Ivaylo of Bulgaria

Ivaylo, also spelled Ivailo, (Ивайло), nicknamed Bardokva ("radish" or "lettuce" in Bulgarian) or Lakhanas (Λαχανᾶς, "cabbage") in Greek, was a rebel leader and emperor (Tsar) of Bulgaria. In 1277, he spearheaded a peasant uprising (the only successful peasant uprising in European history, with the goal being to take the throne), and forced the nobles to accept him as emperor. He reigned as emperor from 1278 to 1279, scoring victories against the Byzantines and the Mongols, but beset by enemies foreign and domestic which included the Bulgarian nobility, he was forced to exile among the Mongols, where he presented himself as a dethroned vassal. The mongols then killed him off in 1280 as an enemy of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus. His career as a monarch has been used as an example of early, anti-feudal class warfare by Marxist historians and as translated through folk songs, traditions and legends served as inspiration to Bulgarian guerrilla (hajduk) freedom fighters during the Ottoman period of Bulgarian history.

Rule


According to some sources Ivaylo began his life living humbly and herded swine for payment. Other sources indicate he was a peasant farmer with no land of his own. He allegedly saw visions of himself grounded in the medieval Christian tradition, accomplishing great deeds and ridding Bulgaria of its troubles, including above all the frequent incursions by the Mongols of the Golden Horde under Nogai Khan. By 1277, Ivaylo had put his words into actions, and had acquired leadership of an army composed largely of discontented peasants. Among his close associates and military commanders was Hranislav, who later entered Byzantine service after being captured. An attempt to subdue Ivaylo by the Bulgarian monarch Constantine I ended in utter failure, and Ivaylo is credited with killing the tsar in his chariot himself.

Although Ivaylo was able to extend his authority across much of the country at the helm of his peasant army, he also met with resistance, and the capital Tarnovo remained under the control of the legitimate emperor Michael Asen II and his mother Maria Kantakouzena, which made him need to besiege it and conquer it militarily in 1279. Despite his victory against the Mongols in the North, Ivailo pursued the more consiliatory vassal status when it came to policymaking with the mongol khaganate.

Ivaylo's successes troubled the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, who at first decided to neutralize the potential danger by seeking an alliance with Ivaylo and to offer him his daughter as wife. Later Michael VIII changed his plan, married his eldest daughter Eirene to Ivan Asen III, a descendant of Bulgaria's ruling dynasty living at the Byzantine court, and dispatched troops to place him on the throne.

This caused an alliance between Ivaylo and Maria Kantakouzena, and Ivaylo married the widowed empress and was recognized as Bulgarian emperor in 1278, without deposing or disinheriting her minor son Michael Asen III. Although Ivaylo proved to be an abusive husband, physically beating the queen within a year of their marriage, he led a successful defense of the Balkan passes against the Byzantine campaigns to assert Ivan Asen III. Ivaylo had met with success against casual Mongol raids, but a major Mongol army blockaded him in the fortress of Drastar (Silistra) on the Danube for three months in 1279. A rumor of Ivaylo's death caused panic in Tarnovo, where the nobility surrendered to a new Byzantine army and accepted Ivan Asen III as emperor. Ivan Asen III was enthroned, while Maria Kantakouzena and Michael Asen II were sent into exile to Byzantium.

Shortly after this, still in 1279 Ivaylo suddenly appeared before Tarnovo with an army, but failed to take the well-fortified city. He nevertheless defeated a larger Byzantine relief force in the battle of Devina and another numbering 5,000 in the Balkan passes. Despairing of relief, Ivan Asen III fled Tarnovo in 1280, while his brother-in-law George Terter I seized the throne. The new ruler temporarily united the factuous aristocracy, and Ivaylo gradually lost support. In 1280 or 1281, he traveled to the Mongol chieftain Nogai Khan, accepting his overlordship and seeking his support to recover his throne. Nogai was simultaneously approached by Ivaylo's rival Ivan Asen III, who was seeking his own restoration. Eventually Nogai had Ivaylo murdered, preferring the claim of Ivan Asen III, who was his brother-in-law (both Nogai and Ivan Asen III were married to daughters of Michael VIII of the Byzantine Empire).

Ivaylo's rebellion has been hailed as the first great Peasant Revolt in European history by Marxist historians. While the troubles social conditions in the 1270s certainly contributed to the revolt, Ivaylo's rise to power may be more closely comparable to a nationalist reaction such as that led (albeit with religion as a strong inspiration) by Joan of Arc. Like other charismatic leaders, Ivaylo lived on in imagination and there were Pseudo-Ivaylos who appeared (mostly on Byzantine territory) in the late 13th century and early 14th century.

Ivaylo Cove on Snow Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named after Ivaylo of Bulgaria.

Family
By his marriage to Maria Kantakouzena, Ivaylo had one daughter, who is unnamed in the sources. She was not yet born in 1279, when her pregnant mother was captured by the Byzantines and exiled to Constantinople.