Boris II () was emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria from 969 to 977 (in Byzantine captivity from 971).

Reign

Boris II was the eldest surviving son of Emperor Peter I of Bulgaria and Maria (renamed Eirene) Lakapena, a granddaughter of Emperor Romanos I Lakapenos of Byzantium. Boris had been born by 931, when he had visited Constantinople together with his mother.

Nothing else is known of Boris II's life until 968, when he went to Constantinople again to negotiate a peace settlement with Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas, and apparently to serve as an honorary hostage. This arrangement was intended to put an end to the conflict between Bulgaria and Byzantium, who would now join forces against Prince Sviatoslav I of Kiev, whom the Byzantine emperor had pitted against the Bulgarians. In 969 a new Kievan invasion defeated the Bulgarians again and Peter I abdicated to become a monk. In circumstances that are not entirely clear, Boris II was allowed to return to Bulgaria and sit on his father's throne. (The later Byzantine chronicle of John Skylitzes confounds this with a later event, in which Boris and his brother escaped Constantinople after the so-called rebellion of the Kometopouloi in Macedonia.)

The Byzantine emperor John Tzimisces returns in triumph in Constantinople with the captured Boris II and Preslav Icon

Although the ceremony in 971 had been intended as a symbolic termination of the Bulgarian empire, the Byzantines were unable to assert their control over the western provinces of Bulgaria. These remained under the rule of their own governors, and especially of a noble family led by four brothers called the Kometopouloi (i.e., "the sons of the Count"), named David, Moses, Aron, and Samuel. The movement was regarded as a "revolt" by the Byzantine emperor, but it apparently saw itself as a sort of regency for the captive Boris II. As they began to raid neighboring territories under Byzantine rule, the Byzantine government resorted to a stratagem intended to compromise the leadership of this "revolt". This involved allowing Boris II and his brother Roman to escape from their honorary captivity at the Byzantine court, in the hope that their arrival in Bulgaria would cause a division between the Kometopouloi and other Bulgarian leaders. As Boris II and Roman entered the region under Bulgarian control in 977, Boris II dismounted and went ahead of his brother. Mistaken for a Byzantine notable due to his attire, Boris was shot in the chest by a deaf and mute border patrol. Roman managed to identify himself to the other guards and was duly accepted as emperor.

Family

By his marriage to an unknown woman, Boris II had several children, probably including the following:

• An unnamed daughter, engaged to the Byzantine Emperor Basil II in 968
• An unnamed daughter, engaged to the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VIII in 968

References

• John V.A. Fine, Jr., The Early Medieval Balkans, Ann Arbor, 1983.
• Jordan Andreev, Ivan Lazarov, Plamen Pavlov, Koj koj e v srednovekovna B?lgarija, Sofia 1999.

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