Under Assen, Bulgaria, then belonging to Greece, revolted, conquered, and Assen I, the founder of the Assenide dynasty, was chosen Tzar. This dynasty reached its height under Assen II (1218-1241) and a century later the country fell under Servian rule; to its advantage, however, for King Dushan of Servia proved himself a wise and jealous protector.
After the death of King Dushan, the Northern provinces of the Balkan Peninsula commenced to feel the effects of Turkish invasions. For some years the Bulgarians defended their lives and their property heroically; but, finally, Tzar Shishman III, having been deserted by his allies, surrendered and acknowledged himself a subject of Sultan Murad I. Not, however, until after the bloody battle of Kossovo in 1389 was Bulgaria brought completely under Ottoman rule.
For the following five hundred years the Turks pillaged and sacked the country and outraged its inhabitants. Europe remained in ignorance of the atrocities, for her mind was distracted by her own sanguinary wars. The Ottoman domination and tyranny was social as well as political; it was felt keenly, not only in manners and morals, but in social liberty also. Nevertheless, it is a singular fact that no determined attempt to assimilate Bulgaria, as a whole, to Turkish customs and Mohammedanism was made during all these years. The only instances of religious coercion were prevalent in the cases of young Bulgarian girls who had been snatched from their very doorsteps and placed in the harem of some bigoted Pasha.
Even the Crimean War of 1854-56, which resulted in the liberation of Roumania from Ottoman rule, brought no relief to oppressed Bulgaria. The Turks seemed to persecute the Christians more terribly after it than before. In 1876 Gladstone’s vitriolic speeches, in the exposure of Turkish atrocities and demanding the emancipation of Bulgaria, were heeded, and the successful defence of Shipka Pass was not in vain. Bulgaria became a principality under Alexander; but, after a successful war with Servia as the aggressor, Russia instigated a conspiracy against him which led to his ultimate abdication.
THE RUINED CHURCH OF SAINT SOPHIA, SOPHIA.
With glowing promises of promotion, Russia’s agents, Bendereff and Greuff by name, were bribed to influence Bulgarian officers to turn traitors to the Prince. Parts of two regiments and the cadets of the military college at Sophia, all more or less under the influence of liquor, invaded the palace on the night of August 21st, 1886, and ordered Alexander, at the point of drawn revolvers, to sign an illegible document which he was told was his abdication paper. He was forthwith carried aboard his own private yacht, taken down the river and delivered to the Russian authorities at Reni, where, for a time, he was held prisoner.
Then Europe, indignant, lent a hand and secured his liberation. Re-entering Sophia on September 3, he assumed triumphant control, for his people, incensed beyond measure at such intrigue, awaited anxiously his home-coming. Bendereff and Greuff were tried and convicted by court-martial, but Russia, Germany and Austria demanded that they should be released.
Upon the final abdication of Alexander, the Bulgarian Sobranje, or Parliament, elected unanimously Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the present ruling “Tzar of the Bulgars,” as his newly acquired title reads.