Grigol ( ka, გრიგოლი; russian: Григорий Иоаннович Грузинский, ''Grigory Ioannovich Gruzinsky'') (24 January 1789 – 21 September 1830) was a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

royal prince ('' batonishvili'') of the house of Bagrationi. A grandson of George XII, the last

king of Georgia This is a list of kings and queens regnant of the kingdoms of Georgia before Russian annexation in 1801–1810. For more comprehensive lists, and family trees, of Georgian monarchs and rulers see Lists of Georgian monarchs. Kings of Iberia ...

, and the only son of Prince Ioane of Georgia, he was briefly proclaimed as King of Georgia during a revolt against the Russian rule in 1812. After spending several months in a Russian prison, Grigol joined the Russian military ranks and took part in the 1813 Polish campaign. He is the author of several poems, memoirs, and a compilation of Georgian poetry.

Biography

Grigol was born in

Tiflis 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 pe ...

into the family of Prince Ioann of Georgia and his wife Princess Ketevan née

Tsereteli The Tsereteli family ( ka, წერეთელი), also known as Tsertelev (Russian), is a noble family in Georgia (and partly, a Russian noble family) which gave origin to several notable writers, politicians, scholars, and artists. History ...

. He was the only great grandchild of the penultimate Georgian king Heraclius II to be born in this ruler's lifetime. In 1801 the Russian Empire annexed the kingdom of Georgia and began deporting members of the late king George XII's family to Russia proper. In 1803 Prince Ioann, Grigol's father, settled in St. Petersburg, but Grigol stayed with his mother at the Tsereteli estate in

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 municip ...

. In January 1812, the eastern Georgian province of

Kakheti Kakheti ( ka, კახეთი ''K’akheti''; ) is a region (mkhare) formed in the 1990s in eastern Georgia from the historical province of Kakheti and the small, mountainous province of Tusheti. Telavi is its capital. The region comprises eigh ...

, from where the last kings of Georgia traced their provenance, rose in rebellion against the Russian rule. Prince Grigol, accompanied by Prince Simon Machabeli, immediately hurried to join the rebels. Machabeli was captured by General Stahl's soldiers, but Grigol escaped and crossed into Kakheti. Arrival of the royal prince brought more cohesion in this largely peasant movement. His appeal to the memories of the suppressed royal dynasty garnered further support among the population of eastern Georgia and Grigol was proclaimed king on 20 February 1812. By the end of February, the Russian army under the overall command of Marquis Paulucci had gained an upper hand. After the defeat at Chumlaki on 1 March, Grigol fled to the Avars, but, under the persuasion of Prince Zaza Andronikashvili, he surrendered to the Russian military on 6 March 1812. Prince Grigol was sent for imprisonment to Petrozavodsk, where he sought consolation for his disappointment and homesickness in writing poems. Pardoned a year later, Grigol entered the Russian military service and took part in the concluding phases of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, particularly, the 1813 Polish campaign, of which he left an account. Grigol continued his military service, rising to the rank of

podpolkovnik ''Podpolkovnik'' (russian: подполко́вник, lit=sub –, junior – , or lower regimentary) is a military rank in Slavic and nearby countries which corresponds to the lieutenant colonel in the English-speaking states and military. ...

(lieutenant colonel) of the Astrakhan Cossack Regiment. After retirement from the army, he lived in St. Petersburg, focusing on compiling an anthology of Georgian poetry. He died there, at the age of 41, and was buried at the

Alexander Nevsky Lavra Saint Alexander Nevsky Lavra or Saint Alexander Nevsky Monastery was founded by Peter I of Russia in 1710 at the eastern end of the Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg, in the belief that this was the site of the Neva Battle in 1240 when Ale ...

. Niko Javakhishvili, a historian at

Tbilisi State University Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University ( ka, ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი ''Ivane Javaxishvi ...

, suggested in 2008 to include Grigol in the list of the kings of Georgia as Gregory I.

Family

Prince Grigol married on 28 January 1824, during his visit to Tiflis, Varvara Feodorovna Bukrinskaya (10 December 1810 – 29 November 1876), a Georgia-born daughter of a Russian bureaucrat. They had two sons and two daughters, recognized in 1833 by the Russian government in the title of Princes and Princesses Gruzinsky, with the addition of the style "Serene Highness" since 1865. *Prince David (born 28 December 1824), whose subsequent fate is unknown. *Prince Ioann (Ivan; 24 June 1826 – 15 September 1880), subsequently an unofficial head of the Georgian royal family and collector of Georgian antiquities. He married in 1850 Countess Ekaterina

Pahlen The House of Pahlen (german: von der Pahlen; russian: link=no, Пален, Palen) is a German, Estonian, Russian, Lithuanian, Swedish and Baltic German noble family of Pomeranian origin. History The family probably originated from Pomerania, ...

a, daughter of General Count Pavel Pahlen, and died without issue. *Princess Ketevan (1828–1891), who married, in 1849, General Prince Mikhail Sumbatashvili (1822–1886). She had seven children. *Princess Ekaterine (1830–1917),

Lady-in-waiting of the Imperial Court of Russia A lady-in-waiting of the Imperial Russian Court (''придворные дамы'') was a woman of high aristocracy at the service of a woman of the Imperial family. They were organised according to the strict hierarchy of Peter the Great's t ...

. She died unmarried.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grigol, Prince Of Georgia 1789 births 1830 deaths Bagrationi dynasty of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti Writers from Tbilisi 18th-century people from Georgia (country) 19th-century people from Georgia (country) Georgian princes Rebels from Georgia (country) Russian military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Memoirists from Georgia (country) 19th-century poets from Georgia (country) Pretenders to the Georgian throne Male poets from Georgia (country) Burials at the Dukhovskaya Church 19th-century memoirists Military personnel from Tbilisi