Tsar Gavril Radomir: life and reign

Gavril (Gavrail, Gabriel) Radomir was a Bulgarian tsar who ruled from 1014 to March 1015. He was the eldest son of Tsar Samuel and Agatha. Byzantine sources also call him Roman.

In 987, a dispute began between Samuel and his brother Aaron, ending with the destruction of Aaron’s entire family except for his son Ivan Vladislav. Gavril Radomir interceded for Ivan Vladislav, who may have taken part in the Battle of the Gates of Trajan in 986, in which the Byzantines were defeated.

In 996, after the Byzantine victory at the Battle of the River Spercheios, Gavril Radomir married a daughter of the Hungarian ruler Géza. The marriage was dissolved after Géza’s death, when the Bulgarians did not support his son Stephen I’s claim to the Hungarian throne. In 1003, following an alliance between the Byzantines and Hungarians, Vidin fell.

After the successful Battle of Belasitsa in the summer of 1014, Gavril Radomir took the throne. Only nine days later, however, Emperor Basil II entered Bitola and burned Radomir’s palaces. According to John Skylitzes, in March 1015 Gavril Radomir was killed while hunting by his cousin Ivan Vladislav. Following this incident, Ivan Vladislav proclaimed himself tsar and offered peace to Basil II.

Gavril Radomir married twice. His first marriage was to a daughter of the Hungarian ruler Géza, who bore him a son named Peter Delyan, a future Bulgarian tsar. His second marriage, around 999, was to Irene of Larissa, also known as Irene Kamateros or Irene Radomirova. They had several sons and daughters whose names are unknown. Ian Mladjov has proposed that Gavril Radomir and Irene also had a daughter named Agatha, who married the English heir to the throne, Edward the Exile.