General, nobleman Prince Alexander |
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Born | 1674 Tbilisi, Kingdom of Kartli |
Died | February 20, 1711 Piteå |
Allegiance | Russian Empire |
Rank | General of the Artillery |
Commands held | Chief of Russian artillery Russian artillery during the battle of Narva |
Battles/wars |
Prince Alexander (Georgian: ალექსანდრე, Aleksandre), also known as Tsarevich Aleksandr Archilovich Imeretinsky (Russian: Александр Арчилович Имеретинский) (1674 – February 20, 1711) was a Georgian royal prince (batonishvili) of the Kingdom of Imereti. He lived as an émigré in the Tsardom of Russia and subsequently served as first General of the Artillery (Feldzeugmeister), the second highest military rank under Tsar Peter the Great. During the Great Northern War, Alexander was taken prisoner at Narva in 1700 and spent ten years in Swedish captivity. He died on his way back to Russia.
Alexander was born in Tbilisi to Archil, a Georgian prince of the Mukhranian Bagrationi royal line and sometime king of Imereti who subsequently fled the anarchy in his country to the Russian Empire. Alexander's mother Ketevan was a member of the Kakhetian Bagrationi royal line.
Since 1684, Alexander and his brother, Mamuka (Matvey) (died in 1693), had been raised in Moscow under the auspices of Knyaz Fedul Volkonsky and Dyak Ivan Kazarinov. Alexander befriended the young Russian tsarevich Pyotr Alekseyevich, subsequently Peter I of Russia, whom he joined in his war games. In 1690, Alexander was present at his father's futile attempt to regain the throne of Imereti. Back in Russia in 1692, Alexander followed Peter in the Grand Embassy to Europe in 1697 and was sent to The Hague to study gunnery and related sciences. He stayed there until 1699, after which he visited his father before returning to Moscow. On 19 May 1700 he became the first Russian officer to be promoted to the rank of General Feldzeugmeister and appointed the chief of the Pushkarsky Prikaz (literally, "cannon administration").