There was also a Giorgi I, Catholicos of Kartli who ruled in 677–678.
George I (; 998 or 1002 – 16 August 1027), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the 2nd king (mepe) of the Kingdom of Georgia from 1014 until his death in 1027.
George I, who ascended the throne at a young age and could not yet match the stature of his father Bagrat III, first faced a defeat at the hands of the nobles, who forced him to recognize the renewed independence of Kakheti-Hereti. However, he soon managed to regain strength and expanded his influence throughout the region, acquiring numerous vassals in North Caucasus and establishing a genuine, though short-lived, sphere of influence in Armenia.
The Byzantine Empire, with which his father had already experienced growing tensions, proved powerful enough to confront him in a conflict initiated by George during the reign of Basil II. This war devastated the southern regions of Georgia and resulted in the annexation of the former Kingdom of the Iberians, Tao.
Nevertheless, through skillful diplomacy—including an alliance with the Fatimids—George succeeded in preserving the independence of his realm. Under his rule, Georgia remained free from vassalage and paid no tribute to any foreign power.
Early life George was born in either 998 or 1002, probably in Abkhazia or in Iberia (western Georgia), the domains of his father, Bagrat III, who had already begun his work of unifying the Georgian lands. Through his father, George was the adoptive grandson of the powerful David III Kurapalates, the principal architect of Georgian unification, and the biological grandson of Gurgen of Iberia, the last ruler to hold the title King of the Georgians. From these two ancestral lines, George inherited the legacy of the ancient and prominent Bagrationi dynasty, a dynasty that ruled most of the ten or so Georgian states prior to 1010.
As noted earlier, in the year 1010, after a two-year war, Kvirike III, ruler of Kakheti and Hereti, was finally defeated, and his domains were annexed, bringing about the long-sought unification of Georgia. George’s father thus became one of the most powerful monarchs in the Caucasus, reducing the Emirate of Ganja to vassalage and, according to Georgian charters, extending his authority over the Armenian territories as well as all the Caucasian tribes of North Caucasus. However, Bagrat III died four years later, on 7 May 1014. His only son and heir, George, then about eighteen years old, was ascended to the throne.
Reign
Kakheti crisis The new king, George I, was therefore largely inexperienced in political affairs, unlike his father, owing to his young age. At eighteen, the monarch had not yet acquired sufficient knowledge of the complex issue of the nobility, yet he was already too old for the appointment of a regent—or even a highly influential advisor—without risking becoming the puppet of some powerful lord motivated only by his own aristocratic allies. For this reason, George was unable to prevent the first crisis of his reign, which erupted between the crown and the nobility. This class, representing the former Georgian high aristocracy from before unification, chose to target the most vulnerable region of the kingdom, one that had joined last and under difficult circumstances: Kakheti.
The aznauri (lords), described as “treacherous” by the Georgian Chronicles, had lived in comfortable conditions when Kakheti was an independent kingdom, but were exiled to western Georgia by King Bagrat III in 1010. They rebelled against royal authority and the unity of the country. Upon returning to their homeland, they (whose names remain unknown) seized and took hostage the local governors (eristavi, meaning “grand duke”) appointed by Georgia, demanding the restoration of an independent Kakheti similar to that which had existed until 1010. Taken by surprise, King George I had no choice but to comply with the nobles’ demands. In an agreement that deprived Georgia of more than a third of its territory within the first year of his reign, he recognized the independence of Kakheti and released the former chorepiscopus Kvirike III, who assumed the title of “King of Kakheti and Hereti.”
As a consequence, King George I was obliged to remove the title of Ranis and Kakhetians from his father’s former royal title, retaining only that of “King of the Abkhazians and Iberians.”
However, it cannot truly be said that Kvirike III saw himself as anything other than a Georgian monarch. Both he and his people continued to depend on the Georgian Orthodox Church, with only a de facto independent bishop residing in Alaverdi. Despite any claims to the contrary, the Georgian language remained in common use among the Kakhetians. Politically, Kvirike later became an ally of Georgia against two shared enemies—the Alans, who lived on the northern slopes of the Greater Caucasus, and the Shaddadids—beginning as early as the reign of George I’s successor, Bagrat IV.
Why, then, did George I deprive his kingdom of a third of its territory when Kvirike considered himself an ally of the same culture and faith? The true reason remains uncertain. However, historian Nodar Assatiani proposed a theory that may explain the Kakhetian–Georgian affair: either the young Georgian king reached an agreement with the Kakhetian nobility and took advantage of Kakheti’s diplomatic isolation to ally himself with Alaverdi, or George I voluntarily granted the region to Kvirike III in order to avoid a Byzantine invasion and the devastation of that area.
Georgia's regional power
When Bagrat III died in 1014, Georgia could rightly be considered the leading power of the Caucasus. Few others could lay claim to that title. To the north, nearly all the nomadic tribes and peoples who once sought to form “countries” had already fallen under the suzerainty of the first ruler of unified Georgia, though some groups—such as the Alans—remained de facto beyond the jurisdiction of Georgia. To the east, as previously mentioned, neither the Kingdom of Kakheti-Hereti nor the Emirate of Ganja—still paying tribute at the time—posed a threat to Georgia; one was regarded as an ally, the other a vassal. In the south, only the Kingdom of Armenia matched Georgia’s military strength.
King Gagik I Shahanshah had ruled the Armenian kingdom since 989. Both Armenian and foreign chronicles describe him as a strong and powerful monarch in the region, comparable in prestige to David Kuropalates. However, he died nearly thirty years later, in 1020, believing he had left behind a firmly established realm for his descendants. His eldest son and designated heir, Hovhannes-Smbat III, proved far less capable than his father,Aristakes Lastivertsi, Concerning the Armenian Kingdom. provoking the anger of his younger brother Ashot, known as the Valiant. Ashot rebelled and, without extensive warfare, succeeded in carving out an independent principality in northeastern Armenia in 1021. Senekerim-Hovhannes, King of Vaspurakan, cleverly positioned himself as mediator between the two brothers to prevent a civil war that could invite Byzantine intervention. Yet no lasting resolution emerged, and he remained the most prominent figure in Armenia.
At this point, George I of Georgia entered the scene. Replacing Senekerim-Hovhannes as arbiter, he proposed a genuine settlement: dividing the lands of Gagik I, he granted the region of Ani to Hovhannes-Smbat III, while Ashot received the territories situated between Georgia and the Abbasid Caliphate.Aristakes Lastivertsi, Concerning the Armenian Kingdom. However, a minor incident soon broke the agreement. According to Aristakes Lastivertsi, Ashot became enraged upon learning that his brother, on his journey to Ani, had stopped overnight at Chatik—territory belonging to Ashot. He sent envoys to George I, who decided to “come to his aid”.Aristakes Lastivertsi, Concerning the Armenian Kingdom.
The Georgian king marched to Ani, encountered no resistance, seized the city, and plundered and destroyed it. Subsequently, nobles loyal to Gagik I’s legitimate successor defected and handed Hovhannes-Smbat over to George, who released him in exchange for several fortresses and Ani’s formal vassalage.Marie-Félicité Brosset, History of Georgia: Additions and Clarifications, Additions XI: "Accounts of Georgian Authors on the Reign of George I". Georgia now stood as the foremost power in the Caucasus. Yet this was not enough for George: he sought not only titles, but new lands. Having apparently recovered from the earlier loss of eastern Georgia, he was ready to confront a far greater adversary.
War with the Byzantine Empire
Still young and proud of his early achievements, George I decided to rekindle the old tensions between his kingdom and the Byzantine Empire, which had pursued imperialist ambitions in the Caucasus region since at least the reign of Justinian (527–565). Considering himself the true successor of those who sought to unite the Georgian lands, the loss of Kakheti and Hereti drove him to seek new territories in the southwest. He set his sights on Tao, the former Kingdom of the Iberians and hereditary domain of the early Bagrationi dynasty. This region had been bequeathed by testament to Emperor Basil II by David III Kurapalates as a form of punishment for the latter’s support of the rebel Bardas Phokas; part of it had later been granted by Byzantine to Bagrat III.
Since the year 1000, Basil II had been fully engaged in a long and brutal war against the Bulgarians—earning him the epithet Bulgar Slayer—and thus had little time to concern himself with Georgia. Taking advantage of this, George I invaded the disputed territory for the first time in 1015 or 1016, without provoking an immediate military response from the emperor. However, Aristakes Lastivertsi reports a written exchange between Basil and the Georgian monarch, in which the emperor declared:Following this defiance, Basil II personally intervened despite his ongoing difficulties in Bulgaria. Yet the renewed alliance between Georgia and Byzantium’s principal rival, the Fatimid Caliphate—against which Basil had waged war between 992 and 995—initially repelled the Greek forces.
By 1018, however, Bulgaria had been completely subdued by Byzantine arms: Tsar Presian II was deposed, and his kingdom was made a province of the Byzantine Empire.John Skylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, 203. Soon after, the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah died and was succeeded by his inexperienced son, Ali az-Zahir, who proved too weak to maintain any focus on Georgian affairs. Left isolated on the international stage, George I now faced the full might of the Byzantine army.
The two forces met on the plains of Basiani, in Tao. George retreated, burning the town of Oltisi to block the Greek advance, but was overtaken at Kola. Nearby, at the village of Shirimni, the Georgian rearguard was attacked by the Byzantine vanguard, leading to a fierce battle on 11 September 1021. The engagement was narrowly won by Basil II’s troops, with the emperor himself present on the battlefield, though many of Georgia’s greatest generals perished.Marie-Félicité Brosset, History of Georgia: Additions and Clarifications, Additions XI.
The Georgian army hastily withdrew toward Samtskhe, pursued by the Byzantines, who ravaged Javakheti and set fire to the city of Artaani.