Nino (Princess of Mingrelia)

Portrait of Nino, Princess of Mingrelia, from the early 19th century

Nino ( Georgian ნინო, Russian Нина Георгиевна , born April 15, 1772 in Tbilisi , † May 30, 1847 in Saint Petersburg ) was a Georgian Batonishvili (= princess), from the Bagratid dynasty, the daughter of King Giorgi XII. von Kartlien - Kakhetien and through marriage with Prince Grigol Dadiani the Princess of Mingrelien . After her husband's death in 1804, she acted as regent on behalf of her underage son Levan and helped bring Mingrelia and the principality of Abkhazia , a neighboring principality to her in-laws, under the rule of the Russian Empire . In 1811 she retired and moved to Saint Petersburg, where she died at the age of 75.

Early life

Nino was born in Tbilisi in 1772 as the sixth child of the then Crown Prince of Georgia Giorgi and his first wife, Ketewan Andronikashvili during the reign of their grandfather, Erekle II . In 1791, at the age of 19, Nino was married to Grigol Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia. Around the same time, Grigol's sister married Mariam Nino's cousin, King Solomoni II of Imereti . These weddings were intended to cement an alliance between the Georgian rulers that was formed through the efforts of Erecle's minister Solomon Leonidze in June 1790. Relations between Solomon and Grigol, however, have been tarnished due to territorial disputes. In the period from 1791 to 1802 Grigol had lost the throne to Solomon's protégés three times. Grigol and Nino asked the Russian Empire for protection, which had already taken control of the kingdom from Nino's late father in 1801 and was now also striving to control Imereti. By a treaty signed on December 1, 1803, Mingrelia became part of the Russian Empire as an autonomous principality. Nino received a coat made of sable fur and ten arshins (= 7.1 m) purple velvet as imperial gifts.

Domination

After Grigol's death on October 23, Nino became more actively involved in Mingrelian politics. She accused the rival nobles of poisoning the prince and asked the commander of the imperial army in Georgia, Pavel Tsitsianov , to conduct an investigation into her husband's death. On November 3, 1804, the Russian government confirmed her as Pravitselnitsa (= ruler) of Mingrelia and regent until her twelve-year-old son Lewan turned twenty. Lewan had been in the custody of Kelesh Ahmed-Bey Sherwashidze, Prince of Abkhazia, since 1802. Kelesh supported Grigol during the power struggles in Mingrelia and therefore held his son hostage for protection. In March 1805 the Russian troops invaded Abkhazia, recaptured the Anaklia fortress for Mingrelia and liberated Levan.

Nino was also President of the Mingrelian Council of Regency, whose members included Prince Niko Dadiani , Bishop Besarion of Chkondidi, Majordomus Giorgi Chikovani, and Prince Beri Gelowani of Letschchumi . Nino's relationships with Niko, an influential nobleman, and her brother-in-law Beri Gelowani were strained. Her opponents accuse her of political machinations and accuse her of using the advice for her personal gain. There were also rumors that she was behind the murder of Grigol because he was having a brief affair with a woman from the Chichua family. These power struggles ran through her entire reign.

Princess Nino continued her late husband's pro-Russian policies. In the Russo-Turkish War from 1806 to 1812 , she took command of the Mingrelian troops in 1809, which supported the Russian forces in the capture of the Black Sea fortress Poti from the Ottoman troops. In 1810 Nino sent a thousand soldiers to support the Abkhazian ruler Sefer Ali-Bey Shervashidze, who overthrew his pro-Ottoman brother Aslan-Bey and made Abkhazia a Russian protectorate .

Retirement in Russia

Ninos grave slab in the Alexander Nevsky monastery

In 1811 Nino was deposed by the Mingrelian government. She was recalled to Saint Petersburg. There she was appointed lady- in- waiting and she was awarded the Order of Saint Catherine . Her younger son Giorgi and the Abkhazian heir to the throne Dmitri accompanied her to the capital and were enrolled in the cadet corps for military training. While Nino was on vacation in Georgievsk in 1820 , Giorgi was suspected of collaborating with the rebels in Imereti. Nino was escorted to Ryazan , but was later allowed to return to Saint Petersburg, where she spent the rest of her life and died on May 30, 1847. She was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery .

Nino's only surviving portrait, painted by an unknown artist during her time in Saint Petersburg, was bought at auction in Europe in 2010 by Australian entrepreneur Victor Greenwich Dadianov, a descendant of the Dadiani dynasty and Honorary Consul General of Georgia in Sydney , who then bought it at the Dadiani Palace Museum in Zugdidi .

children

Grigol and Nino had two sons and four daughters:

• Princess Ketewan (born 1792) who first married Manuchar Sherwashidze, the prince of Samurzakano, who died in 1813, and then in 1823 Rostom-Bey, the son of Kelesh Ahmed-Bey Sherwashidze, the prince of Abkhazia. A grandchild from their first marriage was Prince Giorgi Sherwashidze (1847-1918), the governor of Tbilisi, who is known for his persecution of the Duchoborzen in 1895.
• Prince Lewan (1793 to 1846), from 1804 to 1846 Prince Mingreliens
• Princess Mariam (* 1794), who married Prince Giorgi Eristawi of Guria and then around 1810 Prince Rostom, the son of Beri Gelowani, Prince of Letschchumi.
• Princess Elene (* 1795), who first married Prince David Gurieli, the son of Giorgi V. Gurieli, who died in 1833, and then married Prince Giorgi Mikeladze.
• Princess Ekaterina (* 1797), who married Prince Beglar Jambakur-Orbeliani, son of Prince Zaal Orbeliani in 1810.
• Prince Giorgi (* 1798, † around 1851), Major General of the Russian Army. He married Duchess Eizaweta Pahlena , the daughter of Duke Pawel Pahlen, in Ryazan in 1839 , and had no children of his own.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hugh Montgomery. (1980). Burke's Royal Families of the World, Volume 2 . London: Burke's Peerage. Page 68. ISBN 0850110297 .
2. ↑ Lela Mikiashwili (2012). "სამეგრელოს დედოფალი ნინო ბაგრატიონი-დადიანისა" . Studies in Modern and Contemporary History (Georgian; English summary) 1 (11): pp. 12–22. ISSN  1512-3154 .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Polovtsow (2009). "Дадиан, княгиня Нина Георгиевна" . Большая биографическая энциклопедия (Russian).
4. ↑ ^{a b} Nikolas K. Gwosdew (2000). Imperial policies and perspectives towards Georgia, 1760-1819. New York: Palgrave. Pp. 115, 124, 131. ISBN 0312229909 .
5. ↑ "Nikolas (Didi Niko) Dadiani (1764-1834)" ( Memento of the original from October 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Dadiani Dynasty . Smithsonian Institution in association with National Parliamentary Library of Georgia. 
6. ↑ Eka Lomidze. "დედოფლის დაბრუნება" . Kviris Palitra. August 23, 2010 (Georgian).
7. ↑ SV Dumin, (1996). Дворянские роды Российской империи. Том 3. Князья (Russian). Moscow: Linkominvest. P. 54.