Medieval Bulgarian army

The medieval Bulgarian army was the primary military instrument of the First and the Second Bulgarian Empire. In the first decades after the founding of the empire was the army of infantry and cavalry Slavic Bulgarians. The core of the Bulgarian army was the heavy cavalry, which consisted of 12000-30000 heavily armed horsemen. In its heyday, from the 9th to the 10th century it was one of the most powerful forces in Europe. There are several documented cases where Byzantine generals an invasion with their troops refused to fight not against the Bulgarian army defending their homeland must.

The army was inextricably linked to the existence of the Bulgarian state. Your success under Tsar Simeon I marked the creation of a great empire, and their defeat in a protracted war of attrition in the early 11th century, which marks the end of the independence of Bulgaria. After the Bulgarian state was restored in 1185, a number of capable Tsar reached a remarkable series of victories over the Byzantines and the Western Crusaders. As the state and its army were fragmented in the 13th and 14th centuries, it was not to stop the Ottoman advance situation that led to the conquest of Bulgaria in 1422. It was not until 1878, with the liberation of Bulgaria, has laid down a new Bulgarian army.