Nine days after Tsar Samuil's death, his son Gavril Radomir was proclaimed king of Bulgaria. This happened on October 15, 1014 - a date given by the Byzantine chronicler John Skylitsa.
Samuil died on October 6, 1014, after the Bulgarian army was defeated at Klyuch on July 29 of that year. The Byzantine Emperor Basil II captured a large number of Bulgarian soldiers and ordered them to be blinded. Medieval accounts connect Samuel's death with his shock at the sight of the crippled army.
The Son Who Carries Samuel from the Battlefield
Gabriel Radomir already had military experience when he took the throne. After the defeat at Klyuch, he saved his father by carrying him from the battlefield to safety. Later, he himself had to take over the state at a time when Byzantine pressure was increasing and the Bulgarian army had suffered heavy losses.
Ioan Skylitsa describes the new ruler with the words: „In height and strength he resembled his father, but he was significantly inferior to him in intelligence and wisdom.“ The assessment is part of the Byzantine narrative about Samuil's successor and does not change the fact that Gavril Radomir continued the resistance against the empire.
Short reign and dynastic conflict
Gavril Radomir ruled Bulgaria from October 1014 to 1015. During this period, the war with Byzantium did not stop. The Bulgarian state maintained its resistance, but was weakened by the defeat at Klyuch and by internal struggles over the throne.
In 1015, Gavril Radomir was killed by his cousin Ivan Vladislav, son of Aron – Samuil's brother. After the murder, Ivan Vladislav took the throne. Thus, power passed to another line of the dynasty, and Bulgaria continued to fight with Byzantium for several more years.
In 1018, after the death of Ivan Vladislav, the First Bulgarian Kingdom fell under Byzantine rule. Gavril Radomir's rule remained short, but it fit into the last stage of the resistance of Samuil's state against Basil II.
Sources: nationalgeographic.bg, bgnes.bg, bulgarianhistory.org