Tamar (Georgia)

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Queen Tamar of Georgia
The Georgian Empire of Queen Tamar around 1200

Queen Tamar ( Georgian თამარი , * 1160 , † 18th January 1213 ) from the Bagratids - Dynasty was 1184-1213 ruler of the medieval Georgia than in the era Golden was at the height of its power. The great-granddaughter of David the Builder modernized the state, created elements of civil rights , democracy and the rule of law .

Life

Your father Giorgi III. appointed her in 1178 as his co-regent and heiress. With Giorgi's death in 1184 she became queen. Her first marriage to the Russian prince Juri remained childless and ended with Juris' expulsion to Constantinople , which a medieval Georgian chronicler justified with his immorality and drunkenness. Yuri rallied an army in Constantinople to recapture the Georgian throne and allied himself with part of the Georgian nobility. However, his army was defeated by Tamar. Friedrich Barbarossa offered her one of his sons as a husband. However, she married the Ossetian prince David Soslan , with whom she had the son Giorgi and the daughter Rusudan .

Tamar modernized politics, economy and culture. State proclamations were only announced after consultation with the Darbasi aristocratic parliament . At the local level, it created courts whose decisions could be appealed to a Supreme Court. It abolished the death penalty and the mutilation of criminals, had churches and monasteries built, and supported scientists, poets and artists. On her behalf, Prince Schota Rustaveli wrote the epic The Recke in the Tiger Skin , a work about chivalry and nobility.

However, there were also downsides to Tamar's rule: there was a concentration of power and wealth in a few hands. The petty nobility, which had experienced a boom under David the builder, was disempowered. The military superiority of Georgia led to a number of wars, which were, however, victorious.

After Tamar's death in 1213 - after 29 years of reign - many legends arose about her person. One of them says that her last will was determined not to be buried in a certain place, but to see all of Georgia as her grave. The church in which her body was laid out is said to have brought four locked coffins in the four directions, after which the porters committed suicide so that no one knows where she is actually buried. In numerous folk legends and poems, Tamar and her rule are idealized, and the Georgians consider her to be the proverbial good queen .

With the death of Tamar, the golden age of medieval Georgia came to an end. The Georgian Orthodox Apostle Church has canonized Tamar.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Tamar of Georgia  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mariam Lordkipanidze - "Georgia in the XI - XII centuries", Chapter 3 English, viewed July 23, 2009
predecessor Office successor
Giorgi III. Queen of Georgia
1184–1213 		Giorgi IV.
personal data
SURNAME Tamar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES თამარი
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Georgian queen
DATE OF BIRTH 1160
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 1213