Mariam Tsitsishvili
| Mariam Tsitsishvili | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Queen of Georgia | |
| Tenure | 11 January 1798 – 28 December 1800 |
| Born |
9 April 1768 Tbilisi, Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti
|
| Died | 30 March 1850 (aged 81) Moscow, Russian Empire
|
| Burial | Svetitskhoveli Cathedral |
| Spouse | George XII of Georgia |
| Dynasty |
Tsitsishvili (by birth) Bagrationi (by marriage) |
| Father | Prince Giorgi Tsitsishvili |
| Religion | Georgian Orthodox Church |
Mariam (Georgian: მარიამ ციციშვილი), also known as Maria in European sources, (9 April 1768 – 30 March 1850) was the Queen of Georgia as the second wife and consort of the last King George XII of Georgia (reigned from 1798 to 1800).
Princess Mariam Tsitsishvili was born at Tbilisi to Prince Giorgi Tsitsishvili, a representative of one of the preeminent noble houses of Georgia. George XII, then Heir Apparent to the Georgian throne, married her on 13 July 1783 after the death of his first wife, Princess Ketevan Andronikashvili (1754–1782). Mariam gave birth to eight sons and three daughters:
When George died on December 18, 1800, Paul I of Russia, an official protector of the Kingdom of Georgia, did not allow his heir, David, to be crowned king, and abolished the Georgian monarchy, annexing the kingdom to the Russian Empire.
In 1802, the newly established Russian administration started deporting the members of Georgian royal family to Russia proper. In April 1803, the Russian commander in Georgia, Prince Pavel Tsitsianov, himself a Russified Georgian and ironically a distant relative of the Georgian queen, heard that Mariam was planning to flee to the strongholds of Khevsureti with the aid of loyal mountainous clansmen who were resolutely opposed to the Russian rule.
Tsitsianov gave orders to Major-General Ivan Petrovich Lazarev that the queen and her children should be immediately removed from Georgia under guard. The very next morning, on April 22, 1803, the Russian soldiers arrived at Queen’s mansion and Lazarev ordered Mariam to get up and be ready for departure, but the queen refused to follow him. The general then took hold of her foot, to make her rise from the cushion on which she was sitting, surrounded by her sleeping children. Mariam, indignant at the attempt to take her by force, drew the dagger from beneath the cushion and stabbed Lazarev, killing him on the spot. Lazarev’s interpreter drew his saber, and gave her a wound in the head, so that she fell down insensible. The soldiers burst into the bedroom and arrested the queen and her children. (?)
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