Peter (II) Delyan of Bulgaria

Petar II Delyan
Tsar of Bulgaria
Petar Delyan being proclaimed Tsar of Bulgaria by Bulgarian rebels.
Reign	1040 – 1041
Predecessor	Presian II
Successor	Constantine Bodin
Died	1041
House	Comitopuli
Father	Gavril Radomir
Mother	Marguerite of Hungary

Petar II Delyan (reigned 1040 – 1041) (Bulgarian: Петър II Делян) was the leader of an uprising against Byzantine rule in the Theme of Bulgaria during the summer of 1040. He was proclaimed Tsar of Bulgaria, as Samuel's grandson in Belgrade. His original name may have been simply Delyan, in which case he assumed the name Petar II upon his accession, commemorating the sainted Emperor Petar I (Petăr I), who had died in 970. The year of his birth is uncertain, but probably not long after 1000, and before 1014. He probably died in 1041.

His origin is not clear. He claimed that he was son of Emperor Gavril Radomir and grandson of Samuel of Bulgaria, but he could also be a local who became leader of the uprising and claimed to be Samuel's grandson to justify his proclamation as Tsar of Bulgaria.

Those who believe he actually was Radomir's son, think that he was born from Radomir's marriage with Marguerite, sister of King Stephen I of Hungary (996/997). Peter's mother was expelled while pregnant from the Samuel's court before the accession of Gavril Radomir, but given Delyan's subsequent career, it is likely that he had been born and remained in Bulgaria with his father.

After Ivan Vladislav's murder of Gavril Radomir in 1015 and the conquest of Bulgaria by the Byzantine Empire in 1018, Delyan was taken captive to Constantinople and became a servant of an unidentified member of the Byzantine aristocracy. He later escaped and went to his mother's country of Hungary, whence he returned to Bulgaria and raised a revolt against the Byzantine rule, taking advantage of the discontent over the imposition of taxes in coin by the Byzantine government.