate was downgraded to Archbishopric, its head remained an ethnic Bulgarian till Basil II's death in 1025. After that he had been inevitably a Byzantine. Under the rule of Emperor Romanos III the population was forced to pay its taxes with money instead of goods which caused poverty and wide-spread unrest.

The Byzantine historians wrote that the Bulgarians did not tolerate defeat for long and soon they had begun to return to their previous haughtiness. The lack of an initiator posponed a rebellion for some time.

Initial process

In 1040 Peter Delyan, who claimed to be a descendant of the heroic Emperor, Samuil escaped from Constantinople and began roaming throughout the Bulgarian lands eventually reaching Morava and Belgrad. The rebellion broke out in Belgrad where Delyan was proclaimed Emperor of Bulgaria assuming the name of the sainted Emperor Patar I. The Bulgarians moved southwards towards the last political centres of their Empire, Ohrid and Skopie. On their way the local population joined them, accepted Peter Delyan for its Emperor and killed every Byzantine they met. In the same time local Bulgarians from the Drach area gathered around the soldier Tihomir and headed westwards to reach the old capitals. The existence of two separate rebel camps became an actual threat for the success of the rebellion. Petar Delyan wrote a letter to Tihomir to negotiate for joint actions and made a speech in which in figurative language he told the assmbled people that as it is not possible for two parrots to the share a bush without discord, so can't two Emperors share one country and that they should chose only one leader either him or Tihomir. He deliberately used parrots because the two parrots used to be the coat-of-arms of the Comitopuli House. As he had greater influence than his rival, Delyan was unanimously chosen a leader and Tihomir was killed.

With his enlarged army Petar II advnced to the south, surprised and defeated the Byzantine Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian at Solun taking his treasury. After the victory the Bulgarian troops captured Drach on the Adriatic Sea and some forces penetrated deep into Thessaly eventually reaching Corinth. Albania, Epirus and most of Macedonia were liberated. The decisive actions of the rebels rose serious anxiety in Constantinople where plans for its crushing were hastily discussed.