Alexander of Georgia

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Prince Alexander of Georgia

Alexander (Georgian: ალექსანდრე, Alek'sandre) (1770 - c. 1844) was a Georgian prince (batonishvili) of the Bagrationi family who headed several insurrections against the Russian rule in Georgia between 1800 and 1832. He was known in Persia as Eskandar Mirza.

Alexander was a son of Heraclius II (Erekle), king of Kartli and Kakheti in eastern Georgia, by his third wife Darejan (Darya). He was educated by the Catholic missionaries at the court of his father. Following the devastating Persian invasion of 1795, 18-years-old Alexandre helped his father to restore the capital Tbilisi. After the death of Heraclius, he was in opposition to a new king, his half-brother, George XII (1798-1800), and his pro-Russian politics. Alexander, suspecting that the Russian presence in the country would eventually lead to annexation, was persuaded by the Persian shah Fath Ali Shah Qajar to leave Tbilisi and join his forces with the pro-Persian Dagestani warlord Omar Khan of Avary in 1799. His attempted incursion of Kakheti in 1800 was a failure however, and a combined Russo-Georgian force defeated him and his Avar allies at the Battle of Niakhura on November 7 1800. Alexander fled to Karabakh and finally Dagestan.

Alexander's suspicions came true when the Russians annexed the Georgian kingdom in 1801, deposing its native dynasty. In spite of a through Russian search, the rebel prince managed to safely reach Persia where the shah gave him a pension and some Armenian-populated villages in Azerbaijan. When the Russo-Persian war broke out in 1804, Alexander fought alongside the Persians and had permanent contacts with the opposition in Georgia. He also had talks with the French diplomats of Napoleon. In September 1812, he returned to Georgia to lead a popular uprising in the Kakheti province. Approximately 4,000 insurgents took control of the province and decided to make Alexander king of Georgia, but were eventually defeated by a regular Russian army from October 1812 to March 1813. Alexander returned to Persia, and with the help of his friend, the heir apparent Abbas Mirza and the Armenian Catholicos Efrem married the daughter of Melik Sahak Aqamal, the secular chief of the Armenians of Erivan. Both Alexander and the Persian government hoped that this marriage would secure Armenian support against the Russians. From them, the prince attempted to stage anti-Russian revolts in various provinces of Georgia. In 1832, part of Georgian nobles and intellectuals organized a plot against the Russian rule and invited Alexander to be crowned as king. The plot however soon collapsed and Alexander had to abandon his hopes. He lived thereafter as a broken man and died in Tabriz c. 1844.