George II (c. 1054–1112), of the Bagrationi Dynasty

Bagrationi Dynasty

The Bagrationi dynasty was the ruling family of Georgia. Their ascendency lasted from the early Middle Ages until the early 19th century. In modern usage, this royal line is frequently referred to as the Georgian Bagratids, a Hellenized form of their dynastic name.The origin of the Bagrationi...

, was a king of Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 from 1072 to 1089. He was a son and successor of Bagrat IV

Bagrat IV of Georgia

Bagrat IV , of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the King of Georgia from 1027 to 1072. During his long and eventful reign, Bagrat sought to repress the great nobility and to secure Georgia's sovereignty from the Byzantine and Seljuqid empires...

 and his wife Borena of Alania

Borena of Alania

Borena was a sister of the Alan king Durgulel "the Great", and the Queen consort of Georgia, as the second wife of Bagrat IV .The medieval Georgian historical tradition exposes little information about Borena. Bagrat married her, in the early 1030s, after the death of his first wife, Helene...

. Unable to deal effectively with the constant Seljuk Turkish attacks and overwhelmed by internal problems in his kingdom, George was forced to abdicate in favor of his energetic son, David IV

David IV of Georgia

David IV "the Builder", also known as David II , of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a king of Georgia from 1089 until his death in 1125....

, to whom he remained a nominal co-ruler until his death in 1112. He also held the high Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 titles of curopalates

Curopalates

Kouropalatēs, Latinized as curopalates or curopalata and Anglicized as curopalate, was a Byzantine court title, one of the highest from the time of Emperor Justinian I to that of the Komnenoi in the 12th century...

(c. 1060) and caesar

Caesar (title)

Caesar is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator...

(c. 1081).

Early reign

George’s childhood coincided with the civil war between his father, Bagrat IV (r. 1027–1072), and the rebellious Georgian feudal lord Liparit

Liparit IV, Duke of Kldekari

Liparit IV, sometimes known as Liparit III , was an 11th-century Georgian general and political figure who was at times the most valuable support of King Bagrat IV of Georgia and his most dangerous rival...

, who succeeded in temporary driving Bagrat into the Byzantine Empire, crowned George as king at the Ruisi Cathedral between 1050 and 1053, and declared himself a regent. By 1060, Bagrat IV had been able to secure the throne and made George his heir apparent to whom the Byzantine emperor attached the title of curopalates. In 1070, Prince George, at the head of a combined Georgian-Alan

Alania

Alania may refer to:*Alania, the medieval state of the Alans or Alani people in the North Caucasus*The short name of the modern North Ossetia-Alania, one of the Caucasian republics in the Russian Federation...

 army, inflicted a decisive defeat on the Shaddadid

Shaddadid

The Shaddadids were a Kurdish dynasty who ruled in various parts of Armenia and Arran from 951-1174 AD. They were established in Dvin. Through their long tenure in Armenia, they often intermarried with the Bagratuni royal family of Armenia....

 emir of Arran, Fadl II

Al Fadl II bin Shavur I

Al-Fadl II bin Shavur I succeeded his father to the Shaddadid throne....

, and ravaged his possessions at Ganja.

Seljuk invasions

George succeeded as King of Georgia upon the death of his father in 1072 and received the title of nobelissimos and later that of sebastos

Sebastos

Sebastos was an honorific used by the ancient Greeks to render the Roman imperial title of Augustus. From the late 11th century on, during the Komnenian period, it and variants derived from it formed the basis of a new system of court titles for the Byzantine Empire. The female form of the title...

from the Byzantine emperor. A year later, he faced a major aristocratic revolt led by Niania Kvabulis-dze, Ivane Liparitis-dze

Ivane I, Duke of Kldekari

Ivane I, Duke of Kldekari |John]]) was an 11th-century Georgian general and duke of Kldekari, Argveti, and Orbeti-Samshvilde of the House of Liparitid-Baguashi from 1059 to 1080/89....

, and Vardan of Svaneti

Svaneti

Svaneti is a historic province in Georgia, in the northwestern part of the country. It is inhabited by the Svans, a geographic subgroup of the Georgians.- Geography :...

. Although victorious, the king had to buy the rebels’ loyalty through generously awarding them additional estates. Soon, Georgia was attacked again by the Seljuk

Great Seljuq Empire

The Great Seljuq Empire was a medieval Persianate, Turko-Persian Sunni Muslim empire, originating from the Qynyq branch of Oghuz Turks. The Seljuq Empire controlled a vast area stretching from the Hindu Kush to eastern Anatolia and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf...

s, a nomadic Turkic people, who would prove to be a major menace to George II’s reign. Following the 1073 devastation of Kartli

Kartli

Kartli is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari , on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial role in ethnic and political consolidation of the Georgians in the Middle Ages...

 (central Georgia) by the Seljuk sultan

Sultan

Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...

 Alp Arslan

Alp Arslan

Alp Arslan was the third sultan of the Seljuq dynasty and great-grandson of Seljuk, the eponymous founder of the dynasty...

, George successfully repelled, in 1074, an invasion commanded a Turkish general left by the sultan in charge of the Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

. The king also secured the formal return of Upper Tao

Tao-Klarjeti

Tao-Klarjeti is the term conventionally used in modern history writing to describe the historic south-western Georgian principalities, now forming part of north-eastern Turkey and divided among the provinces of Erzurum, Artvin, Ardahan and Kars...

/Tayk

Tayk

Tayk was a historical province of the Greater Armenia, one of its 15 ashkars . Tayk consisted of 8 cantons:* Kogh* Berdats por* Partizats por* Tchakatk* Bokha* Vokaghe* Azordats por* Arsiats por....

 (Theme of Iberia

Theme of Iberia

The theme of Iberia was an administrative and military unit – theme – within the Byzantine Empire carved by the Byzantine Emperors out of several Armenian and Georgian lands in the 11th century...

), a frontier region which had been a bone of contention between Georgia and the Byzantine Empire early in the 11th century, by the Byzantine governor, Gregory Pakourianos

Gregory Pakourianos

Gregory Pakourianos was a politician and military commander in the Byzantine service. He was the founder of the Monastery of the Mother of God Petritzonitissa in Bachkovo and author of its typikon...

, who began to evacuate the region shortly after the 1071 disaster inflicted by the Seljuks on the Byzantine army at Manzikert

Battle of Manzikert

The Battle of Manzikert , was fought between the Byzantine Empire and Seljuq Turks led by Alp Arslan on August 26, 1071 near Manzikert...

. On this occasion, George was bestowed with the Byzantine title of Caesaros, granted the fortress of Kars

Kars

Kars is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. The population of the city is 73,826 as of 2010.-Etymology:As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography as part of ancient Armenia...

 and put in charge of the Imperial Eastern limits. This did not help to stem the Seljuk advance, however. In 1076, the Seljuk sultan Malik Shah I

Malik Shah I

Jalāl al-Dawlah Malik-shāh was born in 1055, succeeded Alp Arslan as the Seljuq Sultan in 1072, and reigned until his death in 1092....

 surged into Georgia and reduced many settlements to ruins. Harassed by the massive Turkic influx, known in Georgian history as didi turkoba, or the Great Turkish Invasions, from 1079/80 onward, George was pressured into submitting to Malik-Shah to ensure a precious degree of peace at the price of an annual tribute. George II was even able to garner the Seljuk military support in his campaign aimed at bringing the eastern Georgian kingdom of Kakheti

Kakheti

Kakheti is a historical province in Eastern Georgia inhabited by Kakhetians who speak a local dialect of Georgian. It is bordered by the small mountainous province of Tusheti and the Greater Caucasus mountain range to the north, Russian Federation to the Northeast, Azerbaijan to the Southeast, and...

, which had long resisted the Bagratid attempts of annexation, within a unified Georgian realm. However, tired with a protracted siege of the Kakhetian stronghold of Vezhini, George abandoned the campaign when snow fell, and headed for the Ajameti forests to ease his disappointment by hunting. The Seljuk auxiliaries also lifted the siege and plundered the fertile Iori Valley in Kakheti. Aghsartan I

Aghsartan I of Kakheti

Aghsartan I was a king of Kakheti in eastern Georgia from 1054 until his death in 1084.He succeeded on the death of his father Gagik of Kakheti. His reign coincided with the Seljuk invasions in the Georgian lands and persistent attempts by the Georgian Bagratid kings to bring all Georgian...

, king of Kakheti, went to the sultan to declare his submission, and in token of loyalty embraced Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

, thus winning a Seljuk protection against the aspirations of the Georgian crown.

Deposition

George II’s wavering character and incompetent political decisions coupled with the Seljuk yoke brought the Kingdom of Georgia into a profound crisis which climaxed in the aftermath of a disastrous earthquake that struck Georgia in 1088. In 1089, George handed over the crown to his vigorous sixteen-year old son David. This changeover is shrouded in mystery and is mentioned only in passing in the Georgian chronicles. All that is recorded is that George crowned his son as king with his own hands, after which he disappears from the chronicle. He was most probably forced by his nobles, in a palace coup masterminded by the powerful minister Bishop Giorgi Chkondideli, to abdicate in favor of David. George is mentioned in prayers dated to 1203 as "king of kings, and caesar of all the East and West", suggesting that he was still alive and given some titles by his reigning son, but exercised no real power.