The House of Chavchavadze ( ka, ჭავჭავაძე) is a Georgian noble family, formerly a

prince A prince is a Monarch, male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary title, hereditary, in s ...

ly one (

tavadi ''Tavadi'' ( ka, თავადი, "prince", lit. "head/chief" an from ka, თავი ''tavi'', "head", with the prefix of agent ''-di'') was a feudal title in Georgia first applied in the Late Middle Ages usually translated in English as Pr ...

), later incorporated into the

Russian nobility The Russian nobility (russian: дворянство ''dvoryanstvo'') originated in the 14th century. In 1914 it consisted of approximately 1,900,000 members (about 1.1% of the population) in the Russian Empire. Up until the February Revolutio ...

, also with the title of

Prince A prince is a Monarch, male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary title, hereditary, in s ...

History

The family is first attested in the 15th century, during the reign of

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-Mong ...

. By the time of Leon of Kakheti they appear in the 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 e ...

(1529, according to Prince Ioann of Georgia), where they produced two lines: one in

Telavi Telavi ( ka, თელავი ) is the main city and administrative center of Georgia's eastern province of Kakheti. Its population consists of some 19,629 inhabitants (as of the year 2014). The city is located on the foothills of the Tsiv-Gomb ...

and

Tsinandali Tsinandali ( ka, წინანდალი) is a village in Kakheti, Georgia, situated in the district of Telavi, 79 km east of Tbilisi. It is noted for the palace and historic winery-estate which once belonged to the 19th-century aristocra ...

; another in Qvareli and Shildi. Both these lines were elevated to a princely dignity under the kings Erekle I (1680s) and Constantine II (1726), respectively. The Chavchavadze family, with its head Prince Garsevan, came to much prominence under the king

Erekle II Heraclius II ( ka, ერეკლე II), also known as Erekle II and The Little Kakhetian ( ka, პატარა კახი ) (7 November 1720 or 7 October 1721 C. ToumanoffHitchins, KeithHeraclius II. ''Encyclopædia Iranica Online edit ...

later in the 18th century, and continued to play an important role in Georgia during the

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. T ...

n rule. They were confirmed in their rank by the

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the te ...

’s decrees of 1825, 1828, 1829, and 1850. On 4 July 1853, a small party under Ghazi Muhammad (the son of Murid leader,

Imam Shamil Imam Shamil ( av, Шейх Шамил, Şeyx Şamil; ar, الشيخ شامل; russian: Имам Шамиль; 26 June 1797 – 4 February 1871) was the political, military, and spiritual leader of North Caucasian resistance to Imperial Russia in ...

) kidnapped Prince Chavchavadze's wife Anna and his sister-in-law, Princess Varvara Orbeliani, together with their children and some others. The princess was exchanged for Shamil's son, Jamalu'd-din and 40,000 roubles on 10 March 1855.John F. Baddeley, The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus (New York: Russell & Russell, 1969), pp. 449-53

Notable members

* Garsevan Chavchavadze *

Alexander Chavchavadze Prince Alexander Chavchavadze ( ka, ალექსანდრე ჭავჭავაძე, russian: Александр Чавчавадзе; 1786 – November 6, 1846) was a Georgian poet, public benefactor and military figure. Regarded as th ...

* Nino Chavchavadze *

Ilia Chavchavadze Prince Ilia Chavchavadze ( ka, ილია ჭავჭავაძე; 8 November 1837 – 12 September 1907) was a Georgian public figure, journalist, publisher, writer and poet who spearheaded the revival of Georgian nationalism during th ...

* David Chavchavadze * Princess Nina Georgievna of Russia

References

* Bagrationi, Ioane (1768–1830)
Chavchavadze (Princes of Kakheti)
''The Brief Description of the Georgian Noble Houses''. Retrieved on December 20, 2007. *

Toumanoff, Cyril 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, ...

(1967). ''Studies in Christian Caucasian History'', p. 270.

Georgetown University Press Georgetown University Press is a university press affiliated with Georgetown University that publishes about forty new books a year. The press's major subject areas include bioethics, international affairs, languages and linguistics, political s ...

. Noble families of Georgia (country) Russian noble families Georgian-language surnames {{Georgia-noble-stub