List of Bulgarian Monarchs

List Of Bulgarian Monarchs

The monarchs of Bulgaria ruled the country, with interruptions, from the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire in 681 to the abolition of monarchy in a manipulated referendum held on 15 September 1946. The Bulgarian monarchy had two periods of foreign domination: one century and a half of Byzantine rule and almost five centuries of Ottoman rule. Early Bulgarian rulers possibly used the title khan, later knyaz for a brief period, and subsequently tsar.

The title tsar, the Slavic form of the Latin caesar, meaning emperor (the tsars of the Third Bulgarian State however are described as kings in international relations unlike the tsars of the First and Second Bulgarian Empires who are described as emperors) was first adopted and used in Bulgaria by Simeon I, following a decisive victory over the Byzantine Empire in 913. It was also used by all of Simeon I's successors until the fall of Bulgaria under Ottoman rule in 1396. After Bulgaria's liberation from the Ottomans in 1878, its first monarch Alexander I adopted the title knyaz. However, when de jure independence was proclaimed under his successor Ferdinand in 1908, the title was elevated to the customary tsar once more. The use of tsar continued under Ferdinand and later under his heir Boris III until the abolition of monarchy in 1946.

In the few surviving medieval Bulgarian royal charters, the monarchs of Bulgaria styled themselves as “In Christ the Lord Faithful Emperor and Autocrat of all Bulgarians” or similar variations, sometimes including “... and Romans, Greeks, or Vlachs”.