Samuel of Bulgaria - Family, Grave and Legacy

Family, Grave and Legacy

Samuel's wife was called Kosara. The name of his second wife was Agatha. Samuel had five children: the successor Gavril Radomir and four daughters: Theodora Kosara, Miroslava, Katun Anastasiya and Agatha. Gavril Radomir married twice, to Ilona of Hungary and Irina from Larissa; Kosara married the Prince of Duklja, Jovan Vladimir; Miroslava married the captured Byzantine noble Ashot and Katun Anastasiya married the Hungarian noble Vazul.

After the fall of Bulgaria, Samuel's descendants assumed important positions in the Byzantine court after they were resettled and given lands in Asia Minor and Armenia. Оne of his granddaughters, Catherine, became empress of Byzantium. Another grandchild, Peter II Delyan, led an attempt to restore the Bulgarian Empire after a major uprising in 1040 – 1041. Two other women of the dynasty became Byzantine empresses, while many nobles served in the army as strategos or became governors of various provinces.

There is also another version about Samuel's origin. The 11th-century historian Stepanos Asoghik wrote that Samuel had only one brother, stating they were both Armenians from the district of Derjan, an Armenian land incorporated into the Byzantine Empire. They were sent to fight the Bulgarians in Macedonia but ended up joining them. This version is supported by the historian Nicholas Adontz, who analyzed the events and facts of the century and concluded that Samuel had only one brother, David. Asoghik's version is also supported by the historian Jordan Ivanov; furthermore, according to Samuel's Inscription, he had only one brother called David.

The Arab historian Yahya of Antioch claims that the son of Samuel, Gavril, was assassinated by the leader of the Bulgarians, son of Aaron, because Aaron belonged to the race that reigned over Bulgaria. Asoghik and Yahya clearly distinguish the race of Samuel from the one of Aaron or the race of the Cometopuli from the royal race. According to them, Moses and Aaron are not from the family of the Cometopuli. David and Samuel were of Armenian origin and Moses and Aaron were Armenian on their mother's side.

Samuel's grave was found in 1965 by Greek professor Nikolaos Moutsopoulos in the Church of St Achillios on the eponymous island in Lake Prespa. Samuel had built the church for the relics of the saint of the same name. What is thought to have been the coat of arms of the House of Cometopuli, two perched parrots, was embroidered on his funeral garment.

His remains are kept in a secret location in Greece, but according to a recent agreement, they may be returned to Bulgaria and buried in the SS. Forty Martyrs Church in Veliko Tarnovo, to rest with the remains of emperors Kaloyan and Michael Shishman.

Samuel's face was reconstructed to restore the appearance of the 70-year-old Bulgarian ruler. According to the reconstruction, he was a sharp-faced man, bald-headed, with a white beard and moustache.

Samuel is among the most renowned Bulgarian rulers. His military struggle with the Byzantine Empire is marked as an epic period of Bulgarian history. The great number of monuments and memorials in Bulgaria and Republic of Macedonia, such as the ones in Petrich and Ohrid, signify the trail this historical figure has left in the memory of the people. Four Bulgarian villages bear his name, as well as Samuel Point on Livingston Island, Antarctica. Samuel is the main figure in at least three major Bulgarian novels by authors Dimitar Talev, Anton Donchev and Stefan Tsanev and also stars in the Greek novel "At the Times of the Bulgarian-Slayer" by Penelope Delta, who closely follows the narrative flow of events as presented by St. Runciman; he is mentioned in the verse of Ivan Vazov, Pencho Slaveykov, and Atanas Dalchev as well.