Ilia ( ka, ილია; , ''Iliya Georgiyevich''), also known as Elizbar (ელიზბარი), (2 September 1790 – 18 July 1854) was a Georgian prince royal (''

batonishvili ''Batonishvili'' ( ka, ბატონიშვილი, ) is a title for royal princes and princesses who descend from the Kings of Georgia from the Bagrationi dynasty. ''Batonishvili'' is suffixed after or before the given names e.g. David ' ...

''), a son of

George XII George XII ( ka, გიორგი XII, tr), sometimes known as George XIII (10 November 1746 – 28 December 1800), of the House of Bagrationi, was the second and last king (''mepe'') of the Kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti in eastern Georgia from 1 ...

, the last king of the

Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti The Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti ( ka, ქართლ-კახეთის სამეფო, tr) was created in 1762 by the unification of the two eastern Georgian kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti. From the early 16th century, according to t ...

, by his second marriage to Mariam Tsitsishvili. After the

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

annexation of Georgia in 1801, Ilia accompanied his mother into exile to Russia. He then received military training and served in the

Russian army The Russian Ground Forces (), also known as the Russian Army in English, are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces are the protection of the state borders, combat on land, ...

, fighting with distinction at the

battle of Borodino The Battle of Borodino ( ) or Battle of Moscow (), in popular literature also known as the Battle of the Generals, took place on the outskirts of Moscow near the village of Borodino on 7 September 1812 during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. ...

against the

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

in 1812 and retiring with the rank of

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

in 1823. He had 13 children of his marriage with Princess Anastasia Obolonskaya and his descendants, bearing the surname of

Gruzinsky Gruzinsky (; ka, გრუზინსკი) was a title and later the name of two different princely lines of the Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia (country), Georgia, both of which received it as subjects of the Russian Empire. The name "Gruzins ...

, have survived in the 21st-century

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Biography

Prince Ilia was born in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

in 1790 as the fifth child of the then-crown prince George and his second wife Princess Mariam

Tsitsishvili The House of Tsitsishvili ( ka, ციციშვილი) is an ancient Georgian noble family, with several notable members from the 15th century through the 20th. History The Tsitsishvili family was a continuation of the medieval House of ...

in the lifetime of his grandfather, King Heraclius II. Ilia was 10 years old when his father died in December 1800 after two years of a troubled reign. In the ensuing succession crisis, Ilia's elder half brother and regent for the vacant throne,

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

, vied with Heraclius II's son, Iulon. The situation was exploited in 1801 by the Russian Empire to make annexation of Kartli and Kakheti, the eastern Georgian kingdom, followed by the deportation of the Georgian royal family to Russia proper. In 1803 Ilia himself witnessed the killing of the Russian general Ivan Lazarev by his mother, Queen Dowager Mariam, when Lazarev tried to force her out of her bedroom for resettlement in Russia. Mariam and her children were eventually deported to Russia, where Mariam was confined to a monastery. Ilia was accepted in the

Page Corps The Page Corps (; ) was a military academy in Imperial Russia, which prepared sons of the nobility and of senior officers for military service. Similarly, the Imperial School of Jurisprudence prepared boys for civil service. The present-day equiva ...

for military training. Prince Ilia, known in Russia as the ''

tsarevich Tsarevich (, ) was a title given to the sons of tsars. The female equivalent was ''tsarevna''. Under the 1797 Pauline Laws, Pauline house laws, the title was discontinued and replaced with ''tsesarevich'' for the heir apparent alone. His younger ...

'' Ilya Georgyevich, was commissioned in March 1812 as a

podporuchik ''Podporuchik'' ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, потпоручник, potporučnik, , , , , ) is the most junior officer in some Slavic armed forces, and is placed below the rank of lieutenant, typically corresponding to rank of second lieutenant in English ...

of the Jäger Guards Regiment, with which he served in the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

with

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

Grande Armée The (; ) was the primary field army of the French Imperial Army (1804–1815), French Imperial Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Commanded by Napoleon, from 1804 to 1808 it won a series of military victories that allowed the First French Empi ...

. Under the command of Major-General Karl von Bistram, he fought at

Smolensk Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It has been a regional capital for most of ...

and was marked for distinction at Borodino. In September 1812 illness forced him to retire from active service to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. During the 1813–14 campaign he served in the Reserve Army of General

Dmitry Lobanov-Rostovsky Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Lobanov-Rostovsky (; 20 September 1758 – 25/26 July 1838) was a Russian general and statesman. He stemmed from the Lobanov-Rostovsky family. Biography After Russia's defeat at Friedland on 14 June 1807, Russia asked ...

in the vicinity of the besieged French fortress of Modlin in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. In 1823 Prince Ilia was transferred to the Izmailov Guards Regiment with the promotion to colonel. He retired with that rank the same year. Prince Ilia mostly lived in Moscow. In 1832, the Russian government revealed that Georgian nobles and intellectuals plotted a coup against the Russian overlordship. Among the principal leaders of the conspiracy was Ilia's brother Prince Okropir, living in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

. Although one of the numbers, Philadelphos Kiknadze, testified on interrogation that Prince Ilia was also present when Okropir discussed the Georgian affairs with him, Ilia was never brought to a trial or otherwise persecuted. While living in Russia, like many of his siblings and relatives, Ilia showed interest in literature. In 1844, he translated from French into Georgian the

Leibniz–Clarke correspondence The Leibniz–Clarke correspondence was a scientific, theological and philosophical debate conducted in an exchange of letters between the German thinker Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Samuel Clarke, an English supporter of Isaac Newton during the ...

as "ბაასი ორთა უჩინებულესთა ფილოსოფთა ევროპიისათა კლარკ და ლეიბნიცისა" ("The conversation between the two preeminent philosophers of Europe, Clarke and Leibniz"). He died in Moscow at the age of 64 in 1854 and was interred at the Intercession Monastery.

Family and descendants

Prince Ilia married at Moscow in 1827 Princess Anastasia Grigoryevna Obolonskaya (Анастасия Григорьевна Оболонская; 25 September 1805 – 3 March 1885), a daughter of a wealthy noblema
Оболонские
She is buried with her husband at the Intercession Monastery. The couple had 13 children, titled as princes and princesses (''

knyaz A , also , ''knjaz'' or (), is a historical Slavs, Slavic title, used both as a royal and noble title in different times. It is usually translated into English language, English as 'prince', 'king' or 'duke', depending on specific historical c ...

'')

, with the addition of the style "Serene Highness" since 1865. Prince Ilia's surviving male-line descendants are through his son, Prince Grigoriy Gruzinsky, whose great-grandchildren reside in Russia. The only living male member of the line is the Moscow-born Evgeny Petrovich Gruzinsky (born 1947), a son of the Soviet naval officer Pyotr Petrovich Gruzinsky (1916–2006) by his wife Raisa Sergeyevna Yasinkov-Maletskaya (1923–1987). Based on the principle of

primogeniture Primogeniture () is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn Legitimacy (family law), legitimate child to inheritance, inherit all or most of their parent's estate (law), estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some childre ...

practiced by the Georgian royal family, he can be considered

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 a person with a better claim to the position in question. This is in contrast to an heir app ...

to Prince

Nugzar Bagration-Gruzinsky Prince Nugzar Petres dze Bagration-Gruzinsky ( ka, ნუგზარ პეტრეს ძე ბაგრატიონ-გრუზინსკი; 25 August 1950 – 1 March 2025) was a Georgian theatrical director and head of the princel ...

, a scion of Ilia's elder brother

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

, who claims headship of the Royal House of Georgia and has no son. The children of Prince Ilia and Princess Anastasia were:

Ancestry

Notes

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ilia, Prince of Georgia 1790 births 1854 deaths Bagrationi dynasty of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti Georgian princes Military personnel from Tbilisi Military personnel from Moscow Translators from Georgia (country) 19th-century people from Georgia (country) Russian military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Royalty from Moscow