Prince Nugzar Petres dze Bagration-Gruzinsky ( ka, ნუგზარ პეტრეს ძე ბაგრატიონ-გრუზინსკი) (born 25 August 1950, in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million p ...

Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (Georgian SSR; ka, საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა, tr; russian: Грузинская Советская Соц� ...

) is the head of the deposed royal House of Gruzinsky and represents its claim to the former crown of Georgia.

Biography

Prince Nugzar is the son of Prince Petre Bagration-Gruzinsky of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

(1920–1984), a prominent poet and claimant to the headship of the Georgian

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

from 1939 until his death, and his second wife Liya Mgeladze (b. 8 August 1926). Prince Nugzar is the director of the Tbilisi theatre of cinema artists. On 18 December 2007, Nugzar met with

Kristiina Ojuland Kristiina Ojuland (born 17 December 1966 in Kohtla-Järve, Estonia) is an Estonian politician. She was the Foreign Minister of Estonia from 2002 through 2005. She was a member of the Estonian Reform Party from 1995 till 5 June 2013 and from 2009 ...

, the Vice-President of the

Riigikogu The Riigikogu (; from Estonian ''riigi-'', of the state, and ''kogu'', assembly) is the unicameral parliament of Estonia. In addition to approving legislation, the Parliament appoints high officials, including the Prime Minister and Chief Just ...

(Parliament of Estonia) at the Marriott-Tbilisi Hotel in which Ojuland "paid homage to the Bagrationi dynasty, which has made an extraordinary contribution in support of Georgia". Prince Nugzar is the senior descendant by primogeniture in the

male line Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritan ...

George XII George XII ( ka, გიორგი XII, ''Giorgi XII''), sometimes known as George XIII (November 10, 1746 – December 28, 1800), of the House of Bagrationi, was the second and last King of the Kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti in eastern Georgia from ...

, the last King of Georgia (Kartli and Kakheti) to

reign A reign is the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation (e.g., Saudi Arabia, List of Belgian monarchs, Belgium, Co-prince of Andorra, Andorra), of a people (e.g., List of Frankish kings, the Franks, List of ...

.Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh, 1980, "Burke’s Royal Families of the World: ''Volume II Africa & the Middle East'', pp. 59-65

Family

Nugzar married actress Leila Kipiani (b.

16 July 1947) on 10 February 1971, and they have two daughters: *Princess

Ana Bagration-Gruzinsky Princess Ana Nugzaris asuli Bagration-Gruzinsky ( ka, ანა ნუგზარის ასული ბაგრატიონი გრუზინსკი; born 1 November 1976) is a royal princess of the Gruzinsky branch of the Bagratio ...

, b. Tbilisi 1 November 1976. Married firstly to Grigoriy Malania and had two daughters with him, Irina and Mariam Bagration-Gruzinsky, and secondly, to Prince

David Bagration of Mukhrani Prince David Bagrationi Mukhrani (''Mukran-Batoni'' ��უხრანბატონი of Georgia, ''David Bagration de Moukhrani y Zornoza'', or ''Davit Bagrationi-Mukhraneli'' ( ka, დავით ბაგრატიონ-მუხრა ...

with whom she has a son, Prince Giorgi Bagrationi (see below). *Princess Maia Bagration-Gruzinsky, b. Tbilisi 2 January 1978. She married Nikolai Chichinadze and has two children with him, Themour and Ana Chichinadze. As Nugzar has no male issue,

Yevgeny Petrovich Gruzinsky Yevgeni, Yevgeny, Yevgenii or Yevgeniy (russian: Евгений), also transliterated as Evgeni, Evgeny, Evgenii or Evgeniy, is the Russian form of the masculine given name Eugene. People with the name include: :''Note: Occasionally, a person may b ...

(born 1947-died 17 July 2018), the great-great grandson of

Bagrat Bagrat ( hy, Բագրատ, in Western Armenian pronounced Pakrad, ka, ბაგრატ) is a male name popular in Georgia and Armenia. It is derived from the Old Persian ''Bagadāta'', "gift of God". The names of the Armenian Bagratuni and ...

's younger brother Ilia (1791–1854), who lived in the

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, was considered to be Nugzar's

heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question. ...

within the primogeniture principle. Yevgeny died without issue. Nugzar himself argues in favor of having his eldest daughter, Ana, designated as his heir in accordance with the Georgian dynastic law of "''Zedsidzeoba''" according to which every child of Princess Ana would inherit eligibility for dynastic succession through their mother, thus continuing the elder line of George XII.

Dynastic marriage of the Gruzinsky and Mukhrani heirs

Nugzar's daughter, Princess Ana, a divorced teacher and journalist with two daughters, married Prince

, on 8 February 2009 at the Tbilisi Sameba Cathedral. The marriage united the Gruzinsky and Mukhrani branches of the Georgian royal family, and drew a crowd of 3,000 spectators, officials, and foreign diplomats, as well as extensive coverage by the Georgian media. The dynastic significance of the wedding lay in the fact that, amidst the turmoil in political partisanship that has roiled Georgia since its independence in 1991,

Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia Ilia II ( ka, ილია II, tr), also transliterated as Ilya or Elijah (born 4 January 1933), is the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia and the spiritual leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church. He is officially styled as ''Catholicos-Patriar ...

publicly called for restoration of the monarchy as a path toward national unity in October 2007.Time for a King for Georgia?
/ref> Although this led some politicians and parties to entertain the notion of a Georgian

constitutional monarchy A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...

, competition arose among the old dynasty's princes and supporters, as historians and

jurists A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the U ...

debated which Bagrationi has the strongest hereditary right to a throne that has been vacant for two centuries. Although some Georgian monarchists support the Gruzinsky branch's claim, others support that of the

repatriated Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...

Mukhrani branch. Both branches descend in unbroken, legitimate male line from the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

kings of Georgia down to

Constantine II of Georgia Constantine II ( ka, კონსტანტინე II, tr) (c. 1447 – 1505), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a 23rd king and last of United Georgia from 1478 until his death. Early in the 1490s, he had to recognise the independence of h ...

who died in 1505. Whereas the Bagration-Mukhrani were a

cadet branch In history and heraldry, a cadet branch consists of the male-line descendants of a monarch's or patriarch's younger sons ( cadets). In the ruling dynasties and noble families of much of Europe and Asia, the family's major assets— realm, tit ...

of the former Royal House of

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 rol ...

, they became the genealogically senior-most line of the Bagrationi family in the early 20th century: yet the elder branch had lost the rule of Kartli by 1724. Meanwhile, the Bagration-Gruzinsky line, although junior to the Princes of Mukhrani genealogically, reigned over the

Kingdom of Kakheti The Second Kingdom of Kakheti ( ka, კახეთის სამეფო, tr; also spelled Kaxet'i or Kakhetia) was a late medieval/ early modern monarchy in eastern Georgia, centered at the province of Kakheti, with its capital first at Grem ...

, re-united the two realms in the kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti in 1762, and did not lose sovereignty until Russian annexation in 1801. Prince Giorgi, the son of David and Ana, was born on 27 September 2011 in Madrid, Spain. Currently Nugzar does not officially recognize his grandson as heir to the Georgian throne. He continues to demand that David sign a written agreement in which he would recognize Nugzar and the Gruzinsky branch as the sole rightful heir to the Georgian throne and to the legacy of the Georgian kings. Nevertheless, in 2013, Prince Giorgi returned to Georgia with his mother and father and was

baptised Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

Patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...

Ilia II of Georgia Ilia II ( ka, ილია II, tr), also transliterated as Ilya or Elijah (born 4 January 1933), is the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia and the spiritual leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church. He is officially styled as ''Catholicos-Patriar ...

at the cathedral in Mtskheta. This service was attended by Prince Nugzar, who after the christening of his grandson said:

Patronages

* Director of Tiflis Theatre of Cinema Artists.

Honours

Dynastic honours

* House of Bagrationi: Sovereign Knight Grand Cross of the

Royal Order of Saint Queen Ketevan the Martyr Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ci ...

* House of Bagrationi: Sovereign Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Saint David * House of Bagrationi: Sovereign Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of King Erekle II * House of Bagrationi: Sovereign Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the

Royal Order of the Crown of the Georgian Kingdom The Royal Order of the Crown of Georgian Kingdom is given to people who have served the Georgian royal family and contributed to the well-being of the Kingdom of Georgia, which disintegrated in 1491. It is available to both Georgian and foreign ci ...

Royal House of Georgia
/ref>

Foreign honours

* Rwandan Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Royal Order of the Drumhttp://theroyalhouseofgeorgia.org/images/News/HRH_Crown_Prince.jpg

Ancestors

References

Sources

#W.E.D. Allen, A History of the Georgian People, from the beginning down to the Russian conquest in the nineteenth century. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., London, 1932. #Almanach de Gotha, annuaire généalogique, diplomatique et statistique. Justus Perthes, Gotha, 1826–1944. #I.L. Bichikashvili, D.V. Ninidze and A.N. Peikrishvili, The Genealogy of the Bagratides. Tiflis, 1995 #M.L. Bierbrier, "The Descendants of Theodora Comnena of Trebizond". The Genealogist, Volumes 11, No. 2, Fall 1997 to 14, No. 1, Spring 2000 (inclusive). American Society of Genealogists, Picton Press, Rockport, ME. #M. Brosset (ed.), Rapporta sur un Voyage Archéologique dans la Géorgie et dans l'Arménie exécute en 1847–1848. L'académie Impériale des Sciences, St.- Pétersbourg, 1849 ritish Library Shelfmark 1269.dd.10#Marie-Félicité Brosset, Histoire de la Géorgie, depuis la'antiquité jusqu'au XIXe siècle, traduite du Géorgien. L'académie Impériale des Sciences, St.- Pétersbourg, 1856. #Marie-Félicité Brosset, "Inscriptions tumulaires géorgiennes de Moscou et de St.-Pètersbourg". Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pètersbourg. Sixième série. Sciences politiques, histoire et philologie. Tome IV. L'académie Impériale des Sciences, St.- Pétersbourg, 1840 pp. 461–521. ritish Library shelfmark Ac. 1125/2#Marie-Félicité Brosset, "Nouvelles rescherches sur l'histoire Wakhoucht, sur le roi Artchil et sa famille, et sur divers personages géorgiens enterrés à Moscou". Mélanges Asiatiques, Vol. III, l'Académie Impériale des Sciences, St Petersburg, 1859. pp. 534–575. ritish Library shelfmark Ac. 1125/11#Burke's Royal Families of the World, Volume II Africa & the Middle East, Burke's Peerage Ltd., London 1980. #Stanislav Dumin, "Tsars and Tsarevitchs of the United Kakheti and Kartli. T.S.H. Princes Gruzinsky", The Families of the Nobility of the Russian Empire, Volume III, Moscow, 1996. #Jacques Ferrand, Les Families Princieres de l'Ancien Empire de Russie en émigration. 3 parts. Montreuil, France, 1978. #Giorgi Gabeskiria. Georgian History. National Parliamentary Library of Georgia/Electronic Text Center, Tbilisi, 2001. #A. Gugushvili, "The Chronological-Genealogical Table of the Kings of Georgia". Georgica. Volume 1, Nos. 2 & 3, pp. 106–153. The Georgian Historical Society, London, October 1936. #János József Gudenus, Magyar családtorténeti adattár. Petófi Irodalmi Múzeum, Budapest. Internet, 2006. #Nicolas Ikonnikov, la Noblesse de Russie. Deuxième Edition. Paris, 1958. #Davit Marshal Lang, The Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy, 1658–1632. Columbia University Press, New York, 1957. #"Oukase Impérial réglant le titre et le raing des princes Géorgiens domiciliés en Russie". Journal Asiatique. Troisième série, Tome 1, Fevrier 1836, pp. 205–207. Société Asiatique, Paris, 1836. #S. Quakhchishvili (ed.), The Georgian Chronicle: the Period of Giorgi Lasha. Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam, 1991. #Nino Salia, "le martyr de la reine Kéthévan de Georgie", Bedi Karthlisa "Le Destin de la Georgie", Revue de Karthvelologie, No 23 (N.S.), pp. 55–57, Paris, January 1957. #Kalistrat Salia and Katharine Vivian (trans.), History of the Georgian Nation. Paris, 1983. #Mihail-Dimitri Sturdza, Dictionnaire historique et génealgique des grandes familles de Grèce, d'Albanie et de Constantinople. Paris, 1999. #Cyril Toumanoff, "The Fifteenth-Century Bagratides and the Institution of Collegial Sovereignty in Georgia". Traditio. Volume VII, Fordham University Press, New York 1949–1951, pp. 169–221. #Cyrille Toumanoff, Manuel de généalogie et de chronologie pour l'histoire de la Caucasie Chrétienne (Arménie-Géorgie-Albanie). Edizioni Aquila, Roma, 1976. #Tsarévitch Wakhoucht (Prince Vakusht), Description géographique de la Géorgie. L'Académie Impérial des Sciences, St Pétersbourg, 1842.

External links

Official Site of the Royal House of Bagrationi of Georgia (Gruzinsky)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bagration-Gruzinsky, Nugzar 1950 births Living people Bagrationi dynasty of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti Georgian princes Film people from Tbilisi Theatre directors from Georgia (country) Pretenders to the Georgian throne Theatre people from Tbilisi