Vakhtang IV of Georgia

Vakhtang IV reigned briefly, from 1442 to 1446, as the first of the sons of Alexander I to wear the crown of a Georgia already dividing among them. Born about 1413, he was the eldest son of Alexander I the Great and his first wife, Dulandukht Orbeliani. In 1433 his father associated his four sons with the throne, and Vakhtang, as the eldest, held the greatest share of authority. The sources disagree about the extent of his domain: Prince Vakhushti and Brosset credit him with Kartli and the capital Tbilisi, while Catholicos Anton II listed mainly western Georgian territories. When Alexander abdicated in 1442 and took monastic vows, Vakhtang became principal king alongside his brothers George and Demetrius; a fourth brother, Zaal, died that year. He was crowned by another brother, Catholicos David III. The same year he married Sitikhatun, daughter of Prince Zaal Panaskerteli-Tsitsishvili; she died childless in 1444. The chief event of his reign was the renewed assault of the Qara Qoyunlu. Jahan Shah had already sacked Samshvilde and Tbilisi in 1440, during Alexander's last years, and in 1444 he invaded again. Vakhtang met him at Akhaltsikhe, where Georgians and Turkomans fought a bloody battle without a clear victor; Jahan Shah withdrew to Tabriz that night, ending the incursion. Vakhtang died in December 1446, aged about thirty-three, and was buried beside his wife at the cathedral of Bana. He left no heir. George VIII took control of Kartli and Kakheti, while Demetrius became entangled in civil strife in Imereti, and within a generation the kingdom Alexander had tried to restore had broken into its component parts.