Bulgarians conquer the Latin Empire/Greece?

The Turks did have cannon and a navy. You don't need all of the three things BG named, just at least one of them.

And of course, 1453 the city was so ill garrisoned and so worn down and so on that it might have fallen sooner or latter anyway.
Can the city fall to Bulgaria in the first half of the fifteenth century?
 
Can the city fall to Bulgaria in the first half of the fifteenth century?

I'd say the best hope is to have Bulgaria take advantage of the Ottoman collapse, and chase them out of the Balkans completely- though I suspect this will require quite a lot of luck. After this, Constantinople is quite likely doable. But, even then, I think the Bulgarian Tsar will quickly start calling himself Roman Emperor.
 
I'd say the best hope is to have Bulgaria take advantage of the Ottoman collapse, and chase them out of the Balkans completely- though I suspect this will require quite a lot of luck. After this, Constantinople is quite likely doable. But, even then, I think the Bulgarian Tsar will quickly start calling himself Roman Emperor.

What year did you have in mind?
 
I'll defer to your superior knowledge then, but after three hundred years of Orthodoxy, just how willing would the everyday Bulgarians have been to accept a Catholic Tsar? I suspect a Bulgarian Empire made up of, say, Bulgaria and Thrace, plus a bit of Anatolia will be very deeply Orthodox, and if their ruler attempts to convert to Catholicism it will not go down well at all.

I don't imagine it would be a complete conversion. Simply acknowledging the Pope's titular supremacy would be enough while still practicing the eastern Rite and liturgy would be enough. Plenty of autonomous eastern rites are in communion with Rome to this day. Disputes over usages would undoubtedly still exist but there wouldn't be a serious attempt at enforcing uniformity if nominal religious supremacy was granted.

At least for a generation or two.
 
I don't imagine it would be a complete conversion. Simply acknowledging the Pope's titular supremacy would be enough while still practicing the eastern Rite and liturgy would be enough. Plenty of autonomous eastern rites are in communion with Rome to this day. Disputes over usages would undoubtedly still exist but there wouldn't be a serious attempt at enforcing uniformity if nominal religious supremacy was granted.

At least for a generation or two.

This didn't work for Michael VIII and his successors and their attempts to get church "union" (which in Frankish is "submission"), why would it work for the Bulgarian tsar?

Either internally or in regards to Rome being satisfied.
 
This didn't work for Michael VIII and his successors and their attempts to get church "union" (which in Frankish is "submission"), why would it work for the Bulgarian tsar?

Either internally or in regards to Rome being satisfied.

There were many different Emperor's who vacillated on using the Papacy as a counter against the influence of various Patriarchs of Constantinople. It's no coincidence they were usually in precarious political positions like Michael VII (and Michael VIII), but it doesn't change that vacillation or that the Papacy was a useful counterweight against the insolence of the likes of Cerularios.

A Bulgarian desiring legitimacy but would be a different position, and there's any... angst that might exist from the various campaigns of Basil and the legacy of the Tsars. Sure, they can assimilate to the Greek rite, as well, but if there's a remnant of significant political resistance that's using that rite, it's could well be more useful to be religiously distinct.
 
There were many different Emperor's who vacillated on using the Papacy as a counter against the influence of various Patriarchs of Constantinople. It's no coincidence they were usually in precarious political positions like Michael VII (and Michael VIII), but it doesn't change that vacillation or that the Papacy was a useful counterweight against the insolence of the likes of Cerularios.

A Bulgarian desiring legitimacy but would be a different position, and there's any... angst that might exist from the various campaigns of Basil and the legacy of the Tsars. Sure, they can assimilate to the Greek rite, as well, but if there's a remnant of significant political resistance that's using that rite, it's could well be more useful to be religiously distinct.

None of the Emperors who tried Church submission to Rome found it to work, though. A Bulgarian who wants to be accepted as a Roman Emperor is going to have to deal with the realities of ruling the ERE, and the fact the Bulgarians are Orthodox - whatever is thought of Basil doesn't have anything to do with it.
 
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