Bagrat II of Iberia

Bagrat II, called Regueni, "the Simple," was king of the Kartvelians from 958 to 994, a Bagratid whose modest reign was overshadowed by his kinsman David III of Tao but whose line produced the first king of all Georgia. Born about 937, he was the elder son of Sumbat I and held the rank of eristavt-eristavi before succeeding to his father's title. Unlike his father he governed only northern, or Hither, Tao, and the Byzantine rank of kouropalates that marked the senior Bagratid passed instead to his cousin Adarnase V in southern Tao.

His epithet has been read in different ways. Ekvtime Takaishvili explained it by his youth at his accession; other Georgian scholars have taken it as a hostile judgment of his character or a jibe born of his quarrels with his son Gurgen and grandson Bagrat III. The chronicle of Sumbat Davitis-dze, the eleventh-century history of the Bagratids and the main source for his reign, records him chiefly as a loyal ally of David III: he aided the Kuropalates against the Rawadid emirs of Azerbaijan, and in 990 fought beside him near Valashkert against the emir Mamlan and his allies. He is also said to have sided with David even against Gurgen, his son and co-king, who by 978 was the effective ruler of the Kartvelian lands.

It was David III who, having no heir, adopted Gurgen's son Bagrat, and Gurgen's marriage to Gurandukht, sister of the last Abkhazian kings, gave the boy a second crown. Bagrat II died in 994 and was succeeded by Gurgen; his younger son Sumbat had died in 992. Fourteen years later his grandson united the Kartvelian, Abkhazian, and Tao inheritances as Bagrat III, king of Georgia.