page_title: Bulgarian–Serbian wars (medieval)
section_title: Wars of the 9th century
hierarchical_section_title: Bulgarian–Serbian wars (medieval) / Wars of the 9th century
caption_attribution_description: English: Sources: 1. P.M. Barford, The Early Slavs. Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe, ISBN&#160;0-8014-3977-9 2. John Fine, Jr., The Early Medieval Balkans, ISBN&#160;0-472-08149-7 3. D. Hupchik, The Balkans. From Constantinople to Communism, ISBN&#160;1-4039-6417-4&#160;Invalid ISBN 4. H.E. Stier (dir.), Grosser Atlas zur Weltgeschichte, Westermann publ., Braunschweig 1985, ISBN&#160;3-14-100919-8, pp. 54-59. Borders were often fluctuant, and those represented here are based on discussions contained within the above books. Hxseek (talk) 03:42, 15 January 2009 (UTC)
context_page_description: The Bulgarian-Serbian wars were a series of conflicts between the Bulgarian Empire and the medieval Serbian states between the 9th and 14th centuries in the western Balkans. The last war took place in 1330 and finished with the battle of Velbužde, during which the Serbs obtained the decisive and major victory.
  Before the 12th century, the Serbian states were dependent upon and strongly influenced by the dominant Balkan powers, the Bulgarian and Byzantine Empires. The rulers of both those countries sought to control Serb princes to use them as allies in the Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars. The first war between Bulgarians and Serbs occurred during the reign of Khan Presian between 839 and 842, precipitated by Byzantine diplomacy. Later after series of campaigns the Bulgarian Emperor Simeon I destroyed the Serb state in 924. The Bulgarian Emperor Peter I granted formal independence to Serbia in 931 and appointed his protégé Časlav Klonimirović as its ruler. They were again subjected by Emperor Samuil in 998.
  In the 13th century Stefan Dragutin and his brother Stefan Milutin fought against the Bulgarian governors of Belgrade and Braničevo, Darman and Kudelin and managed to defeat them.
context_section_description: According to Byzantine sources, the Bulgarians and the Serbs co-existed peacefully prior to the 9th century. In 818 Slavic tribes along the Timok River rebelled against the increasingly centralized Bulgarian suzerainty along its western frontier.  Khan Omurtag launched an attack into the disputed lands in 827, secured control over territory as far as Pannonia, expelled the local Slavic chiefs, and installed Bulgarian governors. Serbian tribes began to unify under a prince named Vlastimir in resistance to Bulgarian expansion, and the Byzantine emperor Theophilos, who was officially overlord of the Serbian tribes, supported this unity and probably granted the Serbs independence as a counterweight to the Bulgarians.
  According to Porphyrogenitus, the Bulgars sought to continue their conquest of Slav lands and to force the Serbs into subjugation. Bulgarian khan Presian I (r. 836–852) launched an invasion into Serbian territory in 839, leading to three years of war. Presian was heavily defeated, lost a large part of his army, and made no territorial gains. The Byzantines achieved their objective, however, as Bulgarian attentions were diverted, and the Byzantines managed to cope with Slavic rebellions in Peloponnese. Fine notes another instance when a Bulgarian invasion may have been chosen to coincide with Byzantine preoccupation with Slavic uprisings. "The best-known one broke out among the Slavs of the Peloponnesus during the reign of Theophilus (829–42). They liberated themselves and ravaged the area before they were subdued by a Byzantine commander". The war ended with the death of Theophilos in 842, releasing Vlastimir from his obligations to the emperor and giving the Bulgarians the opportunity to attack the Byzantine Empire and annex the area of Ohrid, Bitola, and Devol in 842–843.
  Vlastimir died in about 850, and his state was divided between his sons Mutimir, Strojimir, and Gojnik. In 853 or 854, the new Bulgarian ruler Boris I sent an army, led by his son Vladimir, to attack the Serbs, aiming to replace Byzantine influence over them. The Serbian army led by Mutimir and his brothers defeated the Bulgarians, capturing Vladimir and twelve leading boyars, who had to be ransomed. Boris I and Mutimir agreed on peace (and perhaps an alliance). Mutimir sent his sons Pribislav and Stefan to escort the prisoners to the border, where they exchanged items as a sign of peace. Boris himself gave them "rich gifts", receiving in return "two slaves, two falcons, two dogs, and 80 furs".
  Mutimir soon seized the Serbian throne, exiling his brothers to the Bulgarian court, and ruled until his death in about 890. A power struggle ensued within the ruling family before Mutimir's nephew Peter emerged to capture the throne in 892, gaining the recognition of the Bulgarian khan, Simeon. This resulted in twenty years of peace within Serbia and a Serbian-Bulgarian alliance from 897–917.
caption: The Balkans, 9th century
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