Krum

Origin

There are two hypotheses of the origin of Crum. According to the first, his family came from Pannonia , where he was in the service of the Avars. According to the second and more common, Krum was born in Macedonia . Some researchers suggest that he might have belonged to the Dulo dynasty, being a descendant of Coober , Asparuh’s brother ^[1] . However, it is also considered the founder of the new dynasty ^[2] .

Avar War

Taking advantage of the weakening of the Avar Kaganate , which waged a war in the west with the Frankish empire of Charlemagne , Khan Krum attacked the Avar. The war ended in the complete defeat of the Avar state. Its territory was divided between the winners. By 805, Bulgaria took possession of the eastern part of the kaganate, a little earlier the western part of the kaganate was occupied by the Franks, a new border between the winners passed along the middle Danube .

According to the Byzantine collection of the Court , Krum called the captive Avars, and asked them:

And Krum asked the Avar prisoners: “Why do you think your archon (leader of the people outside Byzantium) and all your people died?” The captured Avars answered: “Because the charges against each against each other multiplied, the bravest and most intelligent died among us; then the thieves and the unjust became accomplices with the judges; then from hops - when the wine increased, everyone became drunkards; then - because of bribery; then - because of the merchants, because all those who became merchants deceived each other. Indeed, death came upon us from all this. ”

When Krum heard those words, he called all the Bulgarians, and ordered them, and established the law:

“If someone blames another, do not listen to him first; but to tie and interrogate. And if the accusation is false, let him be executed. Thieves are not allowed to give food. And if someone dares to do something, his property is taken away. And the thief should break the joint of the legs.

And to eradicate all vineyards (ordered Krum).

And to each beggar not to be given haphazardly, but according to needs - so that he does not begin to become pauper again. Whoever does not comply with his order, his property is taken. "

War with Byzantium

In 807, the war with Byzantium began , which continued with varying success and ended only in 815 , a year after the death of Khan Krum.

Against Nicephorus I

In 807, Emperor Nicephorus began a campaign against Bulgaria. He reached Adrianople only and was forced to return. In 808, Khan Krum seized the initiative and attacked the Byzantine forces in the Struma River Valley. Soldiers were handed out salaries there, and Krum captured a large amount of gold - "one hundred thousand liters of gold . " After that, in 809, he besieged the Byzantine fortress of Serdika (modern Sofia) with cunning and took it honestly, but acted craftyly and killed the entire garrison. In order to avenge the loss of the city, the emperor Nicephorus opposed the Bulgarians in the same year, but due to unrest in the army he was again forced to postpone the campaign. Only two years later, having gathered a huge army, Nicephorus started a new campaign. He intended to destroy the Bulgarian state.

Khan Krum realized that the threat of the complete destruction of Bulgaria is real and decided to ask for peace. On approaching the Markela fortress, Bulgarian ambassadors arrived at the emperor asking for peace. The emperor rejected the offer of peace and went on. Khan Krum, collecting a 50,000th army tried to stop the Byzantines, but the Bulgarian army was defeated.

The emperor began with cruelty to exterminate the civilian population. According to Theophanes the Confessor, the barbarism of the Byzantine emperor knew no bounds; he ordered even women and infants to be killed in particularly cruel ways.

Having retreated, for the defense of Pliski, the khan left a 12,000-strong garrison. After a successful siege, the Bulgarian capital was captured and destroyed, and the garrison was killed. Nicephorus entered the city on July 20. He plundered the treasures of the Bulgarian Khan and generously gifted the army and the nobility. In Plisk, ambassadors of the Bulgarian Khan came to him again. They conveyed to him the following words of Khan Krum: “So you have come and won. Take what you please and leave in peace. ” But the proud emperor did not want to hear about the world. Meanwhile, Khan Krum collects a new army from the Bulgarians, Avars and Slavs. Khan Krum raises the entire Bulgarian population to fight the invader, historical evidence says that even women were armed.

On July 23, 811, Emperor Nicephorus left Pliska. At first he planned to head for Serdika, but after receiving information from scouts that Khan Krum blocked his path by blocking the Balkan passages, and was preparing an ambush, he turned the army to Constantinople.

Battle of Vyrbishsky Pass

Maneuvering the army in search of a passage through the Balkans, he stopped at a place called the Vyrbishsky passage on July 25, 811 . The Bulgarians managed to quickly block the passage with a moat and a wooden wall. The army had to break up into separate units, since the terrain did not allow the complete concentration of troops. Assessing the real state of affairs, Emperor Nicephorus foresaw:

On July 26, 811, the Bulgarians attacked the center of the Byzantine army, where the imperial detachment was. The Byzantines quickly armed themselves, but were soon swept away by a wave of Bulgarians and decided to flee. Most of the troops turned to the river, where many drowned without finding a crossing. Another part of the army tried to break through the moat and wall, but were killed. Almost the entire Byzantine army, including the emperor himself, died. There are different versions about the death of Nicephorus:

Byzantine chroniclers write that Emperor Nicephorus died "even at the first strike in the most miserable way." But Bulgarian historians of the time speak of something else. The emperor was taken alive and assigned to Khan Krum. Before the khan, they cut off his head and put her on a stake. Before this stake, Khan Krum hosted a parade of triumphant troops. After that, from the skull of Emperor Nicephorus, Krum ordered to make a goblet trimmed with silver, from which he drank at feasts with Slavic leaders and made toasts in their honor and for saving the country.

Against Michael I Rangavi

The following year, the Bulgarians moved to Constantinople . They managed to capture several fortresses of the external line of defense, which defended the Byzantine capital on distant approaches. Not expecting to take the city by siege or assault, Krum offered peace on the conditions of annual payment of tribute and return of defectors. However, the new emperor Michael I rejected the offer. Krum's response was the capture of Messembria in October 812. Krum used a large number of siege machines, the construction of which he was obliged to some skilled Arabian, who escaped from Adrianople due to the bad attitude towards him from the emperor Nicephorus.

The capture of Messembria in Byzantium was taken painfully, since in addition to the rich mining of the sea city, the Bulgarians captured 36 siphons for the secret weapon " Greek fire ":

Battle of Versinikia

In 813, Krum again approached Constantinople. The main obstacle in front of Constantinople was the fortress of Versinikea, where Emperor Michael I Rangava concentrated the remains of his army:

However, the Byzantine soldiers discontented, robbed the local population, in addition, the situation was worsened by the solar eclipse, which frightened many Byzantines. At the same time, the followers of one of the heresies in Constantinople began to go wild, praying to Constantine V for victory over the Bulgarians, which caused resentment among the Orthodox population of the city. The reason for these prayers was the many campaigns and victories of the emperor over the Bulgarians. For several days in a row both armies lined up, but not one dared to attack. This led to confusion in the Byzantine army, since according to the Byzantines their army was several times larger than the Bulgarian. Obviously unable to withstand psychologically, the Thracian troops of Joanne Aplakis, having notified the emperor, launched an offensive. The rest of the army followed suit. Such maneuvers seemed to Khan Krum an enticing step. However, after some time making sure that the Byzantine army was retreating in a panic, he ordered the attack to take place and the Bulgarian army overtook and defeated the Byzantine army. This collapse of the remains of the Byzantine army left the approaches to Constantinople defenseless. Emperor Michael I Rangava himself , after such a shame, became disillusioned with his advisers and the army, decided to relinquish imperial power and informed the future emperor, commander of the eastern units of Leo the Armenian .

Against Leo V Armenian

Leaving the troops for the siege of Adrianople, Khan Krum moved the troops and was located next to Constantinople. The Byzantines watched in dismay the strange actions of the new Sennacherib , as they called him. Krum carried out a number of pagan rituals and in subsequent negotiations one of his demands was to hammer his spear into the walls of Constantinople, which, according to his belief, was to make a mythical connection with the city for subsequent capture. Krum also ordered to dig a moat and build defensive fortifications from Constantinople.

By this time, the Byzantine throne was occupied by Leo V Armenian, who began negotiations with the Bulgarian khan. The new emperor pretended to make peace, but demanded a personal meeting with Krum, intending to kill him during the negotiations. Archers were hidden in a certain place and, by a sign, they began to shoot at the khan. Khan Krum was saved by his swiftness and a fast-footed horse, and although they hit him, they did not inflict wounds on him. The trick failed, an angry khan devastated the neighborhood of the capital. The culmination of his rage was the capture of Adrianople , whose population he resettled.

The last cunning of the Byzantines was the last straw for Krum, and after that the enraged Krum began to prepare for the final capture of Constantinople. He prepared a huge fleet of siege vehicles, which were supposed to be carried by 5,000 steel-rolled machines. Krum convened Slavic tribes and Avars that were part of his state. After ascertaining the truth of the rumors, the Byzantine emperor began to strengthen the walls of Constantinople and even asked for help from Louis I the Pious ^[4] .

In the midst of preparations for a new decisive campaign against Byzantium, Khan Krum suddenly died on April 13, 814 . There are several Byzantine sources about his death, and most likely he became a victim of sacred regicide according to the customs of the Proto-Bulgarians. The war was continued by his successor, Khan Omurtag .

Khan Krum's death

Khan Krum died under strange circumstances. According to sources, rivers of blood flowed from his mouth, ears and nostrils, and according to one of them, he was killed with an “unknown hand”.

For his short reign, he committed incomparable affairs for his predecessors and subsequent rulers. As a result of the collapse of the Avar Kaganate and the wars with Byzantium, he doubled the territory of the Bulgarian Khanate. The conquered Avars took him as ruler, probably due to the close family ties of the Avars and Proto-Bulgarians. Unlike the Avars conquered by the Franks, they did not start a riot. In 811, he saved Bulgaria from destruction by Byzantium. In 811 and 813, he practically destroyed the military power of the Byzantine Empire and came close to its capital, taking all the fortresses on the outskirts of its European part.

In 813, he began a grandiose, on the scale of preparation, campaign for the capture of Constantinople , which not a single Bulgarian ruler succeeded. As a result of his victorious wars, Bulgaria, which mainly tried to preserve its territory and did not pursue a major expansionist policy, suddenly found itself on the verge of the collapse of the Byzantine Empire . The capture of one of the most protected cities and centers of medieval civilization in the world was of great importance. Contemporaries of Krum were clearly not ready for such a grand turn of events.

Domestic Policy

Krum became the first legislator of Bulgaria. The laws of the khan are preserved in the retelling of the Greek encyclopedic dictionary - Courts . According to the Court, laws were issued by Krum after questioning the Avar captives, who named among the reasons that led to the death of his powerful state, slander, bribery, drunkenness and growing social inequality. To stop the development of these vices in Bulgaria, Krum issued laws regulating legal proceedings, toughening theft, and also ordered to cut down vineyards in Bulgaria.

Han Krum and Wine

One of the reasons for the fall of the Avar Kaganate was drunkenness. For this reason, Krum ordered to cut down vineyards in Bulgaria.

According to legend, some time after that, a huge lion began to attack the capital Pliska, who escaped from the khan menagerie, which greatly frightened people. No one could defeat him. ^{[5] [6] [7] In} the meantime, a certain Mavrud warrior returned to Bulgaria, unaware of the “dry law”. Hearing about the terrible lion, without hesitation for a long time, went alone in search of him. Finding a lion, in a short battle the fearless young man killed the beast. The rumor of a feat quickly spread. Hearing reached the ears of the khan. He was extremely surprised by the strength and courage of Mavrud, who alone did what many other Bulgarian soldiers could not. Krum ordered to call Mavrud to the palace and began to ask where he got such strength and courage from. The fearless Mavrud honestly replied that before the fight he drank the cup of wine that his mother had given him, and that the source of his strength was the fault. She secretly grew vines, disobeying the law of the khan. Krum was struck by the response of the brave Mavrud. He generously awarded the young man and ordered the restoration of vineyards in Bulgaria. In honor of the fearless warrior of Mavrud, the famous Bulgarian grape variety Mavrud was named.

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• Vernadsky G.V. Ancient Russia
• History of Southern and Western Slavs in the Middle Ages
• Khan Krum (Bulgarian)
• Khan Krum Featured on Bulgarian Commemorative Coin (English)