7th–8th century The early
Bulgars were a warlike people and war was part of their everyday life, with every adult Bulgar obliged to fight. The early Bulgars were exclusively horsemen: in their culture, the horse was considered a sacred animal and received special care. The supreme commander was the
khan, who mustered the army with the help of the aristocracy. The military ranks from lowest to highest were
bagain,
bagatur,
boil,
tarkhan. The permanent army consisted of the khan's guard of select warriors, while the campaign army consisted practically of the entire nation, assembled by clans. In the field, the army was divided into right and left wings. The Bulgars were well versed in the use of
stratagems. They often held a strong cavalry unit in reserve, which would attack the enemy at an opportune moment. They also sometimes concentrated their free horses behind their battle formation to avoid surprise attacks from the rear. They used ambushes and feigned retreats, during which they rode with their backs to the horse,
firing clouds of arrows on the enemy. If the enemy pursued disorganized, they would turn back and fiercely attack them. According to contemporary historians, the Bulgars "could see in the dark like bats" and often fought at night. The Bulgarian army was well armed according to the
Avar model: the soldiers had a
sabre or a
sword, a long
spear and a
bow with an arrow-quiver on the back. On the saddle they hung a round shield, a
mace and a
lasso, which the Bulgarians called
arkani. On their decorated belts the soldiers carried the most necessary objects such as flints and steel, a knife, a cup and a needle case. The heavy cavalry was supplied with metal armour and helmets. The horses were also armoured. Armour was of two types — chain-mail and plate armour. The commanders had belts with golden or silver buckles which corresponded to their rank and title. The infantry of the newly formed state was composed mainly of Slavs, who were generally lightly armed soldiers, although their chieftains usually had small cavalry retinues. The Slavic footmen were equipped with swords, spears, bows and wooden or leather shields. However, they were less disciplined and less effective than the Bulgar cavalry. In 680, the Byzantines under
Constantine IV were crushed in the
battle of Ongal and were forced to conclude a humiliating peace treaty by which they
de jure acknowledged the formation of a Bulgarian state on their former territory. In 718, a Bulgarian intervention was crucial in the repulsion of the
Second Arab Siege of Constantinople. According to contemporaries, the
Arabs feared the Bulgarian army and built trenches to protect themselves from a cavalry charge. In the decisive battle in the summer that year the Bulgarians slaughtered between 20,000 and 32,000 Arabs. Apart from engaging in battle to the south, the Bulgarians had to fight the
Avars to the north-west and the
Khazars to the north-east. After bloody fights between the
Dnester and the
Dneper rivers, the Khazar threat was eliminated but the founder of the Bulgarian state Khan
Asparukh perished in one of the battles in 700.
Krum's dynasty On the turn of the 9th century, the Bulgarian Empire was on the rise. Following the victory over the Byzantines at
Marcelae in 792, the country overcame a 50-year crisis and entered the new century stronger and consolidated. During the first years of his reign, Khan
Krum destroyed the Avar Khaganate and doubled Bulgaria's territory, taking over the fertile
Pannonian Plain and the salt and gold mines of
Transylvania. Krum achieved major victories over the Byzantine Empire, annihilating the Byzantine armies in the
battle of Pliska (811) and at
Versinikia (813), while
capturing the important city of Sofia in 809. The Byzantine historian Pseudo-Simeon stated that Krum sent a 30,000 strong cavalry, "the whole armoured with iron", which devastated
Thrace. According to inscriptions found in the region of
Pliska,
Preslav,
Madara and
Shabla in north-eastern Bulgaria, armaments for 1,713 heavy riders were available. Assuming that the surviving inscriptions are around 1/10 of the total number, that makes 17,130 men only in the so-called "inner region" of Bulgaria. After comparison with the data of Pseudo-Simeon, it can be assumed that the heavy cavalry component of the Bulgarian army numbered between 17–20,000 and 30,000 men, depending on the level of
mobilization. During the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th centuries, Emperor
Simeon the Great was able to lead in battle more than 60,000 soldiers. . Traditionally, the army's commander-in-chief was the ruler. The second in the chain of command was the
kavkhan who led the army during the Emperor's absence. The third most important title in the hierarchy was the
ichirgu-boil who commanded the garrison of the capital. In the field, the army was divided into three parts: center, right flank and left flank. The center was commanded by the ruler, the left flank by the
kavkhan and the right flank by the
ichirgu-boil. Other higher military ranks included the
tarkhan which was equal to the Byzantine
strategos according to
Steven Runciman, and the higher officers were called
bagain. All higher military ranks were part of the Bulgarian nobility called
bolyars or boils.
Decline under Peter I During the long years of warfare under
Tsar Simeon I the Great (893–927), the country was exhausted. The constant wars were unpopular enough so that 20,000 people sought refuge in Byzantium because of Simeon's "warlike rush and relentless intentions". His successor
Peter I concluded a favourable peace treaty with the Byzantines, but the situation inside the country saw no improvement. There were many reasons for the decline — some historians dismiss Peter I as a weak ruler, incapable of handling his own family (two of his brothers rose up against him). Furthermore, in the mid-10th century the new
Bogomil heresy spread itself widely over the country. The Bogomils preached that people must not follow secular authorities, pay taxes or enroll in the army. As a result, the Bulgarians were unable to stop the
Magyars, who looted and plundered the countryside, further contributing to the grim situation of the state. When the Byzantines paid the
Rus' knyaz Svyatoslav I to invade Bulgaria in 968, Peter I could send only 30,000 men against the 60,000 strong invading force. During the
Rus' invasion between 968 and 971 the Bulgarians
de facto lost control of the north-eastern parts of their country, including the capital
Preslav, and in 970, Svyatoslav
massacred 300 Bulgarian nobles, the elite of the Bulgarian nation and army, in
Silistra.
Cometopuli dynasty The fall of the north-eastern parts of the Bulgarian Empire under Byzantine rule and the decimation of its military elite had a severe impact on the Bulgarian army, especially since most of the heavy cavalry which was instrumental in the earlier successes over the Byzantines was recruited exactly in that region. Contemporary sources continue to mention the existence of a Bulgarian cavalry, but it was much reduced in size and was mostly
light cavalry. Consequently, the infantry's importance grew and the tactics changed to reflect the new conditions: the
ambush, although employed in the past, now became the cornerstone of Bulgarian tactics — most Bulgarian victories in that period were a result of ambush and careful exploitation of the terrain. During this period, the Bulgarians acquired a reputation for their skillful archers. Despite those difficulties, Emperor
Samuil resisted the Byzantine army, which reached its zenith under
Basil II, for nearly half a century. In 976 the Bulgarians led by the
Cometopuli brothers reconquered the north-eastern parts of the realm. The first Byzantine attempts for counter-attack were repulsed after the annihilation of a 60,000 force in the
battle of the Gates of Trajan in 986 in which Basil II himself barely escaped. In the following decade the Bulgarians took
Thessaly, destroyed the Principality of
Duklja, advanced deep to the south as far as
Corinth on the
Peloponnese peninsula and campaigned in
Dalmatia and
Bosnia. . However, a major defeat at the
battle of Spercheios in 996 signaled that the tide of the war had begun to change in the Byzantines' favour. From 1001 onwards, Basil II launched yearly campaigns into Bulgarian territory, methodically taking important cities such as
Preslav,
Pliska and
Vidin, and inflicting several defeats on Samuil. In addition, in 1003 Samuil was involved in a war with the
Kingdom of Hungary. After years of campaigning, in 1014, in the decisive
battle of Kleidion the Bulgarian army was crushed and 14,000 captured Bulgarian soldiers were blinded and sent to Samuil, who died at the sight of his army on 6 October. In the battle of Kleidion the Bulgarian army numbered around 20,000 soldiers. According some estimates the total number of the army including the squads of local militia reached a maximum level of 45,000. The Byzantine historian Georgius Monachus Continuatus wrote that the Bulgarian army had 360,000 men, a greatly exaggerated number, the actual being 10 times smaller.
Asen dynasty In 1185 the
Bulgarian Empire was restored as a result of the successful
Rebellion of Asen and Peter, who founded the new
Asen dynasty. The long period of Byzantine rule had left its mark on the Bulgarian army — the titles during the Second Empire were mostly borrowed from Byzantium. In the absence of the Emperor the commander-in-chief was called
velik (great) voivoda; the commander of smaller squads was a
voivoda and a
strator was the person responsible for the defense of certain regions and the recruitment of soldiers. In the late 12th century the army numbered 40,000 men-at-arms. The country was able to mobilize around 100,000 men in the first decade of the 13th century (
Kaloyan reportedly offered the leader of the
Fourth Crusade Baldwin I 100,000 soldiers to help him take
Constantinople). In that period the Bulgarian army used large numbers of
Cuman cavalry which numbered between 10,000 and 30,000 riders, depending on the campaign. These were drawn from among the Cumans who inhabited
Wallachia and
Moldavia, and were at least nominally under the suzerainty of the
Bulgarian Emperors. The army was well supplied with
siege equipment, including
battering rams,
siege towers and
catapults. In the first fifty years after the reestablishment of the Empire, the Bulgarians, led by skillful commanders such as
Peter IV,
Ivan Asen I, Kaloyan and
Ivan Asen II, achieved massive military successes. After a number of successful battles between 1185 and 1204, the Byzantine Empire was effectively driven from the lands it held in the northern
Balkans, and the Imperial crown and cross. The army of the
Crusaders, who established the new
Latin Empire, were in turn annihilated in the
battle of Adrianople (1205), when their Emperor was captured, and again at
Rusion in 1206. The Hungarians were defeated after several fights along the valley of the
Morava river in 1202. After several setbacks under
Boril I (1207–1218), Ivan Asen II decisively defeated the
Despotate of Epirus in the
battle of Klokotnitsa, in which the much smaller Bulgarian army outmaneuvered its enemy. In 1241, the Tsar defeated a
Mongol army, fighting under
Batu Khan and
Subutai.
Terter and Shishman dynasties The country and the army declined after Ivan Asen II's death. His successors could not cope neither with the external nor with the internal problems. Mongol, Byzantine and Hungarian invasions were combined with
separatism among the nobility and several civil wars. In 1277, a peasant named
Ivailo rebelled against Emperor
Constantine Tikh. In the ensuing battle the Emperor was defeated and slain, and Ivailo proclaimed himself Emperor of Bulgaria in
Tarnovo. Although he managed to defeat both the Mongols and the Byzantines, a plot among the nobility forced him to seek refuge among the Mongol
Golden Horde, where he was killed in 1280. The army now numbered less than 10,000 men — it is recorded that Ivailo defeated two Byzantine armies of 5,000 and 10,000 men, and that his troops were outnumbered in both cases. After the end of the rebellion of Ivailo, the Bulgarians were no match for the Mongols who plundered the country undisturbed for 20 years. With the reign of
Theodore Svetoslav (1300–1321), the situation of the army improved — in 1304 he defeated the Byzantines at
Skafida. Under his successor the garrison of
Plovdiv numbered 2,000 heavily armed footmen and 1,000 horsemen. In 1330
Michael III Shishman raised a 15,000-strong army to face the Serbs but was defeated at the
battle of Velbazhd. Two years later the Bulgarian army numbered 11,000 men. When the
Ottoman Turks invaded Bulgaria and the Balkans in the mid-14th century, the once glorious Bulgarian army was only a shadow of its former self. Feudal disunion and the widespread heretical movements such as
Bogomilism, the
Adamites or the Varlaamites did not allow the country to maintain a significant force. The Bulgarians relied on their fortified cities and castles for defense, but due to the lack of a common leadership, coordination amongst them was feeble and they were defeated and occupied in detail. in
Vidin used to be an important Bulgarian stronghold. It was the last major Bulgarian fortress which fell to the Ottomans. Initially, the Ottoman invasion was not considered as a significant threat by both Bulgarians and Byzantines. For only one decade between 1354 and 1364 the Ottomans conquered virtually the whole of
Thrace seizing large cities such as
Plovdiv,
Beroia, Dianopolis (
Yambol) and
Adrianople and defeating several small Bulgarian forces. The centuries-old mistrust between Bulgarians and Byzantines spoiled the negotiations between the two empires for an alliance and even led to the last Byzantine-Bulgarian war in 1364. In 1371 a large Bulgarian-Serb army under
Vukašin Mrnjavčević and
Jovan Uglješa, two feudal lords in
Macedonia, was annihilated by the Ottomans under
Lala Shahin Pasha at
Chernomen and soon the Bulgarian Emperor had to admit the defeat and became a
vassal to the invaders. Numerous Bulgarian fortresses in the
Rhodope mountains, Sofia valley and eastern Bulgaria were captured one by one over the next twenty years. In 1393 the capital
Tarnovo was
besieged and seized by the Ottoman Turks and three years later fell
Vidin – the last major Bulgarian city. Resistance to the invaders continued until 1422 when the country was fully conquered. The Ottoman invasion was a disaster for the Bulgarian army — the nobility and the leaders of the nation were killed or emigrated and civilians were not allowed to have weapons until the 19th century. ==Tactics==