Demetrius ( ka, დემეტრე, ''Demetre'') (died 1455) was a Georgian royal prince of the

Bagrationi dynasty The Bagrationi dynasty (; ) is a royal dynasty which reigned in Georgia from the Middle Ages until the early 19th century, being among the oldest extant Christian ruling dynasties in the world. In modern usage, the name of the dynasty is sometim ...

. He was a duke of

Imereti Imereti ( Georgian: იმერეთი) is a region of Georgia situated in the central-western part of the republic along the middle and upper reaches of the Rioni River. Imereti is the most populous region in Georgia. It consists of 11 munic ...

, with intermissions, from 1401 to 1455. Demetrius was a son of King

Alexander I of Imereti Alexander I ( ka, ალექსანდრე I, ''Alek'sandre I'') (died 1389), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was king of western Georgian kingdom of Imereti from 1387 to 1389. Prior to that, he was '' eristavi'' ("duke") of Imereti under the au ...

(died 1389), who had broken away from the

Kingdom of Georgia The Kingdom of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამეფო, tr), also known as the Georgian Empire, was a medieval Eurasian monarchy that was founded in circa 1008 AD. It reached its Golden Age of political and economic ...

during Timur's invasions of that country in 1387. After his uncle, King George I, was killed in 1392, Demetrius was carried away by another his uncle,

Constantine Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I *Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine given name ...

, to seek refuge in the

Caucasian mountains The Caucasus Mountains, : pronounced * hy, Կովկասյան լեռներ, : pronounced * az, Qafqaz dağları, pronounced * rus, Кавка́зские го́ры, Kavkázskiye góry, kɐfˈkasːkʲɪje ˈɡorɨ * tr, Kafkas Dağla ...

. They were able to return to Imereti in 1396, when Constantine was proclaimed king. He died childless in 1401, leaving the throne to the young and weak Demetrius. His accession was prevented, however, by King

George VII of Georgia George VII ( Georgian: გიორგი VII) (died 1405 or 1407) was king of Georgia from 1393 to 1407 (alternatively, from 1395 to 1405). George was the son of the king Bagrat V and his first wife Elene of Trebizond (died of bubonic plagu ...

, who, once freed from a protracted war with Timur, invaded Imereti. The

Dadiani The House of Dadiani ( ka, დადიანი ), later known as the House of Dadiani- Chikovani, was a Georgian family of nobles, dukes and princes, and a ruling dynasty of the western Georgian province of Mingrelia. The House of Dadiani Th ...

Mingrelia Mingrelia ( ka, სამეგრელო, tr; xmf, სამარგალო, samargalo; ab, Агырны, Agirni) is a historic province in the western part of Georgia, formerly known as Odishi. It is primarily inhabited by the Mingrelian ...

and Imeretian nobles captured Demetrius and delivered him to George, who treated him with consideration and sent him to a safe retreat in

Somkhiti Somkhiti ( ka, სომხითი ) was an ambiguous geographic term used in medieval and early modern Georgian historical sources to refer to Armenia on one hand and to the Armeno-Georgian marchlands along the river valleys of Debed and Khr ...

, in

Kartli Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial role ...

Alexander I of Georgia Alexander I the Great (, ''Aleksandre I Didi'') (1386 – between August 26, 1445 and March 7, 1446), of the Bagrationi house, was king of Georgia from 1412 to 1442. Despite his efforts to restore the country from the ruins left by the Turco-Mo ...

, who married Demetrius's sister Tamar c. 1415, restored him to Imereti as a vassal ''

eristavi ''Eristavi'' (; literally, "head of the nation") was a Georgian feudal office, roughly equivalent to the Byzantine ''strategos'' and normally translated into English as "prince" or less commonly as "duke". In the Georgian aristocratic hierarchy, i ...

'' ("duke"). He remained loyal to the Georgian crown and died in 1455. A claim by the early-18th-century Georgian historian,

Prince Vakhushti Vakhushti ( ka, ვახუშტი, tr) (1696–1757) was a Georgian royal prince (''batonishvili''), geographer, historian and cartographer. His principal historical and geographic works, '' Description of the Kingdom of Georgia'' and the ''G ...

, that Bagrat VI, the forefather of the subsequent dynasty of Imeretian kings, was Demetrius's son is false. The version was adopted by

Marie-Félicité Brosset Marie-Félicité Brosset (24 January 1802 – 3 September 1880) was a French orientalist who specialized in Georgian and Armenian studies. He worked mostly in Russia. Early life and first works Marie-Félicité Brosset was born in Paris int ...

in the 19th century and survived into the 20th. It has been rejected by a number of scholars and

Cyril Toumanoff Cyril Leo Toumanoff (russian: Кирилл Львович Туманов; 13 October 1913 – 4 February 1997) was a Russian-born Georgian historian and genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armenia, ...

eventually elucidated Bagrat's true origin as a grandson of

Constantine I of Georgia Constantine I ( ka, კონსტანტინე I, ) (died 1412) was King of Georgia from 1405 or 1407 until his death in 1412. He is the common ancestor of all surviving branches of the Bagrationi dynasty. Biography Constantine was the eld ...

References

1455 deaths Bagrationi dynasty of the Kingdom of Imereti Year of birth unknown 14th-century people from Georgia (country) 15th-century people from Georgia (country) {{Georgia-royal-stub