Bulgarians uninterrupted possession

Personally, I attach more importance to the fact that the Bulgarians have held long and uninterrupted possession of the soil on which they dwell, than I do to their traditions of bygone greatness.

The whole history of the Balkan Peninsula, from the establishment of the Byzantine Empire down to the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, is one long unintelligible and confused record of internecine wars between Greeks, Turks, Serbs, Wallachs, and Bulgarians. Sometimes one race got the upper hand, sometimes the other. Ever and anon a powerful chief arose in this remote quarter of Europe; made war successfully upon his neighbours ; extended his dominions over the surrounding states; and called himself King,

Caesar, Czar, Emperor, as the case might be. The Bulgarians had their fair share of these ephemeral dynasties. In the ninth century, there was a certain Boris, the national hero of Bulgaria, after whom the infant son of Prince Ferdinand has just been named. Boris founded the first Bulgarian Monarchy;

made himself lord and master of the whole Balkan Peninsula, almost down to the shores of the iEgean Sea; negotiated with Rome ; and finally became a convert, and forced his people to become converts, to the faith of the orthodox Eastern Church. His son, Simian, another of the national legendary heroes, made war against the Greek Empire ; besieged Constantinople with his armies, and actually captured Adrianople; and assumed the proud title of Czar of the Bulgarians, and Autocrat of the Greeks.

Later on, the Russians invaded Bulgaria for the first time; and in order to repel the invaders, the then Czar, Simian, had to call in the aid of the Greek Emperor, who, in return, deposed him from his throne, and converted Bulgaria into a province of the empire. Again, some two centuries after the overthrow of the Boris dynasty, a Bulgarian of the name of Asen induced his fellow-countrymen to rise in insurrection against the tyranny of Constantinople, and declared himself the Czar of Bulgaria. The story of the Asen dynasty, in as far as it is known, is one of continued warfare, waged with fluctuating fortunes against the Greek Empire.

The only difference between the dynasties of Boris and of the Aseni is that, while both were always at war with their neighbours, and always sided with one or the other of the Powers who were engaged in breaking up the Byzantine Empire, the latter dynasty devoted great energy to the development of its own dominions. Asen and his successors established industries, encouraged trade, availed themselves of foreign teachers in arts and commerce, and succeeded for a brief period in making Bulgaria a prosperous and progressive country.

Golden Age of Bulgaria

After this, the Golden Age of Bulgaria, the country fell for a time under the sway of Servia. Finally, at the close of the fourteenth century, the Turks made their appearance on the scene. From that time till the other day Bulgaria remained a province of European Turkey. Such, in the shadowest of outlines, is the general history of the State which, within the last twenty years, has recovered its national existence.