1396: The Tsars, the Crusaders, the Ottomans, and the End of the Medieval Bulgarian State

1396: Царете, кръстоносците, османците и краят на средновековната българска държава

Исторически преглед, 81 (2025) No. 4, pp. 141-189 (ISSN 0323-9748)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.71069/IPR4.25.IB05

Ivan Biliarsky / Иван Билярски

Institute for Historical Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Abstract: This study pursues two main objectives. The first is to provide a detailed presentation of the sources and of the successive steps that led to the conquest of the last Bulgarian capital, Vidin, by Bayezid I — an immediate consequence of the defeat of the Crusader army at Nicopolis in 1396 and, in a broader perspective, a stage in the Ottoman conquest of Southeastern Europe during the 14th and 15th centuries. An effort is made to arrange and analyze all available sources and to interpret the events within their proper historical and cultural context.

The second objective may be defined as historiographical and polemical. It permeates the entire text rather than occupying a separate, specific section. The article offers a detailed examination and, where necessary, a historically grounded refutation of newly emerged interpretations of the events and their proposed re-dating. Initially presented as hypotheses, these “innovations” have subsequently been systematically and aggressively imposed on readers. In contrast, the article upholds the traditional dating of the conquest of Vidin to 1396, which also marks the end of the medieval Bulgarian state.

Keywords: Vidin, Ottoman conquest, Bulgarian state, Tsar John Sratsimir, Tsar Constantine.

The fulltext of this article can be purchased on CEEOL: https://www.ceeol.com/search/journal-detail?id=242.