Demetrius II the Self-Sacrificing

Demetrius II, called Tavdadebuli, "the Self-Sacrificing," reigned over eastern Georgia under Mongol rule from 1270 to 1289 and chose execution rather than expose his country to reprisal. Born in 1259, he was the son of David VII Ulu by his third wife, Gvantsa Kakhaberidze, who was put to death by the Mongols when the boy was about two. He came to the throne at eleven on his father's death, under the regency of Sadun Mankaberdeli, the Mongol-appointed atabeg; when Sadun died in 1282 Demetrius refused the office to his son Khutlubuga, making a lasting enemy. Though styled king of the Georgians and Abkhazians, he ruled only the east. Western Georgia remained with his cousin David VI Narin, and Samtskhe under Beka Jaqeli answered directly to the Mongols. As an Ilkhanid vassal he led Georgian contingents in the wars against Mamluk Egypt, notably at the second battle of Homs in 1281. His three marriages tied the house to Trebizond, the Mongols, and Samtskhe. His first wife, a Trapezuntine princess probably a daughter of Emperor Manuel I, bore David VIII, Vakhtang III, Manuel, Lasha, and Rusudan; his second, the Mongol Solghar, bore Baadur, Iadgar, and Jigda; his third, Natela, daughter of Beka Jaqeli, married about 1280, bore George V, later called the Brilliant. In 1288 the Ilkhan Arghun uncovered a conspiracy by his minister Buqa, and Demetrius was suspected of complicity. Summoned to the khan, and warned by his advisers to flee into the mountains, he chose to go, reasoning that flight would bring a Mongol army down on Georgia. He was imprisoned and beheaded at Movakan on 12 March 1289, and his body was brought back for burial at Svetitskhoveli in Mtskheta. Arghun gave the eastern throne to Vakhtang II, son of David Narin, but Demetrius's sons David VIII and George V would reign in turn. The Georgian Orthodox Church venerates him as a martyr and saint.