The Kingdom of Western Georgia () was a late medieval de facto independent fragmented partRayfield, p. 131Brosset (1856) p. 2 of the Kingdom of Georgia that emerged during the Mongol invasions of the realm, led by King David VI Narin in 1259Rayfield, p. 129Brosset (1849) p. 546 and later followed by his successors. During this period, the kingdom was reduced to the eastern part of the country and placed under Mongol control. Over the decades, the monarchy would fall into chaos and transform into a federation of autonomous principalities unruly of the central or regional royal power and authority.
Most of the occasions, realm would be reannexed into unified fold by the eastern Georgian kings. Nevertheless, the unified Georgian realm would de jure collapse in 1490,Rayfield, p. 162 and western Georgia would secure an independent future under the name of Kingdom of Imereti, that would exist until 1810.Rayfield, p. 271
Name of the realm The question of the contemporaneous name of the realm between 1259 and the early 1400s remains without a concrete answer because from the end of the 15th century, Western Georgia extended from the modern-day city of Sochi in the northDubois de Montpéreux, pp. 93-165 to Trebizond in the south and the Likhi Range in the east. The chronology of the adoption of this name for this state is not clear and it is plausible that some monarchs before 1490Rayfield, p. 164 fragmentation would style themselves as "Kings of Imereti"; however, it may well be an anachronism and that an actual change of the title would happen much later.Rayfield, p. 273
Indeed, upon 1259 independence pushed by King David VI Narin, he would continue to be styled as David VI, king of united Georgia. Modern historians, such as the former head of the historical department of the Tbilisi State University, Professor Nodar Asatiani, justifies the naming of the realm as the Kingdom of Western Georgia until the 15th century, demonstrating that the rulers of that fragmented state considered themselves a legitimate line of the Georgian kings who protected the Georgian nation during the Muslim invasions and were fiercely fighting for the unity.Brosset (1849) p. 545 French historian Marie-Félicité Brosset also attributes the creation of the distinctive kingdom of Imereti under that name to the first coronation of King Bagrat VI in 1463.Brosset (1856) p. 210
History
Uprising against the Mongols and early years
From the 1220s onward, the Kingdom of Georgia faced repeated Mongol invasions led by Genghis Khan and, later, by his successors, the Ilkhanids. In 1245, the young David VI was recognized as king of Georgia by the Mongol state. The same title was granted to his cousin, David VII, in 1248, effectively dividing the Georgian kingdom between the two cousins. For nearly a decade, they ruled jointly across the country under Mongol domination. During this period, the Mongols frequently levied Georgian troops for their wars, particularly against the Isma'ilis (Assassins). This caused great discontent among the Georgian nobility, as their army was usually positioned in the forefront of the battlefield and suffered the greatest losses. Moreover, the Mongol overlords began to impose heavy taxes on the populations of the Caucasus provoked widespread popular unrest, particularly in Shirvan.
In 1259, David VI—known by the Ilkhanid authorities as Narin (“the Younger” in Mongol)—rebelled against his suzerain, without drawing his royal colleague into the revolt. The Ilkhanid Empire swiftly suppressed the uprising after several short but bloody engagements. David VI nevertheless managed to escape secretly to western Georgia via Armenia. Upon arriving in Kutaisi, one of the principal cities of western Georgia, he proclaimed the secession of the territories west of the Likhi Range and was recognized by the local nobility as king of western Georgia.
Western Georgia thus emerged as an independent kingdom, seeking to preserve Georgian culture outside the Mongol sphere of influence. At the time, the Ilkhanate was preoccupied with its military campaigns in Syria against certain Crusader states and the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. As a result, it refrained from direct intervention in western Georgia and instead increased the tributes imposed on eastern Georgia to compensate for the loss of tax revenues from some of the wealthiest Georgian provinces.
The kingdom founded by David VI included several powerful duchies controlling key ports on the Black Sea, notably Guria, Mingrelia, and Abkhazia, which encompassed the cities of Batumi, Poti, and Sebastopolis. To the north, the kingdom controlled the duchies of Svaneti and Racha, thereby securing the Caucasus Mountains against the Golden Horde. This geopolitical position enabled the new government in Kutaisi to maintain important commercial routes with the Western world, particularly through Genoese merchants based in Abkhazia and through the Greek Empire of Trebizond. These conditions encouraged significant immigration of Georgian nobles and merchants from eastern Georgia. David VI even offered refuge to his cousin David VII Ulu and briefly shared the throne with him when the latter rebelled against Mongol rule in 1261. This arrangement proved short-lived, however, as the two rulers failed to cooperate effectively in defending western Georgia, leading to David Ulu’s return to Tbilisi by 1262.
While eastern Georgia was forced to contribute heavily to Ilkhanid military campaigns, the government in Kutaisi experienced a period of relative prosperity. This stability allowed David VI to defend his kingdom successfully against the mercenaries of the Mongol rebel Tegüder, who sought refuge in western Georgia in 1269 after the failure of his revolt against Abaqa Khan. Throughout the 1270s, the kingdom faced repeated Mongol incursions, which eventually ceased after David VI agreed to pay tribute. These conflicts nonetheless enabled the central government to abolish the rebellious duchy of Racha and annex it to the royal domain in 1278.
Civil war and first fall
The period of prosperity in western Georgia proved short-lived. As early as 1285, Kutaisi lost its influence over the Empire of Trebizond, which realigned its foreign policy toward the Byzantine Empire, despite a Georgian attempt to invade the empire and depose Emperor John II. In 1289, the Ilkhanid authorities sought to reunify Georgia in order to assert direct control over the entire country, appointing Vakhtang II, the eldest son and heir of David VI, as king of eastern Georgia. This plan failed following Vakhtang II’s death in 1292. David VI himself died shortly thereafter, leaving the throne of his western kingdom to Constantine I in 1293.
Western Georgia then descended into civil war following the rebellion of Prince Michael, the younger brother of Constantine I. Michael succeeded in taking control of the eastern regions of the kingdom, including Argveti, Racha, and Lechkhumi. Despite repeated attempts at reconciliation by the feudal elites of Kutaisi, the two brothers never reached an agreement. Michael was even crowned as a rival king and ultimately obtained the throne after Constantine’s death in 1327.
This internal turmoil enabled the great nobles of western Georgia to consolidate power and detach themselves from royal authority. During the conflict, the dukes of Guria, Mingrelia, and Svaneti raised their own armies, marking the beginning of a prolonged fragmentation of the region that would persist until the Russian invasion of 1810. Although King Michael attempted to reunify the royal forces, he largely failed to do so. Upon his death in 1329, the throne passed to his only son, Bagrat I.
Bagrat, known by the epithet Mtsire (“the Little”), was still a minor at the time of his accession. The absence of a regent allowed disorder to spread among the noble classes of western Georgia. In 1330, George V of Georgia, then engaged in consolidating the Georgian kingdom after expelling the Mongols from his territories, took advantage of the chaos in Kutaisi. Allied with the powerful Black Sea feudal lords, he besieged Kutaisi, captured Bagrat I, and annexed the kingdom. The Kingdom of western Georgia thus ceased to exist, seventy-one years after its foundation. Bagrat Mtsire was granted the duchy of Shorapani as an appanage, a frontier region between Imereti and eastern Georgia.
First war of independence In 1372, Alexander, son of the last king Bagrat, inherited the Duchy of Shorapani. He rapidly emerged as one of the most powerful regional nobles and retained this status until the outbreak of the catastrophic events at the end of the century. In 1386, the Muslim armies of Timur invaded northern Georgia, devastating the country, capturing Tbilisi in November, and forcing King Bagrat V to convert to Islam, while the royal court took refuge in Imereti. Timur entrusted Bagrat V with a large Mongol army to subjugate the more remote regions of the kingdom, including the Duchy of Shorapani. When the Georgian king betrayed his suzerain and massacred this force, Timur was compelled to invade Georgia once again.
Alexander of Shorapani exploited the chaos in eastern Georgia to proclaim himself king of western Georgia and declared secession in 1387. He was crowned as Alexander I at the Gelati Monastery. This proclamation immediately proved contentious. The city of Kutaisi remained in the hands of loyalists to Bagrat V, while the duchies of Mingrelia, Svaneti, Abkhazia, and Guria refused to recognize the sovereignty of the new monarch. A civil war ensued, forcing Alexander I to seize several fortresses across Imereti by force, before his death in 1389.
George I succeeded his brother’s claims and was in turn crowned king, continuing the civil war and managing to capture several additional fortresses. In 1390, he succeeded in installing his protégé Arsen as Catholicos of Abkhazia, the highest religious authority in western Georgia, thereby initiating a religious schism within the Georgian Orthodox community between east and west.
This success was short-lived. In 1392, George I was killed during a military campaign aimed at subduing Vameq Dadiani, Duke of Mingrelia. With no designated successor, the crown of western Georgia once again fell into disorder. This situation enabled King George VII of Georgia to ally with the major western feudal lords and invade the rebellious territories. After a brief existence of five years, the Kingdom of western Georgia was once again annexed by Tbilisi, while the surviving members of the rebel family fled into the mountains of North Caucasus.
Second war of independence
For four years, the western province of Imereti was reintegrated into the domains of the crown of Tbilisi, leading to the large-scale mobilization of Imeretians in the wars waged by George VII of Georgia against Timur. As the region had been depopulated, its citadels deprived of effective military defenses, and the Duke of Mingrelia died in 1396, Constantine took advantage of the situation to organize a new revolt against the central government. Constantine was the younger brother of the claimants Alexander I and George I and had gone into exile in Ossetia after the conquest of 1392.
Encountering little resistance, the new rebel seized numerous fortresses and had himself crowned as Constantine II, but failed to secure the support of the major feudal lords of the region. After demanding the vassalage of the dukes of Svaneti, Mingrelia, and Guria, he entered into war against Mamia II of Mingrelia, but was killed at the Battle of Chaliani in 1401. His nephew, Demetrius, became the heir to the rebel crown, but his young age prevented him from resisting George VII of Georgia, who took advantage of a temporary ceasefire with Timur to invade western Georgia and once again put an end to the separatist kingdom.