Kingdom of Imereti
Kingdom of Imereti, a Georgian feudal state in the 15th–19th centuries. It emerged as a result of the political disintegration of the Georgian feudal monarchy. This process began following the establishment of Mongol rule in Georgia (1230s) and concluded in the second half of the 15th century. In the second half of the 13th century, David VI Narin was the de facto King of Imereti. The principalities of Odishi and Guria, initially included in the Kingdom of Imereti, formed into separate political entities in the mid-16th century. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Principality of Abkhazia broke away from the Kingdom of Imereti, followed later by Svaneti. Thereafter, its territory was restricted strictly to Imereti and Racha. Lechkhumi was held alternately by the King of Imereti and the Princes of Odishi.
In the 17th century, the Kingdom of Imereti was capable of fielding 40,000 warriors. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the kingdom had a population of approximately 120,000. As in Georgia as a whole, feudal-serfdom relations prevailed in the Kingdom of Imereti. There existed a number of noble fiefdoms, which had acquired tax, administrative, and partial judicial immunity, representing territorially and politically distinct feudal entities. In the mid-18th century, there were up to 100 Tavadi (princes) in the Kingdom of Imereti. They were vassals of the king or the crown prince; however, the princes, especially the grand nobles, aspired towards sovereignty, leading to an incessant struggle between them and the King of Imereti.
At the head of the Kingdom of Imereti stood the King. He was the supreme ruler of the country, descending from the western branch (the David Narin branch) of the Bagrationi dynasty. Formally, the king possessed unlimited rights, but in reality, his authority depended heavily on the will and desires of the prominent princes. The capital city of the Kingdom of Imereti was Kutaisi, where the king's primary residence was situated. At the royal court, there existed a "Darbazi," or State Council, which comprised high-ranking secular and ecclesiastical feudal lords. The administrative structure of the Kingdom of Imereti was modeled similarly to those of the Kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti. Between 1651 and 1661, the Kingdom of Imereti was divided into four military-territorial units—sadrosho, or military districts: Racha, Argveti (Upper Imereti), Vake, and Okriba-Lechkhumi. The office of the commander, like other offices, was held hereditarily by specific noble families: the "Upper Country" (Upper Imereti) by the Tseretelis, Vake (Lower Imereti) by the Tsulukidzes, Okriba-Lechkhumi by the Agiashvilis, and Racha by the Eristavis of Racha.
The king was the largest feudal lord in the Kingdom of Imereti, and his domain was distributed across various parts of the country. During the reign of Solomon II (1789–1810), the royal domain consisted of 26 samouravo (districts). Each district was governed by the king's own mouravi (governor). Among the high-ranking secular officials, the foremost position was occupied by the sakhltukhutsesi (grand vizier).
The highest ecclesiastical authority of the Kingdom of Imereti was the Catholicos-Patriarch of Western Georgia, who was frequently titled the "Catholicos of the North and Abkhazia," "of the Abkhazians and Imeretians," or "of Pontus, Northern Abkhazia-Imereti, and all of Lower Iberia." In the second half of the 16th century, his residence was in Bichvinta, and later in Gelati. Here, the Catholicos held the Church of St. George, which was considered the Catholicate church. Both the ecclesiastical servants of the Kingdom of Imereti and those of the principalities of Western Georgia submitted to the authority of the Catholicos. Despite the country's political fragmentation, authority in the ecclesiastical sphere was more or less centralized. There were four episcopal sees in the Kingdom of Imereti: Kutaisi, Gelati, Khoni, and Nikortsminda. The monasteries of Gelati, Jruchi, and Mghvimevi, alongside numerous other churches and monasteries, were also located here.
By the 1555 Peace of Amasya between Iran and the Ottoman Empire, the principalities of Guria and Odishi, along with the western part of Samtskhe-Saatabago, were ceded to the Ottomans. Consequently, throughout the 16th to 18th centuries, the Kingdom of Imereti became a constant target of Ottoman aggression. From the first half of the 17th century, Imereti paid an annual tribute to the Ottoman Empire, and in the 1660s, an Ottoman garrison was stationed in Kutaisi. The King of Imereti was harassed by the Princes of Odishi and Guria, and even his own powerful nobles rebelled against him. The relationship between the King of Imereti and Levan II Dadiani became particularly aggravated. Dadiani relentlessly attacked the Kingdom of Imereti. In the 1630s, he captured King George III of Imereti, and as the price for his release, he received from the heir apparent the territory on the left bank of the Tskhenistsqali River—Sachilao-Samikelao, numerous gold and silver vessels and weapons, as well as precious gems. Now dominant on the left bank of the Tskhenistsqali River, Dadiani raided throughout Lower Imereti more freely, practically annexing this territory up to Kutaisi. Dadiani's tyranny forced King Alexander III of Imereti (1639–1660) to appeal to the Russian sovereign for assistance. In 1649, he dispatched an envoy to Russia, requesting the Russian Tsar, Alexei Mikhailovich, to take him under his protection and send Don Cossacks against the Prince of Odishi. In 1650, the Russian government sent a reciprocal embassy to Imereti led by Nikifor Tolchanov and Alexei Yevlev. Alexander III and his nobles swore an oath of vassal loyalty to the Russian sovereign, but this embassy yielded no practical results. Following the death of Levan II Dadiani, the affairs of the Principality of Odishi fell into disarray. King Alexander III of Imereti capitalized on this circumstance, invaded Odishi, conquered the "eastern portion" up to Mount Unagira, and established Mount Unagira instead of the Tskhenistsqali River as the border between Imereti and Odishi.
After the death of Alexander III (1660), the Kingdom of Imereti was engulfed by feudal anarchy. Royal authority weakened. Bagrat IV was deposed from the throne three times, a fate shared by other kings of Imereti. The situation in the Kingdom of Imereti created favorable conditions for the intensification of Ottoman aggression. In 1752, when Solomon I ascended the throne, the significant fortresses of the Kingdom of Imereti (Kutaisi, Shorapani, Tsutskhvati, Baghdati) were held by the Ottomans. Within the kingdom, Levan Abashidze, the Prince of Argveti, and the Eristavis of Racha violently championed separatism. They were backed by the Ottoman Empire, which eagerly provided refuge and auxiliary forces to the nobles fighting against the King of Imereti. The Ottomans deliberately pitted members of the royal house or powerful nobles against the king, thereby further weakening the central authority.
The domestic and foreign situation of the Kingdom of Imereti relatively improved during the reign of Solomon I (1752–1784). Solomon I vigorously combated Ottoman aggression from the outside and feudal reaction from within. The king subjugated the Abashidze princes, abolished the Duchy of Racha, and suppressed the slave trade, which threatened the country with depopulation. Solomon defeated the Turkish interventionists and, by the end of the 1760s, liberated the Imeretian fortresses (Tsutskhvati, Shorapani, Baghdati, Kutaisi) from their control. Solomon was greatly aided in this by the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 and the entry of a Russian military corps into the Kingdom of Imereti under the command of General Totleben. These facilitated the consolidation of royal power. The country embarked on a path of revival, but the threat of Ottoman aggression persisted. The princes of Guria and Odishi also refused to subordinate to the king. Solomon I tried to permanently free Imereti from Ottoman suzerainty, subjugate the princes, and create the necessary conditions for the country's subsequent development. In 1774 (as earlier in 1768), Solomon I appealed to Russia for assistance and asked to be taken under its protection. However, at that time, Russia did not want to violate the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca and complicate its relations with the Ottoman Empire.
Following the conclusion of the Treaty of Georgievsk between Russia and the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti in 1783, Solomon I attempted to sign a similar treaty with Russia that same year, but his efforts did not bring any results. After the death of Solomon I, the strength of the central authority was once again shaken. A struggle erupted among the pretenders to the Imeretian throne. David II (son of George), who was crowned in 1784, was soon deposed by David, son of Archil, who crowned himself as Solomon II in 1789. The defeated David, son of George, continued the fight. It was only towards the end of the 18th century that Solomon II was finally able to consolidate the kingdom. However, his relationship with Grigol Dadiani, the Prince of Odishi, deteriorated. The Turks also relentlessly raided the border territories of the Kingdom of Imereti. The Russian government exploited the feud between Dadiani and the King of Imereti, utilizing it for its own interests and assisting Dadiani to this end.
In 1801, following the abolition of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, Russian military officials began laying the foundation for the abolition of the Kingdom of Imereti. Finding himself in this predicament, Solomon II acknowledged Russian suzerainty on April 25, 1804, in order to preserve his authority. Under the Elaznauri Agreement, the terms of which were dictated by Russia, the King of Imereti was required to submit to Russia in all matters. Solomon, however, demanded the preservation of domestic independence and the status of a vassal to the Russian Emperor. Relations between the King of Imereti and the local officials of tsarism gradually worsened. Solomon could not reconcile with the loss of independence and continued to fight to preserve it; however, in 1810, the Russian autocracy abolished the Kingdom of Imereti and established its own administration there.
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O. Soselia
