Uprising of Asen and Peter

October 26, 1185

On the feast of St. Demetrius, two Bulgarian brothers raised the standard of rebellion in Tarnovo against Byzantine taxation. Within two years they had founded the Second Bulgarian Empire, restoring a kingdom that had been absorbed by Constantinople for nearly two centuries. The uprising exploited Byzantine weakness after Andronikos's fall, and the brothers built their new state on a combination of Vlach-Bulgarian nationalism and alliance with the Cuman steppe nomads.