George III of Georgia

George III ruled Georgia from 1156 to 1184, extended the conquests of his grandfather David IV, and, by crowning his daughter Tamar as co-ruler, prepared the way for the first woman to reign over the kingdom in her own right. He was the younger son of Demetrius I. His father had set aside the elder son, David V, in his favor in the 1140s; David nonetheless seized the throne in 1154 or 1155, died within months, and Demetrius, restored, crowned George co-king before his own death in 1156. Armenian writers accused the Orbeli family of poisoning David V on George's behalf; the Georgian chronicle is silent, and George's accession over the head of David's infant son Demna remained a grievance for two decades.

Where Demetrius had been defensive, George attacked. In 1161 he took Ani after its Christian population rose against the emir, installed his general Ivane Orbeli there, and defeated the Muslim coalition raised against him; in 1162 his army sacked Dvin. A long war with the atabeg Eldiguz ended in a truce under which Ani returned to its Shaddadid emirs as Georgian vassals, and in 1174 George retook the city and imprisoned Shahanshah ibn Mahmud. In 1167 he defended his vassal, the Shirvanshah, against Khazar and Kipchak attacks from the north.

In 1177 the great nobles rose under Ivane Orbeli, now amirspasalar, proclaimed Demna king, and marched on Tbilisi with a large force. George, relying on his Kipchak troops and mountaineers, broke the revolt; Orbeli was put to death, and Demna was blinded and castrated on his uncle's order and died in prison. In 1178 George crowned Tamar co-ruler to forestall any further dispute over the succession.

George's marriage joined the Bagrationi to the royal house of Alania: his wife Burdukhan of Alania was a daughter of the Alan king. Their children were Tamar, born about 1160, and Rusudan, who married Manuel Komnenos, son of the Byzantine emperor Andronikos I; Rusudan's sons Alexios and David later founded the Empire of Trebizond. George died on 27 March 1184 and was buried at Gelati. Tamar succeeded him alone.