Georgi Voyteh ( bg, Георги Войтех) was an 11th-century Bulgarian aristocrat from

Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; r ...

who started a major

uprising Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

Byzantine Bulgaria The Theme of Bulgaria () was a province of the Byzantine Empire established by Emperor Basil II after the conquest of Bulgaria in 1018. Its capital was Scupi (or Skoupoi) and it was governed by a strategos. The local inhabitants were ''Bulgar ...

against the Byzantine rule.Dennis P. Hupchick, The Bulgarian-Byzantine Wars for Early Medieval Balkan Hegemony (2017) Springer, p. 324, .

History

In 1071 Georgi Voyteh led the Bulgarian people, discontent with the Byzantine rule, in an uprising. According to the Bulgarian tradition, only a descendant of the royal family could be crowned for

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

. As Voyteh, albeit coming from a

Kavkhan The ''kavkhan'' ( grc-x-byzant, καυχάνος; bg, кавха̀н) was one of the most important officials in the First Bulgarian Empire. Role and status According to the generally accepted opinion, he was the second most important person ...

family, was not from the royal family, the conspirators turned to the Prince of Zeta Michael and asked him to send his son

Constantine Bodin Constantine Bodin ( Bulgarian and sr, italic=no, Константин Бодин, ''Konstantin Bodin''; 1072–1101) was a medieval king and the ruler of Duklja, the most powerful Serbian principality of the time, from 1081 to 1101, succee ...

to receive the crown. Bodin was descended from the

Cometopuli The Kometopuli dynasty ( Bulgarian: , Bulgarian; ; Byzantine Greek: , ) was the last royal dynasty in the First Bulgarian Empire, ruling from ca. 976 until the fall of Bulgaria under Byzantine rule in 1018. The most notable member of the dynas ...

on his mother's side. In 1072 in Prizren Bodin was crowned "Tsar of Bulgaria" under the name Peter III. The rebels took Skoupoi (modern

), the capital of the

Theme of Bulgaria The Theme of Bulgaria () was a province of the Byzantine Empire established by Emperor Basil II after the conquest of Bulgaria in 1018. Its capital was Scupi (or Skoupoi) and it was governed by a strategos. The local inhabitants were ''Bulgari ...

, where Georgi Voyteh remained as a commander while Bodin marched to Naissus. The Emperor managed to seize the town, but, in the meantime, Skopje was besieged by a large Byzantine army. Voyteh, who thought that he was unprepared to face a long siege or that he wouldn't receive help from Bodin, opened negotiations with the Byzantine general Michael Saronites and finally surrendered. He repented later of this act of cowardice and sent a secret message to Constantine Bodin suggesting that he should strike at Skoupoi while the Byzantines were unprepared for it. The Bulgarian Emperor headed to Skoupoi (Skopje), but was ambushed and defeated marking the end of the uprising. Georgi Voyteh died during his transportation to

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

in the same year.

Legacy

Voyteh Point on

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60 ...

in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 1 ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

is named after Georgi Voyteh.

Reference

Sources

*„История на българската държава през средните векове. Том II. България под византийско владичество (1018—1187)“ -

Vasil Zlatarski Vasil Nikolov Zlatarski ( bg, Васил Николов Златарски; – 15 December 1935) was a Bulgarian historian-medievalist, archaeologist, and epigraphist. Life Vasil Zlatarski was born in Veliko Tarnovo in 1866, the youngest c ...

(I изд. София 1934; II фототипно изд., Наука и изкуство, София 1972, под ред. на Димитър Ангелов) Medieval Bulgarian nobility 11th-century births 1072 deaths 11th-century Bulgarian people Bulgarian people of the Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars Medieval Bulgarian military personnel Military personnel from Skopje {{Bulgaria-bio-stub