Българо-унгарските отношения (927–1019)
Bulgarian-Hungarian Relations (927–1019)

Summary/Abstract: King Peter I inherited from his father a military-political alliance between Bulgarians and Magyars, established at the beginning of the 10th c. There are no grounds to assume that the Hungarian displayed hostility against Bulgaria in 927 and afterwards. Probably later between the two countries was signed a new secret agreement as a reaction against the Byzantine support to the Serbs headed by Ceslav Klonimirovici who rose in revolt against Bulgaria. Under this agreement the Hungarians were let they did in 934, 943, 959, 960 and 961. Circa 960 the Magyars helped the Bulgarians also against the Serbian encroachments on the Srem region – they captured and drowned Prince Ceslav in the Sava river. The Bulgarian-Hungarian alliance continued also during the events in 967–971. The Magyars attacked the Byzantines in Thrace and the Salonika area as early as in 968. In 970 a unit of theirs was attracted precisely by the Bulgarians in the big allied army, headed by the Kievan Prince Svetoslav, which advanced in Thrace and was stopped only at Adrianople. The next year, however, they refused to assist the Russians, perhaps also because their relations with the Bulgarians had already worsened. It is possible, however, that the Hungarians helped the Bulgarian envoys to reach Quedlinburg in 973. In 997–1000 King Samuil concluded a new political and marriage union with the Magyars which proved of very short duration. Owing to the clash of Bulgarian and Hungarian interests in Banat and Transylvania, King Stephan I decided to form an alliance with the Emperor Basil II and in 1001–1002 sent him troops against the Bulgarians. This also dissolved the marriage between the heir to the throne Gavril-Radomir with the Hungarian princess. A little later Stephen I personally participated together with the Byzantines in the first capture of Skopie. By 1018/19 the Bulgarian King withdrew from active support of Byzantium and even manifested a benevolent neutrality of a sort towards the Bulgarians and their allies the Pechenegs.

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