Constantine I of Georgia

Early life

Constantine was the son of King Bagrat V of Georgia by his second wife, Anna of Trebizond. His paternal grandparents were David IX of Georgia and Princess Sindukhtar Jaqeli. His maternal grandparents were Alexios III of Trebizond and Theodora Kantakouzene.

In 1400, Constantine was sent as an ambassador to the Turco-Mongol warlord Timur who continued a relentless and devastating war against the Georgians. Afterwards, he vainly demanded from his reigning half-brother George VII to make peace with Timur. In 1402, Constantine together with the prince Ivane I Jaqeli of Samtskhe submitted to Timur but never took part in the war against Georgia.

Reign

He succeeded on the death of George VII as king in 1407 and launched a program of restoration of what had been ruined and destroyed during Timur's invasions.

Towards 1411, he allied with the Shirvanshah Ibrahim I and the ruler of Shaki Sidi Ahmed to counter the Qara Qoyunlu Turkoman advance into the Caucasus. In the decisive Battle of Chalagan, the allies were routed and Constantine, his half-brother David and the Shirvanshah Ibrahim were taken prisoner.

In the captivity, he behaved arrogantly and the infuriated Turkoman prince Qara Yusuf ordered him, David, and 300 Georgian nobles to be executed. Qara Yusuf put Constantine to death by his own hand.

Family

Constantine was married to Princess Natia Amirejibi, daughter of Kutsna, Prince-Chamberlain (amirejibi) of Georgia. Limited information is available about Natia's family, which may have been from the house of Khurtsidze in Samtskhe or the Gabelisdze, purported ancestors of the Amirejibi family, in Shida Kartli. Kutsna himself served as an ambassador in Constantinople around 1386.

Constantine had three sons: Alexander, Bagrat, and George. All three were appointed as co-kings by their father between 1405 and 1408.

• Alexander I of Georgia (1390–1446), succeeded his father as the king of Georgia and reigned until his abdication from the throne in 1442;
• Prince Bagrat;
• Prince George, father of Bagrat VI of Georgia, founder of the second Bagrationi dynasty of Imereti.

Ancestry

References

References

1. [[Hugh Massingberd. Massingberd, Hugh]] (ed., 1980). ''Burke's Royal Families of the World, Volume 2'', p. 61. Burke's Peerage. {{ISBN. 0850110297.
2. [[Toumanoff, Cyril]] (1949–51). The Fifteenth-Century Bagratids and the Institution of Collegial Sovereignty in Georgia. ''Traditio'' 7: 174, 176-177.
3. {{in lang. ru Grebelsky, P. Kh., Dumin, S. V., Lapin, V. V. (1993), Дворянские роды Российской империи (''Noble families of Russian Empire''), vol. 3, p. 38. IPK Vesti.