The " Roman " component in the Bulgarian imperial title indicated both rulership over Greek speakers and the derivation of the imperial tradition from the Romans ( represented by the " Roman " Byzantines ).

Byzantine recognition of the imperial dignity of the Bulgarian monarch and the patriarchal dignity of the Bulgarian patriarch was again confirmed at the conclusion of permanent peace and a Bulgarian-Byzantine dynastic marriage in 927.

In the meantime, the Bulgarian imperial title may have been also confirmed by the Pope.

Having taken the imperial throne and made the 11-year old John IV ineligible for the emperorship by blinding him, Michael VIII Palaiologos had Theodore's three other daughters married off to Italian and Bulgarian foreigners, so their descendants could not threaten his own children's claim to the imperial succession.

He desired to link himself to the former Bulgarian Empire, stressing the Papal origins of his crown by claiming ( perhaps with some accuracy ), that the Papacy had granted an imperial crown to the rulers of the First Bulgarian Empire, as noted above.

As part of the peace treaty which Bulgaria and Byzantium signed in October 927 and Peter's marriage to Maria ( Eirene ), Romanos ' granddaughter, the existing borders were confirmed, as were the Bulgarian ruler's imperial dignity and the head of the Bulgarian Church's patriarchal status.

Devshirme < ref > Ottoman, Greek παιδομάζωμα, Paedomazoma-collection of children ;, Mankahavak < nowiki >'</ nowiki >)-child-gathering ; Romanian: tribut de sânge ; Croatian: Danak u krvi, Slovene: Krvni davek, Bosnian and Serbian: Данак у крви / Danak u krvi, Macedonian: Данок во крв / Danok vo krv, and Bulgarian: Кръвен данък / Kraven Danak-blood tax </ ref > was the practice by which the Ottoman Empire forcibly took boys from Christian families, who were selected by skilled scouts to be trained and enrolled in one of the four imperial institutions: the Palace, the Scribes, the Religious and the Military.

Far from liberating Bulgaria as he had claimed, John brought along Boris II and his family, together with the contents of the Bulgarian imperial treasury in 971.

His grand-nephew, Gaius Octavius, duly took the full name " Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus " upon his posthumous adoption in 44 BC, and the name became fused with the imperial dignity ; in this sense it is preserved in the German and Bulgarian words Kaiser and Tsar ( sometimes spelled Czar ), both of which refer to an emperor.

After his death in 927 however, his successor Peter I was able to secure the hand of Maria Lecapene, the granddaughter of emperor Romanus I, and with it an annual tribute, the renewed recognition of the his imperial title and the autocephaly of the Bulgarian church.

Roman remained in Byzantine captivity until his death in 997, and it was only then that Samuel took the Bulgarian imperial title.

The Byzantines took the capital Ohrid and burned the imperial palaces ; news, however, arrived that Ivan Vladislav had laid siege to Dyrrhachium and that to the south the Bulgarian general Ibatzes had defeated the Byzantine rear army near Bitola.

The Bulgarian monarch, who had further irritated his Byzantine counterpart by claiming the title " Emperor of the Romans " ( basileus tōn Rōmaiōn ), was eventually recognized, as " Emperor of the Bulgarians " ( basileus tōn Boulgarōn ) by the Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lakapenos in 924.

It should be noted that after Bulgaria obtained full independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1908, its monarch, who was previously styled " Knyaz ", i. e. Prince, took the traditional title of " Tsar " which in Bulgarian means King and was recognized internationally as such.

Thus many Orthodox Churches adopt a national title ( e. g. Albanian Orthodox, Bulgarian Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Georgian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Macedonian Orthodox, Montenegrin Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Ukrainian Orthodox etc.

* 705: Justinian II is forced to give the title Caesar of Byzantium to the Bulgarian Emperor Tervel.

The word is likely derived from the plural form of the Bulgarian title boila (" noble "), bolyare, which is attested in Bulgar inscriptions and rendered as boilades or boliades in the Greek of Byzantine documents.

A member of the nobility during the First Bulgarian Empire was called a boila, while in the Second Bulgarian Empire, the corresponding title became bolyar or bolyarin.

It is interesting to note that in the Bulgarian subtitles of Quantum of Solace, the name Quantum was translated as SPECTRE, with the title changed to " Spectre of Solace " (" Спектър на утехата ").

It should be noted that the title " khan " is not attested directly in inscriptions and texts referring to Bulgar rulers – the only similar title found so far, Kanasubigi, has been found solely in the inscriptions of three consecutive Bulgarian rulers, namely Krum, Omurtag and Malamir ( a grandfather, son and grandson ).

Starting from the compound, non-ruler titles that were attested among Bulgarian noble class such as kavkhan ( vicekhan ), tarkhan, and boritarkhan, scholars derive the title khan or kan for the early Bulgarian leader – if there was a vicekhan ( kavkhan ) there was probably a " full " khan, too.

Wanting to bear the title of Emperor and to restore the prestige, wealth and size of the First Bulgarian Empire, Kaloyan responded in 1202.

The subsequent native sources, all written in Old Bulgarian language, without exceptions treat the state as Bulgarian in the line of tsar's title of Ivan Asen II from his Turnovo's inscription from 1230 " In Christ the Lord good and faithful Tsar and autocrat of the Bulgarians, son of the old Asen ", an inscription from Boyana Church from 1259 " This was written in the Bulgarian Empire under the pious and devout Tsar Constantine Asen " and one marginal note from 1269 / 70 " In the days of the faithful tsar Constantine, who ruled the Bulgarian throne ".

This war had resulted in the Bulgarian Emperor Boris II being forced to renounce his Imperial title in Constantinople, and eastern Bulgaria came under Byzantine rule.

A Bulgarian aristocrat by the name Kaloyan also used the title.

Justinian II named Tervel, khan of the Bulgars, kaisar in 705 ; the title then developed into the Slavic term tsar or czar ( from Latin through Bulgarian and then into Russian, Serbian etc .).

Peace was obtained with the frontiers restored to those defined in treaties of 897 and 904, the Byzantines recognised the Bulgarian monarch's title of emperor ( basileus, tsar ) and the autocephalus status of the Bulgarian patriarchate ; the payment of an annual tribute to Bulgaria by the Byzantine Empire was renewed.

* 1014 – Byzantine – Bulgarian Wars: Battle of Kleidion – Byzantine emperor Basil II inflicts a decisive defeat on the Bulgarian army, and his subsequent treatment of 15, 000 prisoners reportedly causes Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria to die of a heart attack less than three months later, on October 6.

At the end of the 10th century, much of what is now Republic of Macedonia became the political and cultural center of the First Bulgarian Empire under Tsar Samuil ; while the Byzantine emperor Basil II came to rule the eastern part of the empire ( what is now Bulgaria ), including the then capital Preslav, in 972.

Image: MenoraBoris. jpg | The Menorah, presented to Tsar Boris III from the Bulgarian Jewish community ( Tsarska Bistritsa )

The four of them were afterwards sent to the Bulgarian capital of Pliska, where they were commissioned by Tsar Boris I of Bulgaria to instruct the future clergy of the state in the Slavonic language.

* Tsar Kaloyan is recognized as king of Bulgaria by Pope Innocent III after the creation of the Bulgarian Uniate church.

* July 29 – Battle of Kleidion: Basil II inflicts not only a decisive defeat on the Bulgarian army, but his subsequent blinding of 15, 000 prisoners reportedly causes Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria to die of shock, and earns Basil II the sobriquet ' Boulgaroktonos ' ( Bulgar-slayer ).

* The Ottomans capture the Bulgarian fortress of Vidin and Tsar Ivan Sratsimir, ending the Second Bulgarian Empire.

The First Bulgarian Empire's greatest territorial extent during the reign of Tsar Simeon

In 1185 Peter and Asen, leading nobles of supposed and contested Bulgarian, Cuman, Vlach or mixed origin, led a revolt against Byzantine rule and Peter declared himself Tsar Peter II.

Tsar Theodore Svetoslav ( reigned 1300 – 1322 ) restored Bulgarian prestige from 1300 onwards, but only temporarily.

Seeing this as a violation of the pre-war agreements, and discreetly encouraged by Germany and Austria-Hungary, Tsar Ferdinand declared war on Serbia and Greece and the Bulgarian army attacked on June 29.

Initially Old Church Slavonic was written with the Glagolitic alphabet, but later Glagolitic was replaced by Cyrillic., which was developed in the First Bulgarian Empire by a decree of Tsar Boris I in the IX century.

Tsar ( Tzar, Czar, or Csar ; Bulgarian, Serbian and Ukrainian: цар ;

Samuel ( also Samuil, representing, pronounced ) was the Tsar ( Emperor ) of the First Bulgarian Empire from 997 to 6 October 1014.

Adolf Hitler promised the Bulgarian Tsar Boris III that Bulgaria would receive all the territory she had lost in return for Bulgaria joining the Axis.

Prince Kiril of Bulgaria was appointed head of a regency council by the Bulgarian parliament following the death of his brother, Tsar Boris on 28 August 1943, to act as Head of State until the late Tsar's son, Simeon II of Bulgaria, became 18.

After a number of unsuccessful sieges, the city fell to the Byzantine Empire in 1018, but once again was incorporated into the restored Bulgarian Empire at the time of Tsar Ivan Asen I.

With his army shattered, Tsar Ferdinand abdicated to save the Bulgarian throne in favour of his eldest son who became Tsar Boris III on 3 October 1918.

In his boyhood and early youth Alexander frequently visited Saint Petersburg, and he accompanied his uncle, the Tsar, who was much attached to him, during the Bulgarian campaign of 1877.