Bagrat I of Mukhrani

Bagrat, 1st Prince of Mukhrani or Mukhran-Batoni ( _ka. ბაგრატ მუხრანბატონი), (c. 1487 – c. 1540) was the third son of Constantine II of Georgia, of the Bagrationi dynasty, and the founder of the House of Mukhrani.

Biography

Constantine II, king of Georgia now reduced to the province of Kartli, made all of his sons, Bagrat among them, his co-kings, as is indicated by the position of the royal style after his name in the royal acts. [Toumanoff, Cyril (1949–51). The Fifteenth-Century Bagratids and the Institution of Collegial Sovereignty in Georgia. "Traditio" 7: 215.] Unlike his two elder brothers, however, David X and George IX, Bagrat never came to the throne of Kartli. Bagrat received in appanage the princedom of Mukhrani and the title of High Constable of Upper Kartli in reward for his vital assistance to his brother David X against encroachements from the aggressive George II, a neighboring Georgian ruler of Kakheti, in 1512. Bagrat withheld a Kakhetian siege of his fortress at the river Ksani and made George II retreat. In 1513, he captured George in an ambush and put in prison where the king died, leaving Kakheti vulnerable to Bagrat’s raids.

In 1539, Bagrat resigned in favor of his eldest son Vakhtang and took took holy orders under the name of Barnabas. He authored a polemical work "A Story of Religion of Ismaelite Infidels" (მოთხრობაჲ სჯულთა უღმერთოთა ისმაილიტთაჲ), engaging in Christian apology and critical of Islam.

Family

Bagrat was married to a certain Helene by whom he had seven sons – Vakhtang, Archil (died 1581), Ashotan (died 1561), Erekle (1527-1556), Jonathan, Jothan, Alexander (died c. 1604) – and three daughters – Guldapar, Theodora, and Dedis-Imedi (1537-1591). Of these, Jonathan, Jothan, Guldapar, and Theodora did not reach adulthood and died somewhere after 1572. Vakhtang succeeded Bagrat as the Prince of Mukhrani; Archil served as a Georgian envoy to Iran in the period of 1573-1576, and fathered Erekle I, the 3rd Prince of Mukhrani; Ashotan died in battle against the rebellious mountaineers of Pkhovi; his daughter was Ketevan, queen consort of Kakheti and a saint of the Georgian Orthodox Church; Dedis-Imedi married Quarqvare III Jaqeli, Atabeg of Samtskhe.

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