Konstantine Dadeshkeliani (Georgian

Georgian language

Georgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 4 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad...

: კონსტანტინე (მურზაყან) ციოყის ძე დადიშქელიანი , born 1826– died 1857) was the last prince (mtavari

Mtavari

Mtavari was a feudal title in Georgia usually translated in English as prince.The earliest instances of the use of mtavari are in the early Georgian hagiographic texts dated to the 5th century. From the 11th to the 14th centuries, the title mtavari, along with tavadi, was synonymous with eristavi,...

) of the western Georgian

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...

 mountainous region of Svaneti

Principality of Svaneti

The Principality of Svaneti was a small principality in the Greater Caucasus mountains that emerged following the breakup of the Kingdom of Georgia in the late 15th century...

 from 1841 to 1857.

The eldest son of Prince Mikheil (Tsiok) Dadeshkeliani, he succeeded on his father’s death in September 1841. He ruled under the regency of his grandmother Digorkhan, who died in an armed conflict between the two branches of Dadeshkeliani 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 :...

 in 1843.

Konstantine assumed full ruling powers in 1846. He remained a nominal vassal of the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

, but was effectively independent. Continuing dynastic strife among the Dadishkeliani, their defiance to the Russian government, and vacillation during the Crimean War

Crimean War

The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

 (1854-1856), however, led to direct Russian intervention. In 1857, Prince Alexander Baryatinsky, Viceroy of the Caucasus

Viceroyalty of the Caucasus

The Viceroyalty of the Caucasus is a term used to denote the Imperial Russian administrative and political authority in the Caucasus region exercised through the offices of glavnoupravlyayushchiy and namestnik...

, ordered Svaneti to be subdued by armed force. Konstantine chose to negotiate, but was deposed on September 11, 1857, and ordered into exile to Erivan. On a farewell audience in Kutaisi

Kutaisi

Kutaisi is Georgia's second largest city and the capital of the western region of Imereti. It is 221 km to the west of Tbilisi.-Geography:...

 on October 27, 1857, he quarreled with a local Russian administrator, Alexander Gagarin

Alexander Gagarin

Prince Alexander Ivanovich Gagarin was a Russian general and nobleman of Rurikid ancestry who was involved in the Caucasian and Crimean wars. In 1857, he served as a governor-general of Kutaisi and was killed by Constantine Dadeshkeliani, the deposed Prince of Svanetia, during a quarrel at...

, and stubbed to death him and three of his staff. When captured, Konstantine was summarily tried by court martial and shot on.