The Georgian civil war of 1463–1490 () was a military conflict that took place within the Kingdom of Georgia during the second half of the 15th century. Beginning under the reign of George VIII, the conflict continued through the rules of Bagrat VI and Constantine II, spreading across the entire country. Major engagements occurred in Abkhazia, Svaneti, Imereti, Samtskhe, Kartli, Mingrelia, and Kakheti.
The war began in the 1460s, following separatist uprisings in the northern principality of Samtskhe, and soon evolved into a broader civil conflict between the central government in Tbilisi and rival royal claimants in Imereti and Kakheti. Over the course of three decades, Georgia became impoverished and politically fragmented. In 1490, peace was finally concluded with the formal partition of the Georgian Kingdom into four independent states, bringing an end to the unified Georgian monarchy that had existed since the 11th century.
The conflict took place amid profound geopolitical changes across the Near East. The fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 and the collapse of the Empire of Trebizond in 1461 marked the ascendance of the Ottoman Empire as a dominant regional power. At the same time, Turkoman tribes sought to exploit Georgia's internal divisions to advance their own expansionist ambitions and facilitate the eventual conquest of the region.
Background
External situation At the beginning of the second half of the 15th century, the Kingdom of Georgia remained the dominant power in the Caucasus, following a cultural and political revival under the reign of Alexander I, known as the Great (). Nevertheless, the kingdom continued to suffer from the devastation that had begun two centuries earlier with the first Mongol invasions and was later intensified by the campaigns of Timur during the 1400s.
By this time, Georgia's geopolitical environment had changed significantly from its Golden Age in the 13th century. The surrounding regional powers were consolidating, forming new and more formidable threats. In particular, the Turkoman tribes of Persia had united under the Qara Qoyunlu federation, an empire that began to plunder Georgian lands in the 1410s.
In 1453, the Ottoman Empire, based in Anatolia, captured Constantinople, bringing an end to the Byzantine Empire—the traditional seat of Orthodox Christianity since the 4th century. This was followed by the Ottoman conquest of Trebizond in 1461, which further isolated Georgia from the Christian world. As the last remaining Christian kingdom in the Near East, Georgia's nobility briefly united in an effort to persuade the powers of Western Europe to undertake a new crusade. The initiative, however, quickly collapsed, as European leaders refused to regard the Ottomans as a significant threat, leaving Georgia exposed to pressure from the Turkoman powers of Persia.
The decline of international trade, the loss of Georgia's cultural and political allies, and the growing instability at the foot of the Caucasus plunged the country into poverty and turmoil—conditions that provided fertile ground for ambitious nobles seeking to expand their authority at the expense of the monarchy.
Division of Georgia In an effort to preserve the authority of the central government over the kingdom's provinces, Alexander I appointed his three sons—Vakhtang, Demetrius, and George—as co-kings in 1433, following the old Byzantine custom of naming heirs as co-emperors. The three rulers shared the administration of the country: Demetrius was placed in charge of western Georgia, while his brother George governed Kakheti on behalf of Tbilisi.
This arrangement, however, proved short-lived. In 1442, Alexander I abdicated and retired to a monastery, leaving the main crown to his eldest son, Vakhtang IV. His four-year reign was characterized by the growing influence of powerful nobles who secured autonomy after threatening the fragile civil peace. Vakhtang died without an heir in 1446, leaving the throne to his two younger brothers, who had to share a divided kingdom. Demetrius III, legitimate successor of Vakhtang IV, receives the western Georgia, while George VIII becomes the king of Kakheti and Kartli, before controlling the entire kingdom after the death of Demetrius in 1453.
In the west, the authority of Tbilisi steadily declined throughout the 15th century. The duchies of Svaneti, Abkhazia, and Guria, along with Mingrelia—on which they depended—grew increasingly autonomous despite the central government's attempts to regain control of the Black Sea coast. In 1401, the Kingdom of Western Georgia was invaded and annexed by King George VII. In 1414, King Alexander I created the Duchy of Samokalako in order to secure the allegiance of the heirs of the secessionist state, but this arrangement was not confirmed by Bagrat, who became Duke of Samokalako in 1455.
The northern principality of Samtskhe, ruled by the House of Jaqeli, was the first to officially withdraw from the Georgian union upon the accession of Prince Qvarqvare II in 1451. The latter proclaimed the religious independence of his state by confiscating the buildings of the Patriarchate of Georgia, prohibiting any mention of the Georgian king and patriarch in churches under his jurisdiction and replaces members of the Georgian clergy with priests from Greece or Antioch. This split was only temporary and a severe response from the Catholicosate of Georgia forced Qvarqvare II to renounce these ambitions.
Civil wars
Western revolt Modern historiography partially ignores the origins of the rebellion in western Georgia which marked the start of the Civil War. According to historians Nodar Asatiani, Kalistrat Salia, and Donald Rayfield, the first signs of disagreement between King George VIII and his vassals appeared in the early 1460s, when Prince Qvarqvare II of Samtskhe sought to form a coalition against the Ottoman Empire—an emerging power since the fall of Constantinople but still too distant from central Georgia to pose an immediate threat to the crown in Tbilisi. Qvarqvare II allied himself with Uzun Hasan, ruler of the Turkoman federation of the Aq Qoyunlu and an occasional enemy of George VIII, in an attempt to resist the Ottomans. This alliance, however, failed to prevent the fall of the last Byzantine stronghold, Trebizond, in 1461, and Uzun Hasan soon proved a dangerous ally by launching a military raid into Samtskhe, killing Orthodox priests, devastating several villages, and defeating the royal troops of George VIII.
Despite the failure of this alliance, relations between Tbilisi and Samtskhe never recovered. The Duchy of Samokalako, which had supported the anti-Ottoman coalition, was abolished by the central government, an act that effectively triggered open conflict. However, according to French historian Marie-Félicité Brosset and Prince Vakhushti of Kartli, the revolt that began in 1463 had deeper, hidden causes. They attribute it to Qvarqvare II—then a close ally of George VIII—who exploited the royal ambitions of the young Duke Bagrat of Samokalako to advance his own political goals. Bagrat, a member of the royal Bagrationi dynasty and cousin of George VIII, had governed Imereti on behalf of the king since 1455, but his rebellion took the monarch by surprise.
With the backing of Samtskhe, Bagrat forged alliances with the powerful Liparit I of Mingrelia and Mamia Gurieli, as well as with the rulers of Abkhazia and Svaneti. Supported by these forces, he successfully captured fortresses loyal to George VIII throughout western Georgia and secured the allegiance of many minor nobles, including some in Kartli, the region surrounding Tbilisi. In 1463 (or 1462), George VIII led his royal army across the Likhi Range into Imereti, reportedly seeking military assistance from Samtskhe. Qvarqvare II would lead a military legion in Imereti but would remain strategically out of the conflict. The royal army clashed with Bagrat's rebel forces near the village of Chikhori, east of Kutaisi, where Bagrat achieved a decisive victory, forcing George VIII to retreat to Kartli.
Although Kutaisi, the regional capital, remained temporarily under George VIII's control, Bagrat soon captured the city. At the Monastery of Gelati, he was crowned King of Imereti, taking the title of Bagrat II, officially separating the regions west of Likhi Range from the rest of the Georgian kingdom. The dukes of Mingrelia, Guria, Abkhazia, and Svaneti attended the coronation, pledging allegiance to the new monarch, who in turn elevated them to the rank of Mtavari (“prince”), exempting them from fiscal obligations. This arrangement transformed Western Georgia into a loose federation of semi-independent principalities—a political structure that would continue to weaken the region over the following centuries.
Domination of Samtskhe The region of Samtskhe greatly benefited from the civil war dividing eastern and western Georgia, evolving into a semi-independent principality under the rule of Prince Qvarqvare II Jaqeli. During this period, he began to assume the title of mepe (“king”) and established his own mint in the capital, Akhaltsikhe. In an attempt to curb his growing power, King George VIII invaded Samtskhe in 1463 and succeeded in defeating Qvarqvare II after several of the prince's vassals defected to support the Georgian monarch.
Following his defeat, Qvarqvare II sought refuge with Bagrat II, the newly crowned king of Imereti. Bagrat permitted the deposed prince to mobilize his forces, and an Imeretian army soon recaptured Samtskhe from George VIII later that same year. Restored to power in Akhaltsikhe, Qvarqvare II took revenge on the vassals who had sided with the central government during the invasion. With Bagrat II's approval, he formed an alliance with Prince Kakhaber II of Guria. Supported by mercenaries from Imereti and Guria, Qvarqvare II launched a campaign through Samtskhe and the northern province of Klarjeti, forcing the submission of local fortresses. While some nobles pledged loyalty to him, many were executed, and others fled into exile—including Zaza Panaskerteli-Tsitsishvili, who later became an advisor to King George VIII. As a reward for his assistance, Kakhaber of Guria received the territories of Adjara and Chaneti.
In 1465, George VIII undertook a new invasion of Samtskhe. Holding the military advantage, he offered Qvarqvare II a peace settlement that would guarantee the survival of the Jaqeli family in exchange for the reintegration of the rebel territories into the Georgian kingdom. When Qvarqvare refused, George VIII inflicted another defeat upon him at the Battle of Lake Paravani. However, in the aftermath, the prince's guards managed to rally, defeat the royal entourage, and capture the king himself.
With George VIII taken prisoner, command of the Georgian forces fell to Prince Constantine, the king's nephew, who was particularly incensed by Samtskhe's betrayal. Constantine ordered a general retreat of Georgian troops, who were pursued by Qvarqvare's army as far as the central province of Kartli. Besieged in Gori, Constantine and his remaining forces were eventually forced to abandon central Georgia and retreat to Kutaisi, the Imeretian capital then contested between Bagrat II and the royalist forces of George VIII.
Rise of a New Royal Power Following the defeat of the Tbilisi loyalist forces, Bagrat II took advantage of the ensuing power vacuum to advance his ambitions. While Prince Constantine and the remnants of the royal army retreated into the Likhi Range, the Imeretian monarch left Imereti and launched an invasion of central Georgia.