Maria the Conqueror: What if Boris I of Bulgaria only had two children (daughters)?

[NotDavidSoslan]

Emperor Manuel I Komnenos tried to stop the Mongol advance at Sarmalius (present-day Kirikkale, Turkey), but was routed by the invaders and retreated to Constantinople, which the Mongols were unable to siege.


After the battle, the Mongols annexed much of Anatolia other than its coastal regions, with the mountainous lands being heavily settled by Turkic tribes. The Sultanate of Rum was formed by them after the collapse of the Ilkhanate, constantly warring with the Bulgar-Romans until Timur conquered them.

The 12th and 13th centuries were the beginning of the end for the Bulgar-Roman Empire, but they also saw great creativity in art and architecture, and relative economic prosperity that lasted until the 14th century crisis. The Komnenoi ruled Bulgaria-Rome until 1476.

The fighting in the Balkans mostly took place during Ogedei Khan's invasion of Europe in 1241–42, with the Mongols winning several victories until stopping or being stopped at Sofia.

Relations between Bulgaria-Rome and Hungary remained strong at the time, but would later deteriorate due to religious issues and the empire's decline. After centuries of peace, a war broke out in 1313 that ended in a Bulgar-Roman victory due to the extinction of the Arpad line destabilizing Hungary.

Given the problem of two emperors, the HRE, France and England did not support Bulgaria-Rome against the Mongols, as they saw the Bulgarian claim to universal monarchy as illegitimate, and thus the Bulgar-Romans had to fight the invaders on their own, which they were mostly unable to do. Relations between East and West were damaged by the invasions.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

The Near East in 1243, after the Mongol victory in the Battle of Sarmalius.

After the battle and their failure to siege Constantinople, the Mongols annexed most of Anatolia, only leaving the Aegean and Black Sea coastal regions to the Bulgar-Romans.

The Mosul Emirate was originally part of the Seljuk Sultanate, and only became independent in 1195, after the Seljuks disintegrated. Mosul was captured by the Mongols in 1257, one year before they sacked Baghdad and were eventually stopped at Ain Jalut by the surviving Ayubbids (who were only overthrown in 1300, after a famine where some resorted to cannibalism).

In the 14th century, as Bulgaria-Rome grew weaker, Hungary began asserting a claim over Croatia. They suffered a major defeat in 1315, but managed to form a vassal state in Croatia during the reign of Mathias Corvinius, restoring its existence after over 400 years of Bulgarian occupation. Serbia would secede in the 16th century, shortly before the Bulgar-Safavid wars began.

In 1242, Venice took advantage of Bulgar-Rome's decline and distraction to send its fleet across the Mediterranean and annex Cyprus, thus forming a sort of a maritime empire, which would not expand further until Bulgaria further declined.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

During the Komnenos Renaissance, Bulgar-Roman artists and architects continued to use expensive materials, although this reduced a lot after 1243.

Several major works of poetry date from this time, which saw the continued drawing of frescoes of Jesus and His Mother.

The Sultanate of Rum did not use artillery until they were vassalized. Instead, its soldiers were armed with swords, bows and arrows. The Sultanate was military successful most of the time against the Bulgar-Romans, who were weakened by the Black Death and succession disputes, but this was not the end of the empire, which survived until 1608 and was still militarily and economically strong.

Tamerlane attacked the Sultanate of Rum in 1390. His army was much stronger than that of the Sultanate, and defeated the latter within months, turning it into a vassal and allowing for attacks against Bulgaria-Rome. Relations were initially cordial, and Tamerlane was busy dealing with the Golden Horde until 1395.

However, he and vassal sultan Bayezid I prepared for a siege of Constantinople, which had not been achieved in exactly 500 years. At the time, Bulgaria-Rome was ruled by Emperor Manuel III, who rallied troops across his empire to stem the advance of the Muslim armies, failing to do so and facing a siege of Constantinople from the east, which ultimately failed due to the city's walls.

In the meantime, Venice and Genoa annexed several Bulgar-Roman territories in the Aegean Sea, leading to several wars between them and the Empire after the Timurids disintegrated.

During the 15th century, Bulgaria-Rome adopted cannons of various sizes in its military, and started using new military tactics and organisation. Seventy years of warfare against the Safavids preceded their greatest accomplishment.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

Before 1460, the Portuguese were attempting to explore West Africa, going as far south as Cape Verde, but gave up afterwards due to the little benefit they were getting, and lack of blessing from the Pope.


Their naval expeditions were an attempt at exploiting the trans-Saharan trade routes (map above, of poor quality and from 2008).

They remained the European nation with the southernmost holdings on Earth, and a 1463 papal bull allowed them to import slaves into Cape Verde and the Madeira islands. The lack of contact with other continents, since no European nation did anything similar to Portugal, allowed Amerindian societies to thrive throughout the 16th century.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

Ancient Roman concepts were revived in Western Europe during the 15th century, with little interest in Greek philosophy, since the Eastern Roman Empire still existed.

In a tangentially related subject, the texts of Plato and Aristotle were promoted in the Bulgar-Roman Empire since the beginning, when Maria the Conqueror ordered that they should be republished; she considered herself a philosopher queen, a claim historians both at the time and nowadays find dubious, as this was considered unbecoming of a woman.

In 1213, an university was founded in Constantinople, where upper-class youths studied philosophy, theology, rethoric and so on. The emperors of various dynasties followed a bread and circuses policy, trying to keep the poor entertained and meeting basic needs in order to prevent revolts as happened under Justinian. At the same time, water mills and irrigation canals were widely used, until the Mongols destroyed most of the latter in their invasions of Anatolia.

After the Mongol onslaught, philosophy in the Bulgar-Roman Empire declined as it focused on surviving against threats from the east (and eventually from the west as well, as Hungary turned Croatia into a vassal in personal union by 1464), but philosophers continued active until the Safavids conquered Constantinople and afterwards as well.

In a tangentially related subject, the texts of Plato and Aristotle were promoted in the Bulgar-Roman Empire since the beginning, when Maria the Conqueror ordered that they should be republished; she considered herself a philosopher queen, a claim historians both at the time and nowadays find dubious, as this was considered unbecoming of a woman.

In 1213, an university was founded in Constantinople, where upper-class youths studied philosophy, theology, rethoric and so on. The emperors of various dynasties followed a bread and circuses policy, trying to keep the poor entertained and meeting basic needs in order to prevent revolts as happened under Justinian. At the same time, water mills and irrigation canals were widely used, until the Mongols destroyed most of the latter in their invasions of Anatolia.

After the Mongol onslaught, philosophy in the Bulgar-Roman Empire declined as it focused on surviving against threats from the east (and eventually from the west as well, as Hungary turned Croatia into a vassal in personal union by 1464), but philosophers continued active until the Safavids conquered Constantinople and afterwards as well.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

Between 1411 and 1477, the Qara and Aq Qoynlu, and their Osmanli Rum vassals, had inflicted significant defeats on the Bulgar-Romans, which resulted in the temporary loss of Trebizond between 1466 and 1469.

In 1474, Manuel V Komnenos ascended to the throne in Constantinople and began major reforms, such as the use of hand firearms and changes in military ranks and organisation. He also violently purged corrupt officials, but not all of these changes were successful, as the imperial elite sought to block the most ambitious reforms and maintain their power; a growing faction advocated for absolute power and the elite's extermination, similar to what Grand Prince of Moscow Ivan IV would attempt a century later.

In 1477, Manuel signed a 30-year truce with the Aq Qoynlu, allowing him to focus on the Hungarian threat. During that time, he and Matthias I Corvinus exchanged many letters insulting each other.

The entry of Venice into the war made it effectively unwinnable to the Bulgar-Romans, and also damaged the imperial economy as merchants from La Serenissima played an important role in trade at all levels. Their withdrawal proved costly, and, to fund the war effort, Manuel V increased taxes, angering most of his subjects and leading to riots in Constantinople, which in turn distracted his forces.

At Lepanto, much of the Bulgar-Roman fleet was annlinhated, with the remainder docked at Constantinople for the rest of the war, and the Black Flag Army proved too much for the Eastern Roman troops to handle. After 1481, the Komnenos dynasty suffered a massive loss in popularity, and in 1491, Manuel's son and successor John III was overthrown and murdered by member of the influential Palaiologos family, who soon claimed the throne as Manuel V Palaiologos, reigning until 1513 and becoming the final great Roman emperor.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

During Huayna Capac's 47-year reign, Tawantinsuyu reached its peak, and was in a state of great prosperity and harmony.

In 1526, there was a major defeat against the Mapuche that ceased southern expansion, not only due to military failure but also the lack of incentives the Inca had to conquering them when compared to societies such as the Chimu Empire (conquered in 1470). He built several major public works that have survived to the present, and is widely remembered in folk songs and legends recorded in quipus.

It declined after his death, eventually fragmenting among the four suyu, one of which became Quito.
(There's a mistake with the wikibox, Cusco is not located in Quito)
Fun fact about this timeline: the Americas were never colonized, since Europe never had any incentive to do so, and by the time Constantinople falls ITTL, the Eastern trade routes had completely lost their importance. Depending on feedback and inspiration, I might change this.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

I am going to stop here.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

Family tree of the Eastern Roman emperors of Bulgarian origin, who ruled between 896 (conquest of Constantinople by the tsarina Maria) and 1003 (childless death of Emperor Michael I).

Maria had at least 10 children, although, given her affairs, the paternity of many of them them, including her son and successor Peter I (whom she said was legitimate) is disputed. She never recognized any illegitimate children, but ensured they were well-educated and allowed several of her sons to fight in the war against the Caliphate.

In 924, Maria's son and successor Peter I, married Helena Lekapene, a 13 year-old Byzantine princess, thus tying the Bulgarian imperial house to the Greeks. All Bulgar-Roman emperors from 943 onwards followed the syncretic Slavic and Greek culture encouraged by Maria, who thought it would legitimate her conquest. Even the dynasties that reigned after 1003 followed this cultural policy, which lasted until the fall of the empire.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

Maria is widely described both during her time and in the (very different) present as an exceptional woman; Todorov wrote in 1978 that "no other woman" accomplished what she did before or since; another wrote decades later she was the most powerful woman in human history, and one of the richest.

Her personality was described by contemporary writers as wise and determined, but also vain and egotistical, which is now believed to be from misogyny she suffered due to women being seen as unfit to hold the throne, and according to historiographical consensus, explains her later obsession with sex.

Maria always began her letters with the possessive form "my". As one historian said, "God sent her to give orders, to command, be obeyed". Unlike other female rulers, she always took the final military and foreign policy decisions, such as where her troops would march; generals such as her husband only executed these orders before the battle.

She was deeply interested in history and philosophy, an unusual trait among women, and which led to consternation among the Bulgarian, and later Eastern Roman, nobility. Ancient Greek philosophical texts were republished by her imperial court, and her favorite authors were Plato and Aristotle. In terms of historical figures, she often read Julius Caesar for inspiration, and died in a bedroom dedicated to Semiramis.

Maria, an unfaithful wife whom Todorov described as having an "insatiable appetite for men" during the 890s, loved all of her children and ensured they were well-educated, regardless of their legitimacy or gender. She was also concerned about the poor, widows and orphans, and extended the Bulgarian laws implemented by Khan Krum to protect these groups into the rest of Eastern Rome; they were mostly repealed by the dynasty that took over after 1003, which shifted into a "bread and circuses" strategy.

 

[heraclius]

I take it that in this timeline the Comnenus emperors of the Bulgar-Roman empire are the actual OTL emperors of Trebizond in 1204 - 1463, that is the descendants of Andronicus I of the OTL Eastern Roman Empire (ruled 1183-5). His son Manuel's sons Alexius and David were the founders of that realm, backed in an invasion from Georgia by their maternal kinswoman Queen Tamar in 1204 to take it over from the collapsing ERE - and from the timetable of this, the invasion was planned and was possibly underway before the Fourth Crusade took Constantinople in April 1204. Logically it was a reply to the overthrow of Alexius III by his nephew Alexius IV, who had fled to Italy earlier, with the Crusade in July 1203 - and this overlooked invasion of Roman territory opened up ideas for me in my own alt-Byzantine timelines of what would have happened if David Comnenus had held onto Sinope (central N coast of Anatolia, W of Trebizond) and defeated the Seljuks not vice versa. That way we would either get David and a reinvigorated local Christian nobility faction, who rally to him not to Theodore Lascaris, taking over Nicaea and a full-on 'Trebizond-Nicaea' continuation Byz regime across all of N Anatolia, or a stronger Trebizond which includes Paphlagonia and all the Black Sea coast and so is able to hold the local Turks back.

This state could then have taken Constantinople in an alt-1261 scenario and restored the Comneni to power in the old capital, or else if Andronicus I had been less 'psychotic' and/or less at odds with the Constantinopolitan elite and provincial 'dynatoi' he could have lasted longer as emperor. If his rule was more stable and acceptable, then he could last into the late 1180s or early 1190s (he was born c. 1120 and was physically tougher than his cousin Manuel I from all his adventures and travel around the Near East and Russia pre-1179) . He gets succeeded by his son Manuel as M is not killed in the bloodbath of 1185, and Manuel is duly succeeded by his son Alexius as an alt 'Emperor Alexius III' around 1210-1215. Either scenario could keep the Romans in full control of western Anatolia until the Mongols arrive, though if they (or Manuel I) had managed to absorb the sultanate of Rum at Konya pre-1243 they would end up as the losers at Kose Dagh in the Mongol invasion.

Alternatively, in a British history twist on all this, Richard I puts his protective mail on before reconnoitring the rebel castle at Chalus in Anjou in April 1199 and does not get shot fatally with a crossbow there aged 41. He stays on the throne of England, takes John off with him on the Fourth Crusade in 1203 to finish off his work in Palestine from 1192 and leaves Arthur of Brittany as titular regent, and when he arrives in Italy he angrily tells his allies and vassals who are joining the Crusade to stick to their duty to rescue Jerusalem and not go off to Constantinople as the Venetians want. The Crusade splits up, Baldwin of Flanders (his OTL 1190s ally) joins him and so do others as he sails to Palestine, and only his long-term foe Boniface of Montferrat (brother of Conrad of M, who Richard was rumoured to have asked the Assassins to kill in 1192 to prevent him from becoming King of Jerusalem) and his faction join the Constantinople expedition. Either they are unable to take the city at all as Alexius III sees their smaller army and his nerve holds, or they do install Alexius IV there but they are too weak to keep him in power. He is murdered as in OTL, but they are too weak to take revenge and have to go on to Palestine instead; Alexius V Ducas or an alternative candidate with more noble support, eg Lascaris, takes over.

In either case, we have a stronger and possibly longer lasting Eastern Roman Empire - and if Theodore II Vatatzes Lascaris does not succumb to epilepsy in 1258 we have little chance of any Paleologan takeover and so no incompetent Andronicus II to mess up the empire's policies in the 1280s-1310s.

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

I take it that in this timeline the Comnenus emperors of the Bulgar-Roman empire are the actual OTL emperors of Trebizond in 1204 - 1463, that is the descendants of Andronicus I of the OTL Eastern Roman Empire (ruled 1183-5). His son Manuel's sons Alexius and David were the founders of that realm, backed in an invasion from Georgia by their maternal kinswoman Queen Tamar in 1204 to take it over from the collapsing ERE - and from the timetable of this, the invasion was planned and was possibly underway before the Fourth Crusade took Constantinople in April 1204. Logically it was a reply to the overthrow of Alexius III by his nephew Alexius IV, who had fled to Italy earlier, with the Crusade in July 1203 - and this overlooked invasion of Roman territory opened up ideas for me in my own alt-Byzantine timelines of what would have happened if David Comnenus had held onto Sinope (central N coast of Anatolia, W of Trebizond) and defeated the Seljuks not vice versa. That way we would either get David and a reinvigorated local Christian nobility faction, who rally to him not to Theodore Lascaris, taking over Nicaea and a full-on 'Trebizond-Nicaea' continuation Byz regime across all of N Anatolia, or a stronger Trebizond which includes Paphlagonia and all the Black Sea coast and so is able to hold the local Turks back.

This state could then have taken Constantinople in an alt-1261 scenario and restored the Comneni to power in the old capital, or else if Andronicus I had been less 'psychotic' and/or less at odds with the Constantinopolitan elite and provincial 'dynatoi' he could have lasted longer as emperor. If his rule was more stable and acceptable, then he could last into the late 1180s or early 1190s (he was born c. 1120 and was physically tougher than his cousin Manuel I from all his adventures and travel around the Near East and Russia pre-1179) . He gets succeeded by his son Manuel as M is not killed in the bloodbath of 1185, and Manuel is duly succeeded by his son Alexius as an alt 'Emperor Alexius III' around 1210-1215. Either scenario could keep the Romans in full control of western Anatolia until the Mongols arrive, though if they (or Manuel I) had managed to absorb the sultanate of Rum at Konya pre-1243 they would end up as the losers at Kose Dagh in the Mongol invasion.

Alternatively, in a British history twist on all this, Richard I puts his protective mail on before reconnoitring the rebel castle at Chalus in Anjou in April 1199 and does not get shot fatally with a crossbow there aged 41. He stays on the throne of England, takes John off with him on the Fourth Crusade in 1203 to finish off his work in Palestine from 1192 and leaves Arthur of Brittany as titular regent, and when he arrives in Italy he angrily tells his allies and vassals who are joining the Crusade to stick to their duty to rescue Jerusalem and not go off to Constantinople as the Venetians want. The Crusade splits up, Baldwin of Flanders (his OTL 1190s ally) joins him and so do others as he sails to Palestine, and only his long-term foe Boniface of Montferrat (brother of Conrad of M, who Richard was rumoured to have asked the Assassins to kill in 1192 to prevent him from becoming King of Jerusalem) and his faction join the Constantinople expedition. Either they are unable to take the city at all as Alexius III sees their smaller army and his nerve holds, or they do install Alexius IV there but they are too weak to keep him in power. He is murdered as in OTL, but they are too weak to take revenge and have to go on to Palestine instead; Alexius V Ducas or an alternative candidate with more noble support, eg Lascaris, takes over.

In either case, we have a stronger and possibly longer lasting Eastern Roman Empire - and if Theodore II Vatatzes Lascaris does not succumb to epilepsy in 1258 we have little chance of any Paleologan takeover and so no incompetent Andronicus II to mess up the empire's policies in the 1280s-1310s.

Excellent, thought-provoking post that gives me some ideas. Congrats!