The First Tarnovo uprising () was a

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

n uprising against Ottoman rule based in the former Bulgarian capital, Tarnovo, that broke out in 1598 and was severely crushed by the Ottoman authorities. The uprising was organized by religious leaders, as well as public figures and merchants. These included the Archbishop of Tarnovo Dionysus Rallis, the noble Theodore Ballina from Nikopol, as well as the local merchants from

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Pavel ĐorđićOr Đorđević. and the Sorkočević brothers, with the bishops Theophanes of Lovech, Jeremiah of

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, Spyridon of

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, and Methodius of

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, and other high-ranking religious figures also taking part in the organization. Đorđić established relations with the Habsburgs, the

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n and

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n rulers, and a plan for the uprising was created in

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in 1597. The invasion of

n forces under

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in the northern Bulgarian lands in the autumn of 1598 provided good conditions for the uprising, as the fellow

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army would support the insurrection according to the plan. At the time the Ottomans were engaged in the Long War with the

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. An alleged descendant of the medieval Shishman dynasty was proclaimed

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(as Ivan Shishman II) and Tarnovo was briefly liberated, with about 12,000 people gathering. However, the Ottoman authorities reacted immediately and quickly recaptured the city using a regular army, brutally suppressing the uprising. It is unclear what the scale of the First Tarnovo Uprising was, but according to fragmentary information it may have included the regions of

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, where the local archbishop was killed, as well as

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and

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, where

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n travellers mention seeing exposed dead bodies and severed human heads. As a consequence, about 16,000 Bulgarians fled centrally-governed Ottoman territory and crossed the

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to settle in autonomous neighbouring Wallachia, where they established a Bulgarian community.

References and notes

{{Rebellions in the Ottoman Empire Bulgarian rebellions History of Veliko Tarnovo Rebellions in the Ottoman Empire 1598 in Europe 16th century in Bulgaria 16th-century rebellions Conflicts in 1598 Ottoman period in the history of Bulgaria Rebellions in Bulgaria 1598 in the Ottoman Empire

See also

References and notes