Sursuvul or Sursubul was a Greek rendition for the name of Prime Minister and Regent in the First Bulgarian Empire diring the reigns of Simeon I of Bulgaria and Peter I of Bulgaria, who figures in the Bulgarin history as George Sursuvul. 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 Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lakapenos,[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 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.[2] Afterwards, he presided at the marriage ceremony as a witness on the bridegrooms 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 927969), 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 abassador 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
Kind(er):