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Bagrationi, wife of John IV of Trebizond


Bagrationi (c. 1411/2 – before 1438) was the first Empress consort of John IV of Trebizond. Her name is unknown.

She was a daughter of King Alexander I of Georgia and his first wife Dulandukht, the daughter of Beshken II Orbeliani. Dulandukht had died or was repudiated before 1415, when Alexander married his second wife, the heiress of Imereti, daughter of Alexander I of Imereti.

In about 1426, she married John IV of Trebizond, the son of Emperor Alexios IV of Trebizond and Theodora Kantakouzene, who had fled from Trebizond after a violent episode. According to a passage considered to be an interpolation in the history of Laonikos Chalkokondyles, he had accused his mother Theodora of having an affair with an unnamed protovestarios, whom he killed, then held his parents captive in the citadel until the palace staff released them.

Sometime after marrying Bagrationi, John left Georgia for Caffa, where he sought to charter a large galley and its crew. By 1429 he had found one, for in that year he returned to Trebizond. Alexios IV prepared to face his son in the battlefield. John suborned some of his father's retainers, who assassinated Alexios IV while he slept. He executed the assassins of his father in order to deny any connection with them, then succeeded his father, presumably with Bagrationi as his Empress.

Their daughter Theodora Komnene was betrothed to Uzun Hassan of Ak Koyunlu in 1457, whom she married the next year. According to Anthony Bryer, this is the "most celebrated Trapezuntine-Muslim marriage", and for which the terms of their marriage can be determined. These terms included: a dowry of properties in the villages of Halanik and Sesera; a "bride-price" in that Uzun Hassan would extend some kind of effort to help defend Trebizond; Theodora's right to continue to profess the Christian faith, keep a chaplain, and act as protector of Christians subject to Uzun Hassan; and "as it turned out, Theodora's considerable (and probably unusual) right to influence Akkoyunlu foreign relations" Theodora's tomb in Diyarbekir was shown to an Italian visitor in 1507. Her two daughters found their way to Damascus where Caterino Zeno met them in 1512.


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