Demetrius II of Georgia

Demetrius II the Self-Sacrificer or the Devoted (Georgian: დემეტრე II თავდადებული) (1259–12 March 1289) of the Bagrationi dynasty, was king of Georgia in 1270–1289.

Demetrius II
დემეტრე II
King of Kings of Georgia
King of Georgia
Reign1270–1289
Coronation1271
Svetitskhoveli Cathedral
PredecessorDavid VII
SuccessorVakhtang II
Born1259
Died12 March 1289(1289-03-12) (aged 29–30)
Movakani
Burial
Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, Mtskheta
SpouseTheodora Megale Komnena
Solgar
Natela Jaqeli
IssueDavid VIII of Georgia
Vakhtang III of Georgia
Prince Lasha
Prince Manuel
Princess Rusudan
Prince Baidu
Prince Iadgar
Princess Jigda
George V of Georgia
Full name
Demetrius II the Self-Sacrificer
DynastyBagrationi dynasty
FatherDavid VII of Georgia
MotherGvantsa Kakhaberidze
ReligionGeorgian Orthodox Church

Life
"Demetrius II goes to the Khan", by Henryk Hryniewski.

Son of King David VII and his wife Gvantsa, Demetrius was only 2 years old when his mother was killed by the Mongols in 1261. He succeeded on his father's death in 1270, when he was 11 years old. He ruled under the regency of Sadun Mankaberdeli for some time. In 1277–1281, he took part in Abaqa Khan's campaigns against Egypt and in particularly distinguished himself at the Second Battle of Homs, (29 October 1281). Although he continued to be titled "king of Georgians and Abkhazians, etc", Demetrius's rule extended only over the eastern part of the kingdom. Western Georgia was under the rule of the Imeretian branch of the Bagrationi dynasty.

King Demetrius was considered quite a controversial person. Devoted to Christianity, he was criticized for his polygamy. In 1288, on the order of Arghun Khan, he subdued the rebel province of Derbend at the Caspian Sea. The same year, Arghun revealed a plot organized by his powerful minister Buqa, whose son was married to Demetrius's daughter. Bugha and his family were massacred, and the Georgian king, suspected to be involved in a plot, was ordered to the Mongol capital, or Arghun threatened to invade Georgia. Despite much advice from nobles, Demetrius headed for the Khan's residence to face apparent death, and was imprisoned there. He was beheaded at Movakan on 12 March 1289. He was buried at Mtskheta, Georgia, and canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church.

He was succeeded by his cousin Vakhtang II.

Marriages and children
Main article: Family of Demetrius II of Georgia

At one point, Demetrius had three wives. In 1277, he married a daughter of Manuel I of Trebizond by whom he had five children

Demetrius also had three children by his second wife, Mongol princess Solghar:

In ca. 1280, he married his third wife, Natela, daughter of Beka I Jaqeli, Atabeg of Samtskhe and Lord High Steward of Georgia. They were the parents of George V the Brilliant.

gollark: I mean, see, osmarks.tk employs something like one person and we have two servers! Google has thousands of people who maybe have access, could actually make money off selling data, and has a lot of places it could get lost.
gollark: You SHOULD NOT trust them. You have NO VALID REASON to trust them. You have MANY GOOD REASONS to distrust them.
gollark: It's not no reason. We have reasons. You just don't seem to recognize them as valid.
gollark: You should not, in fact, be trusting said giant profit-maximizing entity and every future version of it and everywhere they might be sending all the data.
gollark: And they probably can make money off it.

References
  1. George Finlay, The History of Greece and the Empire of Trebizond, (1204-1461) (Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1851), p. 436

George Finlay, The History of Greece and the Empire of Trebizond, (1204-1461) (Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1851), p. 436 [wrong reference - the page number does not contain information about Jigda Khanun]

Preceded by
David VII		 King of Georgia
1270–1289		 Succeeded by
Vakhtang II
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.