KRUM

died April 13, 814 khan of the Bulgars (802814) who briefly threatened the security of the Byzantine Empire. His able, energetic rule brought law and order to Bulgaria and developed the rudiments of state organization. With the defeat of the Avars by Charlemagne in 805, Krum was able to extend greatly the power of the Pannonian Bulgars. His early offensives against the Byzantines were repulsed, and in the spring of 811 his own capital at Pliska was destroyed. On July 26, 811, however, his army crushed the Byzantines, killed the emperor Nicephorus I, and opened the way for further victories. Krum besieged Constantinople (Istanbul) in 813 and devastated the surrounding countryside but died during a second siege of the imperial capital the next year.