Пловдив в пределите на средновековната българска държава (първото десетилетие на XIII в. – 70-те години нa XIV в.)
Plovdiv within the Boundaries of the Mediaeval Bulgarian State (First Decade of the 13th c. – 70s of the 14th c.)

Summary/Abstract: Three successive periods in the history of Plovdiv are examined, namely: 1. Who ruled over the city in the period 1208–1230?; 2. The city within the confines of the Bulgarian State 1230–1263; 3. The territorial belonging of Plovdiv after 1263 up to the 70s of the 14th c. Concerning the first period are suggested interpretations rather different from those so far since the sources make it possible to see the presence of Plovdiv within the boundaries of the Bulgarian State during the first half of the 13th c., namely from 1205 (with a brief interruption when the Greek nobleman Alexis Aspiet was city governor) to 1230, and after that. There are no convincing proofs that Plovdiv was occupied by the Latins in 1208. In 1209 the Lombard barons put forward claims on the lands adjacent to this city but not on the city itself. That Plovdiv was not in the possession of the Latin Empire is borne out also by a letter of 1210 in which its occupation is wished for. The treaties of 1228 between Jean de Brien and the Latin barons do not support the thesis that Plovdiv was a Latin possession. The view is expressed that Plovdiv was in actual fact a French duchy from the autumn of 1204 to the spirit of 1205. In confirmation of the view that prior to 1230 Plovdiv was a Bulgarian city are cited pieces of information also from the Dubrovnik Charter. For the 1230–1263 period are quoted arguments about the city remaining within the confines of the Bulgarian State after the Nicaean conquests of 1246 and 1256. It was only in 1263 that the Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus seized Plovdiv. Thus for 58 years since the beginning of the 13th c. the city was under the suzerainty of the Bulgarian ruler. During the first 59 years of the period 1263 – the 70s of the 14th c. Plovdiv was held by the Byzantine Empire. In the summer of 1322 the Bulgarian King Georgi II Terter succeeded in occupying the city and left a big and strong garrison in it but owing to carelessness or treason the Emperor Andronicus III Palaeologus occupied the city in the Spring of 1323. By a treaty accord Plovdiv was handed over to the Bulgarian King Ivan Alexander in 1344, and there is every reason to claim that it was conquered by Lala Shakhin as a Bulgarian city. As regards the occupation of Plovdiv by the Turks considerable differences exist in the chronology between the Ottoman and Byzantine chronicles but the view convincingly prevails that the city full under Ottoman rule after the conquest of Constantinople (1370) or after the battle at Chernomen (1371).

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