George Sursuvul

George Sursuvul (Bulgarian: Георги Сурсувул) or Sursubul was first minister and regent of the First Bulgarian Empire during the reigns of Simeon I (r. 893–927) and Peter I (r. 927–969). According to the chroniclers, George Sursuvul was a father of Simeon I's unnamed wife, brother of Peter I's wife Maria Sursuvul, and also Peter I's maternal grandfather. After the death of Simeon I, he ruled Bulgaria (927-928) as a regent for adolescent Peter I and his younger brothers John and Benjamin. George Sursuvul retired from the regency after concluding a peace treaty with the Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos,[1] one of which terms was a marriage of George Sursuvul's grandson Peter I to Byzantine Emperor's granddaughter Maria Lakapenos (renamed Eirene).

George Sursuvul initiated the peace treaty with Byzantine Empire by sending in utmost secrecy an envoy to Constantinople, suggesting a treaty and a marriage-alliance. George Sursubul, heading a delegation of Simeon I's brother-in-law Symeon, Calutarkan, courtier Sampses, and numerous nobility, met with Romanus I in 927 and concluded the peace treaty which ended the Byzantine–Bulgarian war of 913–927.[2] Afterwards, he presided at the marriage ceremony as a witness on the bridegroom’s side, with his counterpart on the Byzantine side being the Byzantine Prime Minister.[3]

George Sursuvul was a grandfather of Simeon I children Peter I (ruled 927–969), Ivan, Benjamin, and unnamed daughters, and maternal uncle of Peter I's unnamed children from his marriage to Maria Sursuvul. The timing of his retirement from the post of the Prime Minister is unknown. The historian Steven Runciman cites description of George Sursuvul as an ambassador to the Byzantine Court left by Otto I's Frankish abassador Bishop Liudprand of Cremona, offended that Bulgarian ambassadors at Constantinople had precedence over all other ambassadors: his head was shaven, he wore a brass belt and trousers.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Runciman, A history of the First Bulgarian Empire, p. 187
  2. ↑ Runciman, A history of the First Bulgarian Empire, p. 178
  3. ↑ Runciman, A history of the First Bulgarian Empire, p. 179
  4. ↑ Runciman, A history of the First Bulgarian Empire, p. 197-198, citing Ibrahim ibn Yakub and Bishop Liudprand of Cremona
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