Bagrat VI of Georgia

Bagrat VI was the last Bagrationi to bear the title of king of all Georgia, a crown he seized from his cousin George VIII in 1466 and held, in name more than in substance, until his death in 1478. He belonged to a junior line of the royal house: born around 1435, he was the son of Prince George, youngest son of Constantine I of Georgia, and thus a first cousin of George VIII. Around 1455 the king made him duke, or eristavi, of Samokalako, the district around Kutaisi in western Georgia. The appointment turned into a rebellion. Bagrat gathered the western nobles, backed by Qvarqvare II Jaqeli of Samtskhe, and when George VIII crossed the Likhi range in 1463 the royal army was decisively defeated at Chikhori. Bagrat took Kutaisi and was crowned king of Imereti at Gelati, founding the Imeretian branch of the Bagrationi. Two years later, when George was captured by Qvarqvare near Lake Paravani, Bagrat crossed into eastern Georgia, and in 1466 he took Tbilisi and proclaimed himself king of Georgia; George, once released, kept only Kakheti. A truce was arranged between Bagrat and George's nephew Constantine, the future Constantine II, who nonetheless continued to claim the throne. Bagrat's kingdom was at once exposed to the Ak Koyunlu Turkomans of Uzun Hasan, who invaded at least twice, in 1466 and 1472, and again in 1476 to 1477 after his own defeat by the Ottomans; one account has the Turkomans taking Tbilisi without a siege in 1477 and installing a garrison. Bagrat was forced to make peace and abandon the capital, and the Georgians recovered it only after Uzun Hasan's death in 1478, the year Bagrat himself died. He married Helen, who survived him until 1510, and had three sons, Vakhtang, George, and Alexander. Constantine II succeeded him as king of Georgia, invaded Imereti, and drove Alexander into the mountains, but Alexander eventually regained the west and ruled it as Alexander II of Imereti from 1484 to 1510. The council convened by Constantine in 1490 recognized what Bagrat's career had made plain: Georgia was now three kingdoms and a principality, not one.