User:AlexandreAssatiani/sandbox/rulers

Young years
Vakhtang Bagrationi was born c. 1618, oldest son of Prince Bagrat II of Mukhrani and the latter's wife Anna Sidamoni. He was the heir to a cadet branch of the Bagrationi dynasty that governed the Principality of Mukhrani in Kartli since the early 16th century. Already in his youth, Vakhtang was raised as heir of a powerful principality and at the age of 5, his family enrolled him in his first military training.

Vakhtang's father would lead a Christian revolt against Safavid Persia, which had been occupying the Eastern Georgian kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti, and in 1623, he was proclaimed Regent of Kartli by the noblemen of the north of the kingdom. He was killed in battle in 1625 when Vakhtang is only 7 years old, leading Bagrat II's brother Kaikhosro to take over the Principality of Mukhrani. Kaikhosro himself was expelled in 1627 by King Teimuraz I of Kakheti and found refuge in the Ottoman Empire, while his entire family (including Vakhtang) settled at the court of King George III of Imereti in Western Georgia.

After a failed attempt by the exiled family to take back Mukhrani, Teimuraz I granted the principality to his own son David. But the entire region was soon engulfed in internal wars opposing pro-Safavid and Christian nobles, the former capturing Mukhrani and annexing it into the domains of the Duchy of Aragvi. Following the death of Shah Abbas I in 1629, the pro-Safavid camp was divided and the new King Simon II of Kartli recaptured Mukhrani and invited the 11-year-old Vakhtang to rule over the principality as Vakhtang II. In just a few months, Simon II was killed by the Duke of Aragvi and King Teimuraz I recaptured Kartli, rendering the fate of Mukhrani and Prince Vakhtang uncertain.

In 1634, Prince Vakhtang (whose exact status at the time is not known but who was known as one of the most influential nobles of Eastern Georgia) was the first prince to pledge allegiance to Persian-Georgian general Rostom Khan, who had just invaded Kartli with his Safavid troops. Vakhtang met with Rostom in the Persian town of Khunan, bringing alongside him the Baratiani clan. In Tbilisi, Rostom would be proclaimed King of Kartli, vassal of Persia, and the Christian rebels were decisively defeated.