for fifteen
years he was obliged to leave Samuel as the real master of the Balkan
Peninsula. Then the tide turned. Near Thermopylae, Samuel was decisively
defeated by the Greeks, and soon after found his Empire reduced to the
dimensions of Albania and West Macedonia. War troubles that the Greeks
had with Asia brought to the Czar Samuel a brief respite, but a
campaign in 1014--this was the one marked by the blinding of the captive
Bulgarian army--shattered finally his power. He died that year
heart-broken, it is said, at the sight of the return of his blinded
army.

Thus, to quote a Bulgarian chronicle:

In 1015 Bulgaria was brought to subjection. A new state of
things began for the Bulgarians, who till then had never felt
the control of an enemy. The people longed for liberty, and
there were many attempts at revolt. Towards 1186, two brothers,
John and Peter Assen, raised a revolt and succeeded in
re-establishing the ancient kingdom, choosing as capital
Tirnova, their native town. It was then that Tirnova became what
it still remains, the historic town of Bulgaria. The reign of
John and Peter Assen was a brilliant time for Bulgaria. Art and
literature flourished as never before, and commerce developed to
a considerable extent. Once more the Bulgarian Empire was
respected and feared abroad.

But this Bulgarian Empire was doomed to as short a life as its
predecessor, though for a brief while it held out the illusionary hope
of permanency. Bulgaria, from the Danube to the Rhodope Mountains, was
won from the Greeks, and John Assen was powerful enough to dream of
entering into alliance with the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. An
assassin's sword, however, ended John Assen's life prematurely. He was
followed on the throne by his brother Peter. He, too, was assassinated,
and was succeeded by his brother Kalojan, who had all the warlike
virtues of John Assen, and re-established the Bulgarian Empire with
territories which embraced more than half the whole Balkan Peninsula.
Seeking to add to the reality of power some validity of title, Kalojan
entered into negotiations with the Pope of Rome, made his submission to
the Roman Church, and was crowned by a Papal nuncio as king.

It was about this time that Constantinople was captured by the
Crusaders, and Count Baldwin of Flanders ascended the throne of the
Caesars. The Greeks, driven from their capital but still holding some
terri