George IV Gurieli ( ka, გიორგი IV გურიელი) (died 1726), of the

House of Gurieli The House of Gurieli () was a Georgian princely ('' mtavari'') family and a ruling dynasty (dukes) of the southwestern Georgian province of Guria, which was autonomous and later, for a few centuries, independent. A few ducal rulers of the dynas ...

, was

Prince of Guria The Principality of Guria ( ka, გურიის სამთავრო, tr) was a historical state in Georgia. Centered on modern-day Guria, a southwestern region in Georgia, it was located between the Black Sea and Lesser Caucasus, and was r ...

from 1711 to 1726, and a

king of Imereti The Kingdom of Imereti ( ka, იმერეთის სამეფო, tr) was a Georgian monarchy established in 1455 by a member of the house of Bagrationi when the Kingdom of Georgia was dissolved into rival kingdoms. Before that time, Im ...

in western

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 ...

in 1716. He was installed as regent of Guria by his father,

Mamia III Gurieli Mamia III Gurieli ( ka, მამია III გურიელი), also known as Mamia the Great Gurieli (დიდი გურიელი, ''Didi Gurieli'') or the Black Gurieli (შავი გურიელი, ''Shavi Gurieli'') (died 5 J ...

, then the king of Imereti, in 1712. In 1716, he seized the crown of Imereti, but was forced to abandon the enterprise later that year. Returning to Guria, his rule was challenged by a faction of local nobility, which included his mother Elene and brother

Kaikhosro III Gurieli Kaikhosro III Gurieli ( ka, ქაიხოსრო III გურიელი; died ) was a member of the Georgian family of Gurieli, a princely dynasty of Guria. He was briefly Prince-regnant of Guria as a rival to his brother Giorgi IV Gurieli ...

. He was finally able to crush the opposition after making peace with Bezhan Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia.

Early rule

Giorgi was the eldest son of

, Prince of Guria, and Elene, daughter of Prince Giorgi Abashidze. When Mamia seized the throne of Imereti in October 1712, Giorgi was made by his father as regent of Guria to the opposition of his younger brother, Levan. On Mamia's death on 5 January 1714, Giorgi Gurieli became prince-regnant. In 1716, the Imeretian opposition led by Bezhan Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia, and Prince Zurab Abashidze invited the Ottoman troops in their successful bid to depose King Giorgi VII of Imereti, the late Mamia Gurieli's rival, and crowned Giorgi Gurieli as king at Kutaisi. His reign lasted for only three months; the dethroned king Giorgi VII's Rachian supporters ambushed and looted Gurieli's treasure, bound to Kutaisi, at Salominao, while a Gurian escort were captured and sold in slavery. The alarmed Gurieli fled Kutaisi back to Guria, while Imereti was divided by Dadiani, Abashidze, and the duke of Racha.

Coup in Guria

Back in his native principality, Giorgi Gurieli faced a coup engineered by his own mother, Elene, on whose instigation Dadiani, Abashidze, and the duke of Racha intervened with their troops to expel Giorgi and replace him with his younger brother,

, the unfrocked monk and Elene's favorite son. Giorgi fled to Akhlatsikhe under the protection of an Ottoman pasha. There he met his exiled predecessor as king of Imereti, Giorgi VII, who married Gurieli's sister Tamar. Akhaltsikhe's own power struggle deprived the two Giorgis of any meaningful support. Gurieli moved to

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. The city uses the double-headed eagle as ...

and, with the troops provided by the local pasha, quickly reconquered Guria, forcing his mother and brothers into exile. The leading nobles of Guria, such as

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 hierarch ...

and Bezhan Nakashidze did not welcome Giorgi's comeback and invoked Bezhan Dadiani's military aid to put Gurieli into flight to

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ) is the second largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest. It is situated in a subtropical zone at the foot of t ...

. Dadiani looted Guria and left. Gurieli was able to resume his reign and made peace with Dadiani. He then moved against his estranged nobles, expelled Eristavi, and took away Giorgi Nakashidze's wife, a daughter of Dadiani, as his own mate with her father's consent. Giorgi Gurieli died in 1726. He was succeeded by his son, Mamia IV Gurieli.

Family

Giorgi Gurieli was married twice, first to Elene (Mariam), daughter of Prince Abashidze or, according to

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, ...

, of Giorgi Shervashidze, Eristavi of Guria. After the couple's divorce in 1717, Giorgi married Khvaramze, daughter of Bezhan Dadiani and former wife of Prince Giorgi Nakashidze. After Gurieli's death, Khvaramze married Shoshita III, Duke of Racha. Giorgi had two sons: * Mamia IV Gurieli * Giorgi V Gurieli

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giorgi 04 Gurieli 1726 deaths Kings of Imereti Year of birth unknown House of Gurieli Eastern Orthodox monarchs 18th-century people from Georgia (country)