User:Kober/sandbox/Georgia 1008–1225

Bagrat III
In 1008, Bagrat III, of the Georgian Bagratid dynasty, became king of a unified Georgia, uniting in his person two principal crowns of the Georgian realm— those of Abasgia and Iberia—thanks to his fortunate bloodline and the political maneuvering of his adoptive father, David III of Tao. The new kingdom … [sakartvelo]

Of the erstwhile territories of the late antique Iberia, three remained outside the newly-born kingdom: Kakheti, now a hereditary principality in far eastern Georgia; parts of Gogarene and of Lower Iberia within the state of the Armenian Kwirikids of Lori; and the Muslim emirate of Tiflis. Of the hereditary Bagratid lands in Upper Iberia, Klarjeti remained in possession of a local Bagratid line, while Upper Tao had been annexed by the Byzantine Empire on the death of David III in 1000 in accordance with the previous settlement imposed on that ruler in 989. That move, coupled with the earlier Byzantine annexation of Taron in 967, inaugurated the empire's expansionism towards its eastern Christian neighbors and the process of piecemeal conquest of Armenia terminated only by the arrival of the Seljuk Turks later in the 11th century.

Reconciled with the Byzantine acquisition of Upper Tao, Bagrat, invested with the high imperial title of kourapalates, kept on peaceful terms with Constantinople. Rather, Bagrat concentrated his energies on gathering the remaining Georgian territories. Between 1008 and 1010, Bagrat capitalized on the failure of the Kakhetian prince David to vacate the two fortresses in Inner Iberia the Kakhetians had occupied in 975 and militarily subdued Kakheti as well as the neighboring principality of Hereti on the Albanian frontier. This brought the expanding kingdom of Georgia into the neighborhood and, consequently, in a conflict with the rising Muslim dynasty, the Kurdish Shaddadids of Arran, whom Bagrat, with the aid of Gagik I of Armenia, forced to accept peace terms in the siege of Shamkur.

In 1010, Bagrat wrested from his Bagratid cousins the principality of Klarjeti, with the important city of Artanuji which enjoyed considerable customs revenue. The surviving members of the dispossessed family fled to the Byzantine Empire; their continued claims to Klarjeti would frustrate the early reign of Bagrat's namesake grandson more than a decade later.

When he died on 7 May 1014, Bagrat left his youthful son George I a considerable legacy: the most important kingdom in the Caucasus, but also a longstanding claim to the Byzantine-held Upper Tao.

George I
Shortly after his accession, George had to resign himself to the fact of secession in Kakheti, where the local dynast Kvirike, once a hostage of Bagrat III, was restored and took possession of both Kakheti and Hereti in 1014. The new kingdom thus came into being, referred to as ... in Georgian and ... in Muslim sources. As long as the kings of Georgia were preoccupied elsewhere, the Kakhetian dynasty was able to maintain its precarious independence and, for political expediency, allied itself with the Bagratids of Georgia or fought them throughout the 11th century.

In 1015, while the Byzantine emperor Basil II was embroiled in his conquest of Bulgaria, George I sent in troops to occupy Upper Tao. The peace with the empire was thus broken. Once freed from the constraints of the Bulgarian war, Basil marched east to deal with the Georgian problem and won two destructive campaigns in 1021 and 1022, the second time decisively, forcing the king of Georgia not only to relinquish his claims to the disputed territory, but to cede to the emperor additional fortresses in Georgia's southwest and his own son Bagrat as a hostage for the term of three years. The war had repercussions also for Armenia: for his sympathy to the Georgian cause, King John-Smbat III—who owned his crown to the Georgian arbitration in 1020—had to make the emperor Basil a heir to his kingdom.

Bagrat IV
At the death of George I on 16 August 1027, his son Bagrat IV succeeded as a minor to begin his long and troubled reign of 45 years. Bagrat's early years were guided by his mother Mariam, daughter of Sennacherib-John of Vaspurakan, and were marked by the renewed Byzantine aggression.