Danube forts

Who he is

Name

not named in any source of 1199-1200

Title

Commanders of the tsar's Danube fortresses

Since

The Danube line fell to the Asen brothers in the first years of the rising (Dristra by 1186, as the Silistra article has it; Vidin not pinned).

Born

not pinned

Family

not pinned

Confidence

low

No governor of Vidin, Dristra or the river forts is named before the mid-13th century; the record is built from the places and the general history of the rising (Second Bulgarian Empire; Silistra; Vidin).

Overlord

Kaloyan.

What it holds

• Vidin (Bdin) and the north-west to the Timok (Vidin).
• The river bank from Lom to Ruse: Lom, Oryakhovo, Nikopol and Svishtov (Svishtov); which of these were fortified in 1200 is not pinned.
• Dristra (Silistra) and southern Dobruja (Dristra).
• Central Dobruja as a claim (see Bulgaria).

How it was acquired

Taken in the rising of 1185-1186 and the years after.

Allies and rivals

The Cumans north of the river (dnb) are allies; Hungary holds the north bank above the Iron Gates (Keve, opposite Braničevo).

How things stand that morning

Held for Kaloyan. The river is frozen or low in winter, when Cuman bands can cross.

Wealth

River tolls and crossings; fisheries; the trade of the Danube; the grain of the plain.

Military

River fortresses of Roman and Byzantine origin (Vidin, Dristra, Svishtov); no garrison figures.

Threats

• Cuman bands crossing on their own account.
• Hungarian pressure upstream.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Bulgarian possession is secure in outline (Varna is called the last Byzantine stronghold in Moesia in 1201); names, garrisons and the state of each fort in 1200 are not recorded.

On the map: Blocks drawn round the river towns; the commanders are unknown.

Primary sources for Bulgaria

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
• History of Niketas Choniates, Niketas Choniates (about 1185 to 1217, in stages, with a final revision in exile at Nicaea after 1204). The central narrative for the Byzantine Empire under Alexios III Angelos: the Bulgarian and Vlach war under Kaloyan, the breakaway of Ivanko in the Rhodopes and his capture by treachery in 1200, Dobromir Chrysos at Prosek and Strumica and the emperor's campaign and settlement with him, the Cuman raids into Thrace, John Komnenos the Fat's one-day revolt at Constantinople on 31 July 1200, the loosening of imperial control in the provinces and the rise of Leo Sgouros, and the court's fiscal abuses. Read online
• The Conquest of Constantinople (Villehardouin), Geoffrey of Villehardouin (about 1207 to 1213). Opens with the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly and the tournament at Ecry (28 November 1199) where Theobald III of Champagne and Louis of Blois took the cross, then the taking of the cross by Baldwin of Flanders, Hugh of Saint-Pol, Geoffrey of Perche and others through early 1200, the assemblies at Soissons and Compiegne in 1200, and the six envoys sent to Venice in the winter of 1200 to 1201. Read online
• The Deeds of the Hungarians, by the Anonymous Notary of King Béla, Anonymus (P. magister) (about 1200 to 1210, the date disputed). Not a record of events but a picture of the kingdom's nobility and geography as a courtier of about 1200 wished to see it: the clans and their lands, the castles and counties, the Vlachs, Cumans and other peoples of the Carpathian basin, all projected back onto the conquest. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III (pontifical years 1 to 3, 1198 to 1201), Innocent III (Lotario dei Conti di Segni) and the papal chancery (1198 onwards, year by year). The register for the second and third pontifical years (February 1199 to February 1201) holds the letters that set the eastern stage for 1200: the exchange with Kaloyan of Bulgaria opened in December 1199 and continued through 1200 over union with Rome and a crown, letters to Vukan of Zeta and to Stefan of Serbia, letters to Alexios III and the patriarch John Kamateros pressing for church union and help for the crusade, the preaching commissions and the legation of Peter Capuano, the Antioch succession quarrel between Bohemond and Leo of Armenia, letters to Aimery of Cyprus and Jerusalem, and the French interdict over Ingeborg. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online