Отвъддунавските земи при царете Теодор-Петър (1185–1190; 1196–1197) и Асен І – Белгун (1190–1196)
Trans-Danubian Lands during the Reign of Theodore-Peter (1185–1190; 1196–1197) and Asen I-Belgun (1190–1196)

Summary/Abstract: Analytical assessment of the sources that contain specific information about annexing, territorial scope and importance of the Trans-Danubian lands of the renewed Bulgarian tsardom under Theodore-Peter and Asen I-Belgun gives rise to some conclusions. Above all, it becomes clear that a large part of the Trans-Danubian lands of early-medieval Bulgarian realm were again under Bulgarian control in the late twelfth century. These lands were of secondary importance in the politics of the Tarnovo rulers from the twelfth to fourteenth century. Their importance was mostly in their role as a buffer between the center Bulgarian area of Moesia and Hungarian Kingdom, and as a “corridor” along which military reinforcements for the Bulgarian army passed such as Cumans, Brodnici and other steppe allies. But in the first decades after the beginning of the Bulgarian liberation uprising the territories north of the Danube played a strategic role in its success. It was there that Theodore-Peter and Asen-Belgun found safe haven and restored their military forces; there they concluded alliance with the Cumans and the Brodnici. Otherwise their uprising would be doomed to failure –- in the summer of 1186 it seems completely suppressed. Asens arranged their relations with local tribes so successfully that they were able to ensure secure rear and regular inflow of massive reinforcements.

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